Foreign Language( Chinese Mandarin)

Introduction to Chinese Language

The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties

which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees, with most of the varieties not
being mutually intelligible. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han
Chinese in China it forms one of the branches of Sino- Tibetan family languages.
About one- fifth of the world’s population, or over one billion people, speaks
some variety of Chinese as their native languages . Internal divisions of Chinese
are usually perceived by their native speakers as dialects of a single Chinese
language, rather than separate languages, although this identification is
considered inappropriate by some linguists and sinologigts.
 Characteristics of Chinese

Standardized Chinese
Standard Chinese (Putonghua/ Guoyu/ Huayu) is a standardized form of spoken
Chinese based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin Chinese, reffered to as Guanha
or Beifanghuua in Chinese. Mandarin Chinese history can be dated back to the
19th century, particularly by the upper classes and ministers in Beijing. Standard
Chinese is the official language of the People’s Republic of China(PRC) and the
Republic of China (ROC, also known as Taiwan) as well as one of four official
languages of Singapore. It is one of the six official languages of the United Nations

Putonghua/ Guoyu often called "Mandarin" , is the official standard language

used by the People’s Republic of China (Taiwan), and Singapore (where it is called
“Huayu”). It is based on the Beijing dialect, which is the dialect of Mandarin as
spoken in Beijing. The government intends for speakers of all Chinese speech
varieties to use it as a common language of communication. Therefore it is used
in government agencies, in the media, and as a language of instruction in schools.

In mainland China and Taiwan, diglossia has been a common feature: it is

common for a Chinese to be able to speak two or even three varieties of the
Sinitic languages (or “dialects”) together with Standard Chinese. For example, in
addition to putongua, a resident of Shanghai might speak Shanghainese; and, if he
or she grew up elsewhere, the he or she may also be likely to be fluent in the
particular dialect of that local area. A native of Guangzhou may speak both
Cantonese and putongua, a resident of Taiwan, both Taiwanese and Putonghua/
guoyu. A person living in Taiwan may commonly mix pronunciations, phrases, and
words from Mandarin and Taiwanese, and this mixture is considered normal in
daily or informal speech.
 History of the Chinese language
Most linguists classify all varieties of modern spoken Chinese as part of the Sino-
Tibetan language family and believe that there was an original language, termed
Proto- Sino- Tibetan, from which the Sinitic and Tibeto- Burman languages
descended. The relation between Chinese and other Sino- Tibetan languages is an
area of active research, as is the attempt to reconstruct Proto- Sino- Tibetan

Mandarin is now spoken by virtually all young and middle- aged citizens of
mainland China and on Taiwan. Cantonese, not Mandarin, was used in Hongkong
during the time of its British colonial period (owing to its large Cantonese native
and migrant populace) and remains today its official language of education,
formal speech, and daily life, but Mandarin is becoming increasingly influential
after the 1997 handover.

Classical Chinese was once the lingua franca in neighbouring East Asian countries
such as Japan, Korea and Vietnam for centuries, before the rise of European
influences in the 19th century. In Korea and Vietnam official documents were
written in Chinese until the colonial period

Influences

Throughout history Chinese culture and politics has had a great influences on
unrelated East Asian languages such as Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese.
Korean and Japanese both have writing systems employing Chinese characters
(hanzi), which are called Hanja and kanji, respectively.
In South Korea, the Hangul alphabet is generally used, but Hanja is used as a sort
of boldface. In North Korea, Hanja has been discontinued. Since the
modernization of Japan in the late 19th century, there has been debate about
abandoning the use of Chinese characters, but the practical benefits of a radically
new script have so far not been considered sufficient.

Languages within the influence of Chinese culture also have a very large number
of loanword from Chinese. Fifty percent or more of Korean vocabulary is of
Chinese origin, likewise for a significant percentage of Japanese and Vietnamese
vocabulary.

Examples of loanwords in English include “tea”, from Minnan tê; “ketchup”, from
Cantonese ke2zap1 and ‘’kumquat’’, from Cantonese gam1gwat1

Chinese Characters
Chinese characters evolved over time from earlier forms of hieroglyphs. The idea
that all Chinese characters are either pictographs or ideographs is erroneous:
most characters contain phonetic parts, and are composites of phonetic
components and semantic radicals. Only the simplest characters, such as ren
(human), ri (sun), shan (mountain; hill) shui (water), may be wholly pictorial in
origin. In 100 CE, the famed scholar Xŭ Shѐn in the HÀn Dynasty classified
characters into six categories, namely pictographs, simple ideographs, compound
ideographs, phonetic loans, phonetic compounds and derivative characters. Of
these, only 4% were categorized as pictographs, and 80-90% as phonetic
complexes consisting of semantic element that indicates meaning, and a phonetic
element that indicates the pronunciation. There are about 214 radicals recognized
in the Kangxi Dictionary.

There are currently two systems for Chinese characters. The traditional system,
still used in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau and Chinese speaking communities
(except Singapore and Malaysia) outside mainland China, takes its form from
standardized character forms dating back to the late Han Dynasty. The Simplified
Chinese character system, developed by the People’s Republic of China in 1954 to
promote mass literacy, simplifies most complex traditional glyphs to fewer
strokes, many to common caoshu shorthand variants

Singapore, which has a large Chinese community, is the first- and at present the
only- foreign nation to officially adopt simplified characters, although it has also
become the de facto standard for younger ethnic Chinese in Malaysia. The
internet provides the platform to practice reading alternative system, be it
traditional or simplified.
 Grammar and morphology
Chinese is often described as a ‘’monosyllabic’’ language. However , this is only
partially correct. It is largely accurate when describing Classical Chinese and
Middle Chinese; in Classical Chinese, for example, perhaps 90% of words
correspond to a single syllable and a single character. In the modern varieties, it is
still usually the case that a morpheme (unit of meaning) is a single syllable;
contrast English, with plenty of multi- syllable morphemes, both bound and free,
such as “seven”’, ‘’elephant’’, southern varieties of modern Chinese still have
largely monosyllabic words, especially among the more basic vocabulary.

