NNííhao, China!hao, China!Part II: China and Chinese LanguagePart II: China and Chinese Language

Dr. Tim XieDr. Tim XieCSULBCSULB

June 28, 2002June 28, 2002

**Photos and pictures in this presentation are used Photos and pictures in this presentation are used for educational purposes and limited time only. for educational purposes and limited time only.

The Chinese language The Chinese language means…means…

Mandarin (the language of officials, used in the U.S., vs. Cantonese)

Hanyu (Han nationality language, used in mainland)

Guoyu (National language, used in Taiwan) Huayu (Chinese language, used in Singapore and

overseas) Zhongguo hua (the speech of China) Zhongwen (written Chinese language )

Current status and FutureCurrent status and Future

Hanyu (Han nationality’s language including dialects) is used by 720 million people

70% of the population of China speak Hanyu One fifth of world population speak Hanyu (885 million ) U.N. General Assembly, 28th Session (December 12,

1973,) resolution: Chinese is one of the working languages of U.N.

Mandarin belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family Mandarin will become the major language in Asia in the

21 century.

Eight Major DialectsEight Major Dialects Northern (Mandarin) 715 million (71.5%)

Jiangsu-Zhejiang (Wu) 85 million (8.5%)

Cantonese (Yue) 50 million (5%)

Hunan (Xiang) 48 million (4.8%)

Hakka (Kejia) 37 million (3.7%)

Southern Min 28 million (2.8%)

Jiangxi (Gan) 24 million (2.4%)

Northern Min 13 million (1.3%)

(DeFrancis (1984) The Chinese Language p. 58 )

Chinese DialectsChinese Dialects

Mutually unintelligible. Dialect speakers do not understand each other.

The difference between the dialects is mostly phonological.

There are some variation in vocabulary and grammar.

Solution for communication – Common Speech (Putonghua or Guoyu)

Characteristics of MandarinCharacteristics of Mandarin ChineseChinese

PronunciationVocabularyGrammar

PronunciationPronunciation

The number of syllables are limited: 432. There are 1376 syllables if all tonal variation is taken into account. (Liu, 1957)

Vowels are predominant. There are four tones in Mandarin.

Chinese is a tonal languageChinese is a tonal language

mā má mǎ mà妈 麻 马 骂 mother hemp horse to scold

There are five tones in Shanghai (Wu) dialect.

There are nine tones in Cantonese dialect.

An interesting story written by An interesting story written by Chao Yuenren using one syllableChao Yuenren using one syllable 石室詩士施氏﹐嗜獅﹐誓食十獅。氏時時適市視獅。十時﹐適十獅適市。是時﹐適施氏適市。氏視是十獅﹐恃矢勢﹐使是十獅逝世。氏拾是十獅尸﹐適石室。石室濕﹐氏使侍拭石室。石室拭﹐氏始試食是十獅。食時﹐始識是十獅屍﹐實石獅屍。試釋是事。 (趙元任《語言問題》商務印書館 1980. p.149) Shí shì shī shì shī shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī. Shì shí shí shì shì shì shī. Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì. Shì shí, shì Shī shì shì shì. Shì shì shì shí shī, shì shì shì, shǐ shì shí shī shì shì. Shì shí shì shí shī shū, shì shí shì. Shí shì shì, shì shǐ shì shù shí shì. Shí shì shì, shì shǐ shì shí shì shí shī. Shí shí, shǐ shì shì shí shī shī, shí shí shī. Shì shì shì shì.

Translation of “SHI” storyTranslation of “SHI” storyThe poet Mr. Shi who lived in a stone house liked to eat lions. He swore that he would eat ten lions. He went to the market often to look for lions. At ten o’clock, it happened that ten lions were in the market. At that time, Mr. Shi happened to arrive in the market too. Mr. Shi looked at the ten lions and he shoot the ten lions with arrows. He picked the dead bodies of the ten lions and returned to his stone house. The stone house was wet. He made the servant to clean the room. After the room was cleaned, he began to try to eat these ten lions. Only by the time of eating, he found that these dead bodies of lions were actually stone lions. Try to explain this story.

Most words in modern Chinese Most words in modern Chinese are disyllabicare disyllabic

老師 學習 學校 醫院 報紙

lǎoshī xuéxí xuéxiào yīyuàn bàozhǐ

teacher to study school hospital newspaper

Most words in ancient Chinese Most words in ancient Chinese were monosyllabicwere monosyllabic 衣 yī, clothing, to dress 車 chē, vehicle 人 rén, person日 rì, sun見 jiàn, to see者 zhě, –er之 zhī of

ScriptScript

Non-phonetic: a character has no clue to its pronunciation

Ideographic or pictographic: characters are derived from the pictures

The writing unit is character. Characters can be written vertically or horizontally, from left to write, from right to left, or from top to bottom

Characters can be written horizontally, from Characters can be written horizontally, from

left to right or from right to leftleft to right or from right to left

Guwen Guwen Guanzhi – Guanzhi –

An An Anthology Anthology of Ancient of Ancient ChineseChinese

Characters can be written Characters can be written vertically from top to bottom vertically from top to bottom

