ASPIRATED INITIALS/ CONSONANTS

Particular attention should be given to the pronunciation of the “ aspirated initials or consonants” .
There’s a burst of air or one breathes heavily when the following are pronounced:

 P like p in party
 T like t in toy
 K like k in Kenya or keep
 Q , harder than the CH in cheese
 C like TS in cats
 Ch ( the tongue is curled back, as if there’s a an r at the end- chir)

M, F, N, L, H, & SH are pronounced as in English. The rest of the initials are pronounced in an
unaspirated way.

 D like d in bed
 J like g in genius
 Z like ds in kids
 Zh ( similar to the ending of CH ) like j in jobs
 B like p in spin
 G is a soft unaspirated “K” sound
 X like sh in sheep but the corners of the mouth drawn back
 R , somewhat like r in rain

TONE CHANGES, TONE SHIFTS, OR TONE SANDHI

A. Low -tone shifts

3+3 > 2+3 , ex . Hen3 hao3
B. Two single -word shifts, ex. Bu (no, not) is both a 2 nd and a 4th tone
4+4 > 2+4 ex. Bu4 lei4 > bu2 lei4; bu4 re4 > bu2 re4
C. Single-word shift involves the numeral yi1 (one). In counting and in many compounds , it is
level-toned or a 1st tone. Where it (yi) is grammatically linked to a measure word , it shifts
to a 2nd tone. Ex. Yi2 fen4 , meaning a copy.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MANDARIN CHINESE LANGUAGE

1. There are no inflections for case, # or gender. There is no conjugation of verbs.

2. References to past, present and future are known by context and or the use of time words such
as today, now, yesterday, tomorrow, this year, this week etc.
3. In both spoken and written language, statements are kept short.
 4. In Mandarin Chinese, the active voice is used.
5. Mandarin Chinese uses more nouns than pronouns. ( the latter are oftentimes omitted)
6. Singular and plural forms are nearly always the same.
7. Mandarin has no equivalent for articles a, an, the.
8. Words are oftentimes understood by context.
9. The word order for simple sentences is the same as in English, but it’s not for complex
sentences.

In studying any language, there are 4 skills that learners have to acquire:

1. LISTENING
2. SPEAKING
3. READING
4. WRITING

Tips

1. PAY ATTENTION TO THE TONES. THERE ARE A LOT OF HOMONYMS LIKE THE ENGLISH TO, TOO,
TWO OR CHARTS, CHURCH.
2. HAVE THE PROPER MIND SET. MANDARIN CHINESE IS LEARNABLE.
3. THINK LIKE THE CHINESE PEOPLE DO.

After having a basic background on the Mandarin Chinese language, can you come up with similarity/ies
between the two?

SIMILARITIES - to be supplied by the students