In modern Mandarin, however, most nouns, adjectives and verbs are largely
disyllabic. A significant cause of this is phonological attrition. Sound change over
time has steadily reduced the number of possible syllables. In modern Mandarin,
there are now only about 1,200 possible syllables, including tonal distinctions,
compared with about in Vietnamese (still large monosyllabic) and over 8,000 in
English.

Loanwords
Like any other language, Chinese hasabsorbed a sizable number of loanwords
from other cultures. Most chinese words are formed out of native Chinese
morphemes, including words describing imported objects and ideas. However,
direct phonetic borrowing of foreign words has gone on since ancient times.

Ancient words borrowed from along the Silk Road since Old Chinese include
"grape", "pomegrate" and "lion". Some words were borrowed from Buddhist
scriptures, including "Buddha" and "bodhisattva". Other words came from
nomadic peoples to the north, such as "hutong". Words borrowed from the
peoples along the Silk Road, such as "grape" (putáo in Mandarin) generally have
Persian etymologies. Buddhist terminology is generally languages of North India.
Words borrowed from nomadic tribes of the Gobi, Mongolian or northeast
regions generally have Altaic etymologies, such as "pipa, the Chinese lute, or
"cheese" or "yoghurt", but from exactly which source is not always clear.

Lesson 1
Chinese Phonetic Aphabet
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, which 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, h and sh are pronounced as in English

-d like "d" in "bed" (unaspirated)jlike "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" soundx like "sh" in "sheep" but with the corners of the lips drawn backr
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 plike ‘’p’’ in ‘’pope’’ tlike ‘’t’’ in ‘’tap’’k like ‘’k’’ in kangaroo qharder
than ‘’ch’’ in ’’cheap’’c like ‘’ts’’ in ‘’cats’’ch (tongue curled back, aspirated)

- distinction between certain initials: b/ p/ t g/ k j/ q z/ c zh/ ch

Finals

In modern Chinese, there are 38 finals besides the above represented 21 initials.

a ai ua
o uo ṻe
e ei
er
ai uai
ei Uei (ui)
ao iao
ou iou (iu)
an ian
en in uen (un) ṻan
ang iang ṻen
eng ieng
ong iong
iel ike ‘’ye’’ in yes

e like ‘’e’’ in ‘’her’’

er like “er” in “sister” (9american pronunciation)

ai like “y” in “by” (light)

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”

uie uen and iouwhen preceded by an initial are written as ui, un and iu
respectively

SAINT TONIS COLLEGE, INC.

Formerly: Kalinga Christian Learning Center
Bulanao, Tabuk City, Kalinga 380

Name:_________________________________________ Date:______________

Year Level:______________________________________ Score:______________

Activity I

Fill in the blanks( 2points each)

____________1. is the official standard language used by the People's Republic of

China.

____________2. intends for speakers of all Chinese speech varieties to use it as a

common language of communication.

____________3. often called "Mandarin"

4. Internal divisions of ____________are usually perceived by their native

speakers as dialect.
5. Standard Chinese is a standardized form of spoken Chinese based on the
___________dialect of Mandarin Chinese.

6. Languages within the influence of ______________________ also have a very

large number of 7._______________from Chinese.

8. Chinese is often described as a _______________.

9. Ancient words borrowed from along the Silk Road since Old Chinese include
_________, ____________ and _________.

10. In mainland _________ and ___________, diglossia has been a common

feature.

Activity 2

ANALYSIS

5 points each (more than 4 sentences)

Answer the questions that being asked.

1. Why Mandarin Chinese is considered the second language of the world?

2. Explain the history of Chinese language.

 3. Why most of the Filipinos are pursuing to learn Mandarin? Expand your
answer.

4. Why Singapore has a large Chinese community?

Activity 3
ASSESSMENT: Choose the correct answer from the given choices below
____________1. A syllable in Chinese is composed of an

A. Attention

B. Aspirated

C. Initial

D. Alphabet

___________2. m, f, n, l, h and sh are pronounced as in

A. Filipino

B. Chinese

C. Japanese

D. English

___________3. Today the official transcription accepted on an international basis

is the
A. Pingpong alphabet

B. Pinying alphabet

C. Pinyin alphabet

D. Pinpin alphabet

___________4. There are currently two systems for Chinese characters. The
traditional system, still used in

A. Philippines, Hongkong, Taiwan, Macao and Chinese speaking communities

B. Hongkong, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand,Macao and Chinese speaking

communities

C. Hongkong, Taiwan, Macao and Chinese speaking communities

D. Hongkong,Japan, Taiwan, Macao and Chinese speaking communities

__________5. Is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are

mutually intelligible to varying degrees.

A. The Filipino language

B. The Japanese language

C. The American language

D. The Chinese language

__________6. Mandarin Chinese history can be dated back to the

A. 18th century

B. 19th century

C. 20th century

D. 21th century

__________7. Is the official language of the People's Republic of China and the
Republic of China (Taiwan).

A. Standard Japanese

B. Standard Chineze

C. Standard Chinses

D. Standard Chinese

__________8. Mandarin is becoming increasingly influential after the _________

handover

A. 1994
B. 1995

C. 1996

D. 1997

___________9.In modern Chinese, there are _____ finals besides the aboved
represented 21 initials.

A. 48

B. 38

C.28

D. 18

___________10. Mandarin Chinese has ____ pitched tones.

A. 3

B. 5

C. 4

D. 6