The character with one stroke The character with one stroke and the character with 64 and the character with 64

strokesstrokes

一 龍龍

龍龍yī

One

tiè verbose

The character with the same The character with the same pronunciation (homophones)pronunciation (homophones)

一依醫衣伊漪咿壹揖噫圪泆洢猗陭欹蛜郼溰嫛禕稦銥

All the following characters are pronounced as ‘yi’

The following characters are The following characters are names of fishnames of fish

魚 fish

魛 魠 魡 魟 魷 魧 魴 魱 魦 魶 魵 魰 魨 魤 魤 魬 鮑 鮀 鮅 鮇 魼 魾 魻 鮂 鮓 鮒 鮐 魺 鮕 魽 鮫 鮭 鮚 鱞 鱺

Interesting combinations of Interesting combinations of characters characters

羊 + 大 = 美 木 wood

sheep+big=beautiful 林 woods

魚 + 羊 = 鮮 森 forest

fish+sheep=delicious

A character has no clue to its A character has no clue to its pronunciation pronunciation

豳

A character has no clue to its A character has no clue to its pronunciation pronunciation

豳bīn

Characters are derived from Characters are derived from picturespictures

The first characters were The first characters were found on oracle bonesfound on oracle bones

The characters on metal The characters on metal vesselsvessels

The characters on silkThe characters on silk

The characters on bambooThe characters on bamboo

The characters printed on The characters printed on paperpaper

Evolution of charactersEvolution of characters

                                           SUN

                                         MOON

                                  MOUNTAIN

                                         WATER

                                       BIRD

Four Treasures: Writing ToolsFour Treasures: Writing ToolsBrush pens Ink sticks

Paper Ink stone

Writing with a brush penWriting with a brush pen

CalligraphyCalligraphy

CalligraphyCalligraphy

Various styles of writing Various styles of writing

Characters can be Characters can be represented by Romanized represented by Romanized

Alphabet - PinyinAlphabet - Pinyin

Zhongwen – Chinese languageZhongguo – ChinaShanghai – ShanghaiBeijing – Peking (Beijing)Ni hao ma? – How are you?Wo hen hao, ni ne? – I am fine, how about you?Xiexie – Thanks.

GrammarGrammar

Topic-prominentNo inflectionThe word order is important S+V+OThe use of measure words (classifiers)Left-branching

Topic-prominent Topic-prominent

John, wǒ rènshi .[John, I know.]

Zhè běn shū, wǒ kàn le sān biàn. [This book, I read three times.]

No InflectionNo Inflection

English– work, works, working, worked

Chinese– gōngzuò 工作

The word order is important The word order is important S+V+OS+V+O

S V OMāma ài wǒ. 媽媽愛我。[Mother loves me.]

Wǒ ài māma. 我愛媽媽。[I love mother.]

Large quantity of measure wordsLarge quantity of measure words

yī gè péngyou a friendyī zhāng zhǐ a sheet of paperyī bǎ dāo a knifeyī tiáo qúnzi a skirtyī jiàn chènshān a shirt

Chinese is a left-branching Chinese is a left-branching language, English is a right- language, English is a right-

branching language branching language

I saw the man who stole a bag from the department store yesterday.

Wo kanjian zuotian cong baihuo gongsi tou pibao de nage ren.

[I saw yesterday from the department store stole a bag the man]

How to type Chinese?How to type Chinese?In the past, Chinese typewriter was a clumsy and heavy

machine with thousands of individual characters.

How to type Chinese?How to type Chinese?Now, with the computer, it is easy to type Chinese using Romanized alphabet.

Learn Some Chinese Learn Some Chinese ExpressionsExpressions

Níhao- How do you do?Xièxie- Thank you.Hén hao- Very good!Qing- PleaseBú kèqi-You’re welcomeDuì bu qi- Sorry, Excuse meZaijiàn- Good-bye

GreetingGreeting

Níhao! Hello!Níhao! Hello!

ThanksThanks

Xièxie! Thanks!Bú kèqi. You’re welcome

I am sorry…I am sorry…

Duì bu qi. I am sorry. Méi guānxi. That’s OK.

Please…Please…

Qing. Please.Xièxie. Thanks.

Good-byeGood-bye

Zaijiàn. Good-bye.Zaijiàn. Good-bye.

Learning Chinese OnlineLearning Chinese Online

Conversational Mandarin Online: An Online Course http://www.csulb.edu/~txie/ccol/content.htm

Learning Chinese Online: A Resource Page: http://www.csulb.edu/~txie/online.htm

Recommending Recommending Pimsleur TapesPimsleur Tapes

Pimsleur Mandarin Chinese

30 Units

English explanations

Repeated drills

Available Amazon.com $206.50, used from $169, Pimsleur Quick & Simple Chinese: Mandarin [ABRIDGED] $13.97

Thank you, Good-bye!Thank you, Good-bye!XiXièèxie, zaijixie, zaijiààn!n!

txie@csulb.edutxie@csulb.edu