Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin has only about 400 syllables before tones are counted. This course teaches you to hear and spell them in pinyin, then use them in first phrases.
Pitch that belongs to the word
In English, a rising pitch can turn yes into a question without changing the word. In Mandarin the pitch of each syllable is part of the word itself, so 妈 mā is mother and 马 mǎ is horse. So the one course here, Mandarin pinyin and tones, starts with tones. Pinyin, the official spelling in Latin letters, appears with tone marks under every phrase. The first unit uses the five step scale the linguist Chao Yuen Ren drew in 1930: the first tone is 55, high and level; the second is 35, rising; the third is 214, low and dipping; the fourth is 51, falling. The neutral tone is short, light and unmarked, as in the question word 吗 ma.
Breath, tongue position and the end of a syllable
Every syllable splits into an initial, a final and a tone. Unit 2 sorts the 21 initials into six groups by where the mouth makes them. The key difference between b and p is not voice but a puff of air: hold a strip of paper in front of your lips and say pà, and the paper should jump. Six pairs work this way, a distinction Korean speakers already make. Unit 3 covers the finals. A syllable can end only in a vowel, in n or in ng, and that ending changes the word: 饭 fàn is a meal and 放 fàng is to put. After zh, ch, sh, r, z, c and s, the letter i does not mean ee, so 是 shì sounds like a buzzing shr.
Spelling rules and tones that shift in speech
Unit 4 gives the spelling rules. Without an initial, i is written yi and u is written wu. The dots on ü are dropped after j, q and x but kept after n and l, because 女 nǚ and 努 nǔ are different words. The tone mark goes on a or e first, then on the o of ou, and otherwise on the last vowel. Unit 5 covers three changes heard in almost every sentence. Two third tones in a row become a second tone and a third tone, so 你好 is said ní hǎo. 一 becomes yí before a fourth tone and yì before the others, and 不 becomes bú before a fourth tone.
Characters, numbers and a first conversation
Unit 6 takes a first look at simplified characters, used in mainland China and Singapore, beside the traditional forms kept in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. Most characters pair a meaning part with a sound part: 女 woman plus 马 mǎ gives 妈 mā. Unit 7 builds numbers up to 100,000. They group in fours around 万 wàn, ten thousand, as Korean and Japanese numbers do, and in phone numbers 一 is said yāo. Unit 8 uses all of this in first greetings: 谢谢 and 不客气, 对不起 and 没关系, 我叫 with your name, and 吗 at the end of a statement to make a yes or no question. Each unit has a shadowing recording, a dictation typed on a pinyin keyboard and a quiz.
Questions about this subject
Why do tones change the meaning of Mandarin words?
Pitch belongs to the identity of a Mandarin syllable, not only to the mood of a sentence. The syllable ma can mean mother, hemp, horse or scold depending on its tone. Context may help a listener guess, but replacing one tone with another still changes the word rather than merely making the sentence sound more emotional. Mandarin pinyin and tones
Do I need a high voice to pronounce Mandarin tones?
The numbered pitch scale is relative to your own comfortable speaking range, not a fixed musical note. First tone stays high within that range, second rises, third dips, and fourth falls. A child and a person with a deep voice can therefore produce the same tone patterns at very different absolute pitches without either being wrong. Mandarin pinyin and tones
Why does the Mandarin third tone not always rise at the end?
The full dipping-and-rising form is common when a syllable is said alone, as in dictionary recordings. In connected speech, speakers often keep only its low portion, especially before another syllable. The missing rise is therefore not necessarily a different tone; the complete isolated pattern is not copied unchanged into every position in a spoken phrase. Mandarin pinyin and tones
What does a pinyin syllable without a tone mark mean?
It can represent a neutral-tone syllable, which is short and light and has no independent tone contour. Its pitch depends on the preceding syllable, so neutral does not mean one fixed flat pitch everywhere. The second syllables of māma and bàba and the grammatical word de provide common examples of this unmarked, lighter pronunciation. Mandarin pinyin and tones
What is the difference between pinyin b and p?
The distinction is mainly a burst of breath, called aspiration, rather than the English contrast between voiced and voiceless consonants. Pinyin b is unaspirated and p has a strong puff. Hold a strip of paper before your lips: pà should move it noticeably, while bà should produce much less movement, making the contrast visible as well as audible. Mandarin pinyin and tones