学 中 文

An Introduction of Chinese Language

Clary Xue

http://claryxue.wordpress.com

Clary_lnx@hotmail.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…