Spoken Mandarin Chinese has 4 pitched tones and a neutral or "toneless" tone. "Tones" do not refer to "intonation" - the variation of pitch we normally use in english and other Westerner languages to convey differences of expressive meaning (e.g. surprise, anger, doubtfulness). In this context, tonality is a fixed feature of individual words or syllables and changes in tone alters the meaning of what we are saying.
For example:
- 媽 ma1 pronounced with a high and level tone means MOTHER;
- 麻 ma2 pronounced with a tone that rises to the top means HEMP;
- 馬 ma3 pronounced with a tone that starts at the top, then rises toward the top means HORSE; and
- 罵 ma4 pronounced with a tone that starts at the top and then falls sharply to the bottom means to SCOLD or CURSE
You can practice your Chinese language pronunciation on-line with Pinyin Talker
No comments:
Post a Comment