Chinese Primer: Lessons (GR) 9780691227757, 0674124766

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Chinese Primer (Gwoyeu Romatzyh)

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CHINESE PRIMER Lessons

Ta-tuan Ch'en Perry Link Yih-jian Tai Hai-tao Tang

HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England 1989

Copyright © 1989 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book was prepared at the Chinese Linguistics Project, Princeton University, with the aid of a grant from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. The title page calligraphy is by Professor Ching-nung T ! ai ( *%? and sh .) and "r" for retrof lexes palatals

{j j ch , and sh ).

derives

from

the

fact

The

choice of

that palatals

"i" for

can only

a subscript

for

be pronounced

in

combination with vowel sounds closely related to the Chinese i sound. pages 17 and 17 rows -i and -iu.)

(See

Since there is no palatal r sound, there

is also no need to distinguish the retroflex r with an additional "r" as subscript.

THE INITIALS AND FINALS

11

Take care to distinguish both palatals and retroflexes from jy and r in English.

The English sounds, for one thing, are pronounced with

the lips slightly protruded or rounded.

(Watching yourself in the mirror

say, !\S7?ow the judge his chair.") That same present

in

ch, sA,

Chinese

retroflexes

and

lip movement

palatals

(unless,

should not be of

course,

the

following vowel sound is something like the Chinese u, which itself requires such rounding).

The retroflex r, besides being retroflex, is different from an English r in that it carries the hint of a buzzing sound—rather like the sound of the second g in the French "Georges". the given syllable is stressed.

Row six

in the Table of

their pronunciation generally

This element is often accentuated when

Ask your teacher for a demonstration.

Initials are called "gutturals", which means

is controlled at the very back of the mouth.

are not difficult

for English

should be made regarding the Chinese A.

These

speakers, but one special note It is somewhat rougher than an

English A — almost like the ch in the German "acA", but rarely as rough as that.

The roughness usually increases with increasing stress on the given

syllable.

Even when the tongue

is in a fixed position in the mouth, different

sounds may be produced by blowing out more air or less, by using the nasal passages, and so on.

These distinctions are categorized in the columns of

the Table of Initials.

The most important of these distinctions

is between the first column,

called the "unaspirated" initials, and the second, called the "aspirated" initials.

To "aspirate" means to blow out air, and, as a check on your

pronunciation, you might hold a sheet of paper right in front of your face for a moment

(holding

from the top) and then pronounce

an initial

from

12

CHINESE PRIMER

column

one.

The

paper

should

not

move.

When

you

pronounce

the

corresponding initial in column two, the paper should fly out from in front of your mouth.

(Don't be shy about aspiration.

Very few beginning students

o^er-aspirate the initials of column two.)

The unaspirated initials b> d, and g are also unvoiced, meaning that they do not employ

the vocal

cords in their pronunciation.

This makes

them

different from the English b as in "£oy", d as in "dog", or g as in "^oat". If one

listens closely,

they are very like the p

"stage", and the k in "s/ry".

You will probably

in "sport",

the t in

learn these finer points

better through careful listening and imitation of your teachers and tapes than through further analysis.

The remaining three columns—called

"nasals", "fricatives", and "voiced

continuants" respectively—are seldom troublesome, and require no additional comment.

Exercises on Initials—refer to Table 3. 1.

Pronounce the following syllables, paying attention to the distinction

between the unaspirated initials of column one and the aspirated initials of column two in the Table of Initials. b-p

d-t

tz-ts

ban

"|

pan

"1

bai

-1

pai

^]

beng

\J

peng

\j

bu

\|

pu

\|

bau

J

pau

J

bei

1

pei

"1

di

"1

ti

du

1

tu

da

ta

ding

1

ting

1

dau

N J

tau.

1 N J

dang

N

tang

N

tzai

H

tsai

"|

tzou

\|

tsou

\J

THE INITIALS AND FINALS tzuo

g-k

2.

13

tsuo

1

tzu

1

tsu

1

tzan

J

tsan

J

tzau

J

tsau

J

guo

J

kuo

J

gang

1

kang

1

gai

"I

kai

1

gu

VJ

ku

VI

gau

N

kau

VJ

gan

J

kan

J

Pronounce the following syllables, which use initials from row four in

the Table

of

Initials.

Pay

special

attention

to

the

retroflex

tongue

position.

i

chry

1

sh r y

1

ry

1

ch r u

\J

sh u

N

ru

VI

ch an

J

sh an

J

ran

J

jrou

N J M

ch ou

VI

sh ou

N

rou

V|

jreng

1

ch eng

1

sh eng

n

reng

i

jj.au

Vj

ch au

sh au

N

rau

V|

jj-en

\|

ch en

N VI

sh en

V|

ren

VI

Jru

A

ch u

sh u

-i

ru

A

jran

1

ch an

1

sh an

i

jruan

1

ch uan

"1

sh uan

i

ch au

-1

sh au

jj.an

jj.au 3. the

rau

Pronounce the following syllables, which use initials from row five in Table

of

Initials.

Pay

special

attention

to

the

palatal

j±i

1

ch.i

1

sh.i

1

j ,• ia

~l

ch.ia

1

shiia

1

chiing

1

shiing

1

position.

ch±ie

shiie

J

ch^iang

J

shiiang

J

VJ

ch.i

VJ

sh.i

V|

VJ

ch.ing

N

sh^^ing

V|

tongue

14

CHINESE PRIMER shiing

chiing

4.

Pronounce

the

following

syllables,

paying

special

attention

to the

distinction between palatal and retroflex initials.

jiiou

1 1

j

sh.iau

J

J

ch.iou

jrou sh au

V chrou

ch.iu

shrl

\i N

ch ang

ch.iang sh.in

sh en 5.

Listen

to

the

dictated

M N 1

sh.ia

syllables,

V

Write

if

the

initial

is

retroflex, "i" if it is palatal. 1.

2.

3.

4.

6.

7.

8.

9.

5. 10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

The Finals Each Mandarin final consists of three optional parts: a post-medial, and (3) an ending.

(1) a medial, (2)

Table 4 shows all the possible medials,

post-medials, and endings. Table 4:

Medials, Post-medials, and Endings

medials

Post-medials

Endings

0

0

0

1

u iu

a e o

l

u n ng 1

THE INITIALS AND FINALS

15

The null symbol " 0 " indicates the lack of any element in that category. example: i + 0 + 72 = iff, u + o + 0 = z/o, i + a + u = iau, etc. Oy n, ng, and 1 cannot occur by themselves. finals.

Note that 0 + 0

For

The sounds

Table 5 lists all the existing

+ 0 is a possible final which is symbolized -y.

The pronunciation of the -y final is discussed below.

Memorize Table 5 in

the order given. Table 5: Medial

The Table of Finals in Basic Forms

Row

Ending

-i

Zero

-u

None

Row-a

-y a

i

Row-i

i

ia ie

iai

u

Row-u

u

ua uo

uai uei

iu

Row-iu

iu

e

ai

ei

au

ou

iau iou

iue

-ng

-n

eng

an

en

ang

ian

in

iang ing

uan

uen

uang ueng

-1

ong

el

iong

iuan iun

Table 5 shows all the finals in Mandarin Chinese, arranged according to their phonetic properties.

Memorize the table in the given order.

Below is

a list of hints which may help you learn the correct vowel quality of the finals.3 get

Even more than for the initials, however, it is often difficult to

the right

idea

from mere description.

Pay

close

attention to your

teachers and your tapes.

Row-a—The

-y final is exceptional because it is the only final that

cannot be pronounced by itself; it is always preceded by an initial (hence the hyphen in the notation - y ) .

Its initial must be from row 3 or row 4 in

the Table of Initials (i.e., tz, ts, s and j , ch , sh , and r ) . Following tz,

ts, and s, the -y final is simply a buzzing prolongation of the initial

itself.

Keep the lips spread back.

Following j , ch , sh , and r, the -y

final is a prolongation of the retroflex initials, producing a vocalized r sound. 3

Thus shv,

for example, sounds rather like the shr of "shrill".

The authors are indebted to Y.R. Chao, Mandarin Primer, pp. most of these descriptions.

Be

22-24, for

16

CHINESE PRIMER

sure to keep both tongue and lips in the standard retroflex position from start to finish.

Do not protrude or round the lips as in English "shoes11.

The a final is as in "father". The

e

final

will

need

special

practice.

"Southern accent" in American English—or the u of "up" as a Southerner does.

If

you

have

a

so-called

can imitate one—then try saying

Most students find, however, that this

sound more than any other in Chinese requires careful imitation of teachers and sounds on tapes. The ai final is close to "aisle" in English.

It has a (front) clear,

bright quality. The ei final is nearly the same as "eight" in English. The au final falls about midway between aw in "lav" and ow in "cov".

One

is definitely wrong to approach either of these extremes, and many American students approach the "cow" extreme too readily. listen to your model voices.

Stay in the middle and

Be conscious of the back, dark, broad quality

of this sound. The ou final is rather near the English "oA". The an final falls between the an of "Dan" and the on of "Don", though it is a bit nearer the latter. The en final is pronounced as in "omen".

Be sure never to pronounce it

as in "Amen". The eng final is almost the same as ung in "sung". The ong final requires you to round your lips as if you were going to say oo

as

in "boo".

The

correct

sound

does

not

contain

this

however, nor does it rhyme with "dong" as in "ding-dong".

"oo" sound,

Listen to your

teacher.

Row-i—The i final sounds

like the name of the letter "e" in English.

In principle, all the other finals of Row-i are composed of those of Row-a with the i medial affixed.

There are, however, some important

from this principle, as noted below.

deviations

THE INITIALS AND FINALS The ie final

is like the ye in "yet".

17

Note that the e in ie has a

different value from the e final by itself. The ian final comes close to "yen" in English. in fact, use ien to spell this sound.)

(Some spelling systems,

Note the difference

from the an

final above it. The

vowel

sound

of

the

in and

ing

finals

falls between

"inn"

and

"machine".

R o w - U — T h e u final, which is basic to the entire row, is a tricky sound for a native speaker of English, but one you can master if you try.

It

resembles, but is importantly different from, the oo in English "boo".

To

produce the Chinese u sound, the tongue must be pulled toward the back of the mouth while the lips make a very small opening in front.

The cavity of

the mouth

two

is maximized.

Professor

Y.R.

Chao has

devised

ingenious

tricks for producing the correct oral positioning. ...try to whistle the lowest note possible, then vocalize instead of actually whistling. Another device is to imagine holding as much water as possible without either swallowing it or spilling any of it out of the lips.1*

The

uo

pronounces

final

is

"door".

pronounced Combined

as

with

a the

person

with

a

initials 6, p,

"New

York

m,

and /,

accent" the u

component is much slighter than with the other initials.

Row-iu —

The iu final, though spelled iu, is a pure vowel sound and not

two vowels pronounced in sequence.

It is produced by using the lip position

of the u final and the tongue position of the i final. like the u in German or a French u as in "usine". The iue final rhymes with the ie final. The iuan final rhymes with the ian final.

* Mandarin Primer, pp. 23-24.

It sounds rather

18

CHINESE PRIMER The vowel quality of certain finals varies according to tone.

First and

second tones sometimes have one value, third and fourth tones a slightly different value.

This effect

is perhaps most noticeable

in the following

cases. The iou final is closer to

!t

you" in the first and second tones, to "yo"

in the third and fourth. When pronounced without an initial, the in and ing finals tend to be more diphthongized in the third and fourth tones than in the first two. The uei final in the first two tones tends slightly in the direction of "wee"; in the latter two tones it sounds more like "way". The el final sounds more like "err" in the first two tones, like "are" in the second two. Do not go overboard with any of these distinctions.

Listen to your model

voices.

Exercises on Finals Refer to the Table of Finals.

The exercises focus upon important points as

they come up column by column in the Table, beginning from the left. 1.

2.

The "prolonged initial" -y-

N

ch r y

shry

shry

1

sh r y

shry

tzy

1

tsy

1

sy

"1

ch r y

1

shry

n

1 1

u

'I

u

j

sh r y

\J

The u final.

u hu fu 3.

M J

hu

hu

fu

fu

Contrasting the u final and the iu final.

J

u hu

\1

fu

N

\l

Change the tongue position

while keeping the same lip position. u

"1

iu

-|

u

"|

iu

"]

THE INITIALS AND FINALS ch u 4.

"I

ch. iu

"I

19

ch u

"1

ch. iu

~|

Contrasting the i final and the iu final. Change the lip position while keeping the same tongue position.

5.

8.

iu

"|

i

"|

iu

"1

ch.i

"1

ch.iu

"1

ch.i

H

ch.iu

"I

i

H

iu

"Iu

sh u

"|

sh.iu

1

'

Jj[ iu

\J

ch i iu

\|

chii

\(

ct^iu

\j

e

1

ke

1

jre

1

Ie

\l

jre

\j

se

\l

ke

J

re

J

ch r e

J

de

^

he

A

jre

^

ch r u

7.

"1

Contrasting i , u> and iu by "pivoting" on the latter.

^i 1

6.

i

sh.i

""]

iu

Hi

1

sh.iu

~"|

J^ 1U

Jr

sh u

H

J^i chru

\J

The e final.

The varying quality of e in the e, i e , and iue finals. sh e

"1

sh.ie

H

sh e

1

sh.iue

1

jre

-1

jiie

^|

jre

^|

J^iue

^1

e

\J

ie

Me

\|

iue

N

sh e

J

sh.ie

J

J

sh.iue

J

sh e

Contrasting -y, e, and w. chry

"I N

sy

chre

n

N

se shre

9.

~|

"1

su

N

sh u

chry

J

chre

J

ch u

tsy

\J

tse

\J

tsu

"Back" vowels e and izo. e

ch u

"1

uo

"1

J N

20

CHINESE PRIMER de

10.

duo

ge

J

guo

A J

ke

1

ke

-1

ke

luo

1

luo

-1

luo

luo

hei

1

lai

lei

A

pai

pei

1

bei

J

mai

J \l

mei

M

guai

"1

guei

"I

huai

^1

huei

s\

shuai

M

shuei

\l

au

1

iau

1

diau

N

ch.iau

J

bai

12.

-J

ke

Contrasting ai and ei.

hai

11.

J

Uai and uei

and iau.

dau ch au

J

mau

raiau

13. Contrasting au and ou.

14.

tau

1

tou

1

jrau

jrou

kau

J \J

kou

J \J

rau

1

rou

1

1

j±iou

sh.iu

J

sh.iou

chiiu

-1

ch.iou

Contrasting iu and iou.

liu

liou

J N

N

THE INITIALS AND FINALS 15.

16.

The changing quality of "aTt in an, ian, uan, and iuan. an

1

ian

j an

J

j . ian

tan

"1

tian

*1

tuan

'I

Ian

\J

lian

\1

Iuan

\|

"]

"1

j . ian

N

ch,ian

\J

tie

J

tian

J

shi ie

-1

sh.ian

j uan

iuan

^

1

j . iuan

j . iue chj[iue

1 \J

j . iuan

J

1

ch. iuan \J

fan

1

fen

1

ban

J N

ben

J \|

nen j r en

Contrasting uan and uen.

uan

n

uen

tuan

-i

tuen

Iuan

N J

luen

guan

guen

J

ch. iang

"1

jiiang

\l

Ang and i chrang

ang

20.

~!

Contrasting an and en.

j r an

19.

~|

ch. ie

nan

18.

J

uan

The similar quality of "e" in ie and iue and "a" in ian and iuan. j . ie

17.

21

Contrasting

in and

iang

1 J

sh ang

J

sh.iang

lang

-1

liang

ing.

Note

that in addition

"1 to the presence or

absence of a final "glf, the vowel qualities also differ slightly.

22

CHINESE PRIMER in

1

ing

bin

"I

bing

min

J

ch.in

n

ming

-i

ch^ing

j

kong

"1

dong

J M

Nl 21.

Contrasting ang, eng, and kang

"!

keng

dang

J

deng

chrang

M

chreng

J N

tsang

-1

tseng

-1

tsong

tzang

i

tzeng

1

tzong

n

Jrang

Nl

jreng

M

jrong

\i

1

ch.iong

n

ong

J

Jiiong

j

chrong

-1

ch.iong

ch ong

22. Contrasting ong and iong.

chrong

23.

