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 O O

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 sh ū. Wǒ zài k ǎ n shù. 你好。 谢谢。 I am reading a book. 看书 I am cutting trees. 砍树

Tone Diagram 1-5: 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

MāMā

mámá

mǎmǎ

màmà

Māmā m à mǎ. Mǎ m à māmā.

Your Turn!

The 1 st Tone (“Singing” tone) MāMā

The 2 nd Tone (“Climbing” Tone) mámá So?

The 3 rd Tone (“Growling” Tone) mǎmǎ

The 4 th Tone (“Dropping” Tone) màmà No!

The Revised Tone Chart 1 st : singing tone (m ā ) 2 nd : climbing tone (só) 3 rd : growling tone (m ǎ ) 4 th : dropping tone (nò) 5 th : short and light (ma)

Can you hear the difference? māmā mámámǎmǎmàmà

Which Tone did you hear? ba – ba ma – ma de – de le – le ji – ji xi – xi zi – zi chi – chi DroppingClimbingSingingGrowling

Can You Say It? māmā mámámǎmǎmàmà SingingClimbingDroppingGrowling

To Kiss or To Ask? wěnwěn wènwèn

To Buy or To Sell? m ǎ i mài

Glasses or Eyes? Y ǎ ng Jìng Y ǎ ng J ī ng

Cutting Trees or Reading? K ǎ n shù Kàn sh ū

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 Mà Mā Mǎ Má Mà Má Mǎ Mà Mā Mǎ Má Mā Mǎ

Change of Tones (1) Two 3 rd 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) 1 st 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) 很 said with greater force. - all syllables remain in their original tone.

Expression: Stress & Sentence Tunes I am tired. Wǒ lèi le 。 Wǒ lèi le 。

In-Class Exercise Counting numbers with hand gesture: 1 syllable: 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: ill.html ill.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