STANDARD CHINESE

A MODULAR APPROACH

RESOURCE MODULES:

PRONUNCIATION and ROMANIZATION

NUMBERS CLASSROOM EXPRESSIONS TIME and DATES

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STANDARD CHINESE

A MODULAR APPROACH

RESOURCE MODULES:

PRONUNCIATION and ROMANIZATION

NUMBERS CLASSROOM EXPRESSIONS TIME and DATES

AUGUST 1979

PREFACE

Standard Chinese: A ModuIar App roach originated f n an ln + e「》 agency conference~held at^-the Foreign BērvIc© Institute in August 1973 to address the need' genera I Iy felt In the U.S. Government language training communi+y for Improving and updating C h i n & s a materials to reflect eurren十 usage In BěIJtng and In t a Ip a I,

The conference resolved i"o d&velop materials which were flexible enough In form and con十snt +o meet the requIremen+s of 3 wide rang© of government agenc1 os and academIc ipsti卞utfoňs •

A Project Board was est3btfsh0d consisting of represen+a-tlves of the Centrsl InteI Ifgence Agency Language Learning Center, the Defense Language Institute, the State Departmefi卞，s Foreign Service Institute, the Cryp十olog!c School of the Nat IonaI Secy-r 11 y Agency _t and the II * S » Office of Edycat ī on , later j o f ned by the Ganadfan Forces Foreign Language Schools The represesrtatfves have i ūcIuded Arthur T* McNeI] I_f John Hopk f ns _# and John 8oag t CI A}j Colonel John F• Elder HI_ Joseph C, Hutch Inson _# Ivy Gibian, and Major Bernard M'y I I e r-Thym {D L I ) ; J s mes R. Fr f th and John B, Rat I Iff I!1 (FSI ); Kazuo Sh!tama (NSA); Rfchard T.

!hompson and J u H a Pet rov (OE)j and Lieutenant Colonel George Kozorlz (CFFLS).

Th© Project Board set up the Ch t ftese Cora Curriculum ProJ ©ct in 1974 In space provided at the Foreign Serv\c© Instf十ute. Each of the six U.S. and Canadl3r> government agencies provided funds and othsr assistance,

Gerard P, Kok was sppoīnted project coordtna个or_f and a ■ planning council was formed consisting of Mr, Kok, Frances LI of 卞 he Defense Language Ins 十 itu 十e, Patricia 0 ^f C o rt n o r of the Unlver« slty of Texas_$ Earl M, RIckerscn of the Language Learn f ng Center, and James Wrenn of Brown University. I： n th© fa l l of 1977,

Lyc1!Iē A. BaraIe was appointed deputy project coordinator*

Davfd W. Dellfnger of the Language Learning Center and Charles R* Sheehan of the Foreign Service 丨ns十I卞u肀© also served on the planning council and eoniribwted material to th© project. The pIanoIng council drew up the original overall design for th© materials and m©t regularly to rsvfew 肀hefr developmen+*

Writers for the first half of the materials were John H, T, Harvey, Lucille A. Barale, and Roberta S. Barry, who worked ；n close cooperation wIth th© planning council and with ths Ch}neso staff of +ha Fore f gn Service Ins+itu + e. Mr_ Harvey developed the instructional forma十s of the comprehension and production self-study ma十erjals, and also designed 十he communicatfon—based classroom ac肀fvT十fes and wrote the 十eacher^fs gu ī des. Lucflle A- Barale and Roberta S * Barry wro十e the 十spe scripts and 十he

student text. By 197B Thomas E * Madden and Susan C, Po1d had joined the staff, Led by MsBara! e _# thay have worked as a 十 earn to produce 十he materjals subsequent to Module 6.