Change of vowel quality with tone (uei, iou, and ei finals only), uei

"1

uei

^1

uei

J

uei

\J

tuei

"I

tuei

*1

tuei

J

tuei

\l

iou

"1

iou

1

iou

J

iou

\J

liou

"1

liou

s\

liou

J

liou

N

el

1

el

'I

el

J

el

N

23

Lesson 3 TONAL SPELLING Many years1 experience has shown that, in the long run, the aspect of Chinese pronunciation which proves most difficult for non-native speakers is control of

tones.

conquering

this

A device which has proved to be of great

difficulty

is

the Tonal

Romatzyh which we present in this lesson. by

Professor Y.R.

Chao, has

the great

differently according to its tone. in

the

four

tones

as

mha> ma,

Spelling

System

benefit in

called

Gwoyeu

This system, designed principally virtue

of

spelling each

syllable

The syllable ma> for example, is spelled maa > mah,

respectively.

learner's mind, each syllable has its tone built

Thus,

in

the

into its very identity;

there is no way you can read, write, or even think about a syllable in its romanized form without mastering spelling

also thinking of the correct tone.

tonal pronunciation, systems

which use

the

system

diacritical

has

marks

definite to

In the task of advantages

indicate

tones.

over These

marks—added above a syllable's spelling as if by afterthought—tend to be overlooked in the heat of concentration on grammar and fluency.

Each spelling in this system has a basic form from which all spellings in the four tones are derived.

The basic form of any syllable is the simple

combination of its initial (if any) and its final, as recorded in the Tables of Initials

and Finals.

There is one exception

to this

rule.

"labial11 initials b, p, m, and f, the u drops out of the uo final.

For

the

(There

is no change when the labials combine with any other finals.)

You should note that certain initials do not combine with certain finals. In particular, the retroflex initials, j > ch , sh , and r, combine only with rows a and u in Table 5, while the palatal initials j ., ch ., and sh . combine only with rows i and iu. principle, there

When you begin to feel at home with this

is no great danger

of confusing the retroflex with the

24

CHINESE PRIMER

palatal j9 ch, and sh. the subscripts "r" and

Accordingly, in the tonal spelling system, we drop ft tf

i .

You must be most careful, however, never to

drop the phonetic distinction.

Exercise Spell the dictated syllables in basic us ing

form, and indicate the tone signs

H , 'I , J , and \| .

1.

2.

3.

4.

5

6.

7.

8.

9.

10

11.

12.

13.

14.

15

16.

17.

18.

19.

20

First Tone Spelling:

Syllables in the first tone are spelled exactly as

in the basic form, except for those whose initials are m, n, i, and r.

For

these initials, an h must be added after the initial, as in lhing> rheng, mhaUy

etc.

initials

and

(The reasons (2)

there

for this are: exist

in

(1) these

Chinese

are the only

comparatively

few

voiced

first-tone

syllables beginning with m, n> i, and'r, whereas there are a great number of second-tone

syllables

using

these

initials.

Hence

the

basic

form

is

reserved for second tone.) Note:

You must now remember two special lists of initials:

my n, i,

and r, for the first-tone spelling, and the labials—b, p> m, and / — f o r dropping u when appearing with the uo final.

Note that one initial, i.e.

m, appears on both lists, and therefore the combination of m + uo + first tone is spelled mho. Exercises on First Tone Spelling 1.

Pronounce the following syllables.

TONAL SPELLING

2.

25

tan

lhau

chiuan

uen

song

nhie

jiun

mho

sheng

Spell the dictated syllables in tonal spelling.

(Note that there is no

longer a need for signs such as "1 .) 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

Important Note to Student:

From this point on we begin to introduce the

meanings of syllables, and a very small

amount of grammar.

Yet we must

remind you that the main work of the current lessons is pronunciation, and this work is crucial.

Concentrate on it.

If your interest in grammar and

meaning leads you at this stage to neglect pronunciation, you will only be crippling your proper study of grammar and meaning, which will follow in due course. 3.

Pronounce the following syllables and learn their meanings.

Nouns shu - f book f5 jong - 'clock1 deng - 'lamp1 or flight1 tang - f soup !

Verbs chy - f eat f he - fdrink' ting - 'listen' or 'listen to' shuo - 'say' Adjectives

5

Since there is no distinction of number in Chinese nouns, these words may also be translated 'books', 'clocks', 'lamps', etc.

26

CHINESE PRIMER duo - fmuchf or 'many'* gau - 'high' or 'tall1

Pronoun ta - 'he' or fshef Second Tone Spelling:

For any syllable beginning with m, 77, 1, or r,

second-tone spelling is simply basic form spelling. (or

syllables

with no

initials) second-tone

For all other initials

spelling

accords with

the

following rules:

Rule 1:

For all Row- chour, tzar.

When an n or ng ending is involved,

however, the r appears in the middle of the syllable, as in pern, charngy tsorng.

Rule 2:

For

all Row-i and Row-IU

finals, change the i to y.

For

example:

Similarly:

chiau

(basic form)

i —> y

(rule 2)

chyau

(second-tone spelling)

iau — > yau, die — > dye> shiu — > shyu, etc.

Exception:

For the

i final itself, add

a y without

losing

the i:

i — > yi\ pi — > pyi\ etc.

Rule 3:

For Row-u finals, change the u to w: hua

(basic form)

u —> w

(rule 3)

hwa

(second tone spelling)

Similarly, uen — > wen; kuei — > kwei\ chuang — > chwang; etc.

* Though called "adjectives", these words function more ^ as verbs do in English. You may think of their meaning as fis much1 or * is high 1 .

TONAL SPELLING Exception A : the u.

27

For the u final itself, add w to u instead of replacing

Thus u — > wu\ hu — > hwu\ du — > dwu\ etc.

Note that syllables using the uo final normally change to second tone by changing

the u

to w

(duo — >

dwo\

etc.)-

In accordance with the

rule

regarding labials explained on page 23, however, the u in the uo final drops out with the b, p, m, and / initials, and as a result the change from u to v becomes impossible.

For the m initial there is no problem, because all m

initial syllables are automatically second tone in their basic form; thus mo is second tone, while first tone is mho.

For the by

p, and / initials,

however, we need the following extra rule: Exception B:

The basic forms bo, po, and fo are made into second tone

according to rule 1, thus: bo — > bor\ po — > por\ fo — > for.

In the past, students have had trouble with tricky cases of second tone spelling such as the following:

yn, yng, erl3 mo, yu, chyuan.

What are the

first tone forms of these syllables?

Exercises on First and Second Tone Spelling 1.

Pronounce the following and indicate which tone it is using H and A . parng

mha

kwei

ding

lian

chyn

chang

bor

jeng

shyuan

mo

lai

2. Spell the dictated syllables: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5

6.

7.

8.

9.

10

11.

12.

13.

14.

15

16.

17.

18.

19.

20

28

CHINESE PRIMER

3.

Pronounce the following syllables and

learn their meanings (N=noun;

P=pronoun; V=verb; A=adj ect ive). ren - 'person1 (N) shye - fshoef (N) men - fdoorT (N) tarng - 'candy, sugar1 (N) sheir - 'who?1 (P) wal - 'play, have fun' (V) lai - 'come' (V) nan - 'difficult' (A) Third Tone Spelling:

The following rules may be used to derive third-

tone spelling from basic form spellings:

Rule 4: the vowel.

Rule 5:

All syllables spelled with a single vowel in basic form double Thus ke — > kee; tang — > taang; du — > duu; po — > poo.

The ie and ei finals double the e.

Thus s h i e — > shiee\ lei — >

leei\ j i e — > jiee\ fei — > feei\ etc

Rule 6:

The uo and ou finals double the o:

tzuo — > tzuoo\ mou — >

moou; huo — > huoo; gou — > goou; etc.

Rule 7:

All other basic form spellings must contain either a u or an i

(because these are the only remaining cases)., To make them third tone, change the u to o or change the i to e.

For example:

gua

(basic form)

u —> o

(rule 7)

goa

(third tone spelling)

Similarly, dau — > dao\ chian — > chean\ guang — > goang.

TONAL SPELLING

29

When both u and i appear in the basic form, change whichever comes first. For example: shiue

(basic form)

i —> e

(rule 7)

sheue

(third tone spelling)

Similarly, niu — > neu\ niou — > neou; jiau — > jeau\ guai — > goal; guei — > goei.

Supplementary Rules

for Third Tone:

Rules 4-7 are adequate only for

syllables which have initials (such as choan, tzoei, kee), or which, lacking initials, happen to be in Row-

(regular rule)

e

eou add

(incomplete third tone spelling) ff lf

y

(supplementary rule 1)

yeou

(complete third tone spelling)

Similarly, iun — > eun — > yeun; in — > iin — > yiin; etc.

Supplementary Rule 2:

For Row-u, add a w in the same way.

For example:

ua

(basic form)

u —> o

(regular rule 7)

oa

(incomplete third tone spelling)

add "w"

(supplementary rule 2)

woa

(complete third tone spelling)

Similarly, uen — > oen — > woen\ uei — > oei — > woei; etc.

30

CHINESE PRIMER Supplementary Rule 3:

The finals ie and uo are special cases in which y

and w replace i and u respectively. and ie — >

iee — > yee (not yiee).

Thus:

uo — >

uoo — >

woo (not wuoo\)

Actually, you may forget about this rule

if you simply memorize the two exceptions woo and yee.

Note

the

following

third

relatively tricky in the past:

tone

spellings

which

students

have

sheue, ae, yii, cheauy moo, yeun, wuu.

found What

are the first and second tone counterparts of these forms?

Exercises on First, Second, and Third Tone Spellings 1.

Pronounce the following. bean

jeuan

yeun

tiing

wuu

chee

tzoei

loong

saan

2. Spell the following third-tone syllables.

3.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5

6.

7.

8.

9.

10

11.

12.

13.

14.

15

16.

17.

18.

19.

20

Pronounce the following and indicate the correct tone using "1 , ^ , and

J.

4.

pyng

kae

j iun

tzu

mang

ruu

deeng

yeuan

chair

lei

shou

moo

Spell the following first, second, and third tone examples. 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

TONAL SPELLING

5.

31

17.

18.

19.

20

21.

22.

23.

24

25.

26.

27.

28

29.

30.

Pronounce the following syllables and learn their meanings. jyy - 'paper*(N)

shiee - fwritef (V)

goou - Tdogf (N)

doong - 'understand' (V)

beau - 'watch' (N)

yeou - 'have' (V)

shoou - 'hand' (N)

mae - 'buy' (V)

bii - 'pen' or 'pencil' (N)

daa - 'hit' (V)

nil - 'you' (P)

sheau - 'little' (A)

woo - 'I' or 'me' (P)

hao - 'good' (A)

been - 'very' (Adverb - may be used before appropriate adjectives)

Fourth

Tone Spelling:

While the rules for producing second and third

tone spellings generally apply to the Table of Finals row by row, the rules for fourth-tone spelling apply column by column.

Rule 8:

They are as follows:

For the first three columns, add h to the end of the finals;

thus: ge — > geh\ hua — > huah\ chie — > chieh\ etc.

Rule 9: y:

For the next two columns, whose finals end in i, change the i to

bei — > bey; k u a i — > kuay; duei — > duey\ etc.

Rule 10:

For the next two columns, ending in uy change the u to w:

gau

— > gaw\ jiou — > jiow'yraiau— > miaw etc.

Rule 11:

For the next two columns, ending in n, double the n:

luann; kuen — > kuenn\ ban — > bann\ etc.

luan — >

32

CHINESE PRIMER Rule 12:

For the next three columns, which end in g> change the g to q:

dong — > donq\ guang — > guanq\ ching — > chinq; jiang — > jianq; etc.

Rule 13:

The el final changes to ell.

Just as for third tone, supplementary rules apply to initial-less fourthtone syllables in rows i, u, and iu.

Supplementary Rule 4:

For Row-i and Row-iu,

change the i to y.

For

example: ia

(basic form)

add "h"

(rule 8)

iah

(incomplete fourth tone spelling)

i —> y

(supplementary rule 4)

yah

(complete fourth tone spelling)

Similarly, iuan — >

iuann — > yuann; iang — > ianq — > yanq; iou — > iow — >

yow\ etc.

Supplementary Rule 5:

For Row-u, change the u to w.

For example:

uan

(basic form)

double the "n"

(rule 11)

uann

(incomplete fourth tone spelling)

u —> w

(supplementary rule 5)

wann

(complete fourth tone spelling)

Similarly, uo — > uoh — >

woh\ uei — >

uey — > wey\ uang — > uanq — > wanq;

etc.

Supplementary Rule 6: above.

The finals i, u, irij and ing are exceptions to the

For them, add y (or w) without dropping i (or u):

(not yh\)\ u — >

uh

—>

wuh; in — >

inn — >

i — > ih — > yih

yinn; ing — >

inq — > yinq.

(You may forget about this rule if you memorize these four as exceptions.)

TONAL SPELLING Note

the

following

chiuehy yann, yonq.

relatively

33

tricky,

What are the first,

fourth-tone

spellings:

enn,

second and third tone forms of

these syllables?

Exercises on Tonal Spelling 1.

2.

3.

Pronounce the following. jenq

tah

benn

j iunn

tzuey

sanq

law

duoh

Spell the following fourth-tone syllables. I.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

Pronounce the following and indicate the correct tone using "1, 'I, J, and N .

4.

jenq

deei

koong

taan

lieh

jah

tarn

wu

shyun

jeeng

mey

kanq

tann

jiuan

goai

jeng

jiuann

wuh

Spell the following first, second, third, and fourth tones. 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

II.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

28.

29.

30.

34

5.

CHINESE PRIMER 31.

32.

33.

34.

35

36.

37.

38.

39.

40

Pronounce the following syllables and learn their meanings: yaw - 'want to1 (V) kann -

f

look at"1 (V)

mah - fscold1 (V) may - 'sell' (V) bay - 'newspaper1 (N) dah - fbigf (A) jeh - 'this' or 'these1 (Determinative) nah - 'that1 or 'those' (Determinative)

S u m m a r y of Tonal Spelling:

Professor Y.R. Chao has summarized the rules

for tonal spelling in the following economical form:7 1st Tone: (1) Use basic form: ta, shuo, uan, ia. 2nd Tone: (2) Add r after the vowel for Row-

A:

Tzar.men jiow yaw jey-jian .ba.

B:

Hao, jiow tzemm jyuedinq .le.26

Nii kann tzeemyanq?25

ae

82

CHINESE PRIMER Lesson 2 MESSY ROOM

(Three weeks later) A:

Look, you!ve got more and more clothes scattered around and our room's getting messier every day.

B:

You've got quite a few things yourself. big ones, too.

One here, one there —

Not only a lot of books, but

downright chaotic.

A:

I just straightened them up this morning.

B:

The more straightening you do, the messier it gets.

And when you're

finished, the books all wind up on my bed. A:

I'm sorry.

I forgot to put these books on the bookcase.

B:

And then there's your newspaper—also a page here, a page there.

From

now on don't read the paper in the room. A:

How'm I going to learn the news if I don't read the newspaper?

B:

You

can go to the

library

starting today, okay?

A:

Let's

set up

a work

schedule

Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays you do

How does that sound?

Fine.

We'd better get our work schedule down on paper and then stick it

up on the wall. B:

read.

Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I'll sweep the

floor and dust off the table. it.

to

That way we won't forget.

Your handwriting is better than mine.

You write it.

(A draws up the schedule and sticks it onto the wall.)

UNIT I I I

LESSON 2

83

DIH'ELL KEH UTZ TAY LUANN

{Three weeks later) A:

Nii kann nii.de i.fwu yueh lai yueh1 duo, tzar.men jeh utz i-tian bii itian2 luann.

B:

Nii.de dong.shi yee bu shao3 .a.4

Nii.de shu Audann5 duo erlchiee dah.

Dong i-beel,s shi i-beel, jeanjyr7 luann .de buderleau.* A:

Woo jin.tian tzao.chern gang jeeng.lii guoh9 .a.

B:

Nii yueh jeeng.lii yueh luann.10

Nii jeeng.lii-wan.le, nii.de shu dou

daw woo chwang.shanq .lai 11 .le. A:

Duey.buchii,12 jey-7'ii-beel13

woo wanq.le1*

fanq

.daw

shujiahtz.shanq

.chiuh .le. 15 B:

Hair

.yeou nii.de baw, yee.sh dong i-jang, shi i-jang.

