<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xml:lang="en-gb"> <link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://chineselanguage.org/forums/app.php/feed/topic/1057" /> <title>Chinese languages</title> <subtitle>Chinese languages</subtitle> <link href="http://chineselanguage.org/forums/index.php" /> <updated>2004-11-13T01:50:29+00:00</updated> <author><name><![CDATA[Chinese languages]]></name></author> <id>http://chineselanguage.org/forums/app.php/feed/topic/1057</id> <entry> <author><name><![CDATA[Anonymous]]></name></author> <updated>2004-11-13T01:50:29+00:00</updated> <published>2004-11-13T01:50:29+00:00</published> <id>http://chineselanguage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5254#p5254</id> <link href="http://chineselanguage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5254#p5254"/> <title type="html"><![CDATA[Re: more questions]]></title> <content type="html" xml:base="http://chineselanguage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5254#p5254"><![CDATA[ Hi,<br><br>don't know if you're still looking for this info, but I can answer a few of these, at least about mandarin.<br><br>brenda wrote:<br><br>> 1. How many sounds (phonemes) are there in the chinese<br>> language? ( How many vowel sounds? How many consonant sounds?)<br><br>There are seven basic vowels (IPA i, epsilon, a, o, u, u-umlaut, and syllabic z/r) and a passel of diphthongs and triphthongs. There are 23 consonants.<br><br>> 2. Is this a tone language?<br><br>Yeah. A level high tone, a mid rising tone, a dipping tone, a falling tone and then a neutral/reduced tone.<br><br>> 3. How much overlap is there with the sounds in English? Whic<br>> hvowel so unds? consonant sounds?<br><br>The vowel sounds are more like what you find in german. The consonant sounds are most unique in the high number of alveolars, distinguishing retroflex from palatalized, aspirated from unaspirated, and fricatives from affricates.<br><br>> 4. Are there nasal consonants? Are there glottal or pharyngeal<br>> sounds?<br><br>There are three nasals: m, n, engma (velar). No glottal or pharyngeal sounds (thank god. I'm learning arabic now, and can't imagine what it would have been like trying to learn pharyngeals at the same time as the chinese alveolars). There is a glottal stop in several of the other dialects<br><br>> 3. What kind of intonation is there isnormal speech?<br><br>The intonation contours of mandarin are quite subtle compared to english, and they vary from region to region. Most of pitch range is being used for tones.<br><br>> 4. When you listen to it, what does it sounds like to you?<br><br>On a good day, it sounds like chinese to me<br><br>> If anyone could help me out with this it would be great!<br><br>[%sig%]<p>Statistics: Posted by Guest — Sat Nov 13, 2004 1:50 am</p><hr /> ]]></content> </entry> <entry> <author><name><![CDATA[Anonymous]]></name></author> <updated>2004-10-11T09:16:33+00:00</updated> <published>2004-10-11T09:16:33+00:00</published> <id>http://chineselanguage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5253#p5253</id> <link href="http://chineselanguage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5253#p5253"/> <title type="html"><![CDATA[Re: more questions]]></title> <content type="html" xml:base="http://chineselanguage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5253#p5253"><![CDATA[ neha<p>Statistics: Posted by Guest — Mon Oct 11, 2004 9:16 am</p><hr /> ]]></content> </entry> <entry> <author><name><![CDATA[Anonymous]]></name></author> <updated>2004-10-11T09:15:30+00:00</updated> <published>2004-10-11T09:15:30+00:00</published> <id>http://chineselanguage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5252#p5252</id> <link href="http://chineselanguage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5252#p5252"/> <title type="html"><![CDATA[Re: more questions]]></title> <content type="html" xml:base="http://chineselanguage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5252#p5252"><![CDATA[ ches pany <br>sun jan be<br>soko soko <br>pandan brenda wrote:<br><br>> 1. How many sounds (phonemes) are there in the chinese<br>> language? ( How many vowel sounds? How many consonant sounds?)<br>> <br>> 2. Is this a tone language?<br>> <br>> 3. How much overlap is there with the sounds in English? Whic<br>> hvowel so unds? consonant sounds?<br>> <br>> 4. Are there nasal consonants? Are there glottal or pharyngeal<br>> sounds?<br>> <br>> 3. What kind of intonation is there isnormal speech?<br>> <br>> 4. When you listen to it, what does it sounds like to you?<br>> <br>> If anyone could help me out with this it would be great!<br><br>[%sig%]<p>Statistics: Posted by Guest — Mon Oct 11, 2004 9:15 am</p><hr /> ]]></content> </entry> <entry> <author><name><![CDATA[Anonymous]]></name></author> <updated>2004-10-09T19:29:48+00:00</updated> <published>2004-10-09T19:29:48+00:00</published> <id>http://chineselanguage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5251#p5251</id> <link href="http://chineselanguage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5251#p5251"/> <title type="html"><![CDATA[Re: more questions]]></title> <content type="html" xml:base="http://chineselanguage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5251#p5251"><![CDATA[ 1. How many sounds (phonemes) are there in the chinese language? ( How many vowel sounds? How many consonant sounds?)<br>...God, I wouldn't know. I haven't seen a textbook that lists it all for a LONG time...<br><br>2. Is this a tone language?<br>Yes. There are four, but sometimes words (like "the") have no tone to them.<br><br>3. How much overlap is there with the sounds in English? Whic hvowel so unds? consonant sounds?<br>I really have no idea.<br><br>4. Are there nasal consonants? Are there glottal or pharyngeal sounds?<br>Yes, there are, I think. It's not that hard though, but subtley S and sh are different, n is different from ng. But I don't think it's really from the nose more as where you place your tongue.<br><br>3. What kind of intonation is there isnormal speech?