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Pendragon wrote:I wonder how big the differences between written Chinese and spoken Chinese (colloquial) are. In some languages the differences are small (written version is just the spoken language but written down), while in other cases it almost seems that there are two separate languages (written/formal; spoken/informal).
Thanks!
Pendragon wrote:Thanks for the information! So it seems important to a learner of Mandarin to pay enough attention to informal, colloquial vocabulary. At the moment I'm trying to pick up some colloquial words from www.chinesepod.com , seems to work quite well.
Pendragon wrote:Something else I was wondering about: while in European languages the speaker can express emotion through the use of tones in pronunciation (surprise, excitement, anger etc), it seems that in Mandarin the tones are already reserved for pronouncing the words themselves. For example I heard that the second tone should be pronounced somewhat like the tone for 'surprise' or 'asking a question' in European languages, while the fourth tone sounds more like 'finishing a list of items' or 'sounding convinced, resolute'.
So I wonder how in Mandarin (and other Chinese dialects/languages) emotions are expressed, if not through use of tones.
linguanima wrote:Pendragon wrote:Something else I was wondering about: while in European languages the speaker can express emotion through the use of tones in pronunciation (surprise, excitement, anger etc), it seems that in Mandarin the tones are already reserved for pronouncing the words themselves. For example I heard that the second tone should be pronounced somewhat like the tone for 'surprise' or 'asking a question' in European languages, while the fourth tone sounds more like 'finishing a list of items' or 'sounding convinced, resolute'.
So I wonder how in Mandarin (and other Chinese dialects/languages) emotions are expressed, if not through use of tones.
I think you confuse 'tone' with 'pitch' there. I think we, Europeans and Chinese alike, express our emotions by varying the pitch of our voice rather than the tone. So Mandarin, same as other Chinese dialects, changes the pitch to express emotion. It's like the same song played in another octave, if that makes sense.
lishaoxuan wrote:And also, there are some meaningless particles with neutral tone reserved for expressing tints of emotion. (Because they are with neutral tone, you can say them in a tone that best fits the emotion of the sentnce.)
For example:
吗[ma]: used at the end of a interrogative sentence
呢[ne]: used at the end of a interrogative sentence that ask you to choose between something
哇[wa]: used to express exlaimation
.........etc
linguanima wrote:lishaoxuan wrote:And also, there are some meaningless particles with neutral tone reserved for expressing tints of emotion. (Because they are with neutral tone, you can say them in a tone that best fits the emotion of the sentnce.)
For example:
吗[ma]: used at the end of a interrogative sentence
呢[ne]: used at the end of a interrogative sentence that ask you to choose between something
哇[wa]: used to express exlaimation
.........etc
And if you go to the South you can hear more exclamative particles of this kind, which people in the North find redundant.
Babelfish wrote:Yes, in Word 2003 you can use Format->Asian Layout->Phonetic Guide. But do you get the Pinyin displayed automatically? I have all the fields empty and have to fill them myself. There's a "default readings" button but it just clears anything. Maybe I need a Chinese dictionary for Word for this trick...
The Windows Chinese IME does have a set of "soft keyboards" one of which can be used to enter vowel with tone marks - the one called "Pinyin letter". But it only allows entering vowels, which is very uncomfortable...
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