Yiihow16

bye

tzay utz.lii kann-baw17 .le. A:

Bu kann-baw tzeem jy.daw shinwen?11

B:

Nii kee.yii daw twushugoan19 .chiuh20 kann .a. tzar.men dinq ig gongtzuoh shyrjianbeau,22 san-wuu23

woo

sao-dih

tsa

Tsorng jin.tian chii, 21

.hao

juotz, ell-syh-liow

.bu.hao? nii

Shingchi'i-

lai,2l>

nii

kann

tzeemyanq? A:

Hao .a.

Tzar.men tzuey hao 25 baa 28 gongtzuoh shyrjianbeau shiee .tzay

jyy.shanq,27 ranhow21 tie .tzay chyang.shanq, jiow buhuey wanq.le. B:

Nii tzyh shiee .de bii woo hao, 29 nii lai 30 shiee.

(A draws up the schedule and sticks it onto the wall.)

84

CHINESE PRIMER

Lesson 3 A VISITOR IS COMING

B:

This room of ours might be messy, but it's pretty comfortable. Itfs much better than living in a dorm, if you ask me.

A:

No question.

It!s a bit cheaper, too.

Also closer to the classrooms.

Especially somebody like you, who's always late, just has to be close to the classrooms. B:

By the way, do you think this room of ours is the messiest in the whole building?

A:

I don't think we count as the messiest, actually. worse.

Number five is even

UNIT III LESSON 3

85

DIHSAN KEH KEH.REN YAW1 LAI

B:

Tzar.men jeh utz luann

. sh luann, kee.sh tiing2 shu.fwu.

Woo jyue.de

bii juh suhsheh hao .de duo. A:

Nah dangran, erlchiee yee pyan.yi i.deal. Shianq

.nii jehyanql** charngx chyrdaw

Jell li3 jiawshyh yee jinn.

.de ren, youchyi5 deei juh .de

jinn i.deal tsair shyng.6 B:

E, nii kann tzar.men jey-jian utz sh .bu.sh jey-suoo farngtz.lii tzuey luann .de i-jian .le?

A:

Chyishyr tzar.men jey-jian hair buneng suann.sh7 tzuey luann .de, in.wey wuu-haw bii jey-jian genq8 luann.

WOO SHANfl SAN HAW, NII-NET

86 B:

CHINESE PRIMER But we

can't

just

compare

ourselves with

the bad

ones; we have to

compare with the good ones. A:

Right.

Exactly right.

But that's easy to say and not so simple to

achieve. (Another few days pass.) A:

You had a letter downstairs, and I brought it up for you.

B:

Thanks.

A:

What's the matter?

B:

I have a relative who lives nearby, and he wants to come visit.

A:

When's he coming?

(Reading the letter) Oh no!

Blast it!

Who's the letter from?

How can we have guests in a messy room like this?

We

better clean it up fast. B:

Relax.

He's not coming till a week from Friday.

We've still got more

than a week. A:

Since you're always so slow with things, you better start cleaning up now.

B:

I may be slow, but I've never screwed things up.

That's a lot better

than you. A:

Okay, let's not throw accusations back and forth.

Why don't we just get

to work? B:

No way—I have a test tomorrow.

Got to be off to the library to study.

Let's put it off a couple of days!

UNIT III B:

LESSON 3

Buguoh tzarm bu inggai jyy gen huay

87

.de bii,9

inggai gen hao .de bii

tsair shyng. A:

Duey.le.

Nii

shuo

.de

jen

duey.

shuo.chii.lai10

Kee.sh

rong.yih,

tzuoh.chii.lai jiow bu nemm jeandan .le. (Another few days pass.) A:

Loushiah yeou i-feng nii.de shinn, woo geei .nii na.shanq.lai1l .le.

B:

Duoshieh, duoshieh. (Reading the letter) .Ai.ia!

A:

Sherm shyh?

B:

Woo yeou g chin.chi juh .tzay fuhjinn.1* Ta yaw lai kann .woo.

A:

Ta sherm shyr.howl lai? keh.ren?

B:

Tzaugau!l2

Sheir lai .de shinn? 13

Tzar.men jeh utz tzemm luann, tzeem neng jauday

Tzar.men deei maashanq jeeng.lii vx.

Nii bubihls

jiin.jang.16

Ta

shiahg

shingchiwuu17

tsair 11

lai, hair

.yeou ig duo 19 liibay .ne. A:

Nii tzuoh-shyh shianqlai20 mann, suoo.yii tzuey hao shianntzay jiow21 kaishyy jeeng.lii.

B:

Woo tzuoh-shyh sweiran mann, dann.sh woo tsornglai22 mei wuh.guoh shyh, bii nii hao .de duo.

A:

Tzarm bubih nii guay 23

woo, woo guay nii

.le, hair.sh24

lihkeh jiow

donq-shoou .ba. B:

Bushyng, woo ming.tian yeou kaoshyh.

Woo deei shanq twushugoan .chiuh

kann-shu, guoh leang-tian tzay shuo 25 .ba.

88

CHINESE PRIMER

Lesson 4 CLEANING UP

(One week A:

later)

It f s already Wednesday and he hasn ! t lifted a finger. too lazy. trick him.

I've got to think of something.

This guy's just

I f m afraid I'll just have to

(Writes a note and sticks it on the door, locks the door,

and goes out.) B:

(Taking down the note and reading it) "I had originally decided to visit you on Friday.

But it turned out I had to come here to see my dentist,

so I'm here two days early.

I just saw my dentist, and then came over

to visit you, but you werenft home. this afternoon."

Egad!

I111 come back at three o'clock

Only two and a half hours.

(B throws clothes,

books, notebooks, etc. into closets and drawers.) (3:40 p.m. A enters.) A:

My!

How neat!

This room's never been so neat!

B:

Where1 ve you been all this time?

What happened?

I'm dead tired from cleaning up the

room all by myself. A:

Why'd

you have to clean it up so soon?

Isn't

our guest coming on

Friday? B:

He came two days early to see his dentist.

He already came once this

morning, but luckily we weren't home so he didn't come in. note on the door saying he'd be back at three. and he's still not back.

He left a

It's already 3:45 now

I'm going crazy here waiting.

I've got a lab

at four that I'm going to have to miss. A:

(Stifling laughter) Go ahead and go to your lab. He won't be coming.

B:

(As the truth begins to dawn) How do you know he isn't coming? up note and looks at it carefully) out.)

You must have written this!

I'm going to beat you to a pulp!

(Chases A)

(Picks (A runs

UNIT I I I

LESSON 4

89

DIHSYH KEH JEENC. Lll (One week A:

FARNGJIAN

later)

Jin.tian yii.jing liibaysan .le, ta ideal dou1 mei donq. laan .le. Woo deei sheang g fartz tsair shyng. .ta .i.shiah .le.

Jeyg ren tay

Koongpah jyy hao 2 piann

{Writes a note and sticks it on the door, locks the

door, and goes out.) B:

(Taking down the note and reading it) lai kann .nii, howlai3

in.wey yaw daw jell . lai kann ya f i jiow tzao*

Gangtsair5 woo kann.le ya f i jiow lai kann .nii, nii

lai.le leang-tian. bu tzay-jia.6

"Woo beenlai jyuedinq liibaywuu

Woo shiah.wuu san-dean tzay lai."

.yeou leangg bann8 jongtour.

Hao-jia.huoo!7

Hair

(B throws clothes, books, notebooks, etc.

into closets and drawers.) (3:40 p.m. A enters.) A:

.He!

Jen gan.jinq!

Jeh utz tsornglai mei.yeou tzemm

gan.jinq.guoh.

Jeh.sh tzeem hwei shyh?9 B:

Nii

tzeem

shianntzay

tsair 10

hwei.lai?11

Woo

ig

ren 12

jeeng.Hi

farngjian jeeng.lii .de ley.syy.le. A:

Nii herbih tzemm tzao jiow 13 jeeng.lii, keh.ren bu.sh liibaywuu tsair lai .ma?1*

B:

Ta in.wey kann ya T i tzao

lai.le leang-tian.

Shanq.wuu yii.jing lai-

guoh 15

.le, shinq.kuei tzar.men dou bu tzay-jia, ta mei jinn.lai.

.tzay

men.shanq

liou.le

g

tyautz

shuo

Shianntzay yii.jing san-dean san-keh16 .de jyi.syy.le.

san-dean

jong

tzay

Ta lai.

.le, ta hair.bu lai. Woo deeng

Woo syh-dean jong hair yeou i-tarng shyryann, jyy hao

bu chiuh .le. A:

(Stifling laughter)

Nii fanq-shin chiuh shanq-shyryann

.ba. Ta buhuey

lai .de. B:

(As the truth begins to dawn)

Nii tzeem jy.daw ta buhuey lai?

up note and looks at it carefully)

(Picks

Jeh idinq 17 sh nii shiee .de. (A

runs out.) Woo fei daa-syy .nii bukee. 11

(Chases A)

90

CHINESE PRIMER

UNIT IV DOGGED LOCALIZERS AND DIRECTIONAL COMPLEMENTS

Lesson 1 "CANT SEE CLEARLY" OR "HAVEN'T SEEN CLEARLY"

(As soon as the teacher [T] goes to the podium, some students [B, C, E] start laughing, because the teacher is wearing a brown shoe on one foot and a black shoe on the other.) T:

What are you laughing at, Shyr Kee'leei?

B:

You have a brown shoe on your left foot and a black one on your right. They don!t match, and you canft see it yourself.

T:

Oh no!

How embarassing!

was very bright out.

I got up very early this morning, before it

I couldn't see clearly, and that's why I put on

the wrong shoe. C:

But sir, in our last class you explained that "couldn't see clearly" and "haven't seen clearly" mean different things.

Was your particular

case one of "couldn't see clearly" or "haven't seen clearly"? T:

When I got up this morning, my room was still rather dark, so I was "unable to see clearly".

If the room had been bright enough, or if I

had turned the light on, but had still put on the wrong shoes, that would have been a case of "not having seen clearly". (All the students): T:

Do you understand?

Now we understand.

My appearance is indeed a bit strange today, but I'm going to lecture on Lesson Eight, and I'm going to use a special method, so if my appearance is a bit special, that will be fitting after all. look and see if there is anything on the floor.

A:

No.

Nothing at all.

We can't see a thing.

I want all of you to

Is there?

UNIT IV

LESSON 1

91

DIHSYH DANYUAN LAO HWANG

DIH'I KEH "KANN.BU-CHING.CHUU" GEN "MEI KANN-CHING.CHUU" (As soon as the teacher [T] goes to the podium, some students [B, C, E] start laughing, because the teacher is wearing a brown shoe on one foot and a black shoe on the other.) T:

Shyr ffee'leei,1 nii shiaw sherm.me?

B: Nin 2 tzuoo jeau chuan hwang shye,3 yow jeau chuan hei shye, tzuoo-yow bu iyanq, nin tzyhjii kann.bu-jiann. T:

.Ai.ia!

Jen buhaoyih.sy.

Jin.tian tzao.chern woo chii.lai* .de been

tzao, tian hair mei dah lianq.5

Woo kann.bu-ching.chuu, suoo.yii chuan-

tsuoh.le.6 C:

Laoshy .a, jaw7 .nin shanq-tsyh suoo9 jeang .de, "kann.bu-ching.chuu" gen flmei kann-ching.chuu" yih.sy bu iyanq, nin dawdii sh "kann.buching.chuu" hair.sh "mei kann-ching.chuu"?

T: Woo chii.lai .de shyr.howl, utz.lii hair.sh heix .de,9 suoo.yii woo sh "kann.bu-ching.chuu".

Yaw.sh utz.lii sh lianq .de, huoh.jee woo kai.le

dianndeng, kee.sh woo hair baa shye chuan-tsuoh. le, nah jiow.sh "mei kann-ching.chuu". Nii.men doong.le .mei.yeou? A

(All the students):

Shianntzay doong .le.

T:

Jin.tian woo.de yanqtz dyichiueh10 yeou .deal chyiguay, kee.sh jin.tian woo yaw geei .nii.men jeang dihba keh. Woo yaw yonq ig tehbye .de fartz jeang, suoo.yii woo yanqtz tehbye 11

.i.deal daw yee heen hershyh.

Nii.men kann .a, dih.shanq yeou dong.shi .mei.yeou? dong.shi? A: Mei.yeou.

Sherm dou mei.yeou.

Sherm dou kann.bu-jiann.

Yeou mei.yeou

92

CHINESE PRIMER Lesson 2 IN THE D O G H O U S E

(There appears on the floor a doghouse covered with a black cloth.) T: How about now? A: Yes—now something is there. T: Wang Rujang, what is it that's on the floor? E: A big box. T:

But I don't know what's in it, because I can't see.

If I take away the cloth you all can see.

A: Wow, it's a big dog!

And good-looking!

T: This is our family dog. His name is Lassie, but we all call him Old Yaller. This is Old Yaller's doghouse. A: Hey! That house isn't bad! T:

Come on, Old Yaller. (Old Yaller comes out of doghouse.) Here's a cookie for you. shut.

(Dog eats cookie.)

Go back now. (Doghouse door has fallen

Dog walks up and is unable to enter.

The teacher goes over.)

Old Yaller can't go in, because he can't open the door. Now I open the door, and he can go in. (Dog enters.)

Come out, Old Yaller.

Come over

here. Go over there by the chair. Run under the table. Now, jump out. (The dog pants.)

UNIT IV LESSON 2

93

DIH f ELL KEH GOOU FARNGTZ

{There now appears on the floor a doghouse covered with a black cloth.) T:

Shianntzay .ne?

A:

Shianntzay yeou dong.shi .le.

T:

Wang Rujang, shianntzay dih.shanq sh1 sherm dong.shi .a?

E:

Sh g dah hertz.

Hertz.lii sh sherm.me jiow bujydaw .le, in.wey kann.bu-

jiann. T:

Woo baa buh na.diaw2 nii.men jiow kann.de-jiann .le.

A:

.Ah, sh .tyau3 dah goou, jen piaw.lianq!

T:

Jeh.sh woo.men jia .de goou, ming.tzyh jiaw Laishii,** kee.sh woo.men dou goan5 .ta jiaw Lao Hwang.

Jeh.sh Lao Hwang juh .de farngtz.

Jeh farngtz heen butsuoh .ma.6

A:

.Oh!

T:

Lao Hwang, nii lai.

{Lao Hwang comes out of doghouse.)

i-kuay biinggan7 chy. .ba. enter.

The teacher goes over.)

men kai.bu-kai.10

Dog walks up and is unable to

Lao Hwang jinn.bu-chiuh9

.le, in.wey

Shianntzay woo baa men kai.x, 11 ta jiow jinn.de-chiuh

.le.

{Dog enters.)

tzoou

.daw yiitz.nall

Nii tiaw.chu.lai.

.nii

Shianntzay nii hwei.chiuh1

{Dog eats cookie.)

{Doghouse door has fallen shut.

Woo geei

Lao Hwang nii chu.lai. .chiuh.12

Nii pao

{The dog pants.)

Nii shanq jell .lai.

.daw juotz dii.shiah

Nii

.chiuh.

94

CHINESE PRIMER

Lesson 3 LYING DOWN ON THE JOB

T:

{Continuing) Are you tired?

Rest for a while and drink some water.

{The dog drinks.)

Sit down.

tall.

Stand up.

Stand up.

I wonder whether you can climb up onto it.

teacher goes over to the stool.)

That stool is a bit Give it a try.

{The

Come on, Old Yaller, climb up.

Now,

let me sit on the chair, while you sit on my lap, okay?

Now jump off!

Next, I want you first to stand in front of the students, and then to stand between the stool and the chair. that chair?

How's that?

That chair is too small for you.

How about lying down on your back?

You want to sit in

You can't get into it.

Or else just lie on your stomach...

I think you've rested enough, Old Yaller.

Now I want you first to run

to the left side of the table, and then to the right side. front of the chair. Fine!

Come on over.

Then sit in

After that, go behind the chair and stand there. Run!

{To the students)

Look, now Old Yaller is

walking back and forth in front of me, making it impossible for me to do anything.

So I say to him, "Old Yaller, don't walk around here.

over by the doghouse and walk around."

Go

So he goes over to his doghouse.

Right now he's walking around beside the doghouse.

UNIT IV LESSON 3

95

DIHSAN KEH LAO HWANG TAY LEY .LE T:

{Continuing) Nii ley .le .ma? drinks.)

Nii

denqtz yeou

stool.)

jann.chii.lai.

.deal

shanq.chiuh.

Nii shie .hoel, he .deal shoei.

