![]() 吗 ( ma) - question particle (“fifth tone”)Īs you can see, these all have different meanings-even though they mostly look and sound the same. Let’s take the Chinese sound “ma” for example, and see all five ways you can pronounce it: However, in Chinese, the tone you use dictates the meaning of the word. Just like in English, you can say Chinese words in a variety of different tones and pitches. There are four tones, plus a “neutral tone.”Īlthough the tones are most commonly referred to as either first, second, third or fourth, they can also be described by the sound they make. The next step to learning pinyin is becoming familiar with the Chinese tones. Other times, you’ll know to use this sound when there are two dots over the u, as in words like 绿色 ( lǜ sè) - green, and 女 ( nǚ) - woman. Use the ü sound with the following consonants: Note that the ü sound also applies when it’s preceded by certain initials, even though the pinyin syllable is written as u. Tone marks can only be placed over vowels, so you’ll always find the tone of a word over the final. Next up is the pinyin vowels, or finals, which make up the end part of a Chinese syllable. InitialĪs you might have noticed, a few of these sounds don’t exist in English: q, c, zh, and r. Note that although there are more “letters” in pinyin than there are in the English alphabet- 23 initials and 38 finals-they’re straightforward and never deviate much in pronunciation. They’re called initials because they typically come first in a Chinese syllable. Pinyin Initialsįirst up, we’ll cover initials, which are essentially the consonants of pinyin. They can all be represented with the Latin letters you already know, and so pinyin has been an incredibly helpful tool for English speakers (and other users of the Latin alphabet) when learning Chinese. Tones, initials and finals are the building blocks of the Chinese language. There are four tones-a flat tone, a rising tone, a dipping tone and a falling tone-plus a neutral fifth tone. Tone marks show you how to pronounce each syllable.These can be individual vowels, a combination of vowels or a combination of vowels and consonants. Finals are sounds that appear at the end of a syllable.Initials are consonants and represent sounds that appear at the beginning of a syllable.Pinyin is relatively simple to learn because it only involves three parts: Pinyin is how Chinese words are pronounced, whereas Chinese characters are how they are seen in textbooks, newspapers, books, etc.īoth traditional Chinese (the characters used in Taiwan) and simplified Chinese (the characters used in China) can be represented using the same pinyin. The Oxford Dictionary defines pinyin as “the standard system of romanized spelling for transliterating Chinese.”īasically, pinyin uses the Latin alphabet (the same one we use in English) to write Chinese words so you can learn their phonetics without needing to learn their characters, called 汉字 (hàn zì). ![]() The pinyin system standardized the Chinese language, boosted the country’s literacy rate and improved Chinese language learning for all. Pinyin was developed by Chinese linguist Zhou Youguang and included in the education system by the Chinese government to improve the literacy rate in China. ![]() While Zhuyin is still widely used in Taiwan, the switch to pinyin in China was significant. Today, most Chinese people use it for texting and typing. Zhuyin was replaced in 1958 by the romanized system we know as “Hanyu pinyin.”īelieve it or not, pinyin wasn’t invented for people learning Chinese as a foreign language every single student in China learns pinyin at school. (Download) From Zhuyin to Pinyin: A Brief History Lessonīefore Hanyu pinyin was in place, Chinese was romanized using the Wade-Giles system, composed of modified Latin letters.Ĭhinese speakers themselves used a system known as Zhuyin (colloquially “bopomofo”). This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that youĬlick here to get a copy.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |