Listening Acquisition:

Chinese Tones from Perception to Practice by Elsa Chang

Do you speak any

tonal languages?

Vietnamese (Northern)

Chinese Dialects

Standard Chinese: Mandarin

O

OO

Standard Chinese: Mandarin

Mandarin is a tonal language.

A syllable with different tones

represents different words with different

meanings.

Standard Chinese has four pitched

tones and one neutral tone.

Learning to read Mandarin

Nǐhǎo.

Xìexie.

Wǒ zài kàn shū.

Wǒ zài kǎn shù.

你好。谢谢。

I am reading a book. 看书

I am cutting trees. 砍树

Tone Diagram1-5: one’s natural comfortable voice range

high

mid-high

mid

mid-low

low

(5-5)

mā(3-5)

má(2-1-4)

mǎ (5-1)

mà

Mā

má

mǎ

mà

Māmā mà mǎ.

Mǎ mà māmā.

Your Turn!

The 1st Tone (“Singing” tone)

Mā

The 2nd Tone (“Climbing” Tone)

máSo?

The 3rd Tone (“Growling” Tone)

mǎ

The 4th Tone (“Dropping” Tone)

mà

No!

The Revised Tone Chart

1st: singing tone (mā)

2nd: climbing tone (só)

3rd: growling tone (mǎ)

4th: dropping tone (nò)

5th: short and light (ma)

Can you hear the difference?

mā má mǎ mà

Which Tone did you hear?

ba – ba ma – ma de – de le – le

ji – ji xi – xi zi – zi chi – chi

DroppingClimbingSinging Growling

Can You Say It?

mā má mǎ màSinging Climbing DroppingGrowling

To Kiss or To Ask?

wěn wèn

To Buy or To Sell?

mǎi mài

Glasses or Eyes?

Yǎng Jìng Yǎng Jīng

Cutting Trees or Reading?

Kǎn shù Kàn shū

shīshì – accident shíshì – current events sījī – chauffeur sìjì – four seasons zìxí – self study zǐxì – careful xǐshì – happy event xīshì – to dilute shìjì – century shíjì – practical

Who is he?

YáoMíng

Let’s Try

Mā Má Mǎ MàMā Mǎ Má MàMá Mǎ Mà Mā Mǎ Má Mā Mǎ

Change of Tones (1)

Two 3rd tones

Nǐhǎo mā? → Ní hǎo ma?

Wǒ hěn hǎo. → Wǒ hén hǎo.

Wó hén hǎo.

(3-2-3)

(2-2-3)

Change of Tones (2)

The number “1” (the character “一” ):

1, 11, 21 →

一双 → yìshuāng (4-1)

一瓶 → yìpíng (4-2)

一种 → yìzhǒng (4-3)

一罐 → yíguàn (2-4)

一个 → yíge (2-0)

1st tone

Change of Tones (3)

The character “ 不”

不吃 : bùchī

不行 : bùxíng

不冷 : bùlěng

不热 : bùrè → búrè

(4-1)

(4-2)

(4-3)

(4-4) (2-4)

Tones and Intonation

Chinese tones ＝ English intonation?

OK? OK.

Nǐ yào chá háishi kāfēi?

Nǐ yào chá háishi kāféi?

Expression: Stress & Sentence Tunes

她很好看。 她很好看。 (required in grammar)

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

- 很 said with greater force.

- all syllables remain in their original tone.

In-Class Exercise

Counting numbers with hand gesture:

1 syllable: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

2 syllables: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16…

3 syllables: 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26…..

In-Class Listening Exercise

Dictation on words of two syllables:

baoguo, hupi, chongqing, fanxing etc.

bāoguǒ →bāoguò → bāogǒu

In-Class Listening Exercise

1 class session on listening exercise

→ T: Chinese only; S: translate into E.

我们 系有很多外国学生。

那个高个子的男孩是我男朋友。

→ Use words of the same category to give clues.

→ Use resources available in the classroom

Homework

Practice on tone recognition:

http://www.pinyinpractice.com/tones.htm

http://www.shufawest.us/language/tonedrill.html

Homework: Sentence Dictation

- listen to sentences read in natural speed

- write down answers in Chinese, not

English.

- to reinforce sound recognition and to

associate sounds to the characters and

meaning they represent.

Tones! Tones! Tones!

- Tones of a Chinese language is like the

foundation of a house.

- You cannot be understood no matter how

fluent you are in Chinese without tones.

- It is important to speak with correct tones

right at the beginning of Chinese language

study.

The End