Nii

gau,

woo

Tzuoh.shiah. bujydaw

shyh.x kann1

.ba.

nii

{The dog

Jann.chii.lai.

Ney-jang

par.de-shanq.chiuh

par.bu-

{The teacher goes over to the

Lao Hwang, nii par.shanq.lai.2

Shianntzay

ranq

.woo tzuoh

.tzay yiitz.shanq,3 nii tzuoh .tzay woo shen.shanq, .hao .bu.hao? tiaw.shiah.chiuh

.ba!

Shianntzay

woo

yaw

.nii

shian

jann

Nii .tzay

shyue.sheng chyan.tou,1* tzay jann .tzay denqtz gen yiitz .de jongjiall.5 Tzeem.me, nii sheang tzuoh .tzay ney-baa yiitz.shanq?* tay sheau, nii tzuoh.bu-shiah.chiuh.7 huoh.jee nii jiow paj 9 .ba. woo yaw

.nii

shian pao

Ney-baa yiitz

Nii taang* .tzay dih.shanq .ba,

Lao Hwang, nii shie-gow.le .ba?

.daw juotz tzuoo.bial, tzay

pao

Shianntzay .daw juotz

yow.bial, ranhow nii jiow tzay yiitz chyan.tou tzuohj, tzay daw yiitz how.tou

jannj. 10

Hao!

Guoh.lai, pao.guoh.lai!ll

{To the students)

Nii.men kann, jey.hoel Lao Hwang .tzay woo miannchyan tzoou-lai tzoouchiuh,12 ranq .woo mei fartz 13 tzuoh-shyh.chyng.

Woo jiow gen .ta shuo,

"Lao Hwang .a, bye tzay jell tzoou, daw farngtz parngbial .chiuh tzoou." Ta jiow tzoou

.daw farngtz parngbial

.tzay farngtz parngbial tzoou .ne.15

.chiuh.le.lk

Shianntzay ta jenq

96

CHINESE PRIMER Lesson 4 INSIDE OUTSIDE

T:

{Continuing) Old Yaller doesn't like to stay indoors.

He likes to play

outside the house, because outside the air is fresh and there is lots of space.

There is also

a

lawn and

flowers

and trees.

Sometimes Old

Yaller likes to eat flowers; I tell him, "You're eating flowers again! I've told you you're not permitted to eat flowers.

If you ever eat

flowers again, I'll hit you!1' He shakes his head, meaning that he won't ever dare eat flowers again.

Old Yaller is very happy playing outside,

but it's getting late, and he has to go back inside his doghouse.

Just

as he is about to go through the door, I call to him, "Old Yaller, look! What's on the door?" Dog:

Yeah, there's a landscape painting on the door.

T:

Look again at what's above the door.

D:

There are some characters above the door.

T:

What characters?

D:

They're too small.

T:

If you walk a little closer you can make them out.

D:

I recognize them now.

T:

Good.

D:

Lesson Four: right,

I can't make out which ones they are.

Try reading them aloud.

in

outside,

between,

inside, above, below, in front, behind, left,

come

out,

go

in,

come

up,

go

down,

get

up.

Localizers and Directional Complements. T:

(Jo students) All of you saw that, I trust.

Even Old Yaller understands

everything in Lesson Four, and all the characters. you do not?

Is it possible that

I would guess that all of you understand.

I have guessed

correctly, have I not? A:

You have definitely guessed wrong.

We still don't understand, because

Old Yaller is smart, and we are stupid.

UNIT IV

LESSON 4

97

DIHSYH KEH LII.TOU WAY.TOU

T:

{Continuing) Lao shii.huan

tzay

Hwang bu farngtz

dih.fang yee dah. shuh. shuo,

shii.huan

way.tou

dai

wal,

.tzay

in.wey

farngtz

way.tou

Nii yow2

kongchih

Ta hao,

Way.tou yow1 yeou tsaodih, yow yeou hual, yow yeou

Lao Hwang yeou shyr.howl shii.huan chy hual. fl

lii.tou.

Woo gen Lao Hwang

Woo gaw.suh .nii busheu chy hual .ma.3

chy hual .le.

Nii yaw.sh tzay chy hual woo jiow yaw daa .nii

. l!a.ni* Ta yau.x tour,

yih.sy sh shuo5 ta yiihow bugaan tzay chy .le. Sweiran Lao Hwang tzay way.tou wal .de heen gaushinq, kee.sh shyr.howl yii.jing bu tzao .le.

Ta deei tzoou .hwei farngtz. lii .chiuh .le.

Ta

tzoou .daw menkooul gang yaw jinn.chiuh, woo jiaw .ta, "Lao Hwang, nii kann men.shanq yeou sherm.me?" Dog:

Ee?

Men.shanq yeou .jang shanshoei-huall.*

T:

Nii tzay kann.x men shanq.tou yeou sherm.me?

D:

Men shanq.tou yeou jiig tzyh.

T:

Yeou jiig sherm tzyh?

D:

Tzyh tay sheau .le, woo kann.bu-chulai7 sh sherm tzyh.

T:

Nii tzoou jinn .i.deal jiow kann.de-chu sh sherm tzyh .lais .le.

D:

Shianntzay woo kann.chu.lai .le.

T:

Hao, nii niann.x kann.

D:

Dihba keh:

way.tou, lii.tou, shanq.tou, dii.shiah, chyan.tou, how.tou,

tzuoo.bial,

yow.bial,

jongjiall,

chu.lai,

jinn.chiuh,

shanq.lai,

shiah.chiuh, chii.lai; Localizers and Directional Complements. T:

{To students) Nii.men dou kann-ching.chuu .le .ba? .de, dihba keh suoo yeou

.de9 tzyh,

nandaw 11 nii.men hair bu doong doong .le. A:

Nin tsai

.ma?

lian10

Dihba keh suoo jeang

Lao Hwang dou doong.le,

Woo tsai 12 nii.men keendinq dou

Woo tsai .de butsuoh .ba? .de keendinq tsuoh

Hwang tsong.ming, woom benn.

.le.

Woo.men hair bu doong,

in.wey Lao

98

CHINESE PRIMER UNIT V THE NOSE JOB

Lesson 1 I'M SLEEPY

(Monday at 9 a.m., outside a classroom.) A:

(Yawning) I'm really sleepy.

I didn't get to bed till 2:00 a.m. last

night. B:

Where had you been?

A:

My parents came to New York the day before yesterday. visit my sister. yesterday.

They came to

She phoned to tell me about it, so I went to New York

All my other brothers and sisters also went to New York from

Boston and Philadelphia. B:

Where all did you go?

A:

It was my parents1

We had a good time together for a whole day.

first time

in New York.

We went

to the United

Nations, the World Trade Center, and the Statue of Liberty.

Of course

we also went to a Chinese restaurant for a big meal. B:

Then you really must have had a great time!

A:

It was great, all right, but tiring too.

B:

I think you'll be nodding off again in class today.

A:

No, I won't.

(Students enter the classroom and sit down.

Professor enters and begins to

lecture.) P:

Today I will lecture on Lesson 20.

Before discussing the text, I will

discuss Chinese society during the May Fourth period.

UNIT V

LESSON 1

99

DIHWUU DANYUAN* HUAH BYITZ

DIH'I KEH WOO JEN KUENN

(Monday at 9 a.m., outside a classroom.) A:

(Yawning)

Woo

jen kuenn.

Woo tzwo.tian woan.shanq1

leang-dean

jong

.tsair shanq-chwang. B:

Nii shanq naal .chiuh.le?2

A:

Woo fuh-muu3 chyan.tian* daw Neouiue .lai.le.5 mey.x

Woo mey.x daa-diannhuah6 gaw.suh

.de.

daw Neouiue .chiuh.le. Feycherng7 daw Neouiue.

Woo.men ikuall wal.le i-tian.

Nii.men dou wal.le .shie§ sherm dih.fang?

A:

Jeh.sh woo fuh-muu dih!i-tsyh daw Neouiue. Maw.yih

.woo, woo tzwo.tian jiow

Woo ge.x, jiee.x, dih.x, yee tsorng Boshyhduenn

B:

Shyh.jieh

Ta.men sh lai kann .woo

Jongshin,

hair.yeou

Woo.men kann.le Lianhergwo,

Tzyhyoushern-shianq.9

Woo.men

dangran yee shanq Jong.gwo goantz 10 .chiuh dah 11 chy.le i-duenn. B:

Nah nii.men idinq wal .de heen gaushinq ,lo.12

A:

Gaushinq sh gaushinq, kee.sh heen ley.

B:

Woo kann .nii jin.tian shanq-keh dahgay yow yaw shuey-jiaw.13

A:

Buhuey .de.

(Students enter the classroom and sit down.

Professor enters and begins to

lecture.) P:

Jin.tian jeang dih'ell.shyr keh, tzay mei.yeou jeang kehwen yiichyan,1* woo shian geei

.nii.men jeang .i.jeang Wuu-syh15

shyrday .de Jong.gwo

shehhuey.

* From Unit V Lesson 1 on, we no longer use sandhi.

italics to indicate tone

100

CHINESE PRIMER Lesson 2 THE JOB

B:

(Whispering to C and pointing at A) Look, hefs asleep again.

C:

He always falls asleep as soon as he gets to class.

(C holds chalk in front of ATs nose and A, nodding, bumps into it leaving a white mark.) D:

I've got every color of pen here.

(Gives C colored pens; C holds them

in front of A's nose.) P:

I forgot my watch today.

What time is it?

E:

Nine forty-eight.

P:

Time's up now; let's stop here.

Class is almost over. For next time, in addition to preparing

the text and doing the exercises, make certain you go to the language lab and listen to the tapes. B:

Should we wake him up?

C:

Not this time. •k

*

Let's see how long he sleeps. *

*

(Students for next class enter.

*

Two students sitting in the back [F and

G] notice A and wonder about him.) F:

What a weird guy!

Do you know him?

G:

You could say I know him.

F:

What do you mean, "you could say I know him"?

G:

Because I know him, but he doesn't know me.

We live in the same dorm.

He's famous in the dorm; at night, when everybody's studying, he either sings at the top of his lungs or turns his stereo way up. stand him.

Nobody can

UNIT V

LESSON 2

101

DIH'ELL KEH HUAH BYITZ

B:

{Whispering to C and pointing at A) Nii kann, ta yow shuey-jaur1 .le.

C:

Ta tzoong.sh i shanq-keh jiow shuey-jiaw.

(C holds chalk in front of A1 s nose and A, nodding, bumps into it leaving a white mark.) D:

Woo.jell yeou geh-joong2 yan.seh

.de bii.3

(Gives C colored pens; C

holds them in front of A1s nose.) P:

Woo wanq.le day* beau.

E:

Jeou-dean syh.shyrba-fen.

P:

Shianntzay shyr.howl daw.le, woo.men jiow jeang .daw6 jell. shanq-keh

yiichyan

Shianntzay jii-dean .le? Kuay5 shiah-keh .le.

nii.men

chwu.le7

yuh.bey

kehwen

tzuoh

Shiah-tsyh liannshyi

yiiway, idinq deei shanq yeuyan-shyrshyishyh .chiuh ting luh'inday. B:

Tzar.men yaw .bu.yaw baa .ta jiaw-shiing?

C:

Jey-hwei tzarm bu jiaw .ta; kann .ta shuey .daw sherm shyr.howl.

*

*

*

it

*

(Students for next class enter.

Two students sitting in the back [F and G]

notice A and wonder about him.) F:

Jeyg ren hao8 chyiguay.

G:

Yee9 kee.yii shuo renn.de.10

F:

Tzeem jiaw 11 "yee kee.yii shuo renn.de"?

G:

In.wey woo suhsheh.lii.

renn.de Ta

Nii renn .bu.renn.shyh .ta?

ta, ta bu

tzay

renn.de woo.

suhsheh.lii

heen

Woo.men

yeouming,

juh

.tzay

woan.shanq

ig 12

dahjia

niann-shu .de shyr.howl, ta bu.sh 13 dahsheng14 chanq-ge ? l 15 jiow.sh baa diannchanqji kai 1 6 .de heen sheang,17 suoo.yii renren dou taoyann1* .ta.

102

CHINESE PRIMER

Lesson 3 THE BIG SLEEP

F:

Hefs sound asleep.

G:

No, donft.

Should we wake him up?

Letfs wait and see how the teacher will handle it.

{Teacher goes to the podium, opens his book; A suddenly starts to snore.) T:

Who!s snoring?

F:

{Pointing) This is the one.

T:

What happened to his nose?

G:

I don't know, but heTs got all sorts of colors on his nose: red, yellow,

How come there's snoring even before class has started?

blue, white, black, green. T:

Wake him up.

G:

Hey!

Wake up, wake up!

{A opens his eyes, looks all around; startled, he looks at his watch and stands up. A:

Other students stifle their laughter.)

What class is this?

{Students burst out laughing.) T:

Computer science.

A:

No, Ifm not.

You must not be in this class.

Ifm from the Chinese class before this one.

. . excuse me.

Excuse me . .

{Heads out)

T:

You'd better go to the bathroom first to look in the mirror and wash up.

A:

Right, right. *

*

*

*

{Enters restroom, looks in mirror) A:

Oh my gosh!

Another of Lii's good deeds!

*

UNIT V

LESSON 3

103

DIHSAN KEH DAA-HU.LU 1

F:

Ta shuey .de jen hao.

Yaw .bu.yaw baa .ta jiaw-shiing?

G:

Bu jiaw .ta, kann laoshy tzeem bann.2

{Teacher goes to the podium, opens his book; A suddenly starts to snore.) T:

Sherm ren daa-hu?

Tzeem hair mei.yeou kaishyy shanq-keh jiow daa.chii

hu .lai.le? F:

{Pointing) Sh jey-wey torngshyue.3

T:

Ta byitz sh tzeem hwei shyh?

G:

Bujydaw sh tzeem hwei shyh.

Byitz.shanq yeou horng, hwang, Ian, bair,

hei,1* liuh geh-joong yan.seh. T:

Baa .ta jiaw-shiing.

G:

.Hei!

shiing.le!5 shiing.le!

{A opens his eyes, looks all around; startled, he looks at his watch and stands up. A:

Other students stifle their laughter.)

Jeh.sh sherm keh?

{Students burst out laughing.) T:

Dianntzyy-jihsuannji.6

A:

Bu.sh,

bu.sh.

Woo

Nii hao.shianq bu.sh jey-ban .de shyue.sheng. sh

Duey.buchii, duey.buchii.

shanq.i-ban

Jongwen-keh

.de

shyue.sheng.

{Heads out)

T:

Nii tzuey hao 7 shian daw tsehsuoo jaw.x8 jinqtz baa lean shii .i.shii.9

A:

Sh, sh.

•k

*

*•

*

*

{Enters restroom, looks in the mirror) A:

.Ai.ia!

Tzaugau!

Idinq sh Sheau Lii gann .de hao shyh.10

104

CHINESE PRIMER

Lesson 4 LITS "GOOD DEED" {A finds A:

C.)

{Catching C and twisting his arm) You're disgusting, Lii! pull a stunt like that? Ouch!

Sorry!

You made a big fool of me!

C:

Ouch!

A:

Just tell me how you1re going to apologize.

C:

I'll treat you to a movie, okay?

A:

Okay, this weekend.

C:

Okay, okay.

Sorry!

Ow--!

Saturday afternoon.

That's fine, that's fine.

massages his arm.)

How could you

(A lets go.

Now you can tell me, Jang:

C chuckles as he

when did you wake up?

A:

At five after ten.

C:

How did it happen?

A:

A student sitting next to me woke me up.

C:

What did the teacher say?

A:

He said I didn't seem like a student in that class.

The other students

all burst out laughing, and the teacher told me to go to the bathroom to look in the mirror and wash up.

Now can I ask you something?

When did

you paint my face? C:

I started about 9:15.

A:

Where did you start?

C:

On the tip of your nose.

A:

How come there were so many colors?

C:

I just put the colored pens in front of your nose.

How did you do it?

yourself. A:

Where did the colored pens come from?

C:

They were Ding's.

A:

Disgusting.

C:

Right.

Okay, march!

Let's go find Ding.

He has to help pay for the movie.

{They go off together.)

You bumped into them

UNIT V LESSON 4

105

DIHSYH KEH SHEAU Lll GANN .DE HAO SHYH

(A finds A:

C.)

