mandarin chinese mandarin facts 1. most spoken language around the world. 1. most spoken language...
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Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin Facts
1. Most spoken language around the world.
2. Spoken in China, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia.
3. No alphabet
4. Traditional and simplified characters.
5. Over 100,000 characters
中文6. Pinyin-system to write Chinese with the Roman alphabet
7. There are 4 tones
8. Easy grammar: no conjugation of verbs, no singular or plural, articles, no gender specific nouns.
Zhongwen, Zhongguohua, Putonghua, Guoyu, Hanyu
Why learn Chinese?
1. Left side and right side of the brain.
2. Chinese characters increase IQ.
3. China’s economic rise
4. Learn about the culture
Chinese Basics
Pinyin
1. Romanization
C=ts
Q=ch
X=sh
Zh=j
Other sounds can be be pronounced as they are written.
Initials
Chinese Basics
Pinyin
1. Romanization
Ai = long i
EI = long a
Ui = way
Ao = ow
Ou = long o
Finals
The 4 Tones
Using “ma”Practice sounds
and tones
Chinese?
Dialects
1. There are many dialects spoken in China.
2. Each province and even regions within provinces have their own local language.
3. Tulsa to NYC vs. Beijing to Hong Kong
Mandarin
How do the Chinese communicate?
• Chinese characters!
• Also, most Chinese have learned to speak Mandarin since it is the official language of China.
Oracle Bones
• People in China began writing around 1,500 BC.
• Animal bones-shoulder of an ox and turtle shell
• Priests could tell the future.
• Strips of bamboo
• Silk cloth
• Paper-100 BC
Hanzi汉字
Characters
1. Chinese symbols
2. Pictograms
3. Traditional or Simplified
4. Over 50,000 characters
5. 3,000-5,000 to read a newspaper
6. Radicals
Radicals
Hanzi汉字
How would you look up a Chinese character?
1. Number of strokes and the radical.
2. A radical is a classifier
3. 214 or 187
Radicals
Why simplify?
“One state, one people, one language.”
• Chairman Mao implemented this change after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
• Language and literacy reforms in China opened peasants and workers to a better more sustainable life.
• 80% could not read before 1949.
Educational Reformer
Traditional vs. Simplified
• There is a debate over which characters should be used.
• Traditional characters are learned in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
• Which do you prefer?
Characters
Simple Characters
All strokes
Yong3 Forever
Complex characters
Zhe2-Talkative64 strokes
Biang2(Biao1biao1) noodles 58 strokes
Chinese Basics
The Book of Hundred Family Surnames ( 百家姓 )
Last name first
Over 10,000 surnames
85% of the population has the top 100 surnames.
I can’t marry you!
Common Chinese Surnames
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
References
• http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/tps/1000bce.htm#language
• http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1000bce_language.htm
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3025796.stm
• “How Hand Writing Trains the Brain,” Wall Street Journal October 2010
• http://endphysics.com/chinese_characters_iq.html
• honghua Xinshi Dachi dian 《中华姓氏大辞典》 (Great Dictionary of Chinese Surnames) by Yuan Yida (ISBN 7504114774)