brief intro of chinese learning
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学 中 文
An Introduction of Chinese Language
Clary Xue
http://claryxue.wordpress.com
Chinese Demystified • Chinese —“han yu” ,“zhong wen”,including
mandarin, Cantonese, and other dialects
• “Putonghua”—standard Chinese, mandarin
• Cantonese—a dialect spoken in Guangdong, HK, and overseas Chinese communities
Chinese Character
• One of the most enduring cultural achievements
• Originated from pictures
• Direct conception of the world
Evolution of Characters
• Simplified Chinese—used in mainland China, Singapore
• Traditional Chinese—used in
Taiwan, HK, and some overseas communities
Survival of the language and culture
• Different dialects spoken
• One written system
One written system, one measure and
scale system were enforced by Emperor
Qing, more than 2000 years ago
Sounds of Chinese Language
• Tone language • Vowel-dominated• Predominance of two syllables
汤 汤 tang1 –soup tang1 –soup 糖 糖 tang2 –candytang2 –candy躺 躺 tang3 –laying tang3 –laying 烫 烫 tang4 –hot tang4 –hot
虎—老虎 虎—老虎 lao2hu3 lao2hu3 星—星星 星—星星 xing1xingxing1xing
Pinyin
• A system devised to transcribe Chinese sounds
• Officially adopted in late 1950s
• Composed of initials (consonants) , finals (vowels, vowels + nasal sound), and tones.
Pinyin
• Initials b p m f d t n l g k h j q x z c s zh ch sh r y w
• Finals a o e i u ü ai ei ao ou
ia ie ua uo üe iao iou(iu) uai uei(ui)
an ian uan üan en in uen(un) ün
ang iang uang ong eng ing ueng iong
er
Tones
• First tone—level • Second tone—rising • Third tone—falling
and rising• Fourth tone—falling
Easy part of Chinese learning
• No gender
• No plural
• No conjugation
• No strict structure limitation
• Meaning centered
Difficult Part of Chinese Study
• Tones
• Same pronunciation, different characters
• Order of words
• Not easy to see grammatical
relations upon the sentence
Comparison of Language Structure
• Western languages are ruled by law.
• Chinese language is ruled by man.
Q&A
• How many syllables in Chinese language?—about 400.
• How many characters are enough for everyday life (intermediate-advanced)?—2500.
• Two-syllable words gradually take place of single-syllable words • Flexible making-up of words
Thank you…