(Catching C and twisting his arm)

Sheau Lii, nii tay keewuh .le.

tzeem kee.yii jehyanq kai-wanshiaw?

Ranq .woo naw .le g dah shiaw.huah.

C:

.Ai.io,1 .ai.io, duey.buchii, duey.buchii, .ai ... .io...

A:

Nii shuo, nii tzeem daw-chiann .ba?

C:

Woo chiing .nii kann-diannyiing, shyng .bu.shyng?

A:

Hao, jeyg joumoh,2 liibayliow shiah.wuu.

C:

.Hao, .hao, .hao, .hao, kee.yii, kee.yii, kee.yii, kee.yii. C chuckles as he massages his arm.) gaw.suh .woo .le .ba.

Nii

(A lets go.

Lao Jang, nii shianntzay kee.yii

Nii sh jii-dean jong shiing .de?3

A:

Woo sh shyr-dean wuu-fen shiing .de.

C:

Nii sh tzeem shiing .de?

A:

Sh tzuoh .tzay parngbial .de ig shyue.sheng baa .woo jiaw-shiing .de.

C:

Laoshy shuo sherm.me?

A:

Laoshy

shuo

woo

hao.shianq

bu.sh

shyue.sheng dou shiaw.chii.lai.le.

ney-ban

shyue.sheng.

Bye.de

Laoshy jiaw .woo daw tsehsuoo .chiuh

jaw.x jinqtz, baa lean shii .i.shii. .nii.

.de

E, shianntzay woo yee yaw wenn.x

Nii sh sherm shyr.howl geei .woo huah .de lean?1*

C:

Dahgay jeou-dean i-keh kaishyy .de.5

A:

Sh tzay naal kaishyy huah .de?

C:

Tzay byitz jial.shanq kaishyy .de.

A:

Tzeem yeou nemm duo yan.seh, sh tzeem huah .de?

C:

Woo baa yan.seh bii fanq .tzay nii byitz chyan.tou, sh nii tzyhjii penq .de.

A:

Naal lai .de yan.seh bii?

C:

Yan.seh bii sh Sheau Ding .de.6

A:

Tay keewuh .le.

C:

Duey!

Tzoou!

Tzar.men chiuh jao Sheau Ding .chiuh.

Kann-diannyeengl7 ta yee deei chu-chyan.1

(They go off together.)

106

CHINESE PRIMER UNIT VI WHO'S NEXT?

Lesson 1 ALL SET Daughter:

I've found another person to ride to school in my car, Mom.

there are four all together, counting me.

Now

We've decided to leave the

day after tomorrow. Mother:

Have you gotten all your things ready?

You're taking everything

you need, I hope. D:

Everything's all ready except that I still have to buy two bath towels.

M:

Why don't you buy them at that department store on Great Eastern Street? Their things are good—and inexpensive, too.

Let me show you something

... look at these two pairs of sneakers. D:

They're exactly alike!

M:

This pair I bought at that department store for $12.75; the other pair I bought

somewhere

else

for

difference as big as that!

$15.99.

The

same

thing

with

a

price

By the way, do those people riding with you

know how to drive? D:

One of them doesn't.

But three drivers are enough.

repair cars as well as drive them.

One knows how to

With her in the car we can relax.

M:

Have all of them driven on long trips before?

D:

Of course I They're all older than I am.

I'm the only freshman.

Two of

them are juniors, and the other one's going to graduate next year. M:

How many thousand miles are on that old car of ours?

D:

Forty-five thousand. there's no problem.

I just sent the car for repair and a check-up, and

UNIT VI LESSON 1

107

DIHLIOW DANYUAN SHIAH-IG SH SHEIR?

DIH'I KEH YUH.BEY SHANQ-SHYUE Mha, woo yow jao .daw1 ig ren da 2 woo.de che chiuh shyueshiaw.

Daughter:

Shianntzay lian3 woo tzyhjii igonq yeou syhg ren .le.

Woo.men jyuedinq

how.tian donq-shen. Mother:

Nii dong.shi dou yuh.bey-hao. le1*

.ma?

Yaw yonq

.de dong.shi dou

day.le5 .ba? D:

Chwu.le

hair

yaw mae

leang-tyau

shii-tzao

maujin yiiway, bye.de dou

yuh.bey-hao.le. M:

Nii kee.yii daw Dahdong Jie ney-jia baehuoh gongsy .chiuh mae. nail

.de dong.shi

dong.shi.

yow pyan.yi yow hao.

Woo geei

.nii kann

i-yanql

.de, shyr!ell-kuay

chi-mau

Nii kann • jey-leang-shuang chyoushye.

D:

Jey-leang-shuang chyoushye wanchyuan iyanq .ma!

M:

Jey-shuang wuu.6

Ta.men

sh ney-jia

baehuoh

gongsy

Ney-shuang sh linq.i-jia7 mae

mae

.de, shyrwuu-kuay jeou-mau jeou.

Iyanq .de dong.shi, jiah.chyan chah tzemm duo.

E!

Ney jiig tzuoh .nii

che .de ren dou huey .bu.huey kai-che? D:

Yeou ig buhuey.

Buguoh yeou sanTg ren kai-che yee tzwugow .le.

Yeou ig

ren yee8 huey kai-che yee huey shiou-che, yeou ta tzay che.shanq woo jiow fanq-shin .le. M:

Ta.men dou kai.guoh charngtwu .mei.yeou?

D:

K-a-i--.guoh.9

Ta.men dou bii

.woo dah. 10

Jyy yeou woo sh shinsheng.

Ta.men yeou leangg sh san nianjyi, yeou ig ming.nian jiow bih-yeh .le. M:

Tzar.men ney-lianq jiow che jii-wann lii 11 .le?

D:

Syh-wann wuu-chian duo lii. mei.yeou wenntyi.

Woo gang baa che sonq.chiuh shiou.lii.guoh,

108

CHINESE PRIMER Lesson 2 PLEASE HELP, M O M

{The next evening. Father:

Father, mother, and daughter are in the living room.)

All our friends and relatives here are happy that you can go to

this university, Sheau Jen. one.

It's an expensive school, but a really good

Some of their departments are world-famous.

I hope you make the

best of your four years of college life.

You must work hard on your

courses,

enjoy

and

at

the

same time

learn to

yourself.

The

most

important thing is to learn to be a good person. M:

I feel you have some bad habits that need to be corrected.

You always

eat candy while you read, for instance. D:

I don't eat nearly as much as I used to.

M:

And you stay up too late at night; you don't go to bed until two or three o'clock. open.

D:

The next day you're so tired you can't keep your eyes

How can you have any energy left for classes?

I know, I know all about it.

Mom—I have something I need your help

with. M:

What's that?

D:

I can't take my flowers and my goldfish with me... I have to ask you to take care of them.

M:

You know I'm terrible at keeping flowers and can't stand goldfish.

D:

Of course I do.

But there's no way I can take them.

I have to bother

you. M:

Okay, let me give it a try... from home.

Sheau Jen, this is your first time away

I really am a bit worried.

You call us often from school,

do you hear? D:

Don't worry, Mom and Dad, I'll call home often.

UNIT VI

LESSON 2

109

DIH'ELL KEH CHUNG MHA.MHA BANG-MANG

(The next evening. Father: .de

Fathery mother, and daughter are in the living room.)

Sheau Jen,1 nii jey-tsyh neng shanq jeyg dahshyue, jell suoo yeou chin.chi

perng.yeou

dou

jyue.de

heen

gaushinq.

sweiran guey, kee.sh dyichiueh sh g hao shyueshiaw. shih chyuan shyhjieh dou yeouming. dahshyue sheng.hwo;

i-fangmiann2

Jeyg

dahshyue

Ta.men yeou jii-

Shiwanq nii haohaul.de guoh syh-nian yaw yonq-gong3

dwu-shu,*

i-fangmiann

yee yaw jy.daw tzeem wal, youchyi yawjiin .de sh shyue tzeem tzuoh-ren.5 M:

Woo

jyue.de

nii

yeou

.shie

buhao

.de

shyiguann

inggai

gae.diaw.6

Bii.fang shuo nii tzoong.sh ibial7 kann-shu, ibial chy-tarng. D:

Woo yii.jing bii yiichyan chy .de shao .de duo .le.

M:

Hair yeou nii meei-tian shuey san-dean

tsair

.de tay woan, tzoong.sh bannyeh8

shanq-chwang,

dih'ell-tian

ley

.de9

leang-

yean.jing

dou

jeng.bu-kai, naal 10 hair yeou jing.shern shanq-keh? D:

Jy.daw .le.

Woo dou jy.daw .le.

Mha, woo yeou .jiann shyh yaw chiing

.nin bang-mang. M:

Sherm shyh?

D:

Woo ney-jii-pern

hual

hair

.yeou

jinyu, dou buneng

day.chiuh,

deei

chiing .nin goan.x.11 M:

Nii jy.daw woo tzuey buhuey goan-hual, woo youchyi taoyann yeang-yu.

D:

Woo dangran jy.daw, kee.sh woo mei fartz day.chiuh, jyy hao ma.farn .nin .le.

M:

Hao, woo shyh.x kann .ba.

Sheau Jen .a, jeh.sh nii dihfi-tsyh li.kai12

jia, woo jen yeou .deal bu fanq-shin.

Nii daw.le shyueshiaw yaw charngx

lail3 diannhuah .ou.lk D:

Bah, Mha, nin fanq-shin jia .de.

.ba, woo idinq huey charng daa-diannhuah hwei

110

CHINESE PRIMER

Lesson 3 A QUIET ROOMMATE

The first phone call M:

Hello?

Hello?

Who's this?

...Oh, its Sheau Jen! was you!

With whom am I speaking?

This is a terrible line...

Whom do you want?

I didn't even know it

Hang up and call again.

(Phone rings again.) M:

Hello?

D:

I'm here, Mom!

M:

Did everything go well along the way?

D:

Everything was fine.

I've already moved into the dormitory.

The weather wasn't very good at first.

raining—but later it cleared up. is fine.

How are the dormitory rooms?

It took us only six hours.

It was The dorm

The rooms are big—two of us to a room.

M:

So you have a roommate.

D:

No,

she hasn't

moved

Is she there? in yet.

California, and really nice.

But we've

already

met.

She's

from

We hit it off very well.

The second phone call M:

How are you, Sheau Jen?

Why haven't we had any news from you for three

weeks? D:

I'm incredibly busy with my schoolwork...besides, I can't sleep well at night.

M:

You're staying up late again, are you?

D:

No, I lose sleep because of my roommate.

M:

What?

You've been quarreling with your roommate?

Didn't you tell us

last time how nice she was? D:

We haven't quarreled. goes wrong at night.

She's just fine during the day, but something When she's asleep she's always either snoring or

talking in her sleep—sometimes she even grinds her teeth, and it sounds

UNIT VI

LESSON 3

111

DIHSAN KEH TORNG'UL

Dih'i-tsyh diannhuah M:

.Wai, .wai.1

Nin naal?2

Sheau Jen .a. nii .lai.

Nin neei-i-wey?

Nin jao sheir?

.Oh, nii sh

Diannhuah sheng.in huay-jyi.le, woo dou mei ting-chu sh

Nii guah.shanq, tzay tsorng3 daa ig.

{Phone rings again.) M:

.Wai.

D:

Mha, woo.men daw.le.

M:

Nii.men i-luh dou hao .ba?

D:

I-luh dou heen shuenn.lih.

Woo yii.jing ban.jinn suhsheh .le. Suhsheh farngjian tzeemyanq? Gang chu.lai .de shyr.howl tian.chih budah

hao, shiah-yeu,4 howlai jiow chyng .le. jiow5

daw.le.

Jell

suhsheh

heen

Woo.men kai.le liowg jongtourl

hao,

farngjian heen

dah.

Woo.men

leangg ren i-jian. M:

Nah nii yeou g torng'ul .le, ta lai.le .mei.yeou?

D:

Ta hair mei.yeou ban.jinn.lai, buguoh woo.men yii.jing jiann.guoh miann .le.

Ta sh tsorng Jiajou6

lai .de, ren heen hao, woo.men heen tarn.de-

lai.7 Dih'ell-tsyh diannhuah M:

Sheau

Jen,

nii

tzeemyanq8

. le?

Nii

tzeem

san'g

shingchi

dou

mei

shiau.shyi9 .a? D:

Woo gong.keh mang .de yawminq, erlchiee woo woan.shanq shuey.bu-hao.

M:

Nii yow.sh shuey .de heen woan, sh .bu.sh?

D:

Bu.sh.

M:

Tzeem.me?

Woo shuey.bu-hao sh in.wey woo torngful .de yuan.guh.10 Nii gen

.nii torngful chao-jiah

. le?

Nii shanq-tsyh bu.sh

shuo ta feicharng hao .ma? D:

Woom mei chao-jiah. buduey

.le.

menqhuah,

Ta jeyg ren bair.tian heen hao, daw woan.shanq jiow

Ta shuey-jiaw

yeou

shyr.howl

.de shyr.howl hair

yeau-ya,

bu.sh daa-hu, yeau

Suoo.yii naw .de woo jeanjyr mei fartz shuey.

.de11

jiow.sh

shuo

nanting-jyi.le.

112

CHINESE PRIMER just awful.

She makes such a racket there's simply no way I can fall

asleep. M:

Doesn't that mean you're kept awake every night?

D:

It's not as bad as every night, but it's almost that bad.

M:

Then you should move into another room.

D:

But I really don't want to leave her. out.

She's really a nice person.

She'd feel very hurt if I moved

She's kind, cheerful, neat—maybe if

I just listen to her snoring a few more days I'll get used to it. M:

I have some bad news for you—your chrysanthemums are dead.

D:

(Sadly) Oh. The third phone call

D:

I fell and hurt my hand, Mom.

M:

What happened?

D:

It's nothing, don't worry.

Did you hurt it badly? Yesterday afternoon my car was being used by

my roommate, so I went out shopping on foot.

There was ice on the road,

and I fell down in a moment of carelessness.

I didn't fall hard;

be okay in a few days. M:

Your roses are dead.

D:

Oh.

it'll

UNIT VI

LESSON 3

113

M:

Nah nii bu.sh meei-tian woan.shanq dou shuey.bu-jaur .le .ma?

D:

Sweiran

bujyh.yu12

tianx

shuey.bu-jaur,

dann.sh

yee

chah.buduo

tzemmyanql .le. M:

Nah nii inggai ban .daw bye.de utz .chiuh.

D:

Kee.sh woo yow bu yuann.yih li.kai idinq heen nanshow.

.ta.

Yaw.sh woo ban.chu.chiuh, ta

Ta jen sh g hao-ren; ta shin hao, 13

shinq.chyng

hao, yow ay gan.jinq; yeesheu woo tzay duo ting jii-tian ta daa-hu jiow shyiguann .le. M:

Yeou ig buhao .de shiau.shyi yaw gaw.suh .nii, jiow.sh nii.de jyuhua syy .le.

D:

(Sadly) .Oh. Dihsan-tsyh diannhuah

D:

Mha, woo.de shoou shuai-shang .le.

M:

Tzeem hwei shyh?

D:

Mei-shell.15 bey 16

woo

jie.shanq

Shuai .de lih.hay14 .bu.lih.hay?

Nin bye

torng!ul

jiin.jang.

geei 17

Tzwo.tian

kai.chu.chiuh.le,

.chiuh mae .deal dong.shi.

shiah.wuu woo.de woo

jiow

chihche

tzoou-luh

Luh.shanq yeou bing.

.daw

Woo ig bu

sheau.shin18 jiow shuai.le, shuai .de heen ching, guoh jii-tian jiow hao .le. M:

Nii.de mei.gueyhual syy .le.

D:

.Oh.

114

CHINESE PRIMER

Lesson 4 MOTHER'S CARE

The fourth phone call D:

Ifve got good news for you, Mom.

This afternoon I saw the doctor for

the last time, and he said my hand has completely healed. M:

Wonderful!

But you must be more careful from now on.

Don!t fall again.

D:

There's going to be a China Night here next month.

The students are

going

to

sing

Chinese

songs,

calligraphy and painting.

make

Chinese

food,

and

do

Chinese

They asked me to show them how, so I have to

ask your help. M:

How do you want me to help?

You mean you want me to go to your school?

D:

No, Ifd like to ask you, Dad, and your friends—Uncle Wang, Uncle Lii, Uncle Jang, Uncle Ding, and Auntie Chern—to help by making a videotape with

all

those

things

on

it:

singing,

cooking,

calligraphy,

painting...you think they'd be willing? M (Ironically) You really are ingenious! D:

Let me go ask them for you.