A I 1 Chinese language mater!a I was prepa r6d or seIectad by Chu^n 0. Chao_# YIng-chth Chen, Hslao-jung Chi _# Eva Dlao, Jan Hu, Tsung-ml LI, and Yunhi/i C, Yang, ass i sted for part of the time by Ch E ©ih-f ang Ou Lee, YI ng-mī ng Chen _p and Joseph Yu Hsu Wang *

Anna Affhoid©r_P Met-II Chen, and Henry Khyo helped ī n the pr@p-aratlon of a preI I ml nary corpus of dialogues,

AdmIntstr电十fve assistance was prov ǐ dad at varIous times by Vincent Baselano, LI sē A. Bowden* Jill W* El Ms, Donna Fong,

Renee 1\ C. 11ang_# Thomas E, Madden, Susan C * Pol a _# and Kathleen Strype_

The production of 卞ape recordings was cl! ree十ed by Jos© M, Ramirez of the Foreign Service Insfl十u肀o Recording Studio, The Chinese script was voI cad by Ms. Chao ^ Ms . Chen, Mr* C h e n _#

Ms, D1 ao, Ms, Hu：_# Mr. Khuo, Mr. Li , and Ms. Yang. 丁 he English script was read by Ms* Barale, Ms* Barry, Mr* 8a sc f ano _# Ms* Ellis Ms* PoI a * and Ms * Stryps *

The graphics were produced by John McClelland of 十he Fore 1gn Service Ins肀ī肀ut皂 Audio-Visual staff , under 十he general super-v i sIon of Joseph A « Sadote _# Chief of Aud i o-V ǐ sua I *

Standard Ch I nas^ ： A. Modular Approach was field-tested with the cooperation of~Brown Un I ver^ I tyj th~e"~De fens© Language Institute ,Fore Ign Language C任n十©rj the Fore t gn ServIqb Institufe? the Language L©arn ī ng Canter; the UnI tad States A f r Force Academy 十h® University of 9 ] I In o I sj and the UnIvefsIty of V IrgInIs #

Colon自I Samuel L * S + apl©ton and Co I one丨 Thomas G. Foster# Commandants of th© Defense Language Instftu+e, For©Ign Langyage Cen十©r, author!zed 十he DLIFLC support necessary for prepars十lōn of this edition of th© course materials. This support Included coordination, graph 1 c： arts, editing, typfng, proofread I ng , printing, and mater i a Is necessary to carry out these 十asks*

CONTENTS

^PrefBce............................ r

PRONUNCIATION ANū ROMAN[ZATION

I nt rodijct I on    j

Tap© ! Workbook (Tones) *■■■•*_■•* ............3

Tape 2 Workbook (Consonants and Vowels I) _••••• ■    5

Tape 3 Workbook (Consonants and Vowels II) ..... *    9

Tape 4 Workbook (Consonants and Vawels III) • ■ • ■ • !    13

Taps 5 Workbook (Consonants and VoweIs IV)    |g

Tape 6 Workbook (Tones I n Combfna+lon) ■■■•*■••    (9

Tone Card ................... ■ • _ ■    22

Summary......* * ■ ........................23

Tones * • , , .............25

Consonants and Vowe15 ................jq

I _ Finals ................. *    34

i I ■ I n i t J a I s ..............* ■ •    40

Sentence Intonation ............ • ‘ ■ ,    44

Append!cas

I ： List of Initials *....... • * • ■ • • •    49

II: 11 st of Finals........ ....... ■    50

NUMBERS

IntroductI on .................. • * ■    52

Tape I Workbook (Numbers 1-6) ....................53

Tape 2 Workbook《Nurnbers 7-10 and 0) _# ■ * ■ , ■ ■ ■ ,    55

Tape 3 Workbook (Numbers II一99) ■ • _ • ■ • * * ■ ■ • _%    57

Tape 4 Workbook (Numbers i-99_# Review) ••••::::    59

Tape 5 Workbook (Numbers 100-999 3 * ■ • • *.....:    gO

Tape 6 Workbook (Numbers !,000-99*999) _•■■•••:    63

Summary ............69

CLASSROOM EXPRESS IONS................................7，5

TIME AND DATES

Introduction ....... ■ ■ *    77

Tape i Workbook (Dates) .............. . •    78

Tape 2 Workbook (Years and Days of the Week} • * ■ [ :    79

Tape 3 Workbook (Clock Tim©} ■ • .......* ■ ■ :    81

Tape 4 Workbook CC i ock 11 me and Parts of the Day) _# • :    64

Summary    ...........

