Chinese Language Overview Cheltenham Mandarin School By YingShi Helsby

Chinese Language OverviewCheltenham Mandarin SchoolBy YingShi Helsby

Pinyin and Tone中文你好Hello Chinese

nǐ hǎo 你好 (You good) Hello

Chinese - 汉语/华语/中文 Standard Mandarin is a standardized form of spoken Han Chinese. In Chinese: 汉语Hàn yǔ / 华语Huá yǔ / 中文Zhōng wén / 普通话Pǔ tōng huà / Guó yǔ Official language of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and United nation Spoken by approx 1.3 billion people.

Pinyin - ‘spell of sound’ • Romanised Alphabet (25 letters of out of 26 are used, except letter ‘v’) and four accents over the letters indicate which of the 4 tones should be used. There are 6 basic vowels and 21 consonants in Chinese Pinyin. • A syllable always consists of a vowel or a consonant with a vowel. Vowels can stand by themselves when no initial consonant is present.

Finals (韵母)- Vowels & Initials (声母) - Consonants The six initials(vowels) in Pinyin pronunciation: a o e i u ü The following finals (consonants): b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l g, k, h, j, q, x, z, c, s zh, ch, sh and r http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Teomsfl-ylA

声调 shēngdiàoTones mā má mǎ mà ma 妈麻马骂 Mother Hemp horse scold

Hanyu Pinyin Schema (published in 1958) • Character Set. • 25 characters, all from ‘a’ to ‘z’ except ‘ü’. • (For easy to input on computer: ü is replaced by v.) • Initial Set: • b, p m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, h, j, q, x, zh, ch, sh, r, z, c, s • Final Set: • i, u, ü, a , ia, ua, o, uo, e, ie, eü, ai, uai, ei, uei, • ao, iao, ou, iou, an, ian, uan, üan, en, in, uen, ün • ang, iang, uang, eng, ing, ueng, ong, iong, • Tone Annotation: • mā , má, mǎ, mà, ma • Separator: ' • pi’ao

Pinyin VS. IPA

Basic rules for Hanyu Pinyin Orthography(published in 1996) 1. Words are the basic units for spelling the Chinese Common Language. (Space is used to separate Word) • rén (person/people), péngyou (friend[s]), túshūguǎn (library/libraries) • wǒrén hé nóngmín (Workers and Farmers) 2. Structures of two or three syllables that indicate a complete concept are linked: • quánguó (the whole nation), duìbuqǐ (sorry), 3. Separate terms with more than 4 syllables if they can be separated into words, otherwise link all the syllables: • wúfèng gāngbǐ (seamless pen), Hóngshízìhuì (Red Cross)

Basic rules forHanyu Pinyin Orthography(published in 1996) 4. Reduplicated monosyllabic words are linked, but reduplicated disyllabic words are separated: • rénrén (everybody), chángshi chángshi (give it a try) 5. In certain situations, for the purpose of making it convenient to read and understand the words, a hyphen can be added: • huán-bǎo (environmental protection), shíqī-bā suì (17 or 18 years old)

wǒ jiào Helsby lǎoshī 。 我叫Helsby老师。 (I’m called Helsby teacher .) My name is Mrs Helsby.

wǒ jiào ________。 我叫_________。 (I’m called____________.) My name is ____________.

Tones Difference Mandarin has four tones with each tone indicated by a diacritical mark above a non-medial vowel. Four tones: ā á ă à a 1. high mā mother 2. rising má numb 3. falling rising mă horse 4. falling mà to scold or swear 5. a half tone ma create a question

Chinese words of foreign origin 芭蕾 bā lěi ballet 拜拜 bài bài bye-bye 咖啡 kā fēi coffe (café) 酷 kù cool 卡通 kǎ tōng cartoon 巧克力 qiǎo kè lì chocolate 高尔夫 gāo ěr fū golf

Chinese words of foreign origin 吉他 jí tā guitar 汉堡包 hàn bǎo bāo hamburger 马拉松 mǎ lā sōng marathon 奥林匹克 ào lín pǐ kè olympic 披萨 pī sà pizza 三明治 sān míng zhì sandwich

Tone changed rules • When a third tone syllable is followed by another third tone syllable, the first syllable change to second tone e.g.hěn hǎo --> hén hǎo (very good)hǎo jiǔ -->háo jiǔ (good wine) Hui-Ju Chuang

When two forth tone syllables occur together, the first syllable will change to second tone • But only apply to two words yì (one) and bù (not) • e.g. yì dìng --->yí dìng (definitely) bù duì--> bú duì (not correct) Hui-Ju Chuang

Marry Christmas &Happy New Year! Shèng dàn kuài lè ! 圣诞快乐! Xīn nián hǎo ! 新年好! Shēng rì kuài lè 生日快乐!

Chinese Language Overview Cheltenham Mandarin School By YingShi Helsby