That song you and Dad used to sing called one.

ft

We Were Children" is a pretty

Could you tape that one for us?

M:

What song is that?

I've never heard of any such song.

D:

It's also got something about the wind, and the birds, and stuff.

M:

Oh, you mean "Recalling the Time When We Were Young".

D:

Yeah, right, that's the one.

And then I'd like to ask you, Uncle Wang,

Auntie Chern, and them to sing one all together, okay?

I hope you can

send it to me next week, because we have to start practicing soon. M:

All right, we'll give it a try.

You really are a pain.

UNIT VI

LESSON 4

115

DIHSYH KEH

WOO JEN DANSHIN i

Dihsyh-tsyh diannhuah D:

Mha, yeou g hao shiau.shyi gaw.suh .nin. how i-tsyh kann i.sheng.

Jin.tian shiah.wuu woo tzuey

Ta shuo woo.de shoou yii.jing wanchyuan hao

.le. Yiihow idinq deei sheau.shin; bye tzay shuai .lfa.

M:

Hao-jyi.le.

D:

Shiahg yueh jell yeou g Jong.gwo Woanhuey.

Torngshyue.men yaw chanq

Jong.gwo-ge11, tzuoh Jong.gwo-tsay,2 shiee Jong.gwo-tzyh, huah Jong.gwohuall.

Ta.men jiaw3

.woo jiau

.ta.men, woo jyy hao chiing .nin bang-

mang. M:

Nii yaw .woo tzeem bang .ne?

Nii nandaw yaw

.woo daw nii shyueshiaw

chiing Bah.x, Mha.x, hair

.yeou nin.de perng.yeou

chiuh .ma? D:

Bu.sh.

Woo sheang

Wang Bor.x, Lii Bor.x, Jang Shu.x, Ding Shu.x, Chern A!yi** bang-mang geei .woo luh i-jeuan

luhyiingday5

baa chanq-geTl, tzuoh-tsay, shiee-

tzyh, huah-huall dou luh.shanq.chiuh, bujydaw ta.men keen .bu.keen.6 M:

{Ironically) Nii daw

jen sheang.de-chu hao bann.faa

.lai.

Woo chiuh

geei .nii wenn.x .ta.men .ba. D:

Nin gen Bah.x charng chanq

.de neyg ge'l "Woo.men Sh Sheauharl11 heen

haoting, nin kee .bu.kee.yii geei .woo.men luh neyg ge'l? M:

Naal yeou tzemm g ge'l .a?

Woo tsornglai yee bujydaw yeou tzemm g ge'l.

D:

Hair .yeou sherm feng .a, neaul .a, sherm.de.7

M:

.Oh, nii sh shuo "Jih.de Dangshyr Nian.jih Sheau".*

D:

Duey.le, duey.le, jiow.sh neyg.

Hair yaw chiing .nin gen Wang Bor.x,

Chern A ! yi ta.men jiig ren herchanq ig ge f l, .hao .bu.hao? shiahg shingchi jiow jih

.geei

.woo.

In.wey woo.men deei tzao

kaishyy liann.shyi. M:

Hao .ba.

Woo.men shyh.x kann .ba.

Shiwanq nin

Nii .kee jen ma.farn.9

.deal

116

CHINESE PRIMER The fifth phone call

M: Hello Sheau Jen, your goldfish are dead... Hello? Jen? D:

Sheau

Why aren't you talking?

What's wrong?

{Feebly)

Sheau Jen?

My mums are dead, Mom—and my roses, too.

Now the goldfish

I'm really worried.

are gone.

M: What are you worried about? D:

I wonder how Daddy's doing.

M: Nonsense! Your father is neither flower nor fish—don't make me lose my temper!

I'm not saying any more to you. Good-bye.

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1

UNIT VI LESSON 4

117

Dihwuu-tsyh diannhuah M:

.Wai, Sheau Jen, nii.de jinyu syy .le. tzeem .le?

D:

Yi?

Sheau Jen, Sheau Jen, nii

Nii tzeem mei sheng.in .le?

{Feebly) Mha, jyuhua syy.le, meiguey yee syy.le, shianntzay jinyu yee wan.le, woo jen danshin....

M:

Nii danshin sherm.me?

D:

Woo bujydaw Bah.x tzeemyanq .le.

M:

Hwu-shuo!10 Nii Bah.x yow bu.sh hual, yow bu.sh yu. sheng-chih .le.

Woo bu gen .nii shuo .le.

Nii bye ranq .woo

Tzayjiann!11

BEEN SHYH* Jihde dangshyr nianjih sheau, Woo ay tarn-tian nii ay shiaw. Yeou i-hwei binqjian tzuoh tzay taur-shuh shiah, Feng tzay lin-shau neau tzay jiaw. Woomen bu jy tzeenyanq shuey-jwo leau, Menq lii hua-erl luoh duo shao. Music: HUANG Tzyh (1904-1938) Lyrics: LU Chyan (1905-1951)

BYGONE TIMES I remember, when we were young I liked to talk, and you liked to laugh. One time, as we sat side by side Beneath the peach tree, The wind was in the treetops And the birds were chirping. Somehow, we fell asleep, And knew not how many Flowers fell in our dreams!

* For vocabulary of Been Shyh see p.150 of the Character Workbook.

118

CHINESE PRIMER UNIT VII GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER

Lesson 1 SHE HAS A BOYFRIEND

(A middle-aged couple sits in the living room. television; the mother is knitting.

The father is watching

The telephone rings, and the mother

gets up to answer it.) Mother:

Hello?

Daughter: M:

ITm done with exams, Mom, and I!m dead tired.

Ifm sure you haven!t been sleeping.

You need a good rest.

When are you

coming home? D:

Day after tomorrow.

Mom ... (pause)

M:

What!s the matter?

D:

I want to come home with a friend, and invite the friend to stay with us

Why aren't you talking?

for a few days, okay? M:

Fine, no problem.

I'll put another bed in your room, and you can stay

together where it'll be easy to talk. D:

It's a boyfriend, Mom,

We better have him sleep on the sofa in the

living room. M:

Oh, you have earlier? yesterday.

a boyfriend!

didn't you

let us know

We were saying you're just about through with college and Are the two of you close yet?

Uh-huh. We've already talked about marriage. calls are expensive.

Mom—daytime long distance

Let's not talk any more now; let's wait till we

see each other. M:

Why

Your Dad and I were worrying about this just the day before

still don't have a boyfriend. D:

Wonderful!

Fine.

(They hang up simultaneously.)

UNIT VII

LESSON 1

119

DIHCHI DANYUAN KANN.FAA1 BUTORNG

DIH'I KEH YEOU.LE NANPERNG.YEOU .LE

(A middle-aged couple sits in the living room. television; the mother is knitting.

The father is watching

The telephone rings, and the mother

gets up to answer it.) Mother:

.Wai.

Daughter: M:

Mha, woo kao-wan.le, kao .de ley.syy.le. Nii deei haohaul.de shiou.shyi2 vx.

Nii idinq sh mei shuey-jiaw.

Nii

sherm shyr.howl hwei.lai? D:

Woo how.tian hwei-jia.

M:

Sherm shyh?

D:

Woo yaw

Mha,... (pause)

Nii tzeem bu shuo-huah .le?

gen

ig

perng.yeou

ikuall

hwei.lai, sheang

chiing

.ta

tzay

jia.lii juh .jii-tian, .hao .bu.hao? M:

Hao

.a, mei wenntyi.

Woo tzay

.nii utz.lii tzay fanq i-jang chwang,

nii.men juh .tzay ig utz.lii, shuo-huah faftg.biann .i.deal. D:

Mha,

sh

g

nanperng. yeou.

Ranq

.ta

shuey

.tzay

kehting.lii

.de

shafa.shanq .ba. M:

.Oh!

Nii yeou.le nanperng.yeou .le.

.deal gaw.suh .nail

jau-jyi3

.woo.men .ne? .ne, shuo

mei.yeou nanperng.yeou. D:

.Eng.

Woo.men

yii.jing

Woo gen

Tay hao

.le!

Nii tzeem bu tzao

.nii bah.x chyan.tian hair

.nii dahshyue

dou* kuay bih-yeh

.tzay

.le, hair

Nii.men yii.jing heen hao5 .le .ma? tarn.daw6

jye-huen

.le.

Mha, bair.tian

daa

charngtwu diannhuah heen guey, shianntzay bu gen .nin duo tarn, deeng jiann.le miann tzay shuo7 .ba. M:

.Hao.

(They hang up simultaneously.)

120

CHINESE PRIMER Lesson 2 THEY'RE HOME

M:

{To father)

Did you hear that?

F:

{Watching television) Mm.

M:

Youfve been watching TV for two hours already. say to you.

No more TV!

It was a phone call from Sheau Jen.

You don't hear a thing I

{She turns off the television.)

Sheau Jen

called to say she has a boyfriend. F:

Really?

M:

She says she's finshed with exams.

She's coming home with her boyfriend

day after tomorrow, and wants to invite him to stay with us a few days. They're pretty close already—even talked about marriage. F:

Something

as important

as this—why

didn't she bring

it up with us

before? M:

That's just the way she is.

F:

You must be happy now that she has a boyfriend.

M:

Of course I am.

*

*

boyfriend Lii. D: Lii: F:

You mean to say you aren't? -k

{Two days later.

Don't tell me you didn't know it, either.

*

-k

Doorbell rings, father opens door, sees Sheau Jen and her

Father is dismayed.)

Let me introduce you, Dad.

This is my friend Lii Wenshin.

Hello, Uncle Wang. {Calling mother)

Mei'ing!

Sheau Jen's back!

{Mother comes out.) D:

Hello, Mom!

This is my friend Lii Wenshin.

L:

Hello, Aunt Wang.

M:

Have you had lunch yet?

D:

We ate on the airplane.

You must be hungry.

UNIT VII

LESSON 2

121

DIH'ELL KEH TA.MEN HWEI.LAI .LE M:

{To father)

F:

{Watching television)

M:

N i i y i i . j i n g kann.le leangg jongtourl

.de diannshyh . l e . 1

shuo sherm.me n i i dou t i n g . b u - j i a n n .

Busheu kann . l e .

the

Nii ting.jiann .mei.yeou?

Sh Sheau Jen lai . de diannhuah.

.Eng.

Sheau Jen l a i . diannhuah shuo ta y e o u . l e

television.)

Woo gen . n i i {She turns

off

nanperng.yeou

.le. F:

Jen.de?

M:

Ta shuo .ta kao-wan.le. yaw chiing

How.tian gen .ta nanperng.yeou ikuall hwei.lai,

.ta tzay jia.lii juh .jii-tian.

Ta.men yii.jing heen hao

.le, dou tarn .daw jye-huen .le. F:

Tzemm jonqyaw2 .de shyh, ta weysherm bu tzao gen .woo.men tarn.x?

M:

Ta.de shinq.chyng jiow.sh3 tzemm tehbye, nii yee bu.sh bujydaw.u

F:

Ta shianntzay yeou.le nanperng.yeou .le, nii gaushinq .le .ba?

M:

Woo dangran gaushinq .le, nandaw nii bu gaushinq .ma?

*

*

*

{Two days later. boyfriend Lii. D: Lii: F:

*

*

Doorbell rings, father opens door, sees Sheau Jen and her

Father is dismayed.)

Bah, woo geei .nin jieh.shaw.

Jeh.sh woo perng.yeou Lii Wenshin.

Wang Laobor.5 {Calling mother) Meifing,G Sheau Jen hwei.lai.le.

{Mother comes out.) D:

Mha, nin hao. Jeh.sh woo perng.yeou Lii Wenshin.

L:

Wang Bormuu.

M:

Nii.men chy.le wuufann .mei.yeou?

D:

Woo.men tzay feiji.shanq chy-guoh.le.7

Duhtz idinq eh .le .ba?

122

CHINESE PRIMER Lesson 3 MR. Lll WENSHIN

{Father and Lii sit on sofa in living room.) F:

What time did you leave the dorm today?

(Said three times, the first

time at normal volume3 the second time a little louder, the third time very loudly.) L:

We left the dorm at nine o'clock in the morning.

F:

(Loudly) How did you come, by train or by plane?

L:

We came by plane.

F:

At which airport did you board the plane?

Was it at the South Airport

or at the North Airport? L:

We boarded at the North Airport.

F:

(To himself) Talking to this guy really wears you out!

(In a side room) M:

(In a hushed voice) I know you always say good looks don't matter in a person—that person!s

the

most

important

thing

is good

character.

looks shouldnft be too peculiar, should they?

Just

Still, a look at

this friend of yours—hair half grey half brown; one ear high and the other low; one eyebrow long, the other short; one big eye, one little one; D:

a huge nose; a very strange-looking mouth, too.

You don't have to speak so softly, Mom.

Lii Wenshin is hard of hearing.

He's not going to hear you. M:

What?

He can't hear talk?

Then how do you talk with him?

D:

Really good friends don't necessarily have to talk.

M:

(Annoyed) Right.

You are quite right.

There's nothing left for me to say. company!

(Exit)

He really is your good friend.

You can go keep your good friend

UNIT VII LESSON 3

123

DIHSAN KEH Lll WENSHIN

{Father and Lii sit on sofa in living room.) F:

Nii.men

jin.tian

sh jii-dean

jong

li.kai suhsheh

.de?1

(Said three

times, the first time at normal volume, the second time a little louder, the third time very loudly.) L:

Woo.men sh shanq.wuu jeou-dean li.kai suhsheh .de.

F:

(Loudly) Nii.men sh tzeem lai .de?

Sh tzuoh huooche lai .de?

Hair.sh

tzuoh feiji lai .de? L:

Woo.men sh tzuoh feiji lai .de.

F:

Nii.men sh tzay neeig feijichaang shanq

.de feiji?2

Sh Nan-jichaang,

hair.sh Beei-jichaang .a? L:

Woo.men sh tzay Beei-jichaang shanq .de feiji.

F:

(To himself) Gen .ta shuo-huah .kee jen ley.

(In a side room) M:

(In a hushed voice) Woo jy.daw nii charng shuo ren haokann buhaokann mei.yeou guan.shih, tzuey yawjiin sh shinq.chyng hao. yanqtz yee bu inggai tay tehbye, sh perng.yeou,

tour.faa

bann huei

.bu.sh?

bann hwang,3

mei.mau i charng i doan, yean.jing

Kee.sh ren .de

Nii kann.x eel.duoo

.nii jey-wey

i gau

i di, 4

i dah i sheau, byitz tehbye dah,

tzoei .de yanqtz yee heen chyiguay. D:

Mha, nin bubih tzemm sheausheng shuo-huah.

Lii Wenshin eel.duoo buhao,

ta sh buhuey ting.jiann .de.5 M:

Sherm.me?

Shuo-huah

ting.bu-jiann?

Nah nii tzeem

gen

.ta tarn-huah

.ne? D:

Jen.de hao perng.yeou, sh binq bu idinq yaw tarn-huah .de.

M:

(Annoyed) Duey.le, perng.yeou.

nii

shuo

.de

jen

duey.

Woo mei sherm kee shuo .de6 .le.

perng.yeou .chiuh .ba!

(Exit)

Ta

jen

sh

nii.de

hao

Nii chiuh peir nii.de hao

124

CHINESE PRIMER

UNIT VIM LOVE ME, LOVE MY CHINESE

Lesson 1 WHY "WIFE"?

(A is Chinese. A:

B and C are Americans.)

There's a question I've always wanted to ask the two of you, but have never had the chance. just ask?

The question is how, in the beginning, you got interested in

studying Chinese. B:

With both of you right here today, why don't I

Why don't you go first, Lao Wang?

My answer is simple.

I wanted to study Chinese because my "wife" was

Chinese. A:

"Wife?"

Why do you use English for this word?

B:

These days some Chinese say "tay.x" for "wife", and some say "ay.ren". Last year when I was in Beeijing (Peking), Shanqhae, Nanjing, Shi'an and Goangjou

(Canton), everybody used "ay.ren" for "wife"; but Chinese in

Shianggaang (Hong Kong), Tair'uan (Taiwan), and America all say "tay.x". I'm not sure what I ought to do, so when I'm speaking with Chinese who understand English I just say "wife". A:

That's not a bad idea.

B:

It's fine when you use "wife" for your own wife. when you use it to address somebody else's wife.