PRONUNCIATION and ROMANIZATION (P&R)

INTRODUCTION

You 疒 ch f ef concern as you start 十 tils course ! s j earn \ ng to pronounce Chinese, The 6rten十3十I on Module, which plunges you r f ght Into trying to say thIngs ī n Chinese, na十uralty involves a certaTn amount of pronunciation work* This resou re© module f s designed 十o supplement that work wl+h a b r I © f _# sys*

肀emstie Introduction 十o the sound system of Standard Chinese, as well as to Its written rep resen十a十I on f n P Tn y T n romaniza十īon•

The ess 舀 ritfa! part of 十 hJs mo d lt I € consists of the Pro nun* elation and Roman Ization fP&R) tapes and th© accompany i ng dIsplays and exercises In the workbook sect丨on of 十hfs modul©_ You should work through at !east the fIrst four of these tapes, and preferably 十he first six, while you are studying the Orientation Mody I © •

FoI low Ing the workbook sect i on of 十his module, you will find a summary of pronuncīat I on snd roman 1zat t on. You m f ght want to gIance at 十his before starting the tapes, particularly to locate certain charts and Iī sts which could be helpful for reference,

But ft would probably be better to put off studying 十he summary un+tl after you have finished 十he tapes # The tapes are Intended as an Tntroduc十Jon, while the summary is not. For one thing, text discussions of the sounds of 十he language cannot equal the recorded presen肀at ions and your teacher^f s oral presentations*

For another thing, the summary provIdas consfderably more Infor-mat I on than you will need or want et first,

Bo+h the tapes snd the summary con + a t n d f scuss i ons of 十he sounds of the Isrsguage end t h e I r spellings* You may find 十 ha 十 thess discussions offer useful hīn十s, allowing you to put your* in 十 elleet to work on the problems of p ronunc 丨 i orr and romani 2at Jon . However, par十Iculariy in pronunciation, most of your !earn Ing must come from doing* It Is Important to p ractIc© , reading and writing the romsnIzatI on, but it is vttat 十o prac_

11ce recognizing and p roduc t ng the sounds of th© language*

Serious and sustained attempts to mimic, as fa!thfullyas pos-sib丨e* either your Ins十ruc+or or the speakers on the tapes will allow you to pick up unconsciously far more 卞han you can a十tend fo con sc Ious ly.

The most impor十ari十 thing for you to do Is to abandon the phonetic ^ĪTpre jud Ices^IT you have bull十 up as a speaker of English and surrender yourself to the sounds of ChInesa * Being less s总t than adults 1n the i r ways, children are quicker to pick up a p roper accent _P Try to regress to the phonetic: suggest f b II f ty of childhood, however hard it is to shed the safe and comfortable r! g I cf! ty and cer 十 afnty of adulthood. The most your intellect can supply is s certa ī n amount of guIdanc© and moni+orIng*

Be sure to repeaf the words and sentences on the tapes In your full norma I speaking vofce, or even louder, as If you were speaking to someone at a reasonable distance* When you speak to yourself under your breath, you are considerably less precise In your pronunc Fat Ion than when you speak aloud. ThI $ fs all rfghf In English, since you can a I ready pronounce the Idnggage. But, In Chinese, you would no十 be p广actfcfng that skill which you are trying to develop, and you wouId f I nd your-self at a loss when you 十rfed to swItch to full volume In class.

