Chinese Part 02: Phonetics, Thankyou

Neutral Tone

In Chinese there are a number of syllabes wich are unstressed and take a feeble tone. This is known as the neutral tone wich is shown by the absence of tone-graph.



māma 妈妈 : mum                         àiren 爱人 : husband, wife

bàba 爸爸 : dad                            háizi 孩子 : child, children

gēge 哥哥 : elder brother               guānxi 关系 : relation

dìdi 弟弟 : younger brother            xièxie 谢谢 : thank you

jiějie 姐姐 : elder sister                  kèqi 客气 : polite

mèimei 妹妹 : younger sister          xiūxi 休息 : have a rest

Retroflex Final

The final 儿 "er" is sometimes attached to another final to form a retroflex final and when thus used, it is no longer an independent syllable. A retroflex final is represented by the letter "r" added to the final.


huì + er -> huìr            yíhuìr 一会儿 : a moment

diǎn + er -> diǎnr        yìdiǎnr 一点儿 : a little

nǎ + er -> nǎr             naǎr 哪儿 : where

zhè + er -> zhèr          zhèr 这儿 : there



Conversation


- Duì bù qǐ！

对不起!


- Méi guānxi！


没关系!


- Xièxie！

谢谢!


- Bú kèqi！


不客气!


- Míngtiān jiàn！

明天 ! 见!


- Míngtiān jiàn！

明天 ! 见!


- xiū xi yí huìr！

休息一会儿!


- hǎo ba！


好吧!

****
对不起 Duì bù qǐ I'm sorry!


没 méi (adv) not

关系 guānxi (n) relation

没关系 Méi guānxi! That's all right

谢谢 Xièxie Thank you !

不 bú (adv) not

客气 kèqi (adj) polite

不客气！ Bú kèqi ! You're welcome !

明天 míngtiān (adv) tomorrow

见 jiàn (v) see

明天见！ Míngtiān jiàn! See you tomorrow!

休息 xiūxi (v) have a rest

一会儿 yíhuìr (n) a moment

休息一会儿！ xiūxi yíhuìr! Have a rest!

好 hǎo (adj) good

好吧！ hǎo ba All right!

For more info. click here

Chinese Part 01: Phonetics, Hello

The Chinese Phonetic Alphabet


There have been many different systems of transcription used for learning to pronounce Chinese. Today the official transcription accepted on an international basis is the Pinyin alphabet, developed in China at the end of the 1950's.


Initials

A syllable in Chinese is composed of an initial, which is a consonant that begins the syllable, and a final, wich covers the rest of the syllable.

b p m f

d t n l

g k h

j q x

z c s

zh ch sh r


m, f, n, l, h and sh are pronounced as in English.

d like "d" in "bed" (unaspirated)

j like "g" in "genius" (unaspirated)

z like "ds" in "beds"

zh like "j" in "job"

b like "p" in "spin" (unaspirated)

g a soft unaspirated "k" sound

x like "sh" in "sheep" but with the corners of the lips drawn back

r somewhat like "r" in "rain"

Particular attention should be paid to the pronunciation of the so-called "aspirated" consonants. It is necessary to breath heavily after the consonant is pronounced.

p like "p" in "pope"

t like "t" in "tap"

k like "k" in "kangaroo"

q harder than "ch" in "cheap"

c like "ts" in "cats"

ch (tongue curled back, aspirated)


Distinction between certain initials:

b / p d / t g / k j / q z / c zh / ch


Finals

In modern Chinese, there are 38 finals besides the above-represented 21 initials.


i u ü

a ia ua

o uo üe

e ie

er

ai uai

ei uei (ui)

ao iao

ou iou (iu)

an ian uan üan

en in uen (un) üen

ang iang uang

eng ieng ueng

ong iong



ie like "ye" in "yes"

e like "e" in "her"

er like "er" in "sister" (american pronounciation)

ai like "y" in "by" (light)

ei like "ay" in "bay"

ou like "o" in "go"

an like "an" in "can" (without stressing the "n")

-ng (final) a nasalized soung like the "ng" in "bang" without pronouncing the "g"

uei, uen and iou when preceded by an initial, are written as ui, un and iu respectivly.


Tones

Mandarin Chinese has four pitched tones and a "toneless" tone.


Tone     Mark     Description

1st         dā           High and level

2nd        dá           Starts medium in tone, then rises to the top

3rd        dǎ           Starts low, dips to the bottom, then rises toward the top

4th         dà          Starts at the top, then falls sharp and strong to the bottom

Neutral  da          Flat, with no emphasis




Tones Changes

A 3rd tone, when immediatlely followed by another 3rd tone, should pe pronounced in the 2nd tone.

Nǐ hǎo = Ní hǎo



Conversation


- Nǐ hǎo！

你 好!


- Zài jiàn！

再 见!

Unfortunately there is no function to upload sound format. When it is available I will do so.




你 nǐ (pro) You

好 hǎo (adj) good, well

你好！ nǐhǎo! Hello, How are you?



再 zài (adv) again

见 jiàn (v) see

再见！ zàijiàn! Goodbye!