But problems come up For instance, if a Mr.

Jang introduces his wife to me, and uses "tay.x" for "wife", I can call her "Jang Tay.x"; but if he uses "ay.ren", then I don't know what to say.

Because I can't address her as "Jang Ay.ren", and I can't call her

"Jang Wife", either. A:

You could use her given name, or say something like "Sheau Lii" or "Sheau Wang".

UNIT VIII

LESSON 1

125

DIHBA DANYUAN WEYSHERM SHYUE JONGWEN

DIH'I KEH AY.REN 1 GEN TAY.TAY

(A is Chinese. A:

B and C are Americans.)

Woo ijyr2 sheang wenn .nii.men leang-wey ig wenntyi, kee.sh lao mei.yeou Jin.tian jenqhao nii.men leang-wey dou tzay.jell,3 woo jiow

ji.huey. . lai*

wenn.x

.nii.men

.ba.

weysherm yaw shyue Jongwen? B:

Woo.de

wenntyi

jiow.sh

nii.men

dangchu

Lao Wang, chiing .nii shian shuo .ba.

Woo.de hweidar heen jeandan.

In.wey woo "wife" sh Jong.gworen, suoo.yii

woo yaw shyue Jongwen. Jeyg tzyh nii weysherm yaw yonq Ingfwen shuo?

A:

"Wife"?

B:

Shianntzay yeou.de5 ay.ren.

Chiuh.nian

Goangjou,6 TairTuan, tay.x.

Jong.gworen goan

renren hair

woo

tzay

dou goan

Beeijing,

"wife"

.yeou Meei.gwo

"wife" jiaw

.de

jiaw

tay.x, yeou.de

Shanqhae, ay.ren.

Jong.gworen

Nanjing,

jiaw

Shi1an,

Kee.sh

Shianggaang,

dou goan

"wife" jiaw

Woo yee bujydaw gai tzeem jiaw hao, 7 suoo.yii shianntzay woo

kann.daw doong Ingfwen .de Jong.gworen woo jiow shuo "wife". A:

Nii jeyg fartz heen butsuoh.

B:

Yonq "wife" jeyg tzyh lai shuo tzyhjii

.de "wife" sh mei.yeou wenntyi

.le,

"wife"

kee.sh

yaw

cheng.hu

bye.ren

.de

hair.sh

yeou

wenntyi.

Bii.fang shuo Jang .Shian.sheng geei .woo jieh.shaw ta "wife", yaw.sh ta goan "wife" jiaw tay.x, woo kee.yii cheng.hu

.ta Jang tay.x, dann.sh

ruguoo8 ta goan "wife" jiaw ay.ren .ne, woo jiow bujydaw gai tzeem jiaw .le.

In.wey woo buneng cheng.hu

.ta Jang Ay.ren, yee buneng jiaw .ta

Jang "wife". A:

Nii kee.yii jiaw .ta ming.tzyh huoh.jee jiaw sherm.de.

.ta Sheau Lii Sheau Wang

126

CHINESE PRIMER

B: Of course I could say that if I knew her well.

But how can I use her

name, or "Sheau Wang" or "Sheau Lii", if it's the first time I've met her?

A MAP OF CHINA

PROVINCES 1. Herbeei

J^^li*

4. Liauning

2. Shanshi

d*

5. Jyilin

3. Ney Mengguu1

J^j jfaj**

Tzyhjyhchiu

W

&>

\

6. Heilongjiang

"

1

It is written "Mongol" on official maps pronunciation, however, is "Mengguu".

2

The characters in parentheses are simplified characters.

of the

PRC.

The

Chinese

UNIT VIII LESSON 1 B:

127

Yaw.sh woo gen .ta heen shour,9 dangran kee.yii tzemm jiaw.

Kee.sh woo

gen .ta dihfi-tsyh jiann-miann tzeem neng jiaw .ta ming.tzyh huoh.jee jiaw .ta Sheau Wang Sheau Lii .ne?

PROVINCES (Continued) 7. Shandong

iM

8. Hernan

V"^

19. Ningshiah Hweitzu Tzyhjyhchiu 20. Gansuh

9. Jiangsu 10. Anhuei

21. Chinghae

11. Jehj iang

22. Shinjiang Weiwueel3 Tzyhjyhchiu

12. Jiangshi

>£,

13. Fwujiann

23. Syhchuan

14. Hwubeei

24. Gueyjou

15. Hwunan

25. Yunnan

16. Goangdong

26.

17. Goangshi Juanqtzu Tzyhjyhchiu

(f)

Shitzanq

ag s 4th century B.C.), whose style seems to them quite modern, than students in an American college know Chaucer (14th century A.D.). Another

reason

is

the

relative

social

and

cultural

homogeneity

and

stability in China during more millenia than has been the case with most other peoples of the world.

Of upheavals China has had plenty.

the

Manchus

conquering

language.

Mongols

and

made

hardly

an

But even

impression

on

the

There was no large-scale borrowing of words such as followed the

Norman invasion of Britain. Finally, the Chinese language seems old because, instead of spreading by subdivision into various national languages, which would then seem new, as did the Romance languages descended from Latin, it spread by diffusion to culturally

less

advanced

borrowed characters. the

forms known

neighbors

in

the

form

of

borrowed

words

and

These borrowed words and characters are still used in

as Sino-Japanese,

Sino-Korean, and

Sino-Vietnamese, and

stand as testimonies to the antiquity of the Chinese language, a language that gave more than it took

and maintained its identity

and comparative

homogeneity more than its neighbors. O u r Knowledge of Old Chinese.

The ancient Chinese language is basic

knowledge for modern Chinese intellectuals, but only in the sense that the text in characters and the idiom in composition are understood. aloud, it is always pronounced in a modern dialect. dialects in China.

When read

There are many modern

By studying their sounds, as well as the pronunciations

144

APPENDIX B

in Japan, Korea, and Indo-China of anciently borrowed Chinese words, modern scholars have made a reconstruction in all detail (except the actual melodic values of the tones) of the ancient Chinese pronunciation of about 600 A.D. This is called Ancient Chinese. tentative—to

reconstruct

There have also been attempts—even more

the pronunciation

years earlier than ancient Chinese.

of

Chinese

about

a thousand

This is called Archaic Chinese.

Broadly speaking, Archaic Chinese had a very rich system of consonants and vowels, and probably only three tones. four

grades

of

initial

consonants:

It had ten final consonants and

voiceless

unaspirated,

aspirated, voiced unaspirated, and voiced aspirated. the two voiced grades.)

voiceless

(Modern Mandarin lacks

There were a few initial consonant clusters, like

gl-, kl-, bl-y and pl-9 but these were relatively infrequent. From

Archaic

to Ancient

certain consonants vowel sounds.

important

change was that

(the pure voiced initials and endings b, d, g) became

There were

Going, and Entering. -/r.

Chinese, the most

four tones

in Ancient

Chinese:

Even, Rising,

The Entering tone comprised words ending in -p, -£,

A large part of the Going tone came from Archaic forms ending in -b>

-d, -g. Growth of Modern Dialects. except

M

as

in

Mandarin,

There is no Modern Chinese with a capital M,

which,

important

as

it

is

practically,

is

linguistically one of the youngest of the modern dialects, having evolved furthest away from ancient pronunciation. A.D. have affected

Certain broad changes since 600

most modern dialects, including Mandarin.

The voiced

initials of Ancient Chinese have lost their voicing in all dialects except those of Zhejiang (Jeh. jiang ^ V f > X ) , parts of Jiangsu {Jiang.su ^£*§% and parts of Hunan (ffwu.nan ^£]3&1).

The Ancient final consonants -/&, -p,

-t, -k are either lost or changed except in the extreme South.

In most of

northern China, the Entering Tone of Ancient Chinese has lost not only its consonantal

endings

but

also

its

redistributed into the other tones.

class

identity,

as

it

has

been

The four tones of Mandarin are not the

four tones of Ancient Chinese, but correspond only to its first three tones,

CHINESE PRIMER of which the dialects

first

have

central and

has been

preserved

split

ancient

eastern dialects

145

in two.

endings

On

and

the ancient

the whole, the

tone-classes

southern

best,

and the

initials best, while the other

dialects have departed further from Ancient Chinese. Classification of Dialects. three

zones.

The

zone

of

The dialects the greatest

of China are distributed over

variety

is

in the

southeastern

coastal provinces including Guangdong (Goangdong/SS ^^ )y Fujian (Fwujiann most of Hunan (ffwu.nan), Jiangxi (Jiang.shi s/£.{f£) ), and Zhejiang

T and parts of Guangxi (GoangshiJ\&qjp ), Anhui (An and Jiangsu

(Jiang.su).

The

second

zone

is the great

,huei^^^(j),

Mandarin-speaking

region comprising most of the rest of China proper and the greater part of the northeast provinces.

In the third zone, the territories and borderlands

of the southwestern provinces and province of Xinjiang non-Chinese languages are spoken side by side with Chinese in some form of Mandarin.

While

the last

zone includes

more than half the

area of all

China, it includes less than one-tenth of the population. There are nine main groups of dialects in China, six in the first zone and three in the second.

The first six groups are the Guangdong dialects;

Kan-Hakka (Gann-Kehjia ^fqT~~&*AO

\ t ^e Amoy or Xiamen (ShiahmenjM* j I )

dialects, including Swatow (Shann.tou l/d\ ^yj) 5 Fuzhou (FwujouXffl^l ); the Wu (J/u-9\ ) group, including Shanghai and Wenzhou (Uen. jou / Hunan.

which is the literary name for

The Guangdong, Kan-Hakka, and Amoy dialects frequently preserve the

ancient consonantal

endings -/H, -/?, -£, -/r.

The Fuzhou dialect

forms a

group apart, though it is near the Amoy group in many respects and is often classed literary

together name

Southern Min

with

it under

of Fujian

the term

province.

The

Min Amoy

(tfiinjatj ) , which dialects

are often

is the called

(Miinnanhuahi%\\i$l\?i7) and the Fuzhou dialects Northern Min

(Miinbeeihuah J!£J^

*tf)• Th e Wu dialects and the Hunanese group frequently

retain from Ancient Chinese the voicing of initials like b> d> g> and dz.

146

APPENDIX B The second dialect zone, including roughly two-thirds of the population

and most of China proper, is the zone of the Mandarin dialects, which can be divided into a northern group, a southern group, and a southwestern group. The northern provinces.

group includes The

the Yellow

River basin

Beijing dialect, upon which

belongs to this group.

the

region

of

greatest

dialectal J£^$Q

of Guangxi

of Hubei

(Goangshi), and part

sound-systems. for the

most

is based,

The southern Mandarin group covers a rather small

{Syh.chuany^D )x\ ), Yunnan {Yunnan

including Hankou.

northeastern

standard Mandarin

area between Hankou (Hann .koou/J^k*? ) and Nanjing. covers

and the

The southwestern group

uniformity—including

Sichuan

}, Guizhpu (Guey. J O U " T J T 1 ] ), part (Hwu .beei ^ X f l ^ ^ ) up

to and

All Mandarin dialects agree in having relatively simple

They have four or five tones. frequent

words

such

They have a common vocabulary

as personal

pronouns, demonstratives,

interrogatives, and particles. The mutual languages,

intelligibility

both

upon

the

background of the speakers.

of Chinese dialects depends, as with other

dialects

themselves

and

upon

the

educational

The three groups of Mandarin dialects may be

compared with the English dialects of the British Isles, North America, and Australia.

The other groups of dialects are about as far from Mandarin and

from each other as, for example, Dutch or Low German is from English, or Spanish from

French.

differently, while

(To be sure, these European

all Chinese

dialects have

comparison concerns spoken language only.) among

the major

difference

groups

between

of Chinese

English

dialects, ranging from

and

a common written form;

our

On the whole, the differences

dialects

German.

languages are written

are

Within

Sichuan to Heilongjiang

less the

radical group

of

than

the

Mandarin

(Heilongjiang x**\ /J^j^"^ )•*

speakers can converse freely, each in his own dialect, without

attempting

too much mutual adjustment. For speakers of the non-Mandarin dialects, ignorance of Mandarin can be a problem when

traveling

or when doing

educational

or public work.

Most

educated persons acquire a Mandarin of sorts either by "picking it up" from

CHINESE PRIMER

147

others, or merely by adopting the vocabulary of Mandarin novels Dream

of

the

Red

pronunciation.

Chamber

without

attempting

any

like the

readjustment

in

Among people in public life, linguistic difficulties arising

from dialect differences have been relatively negligible. For the common people, with their limited base of vocabulary and limited contact

with

other

habits

of

diction

and

articulation,

it

is

often

impossible to communicate orally across the boundaries of dialect groups, or even subgroups. Dialects, Mandarin, another

in

three

and

respects.

Classical The

most

in Shanghai, and lam in Guangzhou. of words for common use.

important

differ

difference

distinct words

is

!

The word for

he, she* is ta^^Jin

that

of

and

from the other

in Cantonese.

common stock

dialects

of Chinese

choose

another

Mandarin, yi\j

Out of these three

language, some

as the

favorite

ordinary use, leaving the others as obsolete or literary words. dialects differ f

from one

Secondly, dialects differ in the choice

Shanghai dialect, and ghoe^Q

choose one

Dialects

For example ^/L^ 1 woods f is pronounced lin in Beijing, ling

pronunciation.

in the

Chinese.

in grammar.

dialects form

for

Thirdly,

Thus, in Mandarin, one uses the word-order

give me some water,1 while in Shanghainese and Cantonese one says something

like

'give some water me. ' This third

aspect is 'the least important, as

there is comparatively great uniformity of grammar among the dialects. Over

and

above

dialect—there "classical

the dialects—or

is a literary language or wenyan ^l

Chinese11

dialect, for

rather, included

by

Western

scholars.

it has no pronunciation

Wenyan

of its own.

as a

part of each

^

, now often called

is

not

The

an

additional

same sentence

wenyan has as many ways of pronunciation as there are dialects.

in

To be sure,

a direct quotation from the Analects of Confucius must have been pronounced in one particular way in a dialect of Lu

(LUUSQ

) in the sixth century B.C.

But what concerns us is the fact that the Analects, as a currently read book of

a still

living,

if

not

spoken,

idiom

exists

in the

collection

meaningful sounds in the mouths of literate persons of all dialects.

of The

148

APPENDIX B

fact that there is one and the same system of characters throughout China has certainly played a major part contemporary

life of wenyan

understanding,

in the preservation of wenyan, but the

is not

reading aloud,

in the writing as such, but in the

learning by rote, quoting, and free use of

this common idiom, though its actual linguistic embodiment in audible form varies from dialect to dialect. whole of Chinese

literature

It is, accordingly, possible to reach the

through the medium of any one of the major

dialects.

Vernacular Literature and the Literary Revolution. Chinese literature is in wenyan.

The vast body of

Writing in the vernacular style, whether

in standard Mandarin or in any other dialect, was, until recent decades, never done on nearly so large a scale as in wenyan. vernacular

literature in the dialects

texts exist

in the form of Buddhist of

the

is negligible.

Mandarin vernacular

lectures of the ninth century, some

philosophical

works

comparatively

small number of plays and novels from the Yuan

dynasty on (since 1277). Cantonese

and

the

Sung

The amount of existing

(Sonq ^ L ) dynasty

(960-1278),

and

a

(Yuan7\^j )

Vernacular literature in other dialects, such as

Suzhou

(Su. jou $?yt »*H ) dialect,

exists

in even

less

significant amounts. Since the "literary revolution11 that was part of the May Fourth Movement beginning

in the late 1910s

(See Unit V, Lesson 1, note 12), the use of

modern vernacular Chinese in writing has spread greatly. first

articles

advocating

the

use

of

modern

written

Ironically, the vernacular

were

themselves written in wenyan, and the leaders of the movement continued to write letters in the classical language long after they had begun to write articles in modern vernacular. The modern vernacular movement penetrated most deeply and quickly in the field of literature.

New novels and plays, and to a lesser extent poetry,

were written in the modern vernacular and came increasingly to be accepted among modern educated youth.

(By now nearly all creative writing, as well

as publications on scientific subjects and translations of foreign books,

149

CHINESE PRIMER are in modern vernacular Chinese. taught

in the elementary

In the schools, only the vernacular is

grades, and wenyan

is introduced

beginning

in

junior high school.) Change was slowest to come in government, in business, and in the nonacademic professions, no doubt because of the difficulty of disturbing wellestablished result

of

phraseology this,

and

during

familiar

the

1920s

conventional

through

despatches, official notices, and even

forms.