One of the advantages an adult has over a child I n learn-I ng ō language t s the ability to make use of 0 written represent* a 11o n of ft- In th f s course you I earn the PTny Tn sys十em of roman IzatI on a+ the same time 十ha十 you are lea rn ing the sound system of Standard Chinese, (The nonaIphabetIc system of wrftten characters 15 taught as a separate component of 十he course,) You will find that PTnyTn is not the simplest possfble phonetfc transcription. Some of the letters and combinations of letters chosen to represent the sounds of Ch I nese are not the most obvious ones, Wh fI© consonant letters generally s十and for fixed consonant sounds, voweI letters can stand for various voweI sounds, depending on what letters precede them and follow them. Some of the abbreviation rules are more trouble than they are worth at fIrst* These drawbacks--wh Ich are actually relatively mJnor compared with those of most spelling sys十ems--stem from th© fact that PTnyrn was designed for speakers of ChInese _f no十 for speakers of Engl Ish. The primary cons I derat I on In devising th© system was the most efficient use of the fetters of the Roman alphabet to represen十十he sounds of Ch!nes©. The drawbacks to I earn f ng PTnyrn are cons IderabIy outweighed by the advantage 十hat PTnyfn is wide Iy taught and used as a supple-mentary script In t h e PeopIe¹s Republic of China* You a re I earn Ing PTnyTn no十 merely as an a Id during the f i rst few weeks of the course, but also as one of the ways Ch f nese Js actually written, and as what mdy we I I represent the wave of the future.

NOTE: A number of surnames used in 十 hǐs modu I e are rare,

may even be unfamiliar to most Chinese, a I though all are authent f c * These rare surnames are used to Illustrate various contrasts !n sound and spelling.

DISPLAY I: THE FOU« TONES

mS9 Tlmotherlf

"horse"

mi, ”hemp"

mh ,Tto scold”

gxerc 1 SB 5: YTn vs . Yl n

Exercise 6

PSR MODULE Exerc i se 7

■丁here are no appropriate examples fn the OrrentatIon Module. You will find theae words In Iatar modules.

Exercise 6

P&R MODULE Exorcise 8

PSR MODULE Exercise 4

DISPLAY 111

Rl běn __

Exerc!sa 6

•This Is no十 a name*

Exercise 2

Exercise 3

Exerc丨se 5

DISPLAY VII

hr

DISPLAY 1： THE NEUTRAL TONE

« . * fS! \je fel J_e fil J_© ihl

ExercIse

DISPLAY II: THE HALF THIRD TONE

Tilběl HlJTng Y&ngpfng Siodlng 1

N&nhSr

战 īhSl

Exercise 2

^fThis fs the name of a former province.

SUMMARY

TONES

Every syllable I n Standard Chinese has ona of four d1s* tfnetive ^ITtones^M or patterns of pftch. The only except f on to this rule i s that a syllable loses 丨十s f nhereot ton® when f t is unstressed， The tone is just as much a part of a syllable as the consonants and vowels and performs fh0 same fwnctI on*-signaling the msanIng of the syllabi®* In other words, difference In ton© between 十wo syllables can signal o d(fference In mean J ng_f just as a difference In consonants or vowels does.

It will be difficult at first to apprecia+s fully that a tone !s something 千ha十 belongs to a syt丨ab丨© rather then something that msre Iy happens 肀o it_ This Is because the only us© of pitch patterns f n English Is for I r» 个 on at Jon of entJr© sen-af feet S ng only the meanings of who 18 sentences. For ©xamp 1 the rising pitch af 十 he end of ^riSp ! nach Is del I c ! ous?^!f has nothing to do with the meaning of th© word ^fldeI ieJoys¹¹ but ■tells us that fhe who 16 sentence should be Interpreted as ¹¹ Are you say I ng thaf spinach I s ds 1 tc I ous?^,p I + may be difficult at first to remember the tons of a syllabi© as waI! as you remember the coivsonants and vowels. This Is because you have to develop 十he completely now habit of marking tones fn your msntaI dictionary.

The Four Tones

Display I diagrams 十he p ī tch patterns of the four tones and gives the i r descriptlva names and traditional numbers* As exQmp les* four si ng 1 ©-sy I I ab 丨e words with eompls十©ly cHfferen十 mean Ings but different to the ear only In thefr tones are pronounced at +h© beg [ nn ing of the ffrst P&R tape_

丁he tone diagrams may bo read 3s musicsf notatIons• The vertfcal dimension stands for pl+chj wi th the 十op of 十h® diagram slightly above you r norma 1 pItch rang© f n Eng f f sh and th© bottom slightly below. The horizontal dimension stands for duration.

The th ǐ ckness of the curve stands for loudness» These diagrams show the tones as they are heard In isolated syllables.

