Tuttle Learners of Chinese -English Dictionary

represented by the tone mark , e.g. 马 mǎ (horse).

The Fourth  Tone is a   falling tone.   It  falls   from    high    to  low and is  represented by  the tone    mark ,

e.g. 骂 mà (curse).

In  Chinese speech, as  in  English speech, some    sounds  are unstressed, i.e.    pronounced  short   and

soft.   They    do  not have    any of  the four    tones.  Such    sounds  are said    to  have Neutral    Tone.   Sounds

with the neutral tone are not marked. For example in 爸爸 bàba (daddy) the first syllable is

pronounced  in  the fourth  tone    and the second  syllable    in  the neutral tone,   i.e.    unstressed.

1.4.2   Tone    Changes

Tones   may undergo changes in  actual  speech  (“tone  sandhi”).   The third   tone,   when    followed    by  a

first,  second, fourth  or  neutral tone    sound,  loses   its final   rise    and stops   at  the low pitch.  Followed

by  another third   tone    sound,  it  becomes the second  tone.   This    is  a   general rule    and the notation    of

third   tone    sounds  remains unchanged.

For example, in 所以 suǒyǐ (therefore, so), notation remains the third tone for both syllables, but

the word    is  actually    pronounced  like suóyǐ.

Two important words 不 bù (no) and 一 yī (one) also undergo tone changes. You will find the

details of  their   tone    changes under   these   entries.

1.5 Syllables

1.5.1   Chinese Syllables:  Distinct    Units

Normally    a   consonant   and a   vowel   merge   to  form    a   syllable    in  Chinese.    Every   syllable    is  a   distinct

unit    in  speech. Learners    should  say each    syllable    clearly and give    full    value   to  most    syllables   in

speech. The general impression  of  Chinese speech, described   in  musical terms,  is  staccato    rather

than    legato  (which  could   be  used    to  describe    English).

1.5.2   Syllable    Division    Mark

As   Chinese     syllables   are     distinct    units   and     should  not     be  liaised     with    preceding   or  following

syllables,  a   syllable    division    mark    (’) is  sometimes   used    to  avoid   confusion,  e.g. shí’èr, píng’ān,

tiān’é.

2 WRITTEN CHINESE

2.1 “Chinese    characters,”    a   unique  writing system

Chinese is  not written in  letters,    like a, b, c,   nor does    it  use an  alphabet.   Chinese is  written in

logograms, known as 汉字 (Hànzì) and generally referred to as “Chinese characters.” Each

Chinese character   is  pronounced  as  a   syllable    and,    with    few exceptions, has distinctive meaning or

meanings.   Though  there   are tens    of  thousands   of  Chinese characters, only    a   couple  of  thousands   are

in  frequent    use –   the first   1,000   Chinese characters  cover   about   90% of  daily   communication.

2.2 The composition of  Chinese characters: Meaningful  components

Chinese  characters  may     be  composed    of  parts,  some    of  which   convey  certain     meanings.   The

presence     of  such    components  gives   you     some    clue    to  the     meaning     of  characters.     The     ability     to

recognize these  components  is  both    useful  and     interesting.    See     List    1   Meaningful  Character