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!

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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.