Chinese Language
and Simple Chinese
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Articles
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About Chinese Language and
Simple Chinese
China has eight major dialect
groups: Putonghua (Mandarin), Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghainese),
Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan and Hakka and many
sub-dialects. The language spoken in Beijing is often referred to as
Mandarin or Putonghua. Putonghua, which means "common language" is the
country's predominant language and is widely used by more than 70
percent of the population. Putonghua is variously referred to as the
"Han language" (hanyu), "Mandarin", or simply Chinese. About
two-thirds of the Han people are native speakers of Putonghua, while
Han people who come from the southwestern and southeastern sections of
China often speak Putonghua as well as their own dialects, such as
Shanghaiese and Cantonese.
Various groups such as the
Mongolian, Tibetan, Naxi, Yi, Uygur, as well as many other ethnic
groups have their own "native" languages. Because of the increased
economic and cultural flow across China during the past twenty years,
the use of Putonghua has also increased.
Hanyu-Pinyin--plays the key role in Chinese Learning, it not
only can help you read and improve your reading ability, is also the
the key point for you to speak a standard Putonghua, as well as you
will find that pinyin is the basic input method of Chinese computer
system.
putonghua is originated from Beijing and is a standard Guoyu
for Chinese people.
The phonological system of the modern standard language in Chinese,
Putonghua or Guoyu, can be representes by letters, of all the letters
of English alphabet, 25 letters are used for Pinyin.Letter"V" id not
used( in Pinyin input on computer."V" is used as "┨").
the usage of alphabet and names of the letters.
Consonant letters there are 23 consonant letters
used in Putonghua.letter"V" is not used, 3 consonants are represented
by combinations of 2 letters--"zh" and "sh".
the actual sound you hear for each letter is a combination of the
consonant and a vowel, it is a syllable also, when we pronounce it, so
some of them represent a corresponding Chinese word with the first
tone.
Vowel letters: there are 24 vowel letters used in Putonghua,
including 6 single vowel letters, 8 combinational vowel letters, 9
nasal vowel letters and 1 special vowel letter. A single vowel letter
can also be a possible syllable and correspondingly represent a
Chinese word when with different tone.
Tones
there are 4 major tones in Putonghua( an extra tone is called slight
tone, which is bit hard for a beginner to distinguish its difference
from the first tone, the slight tone make Putongha sound attractive)
the 1st tone(¯ ), the 2nd tone(´), the 3rd tone (ˇ) and the 4th
tone(‵)
In Chinese, even the same syllable with the same tone may represent
different word in pronunciation, so tone is very important in
spoken Chinese, especially for beginner, to make sure others not
misunderstand and avoid some embarrassment, you should take it very
seriously.
Below are some simple
Chinese pronunciation in daily use:
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English
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Pinyin
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English
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Pinyin
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I
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Wo
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hello
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Ni hao
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we/us
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Wo men
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goodbye
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Zai jian
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you
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Ni / nimen(plural)
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thank you
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Xie xie
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he / she / it
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Ta
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please
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qing
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they / them
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Ta men
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you're welcome
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Bu ke qi
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Excuse me
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Qing ni
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I'm sorry
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duibuqi
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