Poo] IE ASSe) How do you do? This lesson begins by introducing some sounds unique to the Chinese language, including tones. The Chinese writing system dates back more than 3,000 years, and itis especially iniviguing to see how Chinese characters developed since their basically pictographic origins in ancient China. By the end of the lesson, you will be able to express some everyday greetings in Chinese.4 4 SHR RNISRA RA 1 New Practical Chinese Reader Textbook 1 . HX _ Text a a O14 (—)5 Lu Yuping: Libd, nt hao. BBE: A, WH, Libs: Ni héo, AB: UR Lu. Yuping. mF. seis +275] New Words ini 1% 2. hao & 3. LaYuping BSE 4. Libo. Dk PN you good, well, fine, OK. (name of a Chinese reporter) (name of a Canadian student) TERE Notes ¥ This is the most common form of greeting in Chinese. It can be used at any time of the day when meeting people for the first time or for people you know. The response to this greeting form is also “Ni ho. (fixtF. )”BE te Lesson 1 How do youdo? © 2 (=)” Libd: Lin Na, ni’ héo ma? ® DB: A MB, MK IF °4? Lin Na: Wo hén héo, ni ne? ® wi: AAR AT, tk 2 Libo: Yé hén héo.® AB: WAR HF, 1, ma 5 art (a particle used for a question expecting a yes-no answer) 2. wd B Pr Ime 3. hén. ci Ady —- very 4, ne i Qrt (a modal particle used for elliptical questions) 5. yé cay Ady too, also 6. LinNa #485 = PN (name of a British student) {ERE Notes § This is also a form of greeting, often used after you have not seen someone for some time, and the response is usually “Wo hén hdo (F2/[2 4)" or other similar polite, conventional verbal exchanges. (2 Ni héo ma? “How are you?” [1]: Students are required to master the characters in red inthis lesson.PLANTA RA 1 New Practical Chinese Reader Textbook 1 3) Nine? “And (how are) you?” D Yé hén héo. “(1 am) fine (literally, very good), too.” ‘This is an elliptical sentence, with the subject “wé (J2)" omitted. In spoken Chinese, when the context is explicit and there is no ambiguity, the subject is often omitted. One may also say “Hn héo. (il ‘if. )° to answer the question “Ni h&o ma? ( {i BE Pinyin i .) | pa po ma mo né nao | lea) = o = a °Oe Lesson4 sans i @F The four tones hén hén hen wo hén hdo yo ye yey han to 1 nv nf ni ni | hao héo. ho’ hots Théo | Hitigee at Wi hi | [b> bé BSB Libs | fin in lin tin | (nando na Lin na | ie la lu i yo ya yi yo | | ping — ping Lu Yiping | | wo wd wo | i | / l | é Ei #& Sound discrimination ba —— pa ni ni his (eight) (lie on one’s (female) (to exert) We (tiger) stomach) bing —— bin pié bié hud —— wo (ice) (guest) (left-falling (shrivelled) (fire) @ stroke) #818 Tone discrimination ma ma mi —— mi yi— yi (horse) (mom) (wood) —_ (mother) (one) (aunt) yé ye h it mén —— mén (also) (night) (Strength) (in) (door) (depressed) = BRR Third-tone sandhi ni hao hén hao yé hao yé hén héo BAI THRE AB Read the following classroom expressions aloud Ni hao. Nimen hao.g | MB RIERA RT New Practical Chinese Reader Textbook 1 C37 4i>) Conversation Practice ) 40.4 ; Heel» ‘YY SENTE! 1. Ni hao. 3. W6 hn hao, ni ne? 2. Ni héo ma? 4. Yé hén hao. (—) #7480F Saying hello eae Complete the following dialogue Lin Na: Lib6, ni héo! (=) [4® Greetings ea Complete the following dialogue Mali: NY hao ma? La Yi: , 2 Mali: W6 yé hén hao.He ae Lesson How do youd? Bnei Situational dialogue You run into a Chinese friend whom you haven't seen for a long time. What will you say to him /her? Os (=) Wig Listen and repeat A: He35°%? B: SURI, Hk? A: BAAR Se A 27084 Initials and finals A.syllable in the common speech of modern Chinese usually consists of an initial, which _ is a consonant that begins the syllable, and a final, which constitutes the rest of the syllable. | For example, in the syllable “ping”, “p” is the initial and “ing” is the final. A syllable can _ stand without an initial, such as “y&”, but a syllable must have a final. In the common speech of modern Chinese, there are 21 initials and 38 finals altogether. BZ (1) Key points of pronunciation (1) Initials: m,n, |,h are pronounced similarly to their counterparts in the English language. b like “p” in “speak” (unaspirated, voiceless). p like “p” in “park” (aspirated, voiceless). Note: Particular attention should be paid to the pronunciation of the aspirated and ‘unaspirated consonants: b-p. Finals: © like “er” in “her”. ie like “ye” in “yes”. -ng (final) a nasalised sound like the “ng” in “bang” without pronouncing the “g”. Note: The pronunciation of the “e” in a compound final is different from that of the simple final “e”,10 HRB RITRA RA 1 New Practical Chinese Reader Textbook 1 #318 Tones Chinese is a tonal language in which the tones convey differences in meaning. sr de BD ba) bad) ba (a) ba) eight pull target father In common speech there are four basic tones, represented respectively by the following tone marks: “ ~ for the first tone, “ “™ for the second tone, “ Y ™ for