Chinese Language Mandarin - Online Language School
Chinese Language Mandarin
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Peace Corps / China
The script accompanies the following 15 audio tracks:
CN_Mandarin_Lesson_1 CN_Mandarin_Lesson_2 CN_Mandarin_Lesson_3 CN_Mandarin_Lesson_4 CN_Mandarin_Lesson_5 CN_Mandarin_Lesson_6 CN_Mandarin_Lesson_7 CN_Mandarin_Lesson_8 CN_Mandarin_Lesson_9 CN_Mandarin_Lesson_10 CN_Mandarin_Lesson_11 CN_Mandarin_Lesson_12 CN_Mandarin_Lesson_13 CN_Mandarin_Lesson_14 CN_Mandarin_Lesson_15
(Time 3:39) (Time 14:52) (Time 4:45) (Time 2:07) (Time 3:14) (Time 4:22) (Time 3:01) (Time 3:37) (Time 1:24) (Time 1:50) (Time 1:19) (Time 1:12) (Time 2:41) (Time 1:01) (Time 1:25)
(File Size:1.5MB) (File Size:6.1MB) (File Size:1.95MB) (File Size:873KB) (File Size:1.3MB) (File Size:1.8MB) (File Size:1.24MB) (File Size:1.49MB) File Size:576KB) (File Size:757KB) (File Size:544KB) (File Size:497KB) (File Size:1.1MB) (File Size:420KB) (File Size:588KB)
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Chinese Basic Lessons for Invitees, Peace Corps / China
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Table of Contents
Lesson 1 Introduction to Chinese Language Lesson 2 Phonetics Lesson 3 Basic Grammar Lesson 4 Greetings Lesson 5 Introductions Lesson 6 Numbers/Prices Lesson 7 Food & Drink Lesson 8 Some Chinese Dishes Lesson 9 Useful Phrases Lesson 10 Sickness and Emergency Lesson 11 Direction and Places Lesson 12 Clothes and Colors Lesson 13 Time Lesson 14 Family Lesson 15 Home Items Appendix: Measure words in Chinese (no audio)
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P4 P5 P9 P11 P12 P14 P16 P18 P19 P20 P21 P22 P23 P25 P26 P27
Chinese Basic Lessons for Invitees, Peace Corps / China
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Lesson 1 Introduction to Chinese Language
Mandarin is the official language of the People's Republic of China. It is the dialect spoken in the capital, Beijing. It is taught in all schools and is used for television and broadcast. Almost the entire population understands Mandarin. The language taught in Pre-Service Training (PST) for Peace Corps trainees is Mandarin.
Chinese is a language with a large number of words with the same pronunciation but different meanings; what distinguishes these `homophones' is their `tonal' quality ? the raising and lowering of pitch on certain syllables. Mandarin has four tones ? high, rising, falling-rising and falling, plus a fifth "neutral" tone. To illustrate, look at the word ma, which has four different meanings according to tone:
High
m
Rising
m?
Falling-rising m
Falling
m?
`mother' `hemp' or `numb' `horse' `to scold' or `swear'
Writing System
Chinese is not a phonetic language and the characters do not bear any resemblance to actual pronunciation. Chinese is often referred to as a language of pictographs.
There are about 56,000 characters, but the vast majority of these are archaic. It is commonly felt that a well-educated, contemporary Chinese might know and use between 6,000 and 8,000 characters. To read a Chinese newspaper you need to know 2,000 to 3,000, but 1,200 to 1,500 would be enough to get the gist.
Each Chinese character represents a spoken syllable, so many people declare that Chinese is a monosyllabic language. Actually, it's more a case of having a monosyllabic writing system. While the building block of the Chinese language is indeed the monosyllabic Chinese character, Chinese words are usually a combination of two or more characters. You could think of Chinese words as being compounds.
Phonetic system ? Pinyin
In 1958 China adopted a system of writing their language using the Roman alphabet. It's known as Pinyin. It is used in this course.
Grammar
Chinese grammar is much simpler than that of European languages. There are no articles (a/an/the), no tenses, and no plurals. The basic point to bear in mind is that, like English, Chinese word order is subject-verb-object. In other words, a basic English sentence like "I (subject) love (verb) you (object)" is constructed in exactly the same way in Chinese.