Th© High tone (or First ton©> has s staady high p t tch and average length, You may f!nd It somewhat uncomfortable to pro — nounce a+ first* since a staady high pItch !s seldom used In Engl 1sh--yout on Iy relevant experisnee comes from my sic. Not Ica thst th# accent mark which rep resents this tons f n the roman Iza-tlon captures the level contour rather than the hfgh pitch*

Th© Rising 十one (or Second tone) rises from 十h© middle of 卞he pitch rang© to the top. It too has average length, Unlike the rising Intonatfon used In English for questions, +h© Rfslng tone gets Ioyder as 丨十 rlses_c Notice that th© tone mark In the roman Izat ion rises from left 十o rights

The Low tone (or Third 十one} starts low, dfps to the bottom of the pitch range, and then rises. The lowest part of this 十one Is th© most dfs+lnet丨ve, th© par十 fo focus on both when you are trying to pronounce the tone and when you are trying to r^ecignlze lt_ The lowest par十 takes 十he greatest ēffort and Is the most. promlnent_# desp i te the fact that 11 Is actually no个 quite as loud as the rest of the tone, This part Is exaggerated_f both In length and In pt十eh, when the syllable ts stressed for emphasis- Particularly wl + h male speakers, It may have a harsh _f scrap 1ng qua I f ty* The Low tone has greater than average length. In Eng I I sh a similar I ntonat f on i s sometimes used for ^,fWe I I ?^TI when you have been waiting to hear somefh J ng. Notice that the tone mark captures th© dipping pitch pattern -

The Falling tone tor Fourth 十on®) starts 3肀十he top of 肀he pitch range and drops sharply to the bottom, diminishing In loudness as it drops* It has shorter than average length* In English the falling intona1"ion used for exc I amat (ons ^ as I n ^,rWe I I !^fl is similar, but the Falling tone starts h t gher and ends lower than a I i but our most emphatic excIama十fons* Not i ce tha十 the tone mark falls from I eft to right.

The Neutral Tone

A syllable loses Its inheren十 tone when it Is unstressed.

An unstressed syllable, besides being weak and hurried_# will have a pitch 十hat ts not something of its own but rather some十hIng that Is Imposed on ft by the tones of 十he surrounding syllables, particularly by 十he tone of the preceding syllable. t n such esses we say that the syllable has tos十 Its full +one_f that f+s tone has been neutralized, or 十hat it is in the Meutral tone, ★ (The Neutral 十one Is taken up at the beginning of P&R Tape 6.}

DISPLAY It: THE NEUTRAL TONE

Dfsplsy II shows 十he pitch of 十he Neutral ton© after each Qf the four tones. The examp Ies are four verbs whIch differ only 1n their tones_f each followed by a gram卬atteal element tn the Neutral tone. (Not Ice 十hat the Neutral 十one ts indicated 1n the romanlza十Ion by the absence of a 十one mark.)

After the Failing tone (4),十he pitch of th© Neutral tone amounts 十o th眘 end of the fall³ After 十he o十hōr three tones, t + amounts to a Jump back to, or slightly beyond,十he middle of the pitch range> In the case of the Low tone (3), the jump Is from the low point* si nce tho Low 十one has lost l + s rising taI I . The pitch of 十h© Neutral 十one may a 1 so be affected by 十h© tone of a syllable whIch follows* moving 十he Meutral 个one in the direction of 十he start of the following 十one- However^ a sequence of Neutral tones wfll stay at the same pitch or will drop gradually,

There are a few syllables, most of 十hem grammatical elements, which are always unstressed In norma 1 speech and、 there十ore, are a 1 ways In the Neutral tone. These syllables are ©xcep十Tons to the rule 十hat every syllable has a basic full tone^ a 十on总 that may be neutralized but will reappear under stress. To make a com-par I son w I th English, It Is hard to say what the ⁿn©utra 1 vowa I^IT In the word ^Tl g I v e n^ft has baen reduced f rom _f si nc© the ending ,en is never stressed•

