Chinese Language

1. CHINESE LANGUAGE
SŪN JIÉ
HÀNYǓ LǍOSHĪ

2. 2
漢語 汉语 hànyǔ (Chinese Language)
Chinese or Chinese language refers to the languages being used
in China as a whole. It is classified into 7 major dialects, it
includes Standard Chinese/Chinese Mandarin and the different
dialects.
Chinese Mandarin is the most common dialect used in China;
also called pǔtōnghuà(普通话)。
Chinese Character
Ø symbols used to write the Chinese Language.
Ø also called Hànzì 汉字。
Simplified Chinese Character
Ø overall reduction of the number of strokes in the regular script
of a set of Chinese Characters.
Ø often used in mainland China.

3. 3
Pinyin
Øa phonetic system of chinese language.
ØIt is a form of spelling used as a medium for
representing the Chinese Language.
ØIt is used as an aid in teaching the national
language.
ØConsists of initial, final and tone.

4. 4
Components of Pinyin
initial final syllable
+ =
tone

5. 5
shēngmǔ (initial)
Ø Consonant at the beginning of a syllable
Ø 21 initials
*zero initial (língshēngmǔ “Ø”) is not included e.g y,w, it is a chinese
syllable having no initial consonant.
+“e”
+“o”= _uo
+“i”
b p m f
d t n l
g k h
j q x
z c s
zh ch sh r +“r”

6. 6
unaspirated aspirated
b
（pen）
p
（pit）
m
（mom）
f
（fate）
d
（stop）
t
（top）
n
（nice）
l
（live）
g
（game）
k
（kite）
h
（hey）
j
（jeep）
q
（cheek）
x
（she）
z
（birds）
c
（cats）
s
（son）
zh
（joke）
ch
（church）
sh
（shirt）
r
（ray）

7. 7
b p m f
d t n l
g k h
j q x
z c s
zh ch sh r

8. 8
yùnmǔ (finals)
Ø vowel at the end of a syllable
Ø 36 finals, divided into 3 parts (Simple finals, Compound Finals, Nasal Finals)
a o e i u ü er
ai ei ao ou
ia ie ua uo üe
iao iou (iu) uai uei (ui)
an en in ian uan uen üan ün
ang eng ing iang uang ueng ong iong

9. 9
Simple Finals
a
o
e
i
u
ü
duh
he; letter E
who
i→u= ü, say “ee” with rounded lips
online
father
er December (doesn't combine with any initials)

10. 10
Compound Finals
ai
ie
ia
ou
ao
ei
ua
uo
üe
iao
iou
(iu)
uai
uei
(ui)
combine u and ai
eye
combine u and ei
combine i and u
combine i and ao
combine ü and e (open)
say
cow
yet
so
yeah
won
water

11. 11
Nasal Finals
an
en
ian
üan
uan
uen
in
ün
fan
taken
pin
combine u and an
combine i and an
combine ü and an
combine ü and en
combine w and en
ang
iang
eng
ing
ong
uang
ueng
iong
slang
combine en and g
thing
song
combine i and ong
combine i and ang
combine u and ang
combine w and eng

12. 12
Rules:
1. When the finals “i”, “in”, “ing”, and “u” form pinyin
syllables by themselves without any other initials, “y” and “w”
should be put before these finals respectively to make it as “yi”,
“yin”, “ying”, and “wu”.
一 one：[yī] √, [ī]ⅹ
音 sound：[yīn] √, [īn]ⅹ
应 should：[yīng] √, [īng]ⅹ
五 five：[wǔ] √, [ǔ]ⅹ
2. The compound finals with “i”or “u”as the beginning and
which form syllables by themselves, the “i”and “u”should be
changed as “y” and “w”in writing.
爷 grandpa: [yé] √, [ié]ⅹ
我 I，me：[wǒ] √, [uǒ]ⅹ