<br>I don't understand the question. O_O;;<br><br>4. When you listen to it, what does it sounds like to you?<br>Um... if it's fast, I don't understand, and if it's slow, I can pick up a lot of the speech. I still can't watch Chinese TV though. But it sounds normal to me... it's not at all like Japanese, and not like English. I think Americans struggle to learn Chinese because they just can't get the tones down. If you think it's funny to watch the Chinese struggle with English... it will come back to bite you in the butt.<p>Statistics: Posted by Guest — Sat Oct 09, 2004 7:29 pm</p><hr /> ]]></content> </entry> <entry> <author><name><![CDATA[couyimin]]></name></author> <updated>2004-10-05T08:54:52+00:00</updated> <published>2004-10-05T08:54:52+00:00</published> <id>http://chineselanguage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5250#p5250</id> <link href="http://chineselanguage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5250#p5250"/> <title type="html"><![CDATA[Re: more questions]]></title> <content type="html" xml:base="http://chineselanguage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5250#p5250"><![CDATA[ Yeah,china is very big and chinese is very big,too!<br><br>[%sig%]<p>Statistics: Posted by <a href="http://chineselanguage.org/forums/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=307">couyimin</a> — Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:54 am</p><hr /> ]]></content> </entry> <entry> <author><name><![CDATA[Anonymous]]></name></author> <updated>2004-09-15T11:38:19+00:00</updated> <published>2004-09-15T11:38:19+00:00</published> <id>http://chineselanguage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5249#p5249</id> <link href="http://chineselanguage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5249#p5249"/> <title type="html"><![CDATA[Re: more questions]]></title> <content type="html" xml:base="http://chineselanguage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5249#p5249"><![CDATA[ There are 8 main dialects in Han people.<br>1. North dialet: Based on Beijing dialect. It aslo makes Mandarine.peole who live in North of Yangzi river, and some place south of yangzi river. Hubei(not south east area of Hubei), Sichuan, Yun nan, Guzi zhou, North west area of Hu nan, North west of China speak North dialect. 70% Han people speak North dialect.<br><br>2. Wu dialect: Based on Shanghai dialect. also known as: Jiang nan dialect or Zhe jiang dialect. peopel who live in south of yangzi river and east of zhen jiang , and main area of zhe jiang. 8.4% Han people speak Wu dialect.<br><br>3. Contanese: Based on Guang dong dialect. people who live in main area of Guang dong and south east area of Guang xi. About 5% han people speak Yue dialec. HonKong people and some of overseas Chinese speak yue dialect.<br><br>4.Min nan dialect: Based on xia men dialect. people who live in main area of Taiwan , south area of Hujian, east area of Guang dong, somewhere in Hai-nan. 3% han people speak Min nan dialect. overseas Chinese who loacted in South east asia speak yue dialect.<br><br>5.Min Bei dialect: Based on Fu zhou dialect. people who live in north area of Hujian, somewhere in Taiwan. about 1.2% han people speak Minbei. dialec. overseas Chinese who loacted in South east asia speak Min bei dialect. Some overseas Chinese speak Min bei dialect.<br><br>6. Ke jia dialect:Based on Mei xian of Guan dong dialect. people who live in somewhere in Guang dong, Guang xi, Fujian. jiang xi, and also, Some hunan, Sichuan people speak Ke jia dialect. about 4% han people speak K e jia dialec. <br><br>7. Xiang dialect: Based on Hu nan dialect. people who live in main area of Hunan .about 5% han people speak Xiang dialect.<br><br>8.Gan dialect :Based on Nan Chang dialect. Aslo known as Jiang xi dialect. people who live in north east area of Jiangxi, South east area of Hu bei . About 2.4% han people speak Gan dialect.<p>Statistics: Posted by Guest — Wed Sep 15, 2004 11:38 am</p><hr /> ]]></content> </entry> <entry> <author><name><![CDATA[Anonymous]]></name></author> <updated>2004-09-14T03:38:06+00:00</updated> <published>2004-09-14T03:38:06+00:00</published> <id>http://chineselanguage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5248#p5248</id> <link href="http://chineselanguage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5248#p5248"/> <title type="html"><![CDATA[Re: more questions]]></title> <content type="html" xml:base="http://chineselanguage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5248#p5248"><![CDATA[ Yes, Chinese language is a tone language ,Normally there r 4 tones in China ---letter high, rising, falling-rising, falling ( but limited chracters have no tone). There are over 400 sounds in Chinese. but indivually, 35vowel sounds ,21 consonant sounds.<p>Statistics: Posted by Guest — Tue Sep 14, 2004 3:38 am</p><hr /> ]]></content> </entry> <entry> <author><name><![CDATA[brenda]]></name></author> <updated>2004-09-13T16:39:07+00:00</updated> <published>2004-09-13T16:39:07+00:00</published> <id>http://chineselanguage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5247#p5247</id> <link href="http://chineselanguage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5247#p5247"/> <title type="html"><![CDATA[more questions]]></title> <content type="html" xml:base="http://chineselanguage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5247#p5247"><![CDATA[ 1. How many sounds (phonemes) are there in the chinese language? ( How many vowel sounds? How many consonant sounds?)<br><br>2. Is this a tone language?<br> <br>3. How much overlap is there with the sounds in English? Whic hvowel so unds? consonant sounds?<br> <br>4. Are there nasal consonants? Are there glottal or pharyngeal sounds?<br><br>3. What kind of intonation is there isnormal speech?<br><br>4. When you listen to it, what does it sounds like to you?<br><br>If anyone could help me out with this it would be great!<p>Statistics: Posted by <a href="http://chineselanguage.org/forums/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=276">brenda</a> — Mon Sep 13, 2004 4:39 pm</p><hr /> ]]></content> </entry> </feed>