Tone Changes

The Low tone pronounced ī n I so I at ion has a d f ppIng-r!s f ng pItch pattern. This i s the shape It a I ways has before a pause. But the Low ton© loses Its rising tall before s NautraI fon^_t and Dfsplay 111 shows 十hat the Low tone also loses fts 十aH before any non-Low tone* This display further shows 十hat some" thIng even mor^ unexpected happens to a Low tone before another Low tone* It changes to a Rising 十one, or at I east to something so close to a Rls f ng tone that even native speakers cannot tell the dIfferenc©. A Low tan裔 which hes lost its rising teJl before a different tone Is still recogrdzab丨e, or Is even more recog-nizabJe, as a Low ton©* But 苕 Low tone which hss changed to a Rising 十 ene before another Low tone is no longer reeogrti zab 丨每-Wh 费 t you will hear for ^fl I ¹ m f I n e^Tl Is W6 hSo, Th© on ly way you can, te il that the f \ rst word 丨 5 re a I 1 y w6~Ts by hear I ng 11 when If Is not followed by a Low ton®, AnotFSV qu f rk of th© Low ton© Is that It sometimes chsnges to a R!s f ng tone before a neutral-i zed Low tone. Whether this happens or not depends on considers-t i ons of grammar and word formation * 1+ always happens _f for example, when 十he syllables are separate words, as w f th the words qT ng j ⁿto ask，^ft and nT _t ^f,you _f ^Tl In the express I on Qf ng rt I . ,. _f wh 1 ch maans ^IT (I ) ask~ou (to do such-and-such)^lf or ^,#PI ease ińo such-and-such 5 .^T* it does nof happen t n j 1S j ? e (from J 1S J IS) _# "older s 1 sfer *^Tl (The exceptional behavior of th© Low tone I s taken up t n the sixth tap© of this module, right after th© sec-tlon on the Neutral tone.)

DISPLAY III: THIRD TONE BEFORE FULL TONES

There are certsIn other tone changes that take place in longer sequences of syllables* Th© main example of fh 15 is that a Rising ton© changes to a High tone when It follows a HIgh ton© or Rising ton© and ts followed by any full tone. For Instanca _# JIInS da, "Canada," I 5 pronounced JIīnādě■ Using tone marks, the rule—may be expressed like thfsi

However p th®se tone changes will stud J ēd only after vou have ga t nad control of two一syllable sequences^

There are atso casas whar© particular words change 十hefr tones under +h8 !nfIuenee of following tones. Th© number I Is yT when It f s pronounced a I on© or as one of a series of d!gTts, It Is before a Fa I II ng tone or neutro t t zed Falling tone, and betore any other tone. The numbers 7• ^7_$ and 0₁ b5_# are gt and b& before a Falling 十one for most speīFārs, Th^ rv^gat I v© marker bu Is before 9 Fallfng tone or neut ra I I zed Falling tone. IĪT™thIs course you will f t nd bǚ quit© a few times before yoy find but ke@p I n mind that faīi^Ts 十 he more basJc form, ^ITNō_f ^fl for 一SVampU, Is bu *

Ton& Weaken t ng end S肀rertgthen I ng

In addition +0 the drama肀fc tone changes discussed prevt-ously* 十 here are certa I n minor autōinet t c changes wh I ch affect all full to!ri6S In 抖ords of two or more syllables* These Involve b1 I three factors shown In th© tone d f agram-"1oudness_# pitch* end: length.

Le十*s start with a similar phenomenon In English* In an English word of two or more syllables, the syllables vary I n how forceful they are and how much emphas S s 十hey receive- We normally think of these levels of "stress" 1n terms of 十he loudness of the syllable, but other factors, Including syllable length and pitch,, are even mor© important* The one thfng you need 十o know about the s十广ess pst+e广n of an English word is which syllable has the ma I n stress.. This syllable will have the same weight as a 5ǐng]e-syI丨abIe word pronounced alone. Ths stress levels of 十he other syllables, down to 十he 1 eve I ws call ^unst ressed ,^,f will then fall Into place ālmdsl* autōma 十[ca I I y _

Es<amp ! Bs such as ^lfPHO*to-graph _#^TI *¹pho-TOG-「a-phy, ” and ^ITpho* +0-GRĀPH-i c^M 十©l| you a I I you need to know about tho stress patterns of these words.

