An Introduction of

Chinese Language
Julin Chen,
Project Tui Dong Li Specialist
Nathalie Longre-Guevara,
Project Tui Dong Li Director
October 19, 2010

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Special Acknowledgements
Lisa

Nolting
Jackie Wicks
Teachers of Mandarin immersion
program

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Why Learn Mandarin ?

One

fifth of the planet speaks Chinese.

Mandarin Chinese is the mother tongue
of over one billion people, making it the
most widely spoken first language in the
world.

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Why Learn Mandarin ?

Chinese culture is over 5000 years old. By

learning the Chinese Language, you will
learn another culture. Learning a language
gives you a better understanding through the
grammar and even how the words are
derived of the culture behind them.

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Why Learn Mandarin ?

China

is one of the largest trading

partners of the United States. To take
advantage of this huge economic shift
and opportunities, learning to speak
Chinese is a great way to give our
children an advantage in the increasingly
competitive business world.

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The Languages in China

Chinese Language in China

The language of the Han people, the major ethnic group of China.
Spoken by over one billion people
Approximately 95 percent of the Chinese population

The languages of Tibetan, Mongolian, Uygur, Miao, Korean and other

53 minorities, except Hui and She.

Non-Chinese Languages in China

Majority Chinese-speaking population is in

China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan,

throughout the southeast Asia, especially in Singapore, Indonesia,

Malaysia, and Thailand.

Substantial numbers are also found

Important Chinese-speaking communities are also found

in many other parts of the world, especially in Europe, North and South
America, and the Hawaiian Islands.

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Chinese Language and its dialects

Spoken Chinese comprises many regional

dialects. Each dialect group consists of a large
number of sub-dialects.

The boundaries between one so-called dialect

and the next are not always easy to define.

Most Chinese speak one of the Mandarin

dialects, which are largely mutually intelligible.

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Chinese Language and its dialects

Mandarin language group forms the largest group. The

Mandarin group consists of a wide range of dialects in the
northern, central, and western regions.

Wu dialect The majority of the inhabitants of Zhejiang, as

well as people living in southern areas of Jiangsu and Anhui,
speak the Wu dialects. The Wu dialects share marginal
mutual intelligibility with the Mandarin and Gan dialects.

Cantonese dialect Cantonese are spoken in Hong Kong,

Guangdong, Southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous
Region, parts of Hainan, Macau, and in many overseas
settlements, esp. in the United States.

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Chinese Language and its dialects

Kejia (Hakka) dialects

Kejia dialects are spoken in Guangdong, southwestern Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan,
Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan, Hainan, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia,
Indonesia, many overseas Chinese communities, and in pockets throughout
Southeast Asia.

Xiang dialects
Most of the inhabitants of the south central region in Hunan use the Xiang dialects,
also known as Hunanese.

Min dialects
Min dialects are spoken in most of Fujian, large areas of Taiwan and Hainan, parts
of Eastern Guangdong and the Leizhou Bandao Peninsula, and in areas of
Southeast Asia.

Gan dialects
Most of the people living in Jiangxi, eastern part of Hunan, and the southeastern
corner of Hubei use the Gan dialects

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Grammar, Pronunciation, and Vocabulary

The various forms of Chinese differ least in grammar,

more in vocabulary, and most in pronunciation.

For example
In English:
In Mandarin:
In Pinyin:
Wu Dialect:

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Sister, please pass me the cotton yarn.

Mimei,min sh xin n li.

Mm, m so x do li.

Mandarin

Mandarin is spoken across most of northern and

southwestern Mainland China. It is the medium of
instruction in all schools nationwide.
The Mandarin dialect spoken in Beijing functions
as the official spoken language of the mainland
China (Putonghua),
the official language of Taiwan (Guoyu),
and one of the official languages of
Singapore(Huayu).

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Tones and homophones

Official modern Mandarin has only 400
spoken monosyllables
but there are over 10,000 written characters,
so there are many homophones only
distinguishable by the four tones.
Even this is often not enough unless the
context and exact phrase or c ( ) is
identified.

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The Mandarin tone system

Mandarin uses four tones to clarify the

meanings of words. Since many characters
have the same sound, tones are used to
differentiate words from each other. The four
tones in Mandarin are:

high level first tone

rising second tone
falling rising third tone
falling fourth tone
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The Mandarin tone system

Pinyin uses tone marks to indicate the tones.

Here is the word ma with tone marks:

First tone:
Second tone:
Third tone:
Fourth tone:

m
m
m
m

mother
linen
horse
scold

The tones are used to determine the meaning

of a Mandarin word. So m (horse) is very
different from m (mother).

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The Mandarin tone system

Mandarin tones are especially difficult for English speakers. Here is

another example,

Suppose you are reading a book and your brother (or sister or child)
keeps on interrupting you. You are likely to become exasperated and
say Im trying to read a book! In English, this would be said with an
emphatic falling tone at the end.

But if you use a falling tone in Mandarin, the meaning completely

changes.

W yo kn sh. = I want to read a book.

W yo kn sh. = I want to cut trees!

The second version of this sentence would have your listeners

scratching their heads.

So practice the tones! They are essential for speaking and

understanding Mandarin.

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The Chinese Writing System

The Chinese writing system developed more than

4,000 years ago;

the oldest extant examples of written Chinese are

from the 14th or 15th cent. B.C., in Shang dynasty.

Now baihua has been used for all writing, including

governmental, commercial, and journalistic texts as
well as literary works.

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The number of Chinese characters

Number

Dictionary

Period

Date

3,300

Cangjiepian,
Yuanlipian,
Boxue pian

Qin

221-206 BC

9,535

Shuowen jiezi

Eastern Han

100AD

16,917

Yupian

Liang

543

26,149

Guangyun

Northern
Song

1011

32,200

Hongwu zhengyun

Ming

1375

47,043

Kangxi zidian

Qing

1716

48,000

Zhonghua da cidian

ROC

1916

56,000

Xiandai Hanyu da
zidian

PRC

1986-90

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Evolution of Chinese
characters
Chinese characters have changed over time from their earliest known
pictographic forms, to the versions used today.
Here is an example of the word horse, m, .

Oracle Bone
(jiaguwen)

Greater (da
Zhuan)

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lesser Seal
(xiaozhuan)

Clerkly Script
(lishu)

Standard
Script (kaishu)

Running
Script(xingsh)

Cursive Script
(caoshu)