Chinese Basic Lessons for Invitees, Peace Corps / China
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Lesson 2 Phonetics
There are 6 basic vowels and 21 consonants in Mandarin Chinese. A syllable always consists of a vowel (V) or a consonant with a vowel (CV), such as ba, fo, ne. Consonant clusters, two or more consonants used in succession, are not permitted in Chinese. Syllabic combinations common in English such as VC (up, at), CVC (big, pat, map), CCVC (bred, dread, stone), CVCC (mask, best, sand), CCV (fly, blue, grow) CCCV (screw, spray, stray), VCC (old, and, ink), VCCC (Olds, ants, amps), CCVCC (brand, trains, swings), CVCCC (tests, tenths, lunged), CVCCCC (thirsts, texts, worlds), CCVCCC (slurps, prints, flirts), CCCVC (street, squat, strut), CCCVCC (struts, squats, sprained), and CCCVCCC (scrimps, sprints, squelched) are not possible in Chinese. CVC, on the other hand, is possible in Chinese, but the final C can only be the nasal sounds -n and -ng and the retroflex ?r, such as jing, nan, yong and er. Consonants are often called initials because they invariably appear initially in a word with the exception of the final -n, ng or r, which can appear finally. Vowels are also called finals because they appear medially or finally in a word. Vowels can stand by themselves when no initial consonant is present.
Let's learn the finals (vowels) first:
MANDARIN
a e i o u ?
ai
SIMILAR ENGLISH SOUND Father fur see or flute German `f?r'
fly
EXAMPLE (PINYIN & CHARACTER) b? c? d? p? b? L
ni
NOTE
Written as `u' when appearing after `j q x'
ao
now
ei
day
ia
yard
ie
yes
iu
yolk
ou
low
ua
wah
`e
you ate
ui
way
uo
war
iao
miaow
uai
why
an
upon
en
broken
ang
town
eng
ehng
er
her
ian
yen
iang
yahng
in
inn
ho mi xi? xi? li? l?u hu yu?
hu? zu? y?o ku?i m?n w?n f?ng p?ng ?r din li?ng xi? xn
``e' stands for a syllable by itself, so it is written as `yue', with the 2 dots dropped
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ing iong ong uan un uang `an `n
eeng yohng song wand when wong you an yuen
Now the initials (consonants):
MANDARIN
Bb Pp Mm Ff Dd Tt Nn Ll Gg Kk Hh Jj Qq Xx Zz Cc Ss Zhzh
SIMILAR ENGLISH SOUND boy paper mother food door tall name life girl kid high jeans cheese shock kids cats sir joy
Chch Shsh Rr Vv Ww
child shoe red visit white
Yy
year
tng y?ng dng gun hn hu?ng qu?n jn
3/29/2007
EXAMPLE (PINYIN & CHARACTER) b? p? m f d? t n l? g? k? h? ji qi?n xi zu? c sn zho
chu?ng shu run
w
yu
NOTE
the lips do not protrude the lips do not protrude Not an equivalent in English pronounced without rounding and protruding the lips See above See above See above Only to spell foreign words Is actually `u' when `u' stands for a syllable by itself Is actually `i' (see above)
Some sounds are especially difficult for English speakers to remember, and have similar pronunciations. The sound q, for example, sounds a little like ch. Similar pairs are x and sh, and j and zh.
Please listen and repeat the following words: zi ci si zhi chi shi ri ji qi xi
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Tones
3/29/2007
High
?
Rising
Falling-rising
Falling
high, flat, continuous tone
rising tone similar to the intonation used in the question `What?'
tone that falls then rises. You'll hear many Mandarin speakers `swallow' the rising sound, only giving it a clear falling-rising pattern for emphasis.
falling tone, similar to the one used when yelling `Darn!'
To help you get close, here's a brief try at tones, transcribed in English. Consider the syllable `mmm' (a non-syllable in Mandarin). Then,
?
The high level tone is what you might say in English if you were asked a question, and
you had to think about it before answering. It's high, and it's a constant tone: "Mmm, sixteen, I
think."
The rising tone is like a question: "Mmm? I didn't catch that."
The low level tone is what you might say in English to express doubt, or disbelief:
"Mmm...I don't know about that."
The falling tone is like an interjection: "Mmm! Well, I'll be!"
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Listen and repeat: first tone m tng qng yn gu
second tone ? m? t?ng q?ng y?n gu?
third tone m tng qng yn gu
3/29/2007
fourth tone ? m? t?ng q?ng y?n gu?
Choose the syllables you heard
1.
d?din
bobin
d?tn
bopi?n
z?izu? c?icu?
xngqi? jy?u
2.
jin
xu?
zhn
shu
zhn zhn
ch?n chn
tngh?ng g?ngt?ng
cntng k?nx?n
yu ju
yu? y?n
d?odin d?oti?n
c?su ji?cu?
r?
c?ng r?u
z?
qng
zu
jing cng zhng shng
xun jun
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