Calligraphy exercises

4 first chinese characters : 你，好，再 and 见. Learn the stroke order.

Japanese: Course 1 - Correct Pronounciation

Remember – anyone can sound good in Japanese. English is made up of a couple thousand possible sounds. Japanese has only a little over a hundred basic sounds.

It's much easier for English-speaking people to learn the natural Japanese pronunciation than it is for Japanese speakers to learn the natural English pronunciation. The reason for this is that all the sounds used in the Japanese language are based on the five vowels listed in the next section.

 

Here's the secret to Japanese pronunciation. With a few exceptions, the entire Japanese language is built on the following 5 sounds. Mastery of these sounds is the first step to sounding native when you speak. Click the sound icon to listen. They should be said short with no glide.

 

 

Normal Vowels

a = akai

i = inochi

u = uma

e = ebi

o = otoko

These vowels remain constant for every Japanese phonetic sound. It doesn't matter what roman letter comes in front of the vowel the sound will not change for that vowel.

The phonetic sound ka is pronounced “kah”

The phonetic sound shi is pronounced “shee"”

The phonetic sound tsu is pronounced “tsoo”

The phonetic sound ne is pronounced “neh”

The phonetic sound po is pronounced “poh”

Double Vowels

The following lengthened vowels are pronounced like the vowels above, but are held twice as long.

aa, a- = okaasan

ii, i- = ojiisan

uu, u- = kuuki

ee, ei, e- = oneesan

oo, ou, o- = otousan

 
Be Careful
 
The meaning of Japanese words can change by the length of the syllables in the word. Look at the following examples to see how accidentally lengthening or shortening a word can change its meaning.

Examples

ie = house

iie = no

obasan = aunt

obaasan = grandmother

ojisan = uncle

ojiisan = grandfather


Double consonants

Double consonants such as kk, pp, tt, (also including cch) must be stressed more than a single consonant or the meaning might change. Here are some common examples of words that are easily confused if the double consonants are ignored.

Examples

roku = six (6)

rokku = rock (music)

uta = song

utta = sold (past tense informal verb)

mata = again

matta = to have waited

Cutoff and Whispered Sounds

Cutoff Sounds

Japanese, much like English sometimes doesn't always follow it's own rules. Sometimes words sound different than they are spelled. Luckily in Japanese this isn't so common.

Let's look at a very common word that is often pronounced differently than you might expect.

Desu

Even though you would expect it to sound like DE SU it sounds like DES. This is common among Japanese speakers, but it's important to remember that there will be Japanese people whom sometimes pronounce it DESU without dropping the U on the end.

Whispered Sounds

Keep your eye open for sounds that are "whispered". Whispered sounds are sounds that are said much quieter than the other sounds around it.

For more information visit Yes Japan. 

Japanese: Frank & Obaasan

I have compiled 4 parts for this.

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4

Unfortunately, this blogger doesn't allow attachment of sounds.  Please go here to listen to the conversations.  Hopefully the sound still works.

Enjoy!

Chinese Lesson 1: 我们的作品

Chinese Text

我们的作品

老师: 假期里, 你们都做什么了

大卫: 妈妈带我到欧洲旅游, 我拍了许多照片

小云: 我跟爸爸学画画, 学会了画小动物

老师: 很好, 我们举办一次作品展览吧

大卫: 什么时候交作品

老师: 今天星期六, 下星期五一前拿来就可以

小云: 什么时候展览出?

老师: 下星期六. 家长也可以来看

大卫: 太好啦! 我一定让爸爸, 妈马来.



Pinyin

Wǒ Men De Zuò Pǐn

Lǎo shī: jià qī li, nǐ men dōu, zuò shēn me le?

Dà weì: mà ma dài wǒ dào ōu zhōu lǔ yóu, wǒ pāi le xǔ duō zhào piàn.

Xiǎo yún: wǒ gēn bà ba xué huà huà, xué huì le huà xiǎo dòng wù.

Lǎo shī: hěn hǎo, wǒ men jǔ bàn yí cì zuò pǐn zhǎn lǎn ba.

Dà weì: shén me shí hou jiāo zuò pǐn?

Lǎo shī: jīn tiān xīng qī liù. Xià xīng qī wǔ yǐ qián ná lái jiù kě yǐ.

Xiǎo yún: shén me shí hou zhǎn chū?

Lǎo shī: xià xīng qī liù. Jiā zhǎng yě kě yǐ lái kàn.

Dà weì: tài hǎo la! Wǒ yí dìng ràng bà ba mā ma lái.



English Translation

Our Works

Teacher: What did you do during the vacation?

David: Mom took me to travel in Europe. I took many pictures.

Xiaoyun: I'm learning to draw from dad and can draw small animals.

Teacher: Very good. Let's hold an exhibition of your works.

David: When shall we hand in our works?

Teacher: Today is Saturday. You may hand them in by next Friday.

Xiaoyun: When will the exhibition be held?

Teacher: Next Saturday. Parents can also come to see.

David: Terrific! I'm sure to ask dad and mom to come.

This lesson was taken from Standard Chinese (Grade 1 book 3) by People's Education Press.


Enjoy and see you next time!