the third tone, and “ \ ” forthe fourth tone When a syllable contains only a single vowel, the tone mark is placed directly above the vowel letter as in “10” and “hn”. The dot over the vowel “i” should be dropped if the tone mark is placed above it, as in “n'”, “nin” and “ping”. When the final of the syllable is composed of two or more vowels, the tone mark should be placed above the vowel pronounced with the mouth widest open (e.g. ho). The openness of the mouth for the vowels, from the widest to the smallest is as follows: i 0 ...e ia 0 4 =Bi8(1) Third-tone sandhi (1) A third tone, when immediately followed by another third tone, should be pronounced in the second tone, but with the tone mark “ Y” remaining unchanged. For example: Nihdo. — Ni hdo. W6 hén hio. — W6 hén héo. hén héo — —hén héo Yé hén ho. — Yé hén héo. $F 5300 (1) Spelling rules (1) At the beginning of a syllable, ‘“” is written as “y" (e.g. ié — yé). when it forms a syllable all by itself (e.g. 1 y’). ‘At the beginning of a syllable, “u” is written as “Ww” (e.g. ud + w0). “u” is written as “wu” when it forms a syllable all by itself (e.g. + wi). ‘When “ii” is at the beginning of a syllable or forms a syllable by itself, a “y” is added to it and the two dots over it are omitted (e.g. i yi). is written as “yi”in nals Lesson How do youdo? > ME TT Wl GWXUBA9IB Word order in Chinese ‘The main characteristic of Chinese grammar is that it lacks of morphological changes in "person, tense, gender, number, and case in the strict sense. The word order, however, is very important to convey different grammatical meanings. The subject of a sentence is usually _ placed before the predicate. For example: “Subject Predicate Ni hao. tk Ho Wé hén héo. R i OH, Libe y& hén hao. Aik | Ee <= a USL) Chinese characters originated from pictures. The history of their formation is very dating back to remote antiquity. Present-day Chinese characters, which evolved from cient Chinese characters, are square-shaped. Here are some examples illustrating their long Gos Traditional Oracle Bone | Small Seal | Official Chinese Inscription | Character ‘Script ‘Simplified Chinese in in Regular Serpt | Regular Script PIA |8| 5/3MLB RTRA RA 1 12 | New Practical Chinese Reader Textbook 1 WFBALH Basic strokes of Chinese characters Chinese characters are written by combining various kinds of “strokes”. These strokes can be divided into “basic” strokes and “combined” strokes. Name | Example | . . The dot is written from top to bottom-right, as Saree i TT | inthe first stroke of “1°. — > | beng — _| The horizontal stroke is written from left to right. ys ) J | oe Ne Ae na - w ti I The vertical stroke is written from top to bottom, as in the second stroke of “A”. Fy __| The lef-falling stroke is written from top to bottom-left, as in the second stroke of “4”. The right-falling stroke is written from top to ~ bottom-right, as in the second stroke of “A”. 3x_| The upward stroke is writen from bottom-ef 1 top-right, as in the fourth stroke of “4”. ) iASBAMF Learn and write basic Chinese characters AD) yi QPS ba a A fi @) 17 CP) mén strength 1 stroke 2 strokes ) C £% f 2 strokes 2 q 3 strokes #4 jals— i nal. Lesson1 How do you do? (6) an ans, ye too; also 3 strokes Poa ae a Che 4 ni female 3 strokes Note: “4c” is written as “ 4” on the left side of a character. ® & Sa ene wit five 4 strokes OAR a Aw wood mu 4 strokes Note: “4” is written as “4” on the left side of a character. 0) Se RK hud fire 4 strokes Note: “.<” is written as “~~” on the bottom of a character. EA iA S12 FHIMF Learn and write the Chinese character in the text ae 8 strokes ny ayBq (ep irae ULE CC) The Chinese Language (Hanyu) and “Common Speech” (Putonghua) The Chinese language (#Hanyt), the major language of the Chinese people with lal Welery ef mare than 5,000 years, is enix of the cldast longaages iether eetaeetie of its old age, Chinese is now one of the most widely used living languages. The language is spoken in many legions of China, as well as in many overseas Chinese convmunities, especially in Singapore and Malaysia. And there are more than a billion native speakers of Chinese worldwide. Jtis one of the working languages of the United Nations Chinese belongs to the Sino~Tbetan language family. Among the 56 ethnic groups in China, the Hany Hiiy Manche and other ethnic groups, constituting 94% of the population of China, speak Chinese. Chinese incldes variants from seven main dialect groups. The northern or Mandarin dialect covers three fowths of China's tervitory and inckides two thirds of its population. Standard Chinese is also known by its official designation, Putonghua, literally “common speech’. Putonghua is based on the northern dialect, using the dialect of Beijing as the. basis for its pronunciation and modem vemacular literature for its granmnatical siructwe.