The best way to approach the stress pat+erris of Chines© words Is the other way around. The first thing to find out Is whether any of the syll3bl6s a re unstressed _# 十hat ls_# whether any 迅r© !n 十he Neutral tone, (By far the most likely candtda十e is the I as+ syllable*) Than the stress levels of the remaining, f」I I-ton© syllables will fa I! fntō pi see according to th© fol-lowing rules:

1,    The ffrst ful I—tone sy liable will have norma I stress _p the sam© ss when I十 Is pronounced.

2.    The las十 full-ton© syliable (If there ts more than on© 5 will hav© heav f eir-than_narma I stress. Its loudness , pf 十ch range, and length will be exaggerated.

3* Any fnlddle syllables wJII have I I gh+er—than_norma I stress. Their loudness* pitch range, and length will be reduced

Let^f s take, ss an example, tha Chinese phonetic equivalent of *^T Italy,” Y1 dā I ī , A I I three syllables have fult Fa I I I ng tones j byt not i c© i n th© dIagrgm below that the three pitch pa肀terns are slightly dIff©rent： the first one is normal; +ha middle one \ s reduced? and the last one I s exaggerated

The few exceptions to these rules for relative levels of stress are due to meaning* One such exception !s 十ha+ the first of two fulI—tone syllables may be given 十he heavIer-than-normaI stress I f the first sy I I ab I e Is more s i gn t f 1 cant. For ®xam；p I © _$ th© word for "Germany*, ! s pronounced by most speakers as DĀgy6, The syllable De- Identifies the country (It Is derfved phonetI-ca ! I y from Deu tsch 3 and ) _g while - gu6? "country ,^lf Is used f n the names of many countries. Thus the first RI s i ng-totie syllable Is stronger, in v !o I at f on of the general rules for stress

ns 十十 RrniĒī«

The 5ubord t    status of -gu6 In the names of cou nt r I es Is mo 5 十

clearly seen by 十 he fac十 fhat some speakers 十 rest It 卷 I most a,s a suffix, pronouncing It In the Nautra丨 tern®, so that "Gormany" becomes DēgLio,

As with English levels of stress,十h痧se d f fferences are fairly subtle- You may no十 be able to hear them +00 clearly, and you can make yourself understood wē!I enough ev©n wl十hou十 getting them quIte rIght _§ a I though yoy are I Ik©1y 卞o sound like a computer* Yoy should be ab 10 +0 learn stress ps 卞 terrts wf+hou 十 even thinking about    if you wT!l try +0 mtmlc    speakers

ss cIosa I y @s possible.

After learning mor© abou十 consonan+s and vowels in the next sec 十 Ion of this summary, you will be l*itrodueed 十 o sent©ncs 1 n-tonot\on In the 【sst section* where you will find 十hs千 ther© are further mod f fI cat Ions In the pItch patterns of 十he 十ones» If yog ar@ reading 卞his summary as you begin 十he ccurss, new Infor-mat 100 Is piling up too fast, Dor^t try +0 keep everything I n pnlnd at once. As a first approximation of th© 十ones, for example! try giving your syllables ibentlfJable and correct tones. When you have mastered that* work on one or two more points. Mean-white, your ear will have begun 十 o lock I n； on whs 十 Chinese sounds Ifke, and yoy wit! begin to reach the point of automat f c control.

CONSONANTS AND VOWELS

Much of th© structural sfmpllcf+y of the Chfnese language is made evident by traditional analysis of syllable structur®*

S十sr十 with the syllables wh 1 ch sre different to 十h眘 ear* There are only about 1,300 such dlsthngulshabl© sy I 1 a b I es _f not nearly as many as !n English, (Many syllables which sound a tIka carry mors 十 fian one mean! ng and are written wl 十 h different characters for each meaning, much as the same English spoken syllable carries the thr©e meanings repre5snted by 十he spellings "个wo,^ "too ■丨^T and ^,Tto .^pt)

DISPLAY IV: INITIAL-FINAL COMBINATIONS