FORLA - Midterms

• Mandarin Chinese


  • The most widely spoken language in the world
  • The oldest written language in the world

  
• Difference between Simplified and Traditional Chinese


  • Where they are used
  • Appearance of Characters/Character Structure
  • Number of characters
  • Phonetic Symbols

  
• Simplified Chinese


  • Countries using Simplified Chinese: Mainland China
  • Singapore
  • Malaysia
  • Indonesia
  • Thailand
• Traditional Chinese


  • Countries using Traditional Chinese: Taiwan
  • Hong Kong
  • Macau
• Simplified Chinese


  • Uses fewer strokes
  • Has fewer characters (Traditional characters were merged to form simplified characters. One character can mean many things with simplified Chinese, while traditional Chinese have unique characters for each word.)

  
• Traditional Chinese


  • Uses more strokes
  • Has more characters

  
• Zhuyin


  • A.K.A. Bopomofo or Zhuyin Fuhao
  • Derived from Chinese characters
  • A sound-based writing system for the Chinese language
  • Shows how words are pronounced

  
• Pinyin


  • A.K.A. the Mandarin or Chinese syllable/s
  • Refers to the use of the Latin alphabet
  • Chinese phonetic alphabet

  
• Chinese Syllable (Pinyin/Zhuyin)


  Made up of Final, Initial, and Tone

  
• Proficiency


  The power of understanding and comprehension is a remarkable aspect of mandarin language cognition. It enables us to process information, extract meaning, and make sense of the world around us.
• Intonation


  The falling and rising of the tone in speaking
• Four basic Chinese Tones


  • 1st Tone - High and flat
  • 2nd Tone - Rising
  • 3rd Tone - Dip tone/ Low-dipping-rising low-dipping
  • 4th Tone - Falling
• Neutral Tone


  A.K.A. no tone, it is a short and light tone
• Tone Marks


  • They are put above vowels
  • Vowels: a, o, e, I, u, ü
• 你 (nǐ)


  Singular form of 'you'
• 您 (nín)


  Polite form of 'you'
• 你们 (nǐmen)


  Plural form of 'you'
• 不 (bù)


  Negative adverb
• Phrases


  • bālěi
  • pài
  • kāfēi
  • jítā
  • kělè
• Phrases


  • xiāngbīn
  • hànbǎo
  • màikèfēng
  • qiǎokèlì
  • shāfā
• Simplified Chinese exists because in order to overcome China's declining literacy rate (which was 20%) in the year 1949, traditional characters were merged and simplified. Over 2,000 characters were modified, have reduced number of strokes, and merged characters.