Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese Chinese
- Aldana Cardozo
- Learning chinese , Language tips
- September 30, 2024
Table of Contents
Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese Chinese
Mandarin Chinese is the language of the entire Chinese territory, as well as Taiwan and Singapore. Cantonese Chinese is the official language of Hong Kong, Macau, and the Guangdong province. The difference between them is that Mandarin Chinese has four tones and one neutral tone, while Cantonese Chinese has nine tones.
Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese
Traditional Chinese is the ancient form that the Chinese used to write, with quite complex characters and many strokes. Simplified Chinese was implemented by the Chinese government to reduce the high illiteracy rate. They simplified the writing, especially the more complex characters, to make the language easier to learn.
Hanzi and Pinyin
Hanzi
Hàn zì are Chinese characters. There are more than 60,000 Hanzi, although this includes variations of the same character. To read Chinese fluently, we need to master between 2000 and 3000 characters.
Pinyin
Pīn yīn is the phonetic transcription system of Mandarin Chinese using the Latin alphabet. It allows foreigners to learn to pronounce Chinese sounds correctly. This transcription is also taught in Chinese schools for the same purpose.
Tones
Chinese is a tonal language with 4 tones and one neutral or light tone. The tones are marked using graphic accents over a vowel. Here is an example with the consonant “m” and the vowel “a” (ma):
- Mother: 妈 (mā)
- Hemp: 麻 (má)
- Horse: 马 (mǎ)
- Scold: 骂 (mà)
- Interrogative particle: 吗 (ma)
Description of the Tones
- 1st tone (ā): a high-level tone that always stays in an elevated and flat position.
- 2nd tone (á): a rising tone that goes from a middle tone to the highest tone. It is very similar to the Spanish ¿Si? (when asking a question).
- 3rd tone (ǎ): a dipping tone that falls and then rises.
- 4th tone (à): a falling tone that descends.
- 5th tone (a): a light tone.
A word can have different meanings depending on the tone used. For example, the word “ma” in the first tone means ‘mother’, in the second tone ‘hemp’, in the third tone ‘horse’, and in the fourth tone ‘scold’.
Learning Chinese may seem challenging at first, but with its logical structure and lack of grammatical complexities, you will find that it is an accessible and fascinating language to learn.