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3.
l When a final that begins with “ü”meets “y” in one syllable, the
two dots of “ü”should be omitted.
鱼 fish: [yú] √, [yǘ]ⅹ
月 moon, month: [yuè] √, [yüè]ⅹ
l The final “ü”cannot be spelled with the initial “j”“q” or“x”. Thus,
when “ü”, or the finals that begin with “ü”, meets one of the three
initials( “j” “q” “x”), the two dots above “ü”should be omitted.
For example:
举 hold: [jǔ] √, [jǚ]ⅹ
去 go：[qù] √, [qǜ]ⅹ
学 study，learn：[xué] √, [xüé]ⅹ

14. 14
4. If “iou”, “uei” and“uen” are composed of “u+ei”, “i+ou”,
“u+en”, We should compress the syllables as “ui”, “iu”, and“un”
in writing.
iou → niu ( remove the “o”)
uen → chun ( remove the “e”)
uei → dui ( remove the “e”)

15. 15
a o e i u ü er
ai ei ao ou
ia ie ua uo üe
iao iou (iu) uai uei (ui)
an en in ian uan uen üan ün
ang eng ing iang uang ueng ong iong

16. 16
shēngdiào (tone)
Ø Tones are the characteristics of Chinese language.
Ø There are 4 special tones and a neutral tone.
Ø Tones play a very important role in Chinese. Each Chinese character has one
tone, and the Chinese language has a total of four tones as well as one neutral
tone. The same syllable with a different tone may have a different meaning.

17. TONES
First Tone
(level tone)
阴平
yīnpínɡ
High and level sound,
naturally prolonged.
A straight
horizontal line:
mā
Second Tone
(rising tone)
阳平
yánɡpínɡ
Rising tone, from low
to high, just like the
pitch in question.
A rising
diagonal line:
má
Third Tone
(falling-rising
tone)
上声
shànɡshēnɡ
First falling and then
going up again.
A curved
“dipping” line:
mǎ
Forth Tone
(falling tone)
去声
qùshēnɡ
Total falling tone
which starts out very
high and falls short
and strong.
A dropping
diagonal line:
mà
Neutral Tone 轻声
qīngshēng
Pronounced very
light and quick
Have no tone
mark
ma

18. 18
mā mā qí mǎ, mǎ màn, mā mā mà mǎ
妈妈骑马，马慢，妈妈骂马
Mother is riding a horse, when the horse is
slow, mother curses it.
妈妈骂马吗?
māma mà mǎ ma?
Does Mamma scold the horse?"

19. 19
Rules:
1. If there is only one vowel in
the final, write the tone mark on
its vowel.
2. If there are more than two
vowels in the final, just follow
its pitch order
a→ → e → i→ u→ ü
3. When i and u are in the same
syllable, the tone mark should
be written in the second vowel.
4. When writing tones above i,
remove the dot above i.
mā hé jīn hónɡ pínɡ
hǎo zài xiè méi duō
liù jiǔ duì
yī jīn jīnɡ

20. 20
Rules of Tone Changes
1. Tone changes for third tones
When a 3rd tone (such as “nǐ
你”) is followed by another 3rd
tone in a group, the first 3rd
tone changes to a 2nd tone.
2. Tone changes for "bù" (不)
When followed by a 4th tone, 不
(bù) changes to 2nd tone (bú).
Mandarin we write we say
你好 nǐ hǎo ní hǎo
很好 hěn hǎo hén hǎo
Mandarin we write we say
不是 bù shì bú shì
不够 bù gòu bú gòu

21. 21
3. Tone changes for "yī" (一)
l When followed by a 4th tone, 一 (yī) changes to 2nd tone (yí).
l When followed by any other tone, 一 (yī) changes to 4th tone
(yì).
Mandarin we write we say
一下 yīxià yíxià
一个 yī gè yí gè
Mandarin we write we say
一天 yī tiān yì tiān
一年 yī nián yì nián
一起 yīqǐ yì qǐ

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THANK YOU
谢谢 xièxie