1940s, was

A

that

paradoxical while

advertisements were often

news

in the

literary idiom, the so-called literary section and frequently the editorial section of newspapers were in the vernacular. vernacular has

Since the 1940s, the written

established itself more and more firmly in every part of

China—on the mainland, in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and in overseas Chinese communities. Unification of the National

Language.

Parallel with the trend toward

literature in the modern vernacular, there developed a series of efforts toward unification of the national language.

We have seen that there was

already a great degree of linguistic unity within the second dialect-zone. After 1911, when China became a republic, there was a conscious movement to unify the spoken language of the nation.

A Society for the Unification of

Pronunciation was formed under the auspices of the Ministry of Education.

A

system of 39 "national phonetic letters", or jub'in tzyhmuu V was

devised.

dialect was

A standard fixed in 1919

of pronunciation

based mainly

on the

Beijing

(revised in 1932 in the direction of a still

closer approach to the pure dialect of Beijing), and machinery was set up to train teachers

to teach

standard Mandarin

was

"the national

called—in

the

language"—or schools.

gwoyeu \&\&o

In 1937, the

>

as

government

subsidized the four largest publishers in the country in the manufacture of type matrices pronunciation

in which indicated

each

character was

on the right-hand

cast side.

in one block They then

with the

ordered all

textbooks through the sixth grade to be printed in such type, so that all reading matter could be self-pronouncing.

150

APPENDIX B The

Romanization

unification

Problem.

Originally the chief emphasis was laid on

of pronunciation, but another

importance as time went on.

development

assumed

This was the movement for adopting a form of

writing in the Roman alphabet.

The transcription of Chinese sounds in the

Latin alphabet is as old as the meeting of East and West. (1552-1610)

devised

the

Mandarin of around 1600. until

comparatively

increasing

first

known

spelling

system,

Matteo Ricci

representing

the

But extensive use of romanized texts did not come

recently, when the

Christian Bible, translated

into

various dialects in romanized form, began to be taught by missionaries.

In 1928, the system of Gwoyeu Romatzyh (GR) g&J &%Wfe.$lSr > x also called "national

romanization,"

was

adopted

by

the

government.

This

was

theoretically a system of transcription to be used only when Chinese names or words were mentioned in a foreign text or in public signs for foreigners, although in practice most government departments, until the revolution in 1949,

themselves followed the practice of foreigners in China by using the

Wade-Giles system of romanization.

In the 1950s the Wade-Giles system gave

way to the official pinyin/ffit% system of the People's Republic. The distinctive feature of GR is that it spells syllables in different tones

with

numerals. and may

f

different Thus mai

to sell1

!

letters,

instead

of

using

diacritical

to bury'^jc^is spelled differently from mae

f

marks to buy1

or 0

jQ , whereas in pinyin the distinctions are mai, maiy and

maiy and in Wade-Giles mai2, mai3, and maik.

(In the pinyin and Wade-Giles

systems, tone indications are normally omitted entirely, except in textbooks and dictionaries.) individuality

to

Spelling is more complicated the

physiognomy

of

words,

in GR, but it gives an

with

which

it

is

easy

to

associate meaning in a way not possible in the case of forms with tone-signs added as an afterthought.

Tonal spelling has proven in practice to be a

most powerful aid in enabling the student to grasp material with precision and clarity. has

1

turned

Thus the long-range utility of GR, far from its original aims, out

to be

in the

teaching

of Chinese

to speakers

of other

The word romatzyh, which is actually pronounced luomaatzyh , apparently is a combination of GR with Italian {Roma = Rome) or English roma(nization).

CHINESE PRIMER

'

151

languages. A system of romanization devised by A. Dragunov for teaching the Chinese in Russia to read became popular in the 1940s in the communist movement.

It

was called Latinxua or Latinization.

The system does not distinguish tones

except

late

in

special

developed between

cases.

In

the

1940s

considerable

advocates of GR and of Latinxua , sometimes with

irrelevant arguments.

the

other

hand,

quite

The former called Latinxua a communistic system, as

if a system of transcription could have an ideology. on

controversy

called

GR

a

tool

of

the

Advocates of Latinxua , bourgeoisie

because

it

differentiated tones and the use of tonal patterns is a feature of bourgeois poetry.

By the same

reasoning, since bourgeois

poets

also make use of

alliteration and assonance, a proletarian system of spelling would also have to do without consonants and vowels! The greatest difficulty with any toneless spelling system, or a system like pinyin or Wade-Giles in which tone indications are usually omitted, is that it does not write the

language.

Tones, as phonemes, are fully as

important in distinguishing words as vowels and consonants are. given

enough

context, much may

be guessed

from

an

To be sure,

under-differentiated

orthography, just as mumbled speech or even a grunt can often be understood. A sentence like: whether heard quality.

M

Aw want aw glawss awf called watawM is quite intelligible

or read, although it dispenses with distinctions of vowel

But if all English vowels were like

f

aw ?

said in a normal way would not be intelligible.

in

T

awl f , many things

"This is called water"

would not be distinguishable from "This is cold water." Another

difficulty with

any under-differentiated

orthography

is

that

native speakers of a language will by no means desist from using all of the word-forming elements that are available in the language.

No Chinese can

feel that he is speaking Chinese unless he speaks with tones.

He will be

able to read words written in a toneless romanization only when they remind him of words he already knows, with

tone and all.

When confronted with

"toneless" spellings, he will be quite unable to pronounce them in a Chinese

152

APPENDIX B

way.

The Western

student

of Chinese,

if he

is

conscientious, will be

equally unable to open his mouth. There remain many technical difficulties as well as social and political hurdles to be surmounted before any romanization can come into general use inside

China.

The

majority

of

Chinese

romanization and carry on their daily

are

not

much

concerned

with

life of reading and writing in the

good old characters, which "everybody"—alas, not everybody!—knows. Romanization of Classical Chinese. the Roman alphabet features

of

all

Any spelling of Chinese sounds using

faces the problem of representing all the distinctive syllables

by

using

only

26

letters.

Thus

distinguishes a retroflex and palatal " j " sound using zh and j. as well as piny in, distinguishes two

?f !!

u

sounds using u and u.

piny in

Wade-Giles, GR manages

to. spell all the syllables in Mandarin without using diacritical marks—but, as noted, needs more complicated

spelling rules

in order to do it.

problem for classical Chinese is much more severe. has

about

1,300

different

syllables—burden

The

Whereas modern Mandarin enough

for

the

Roman

alphabet—the Ancient Chinese of 600 A.D., as represented in the dictionary Goangyunn/i&'faljA , 1007 A.D., had as many as 3,877 distinctive syllables. try to render all of these in romanized spellings would lead to arcane, if not

unreadable,

complexity.

On

the

other

syllables into the 1,300 of modern Mandarin language as it is pronounced

in modern

ambiguity because of homophones.

hand,

to

collapse

all

the

(i.e., to write the classical

Mandarin) would

lead to too much

In short, the chief objection to any all-

purpose romanization for Chinese has to be the fact that one cannot use it to represent wenyan adequately.

Therefore any abolition of the characters

would mean the drastic cutting off of China's cultural heritage, most of which is in the classical language.

It is all very well to say that the

literature of the present and the future is and will be in the vernacular and

therefore

intelligible

in

romanized

writing.

But

as

for

past

literature, it would be a superhuman job, if possible at all, to translate all of it into the vernacular form.

in order to make it legible in alphabetic

To

153

CHINESE PRIMER Basic Chinese.

Another part of the movement to simplify Chinese writing

has been the attempt to reduce the number of characters. Y. C.

Yen -^C ) %)f/? > as part

In the 1930s James

of his Mass Education Movement in Hebei

(Her.beeisjo\ >lc ) province, selected a list of about 1,200 frequently-used characters

and

limited

composed to teach

himself

the barely

to

these

literate.

in publishing

elementary

texts

A more linguistically systematic

effort was undertaken by the dramatist Hung Shen (Horng Shen/?\ ?yjO > who prepared a list of 1,100 "basic characters" in 1934.

Like the word list of

C. K. Ogden!s "Basic English," it is not based on frequency as such, but on flexibility in combination and sufficiency for general use.

Since, however,

a character represents a monosyllable and a monosyllable is often less than a "word", Hung Shenfs list of 1,100 units allowed much greater freedom of combination than the word list in Basic English.

The result was that the

language written within the limits of this list was much nearer to normal language and gave much less impression of a special style than did Basic English. For whatever gained general

reason-, neither currency.

Yen's

Similar

nor Hung's

restricted

lists

ever

efforts in the 1950s by the Communist

Party also met with limited success.

CHARACTERS Pictographs

and

Ideographs.

Ancient

Chinese

described as being pictorial or ideographic.

the

characters,

is

usually

Thus, a circle with

a dot

is the character for 'sun1, and three horizontal strokes ZZ*

inside it Q / represent

writing

'three1.

number

called

liowshu >^^>

are

the easiest characters

indications of ideas, as J-

recognized.

to understand.

consisting

for 'up1 and

for the numbers 'one, two, three'.

tradition, six

)

of

categories

(1)

Shianqshyng

(2) Jyyshyh

simple

for 'down', or —

of

'simple

diagrammatic , SZ , jjj^

(3) Hueyyih 'compound ideographs'^iji

are characters whose meaning is the combination of the meanings of their

154

APPENDIX B

parts.

f

Stock examples are jt

'human' +

'word1 - A%

^

stopf +

jXj 'arms' = jjf^ 'military1

'honest1.

Characters in the preceding three categories form only a small minority of

all

characters.

They

are,

language they are used with. a

sign

for

the

English

theoretically,

independent

of

the

spoken

For example, three strokes would form as good 'three1

word

as

for

the

Chinese

word

san.

Conceivably the Chinese system of writing could have developed along its own lines

into

language.

a complete

system

Actually,

characters

have

of

however,

become

so

symbols,

from

very

intimately

independently ancient

associated

of the

times,

with

the

the words

Chinese written of

the

language that they have lost their functions as pictographs or ideographs in their own

right and become "logographs," meaning conventionalized

representations ideas, but

of

only

spoken words.

symbols

of

ideas

represent are symbols of ideas.

They

are no

in so

far

longer direct as

the

spoken

visual

symbols words

of

they

One should not, therefore, be misled by the

popular conception that an analysis of the formation of characters will lead to a correct understanding of the Chinese words they represent.

Borrowed Characters, Phonetic Compounds, and Derivative Characters. The vast majority of characters are logographs that fall into three further categories.

As the ancient Chinese devised characters for words, obviously

the meaning of many words could not be pictured.

A common practice was to

borrow a character whose word had the same sound as the word for which a character was sought.

For example, in Archaic Chinese, there was a word l%g

for a kind of wheat, which was written with a picture of the plant Table 12, p. 158). meant 'come*. meaning

that

(See

There existed, at the same time, a homonym l%g that

Rather than to invent another character for this word with a was

hard

to picture

or

indicate

diagramatically,

ancient

writers simply borrowed the character for the plant to write the word for f

come f .

Such characters are known as (4) jeajieh 'borrowed charactersf

ft-

^

CHINESE PRIMER In

the example

just

obsolete long ago.

cited,

155

the original

word

happens

to have

become

But in some cases, both the original word and the word

for which the character was borrowed exist side by side. £(\ 'to burn1 is also the character used differentiate the two, an extra part j\^

For example, ran

for the word ran 'thus, so 1 . f

To

firef was added to the character

(which, as an ideographic compound, already contains a part meaning

T

firef

in the form of four dots at the bottom), thus making an Tenlarged character1 >ft/\ f ° r

ran

'to burn! , and allowing the original character to be used only 'thus, so 1 .

for the word ran

Characters so

enlarged belong

shyesheng ^VQ ^0L~Xphonetic

called (5) shyngsheng "Uy^%Tor

to a group

compounds1.

The

original character ^ v \ ran is called the 'phonetic* and the added part the 'signific', which in the majority radicals, see pp.

153-156

written*,jtL enlarged byf£

of cases

below.)

is

also

Similarly, joj

the

woang

'radical'. !

a net1

(On

is now

, a signific associated with threads or strings,

tin while

the

original

character jc I is

borrowed

exclusively

to write

the

homonym woang 'have not ! . Besides the enlargement of a loan character, there is a second source of phonetic

compounds.

Thus, the word wen

Words

in every

language

acquire

extended meanings.

'line, streak' is written with the ideograph X

.

By

extension (not by loan), the same word also has the figurative meanings of 'writing,

literature, culture.1

To

distinguish

in writing

between

the

literal and the figurative meanings of the same word wen, a signific fj^ is added to form the character^vX^, to be used in the literal meaning, leaving the original character yi^ is the other way around:

for the figurative meanings only.

Sometimes it

The derived meaning has the enlarged character.

Thus, the word fang means 'square' in the general sense and 'a square* as a place in a city.

To differentiate between the two, the word is written^@

for 'square1 in general and &Q

, with an additional graph jj,

do with places, for 'square, market place.'

which has to

It is as if one were to write

Harvard Squerre, with a suggestion of terre in the second word.

156

APPENDIX B Thirdly, there is the group of pure phonetic

signific

is added

extension

in the

to a phonetic which first place, but was

combine with the signific.

compounds

was never expressly

in which the

a loan or a semantic used

for

its sound to

For example, tarng 'sugar1 writtenyjyjg , consists

of Vf^ the signific relating to cereal foods and the phoneticyg yu

f

elm,f written^fllj , consisting of ^v_ the signific for

phonetic>BiJ Many

yu.

f

tarng; or

treef and the

Pure phonetic compounds are of relatively recent origin.

characters

of

the

preceding

categories

seem

to

be

pure

phonetic

compounds because most people are not aware that the unenlarged character or 'phonetic1 was used as a loan character or used in a related meaning in old texts for centuries before the enlarged form came into use. Phonetic compounds form by far the majority of all characters.

When they

were formed, the sound of the original character and that of the compounded character were

identical or very

similar.

Later, differences

in sound

between compounds and their phonetics developed and increased, and it is now no longer practical to infer the present sound of a compound character from the present sound of its phonetic or the other way around.

But after the

sounds of both the compound and its phonetic are learned, it will be of help to note the phonetic similarity. Finally, category

(6)

characters1. form

the

traditional

joanjuh ^f3r^S^

classification that

we

of

might

characters translate

recognizes

as

a

'derivative

Scholars include here words whose sound, meaning, and written

all undergo

'propitious1 to 3 *

an associated modification, sheang 'enjoy1.

for example

from

"^

heng

But membership in the joanjuh class is

both small and uncertain, and scholars differ widely over what it should include. Radicals.

Various systems have been used, through the ages, to classify

characters according to their component parts called 'radicals'.

The most

important practical use of such systems is in arranging dictionaries.

In

most cases, a radical is the signific, or the character minus its phonetic, since the majority of characters are phonetic compounds.

For example, in

CHINESE PRIMER the character3^ > i *

is the radical

157

and y&

the phonetic.

In the

relatively small number of cases where the character is not phonetically formed, the analysis of the radical is a matter of arbitrary convention, which often is at variance with the actual history of the character. Therefore etymological conclusions cannot follow from any of the present radical systems. Table 11 List of Radicals

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

3 4

12 A

« n tb

5 6 7 8 9

n *F €7

m

r 100 110 m 120 130 1% 140 * 150 J2. R 160 170 180 • 190 I &W. H$ 200 210 * • 2 3 4

•3-

ZJLJ

ih

5*

4

Si J*

-a-

fc

tk 5 6 7 8 9

o

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 210

APPENDIX B

158

Table 11 lists the radicals employed by many dictionaries.

in the traditional system of 214 radicals The order of the radicals is arranged by the

number of strokes, beginning with one stroke for No. 1 — ~

and ending with

17 strokes for No. 214'yfF) . Within each group that has the same number of strokes, the order is purely conventional. have one or more variant forms.

Note that many of the radicals

With certain radicals, such as 9 or 85, the

variants are more frequent than the main form.

Radicals

modern texts, always occur in their variant forms. however, in their conventional

140 and 162, in

The main forms are kept,

positions on the list, since the variant

forms do not have the same number of strokes as the main forms. In a dictionary arranged by radicals, the characters under each radical are arranged in the order of the number of strokes. radical ^ ^

muh

!

tree, wood1,

there

is

first

the

For example, under the radical

itself

as a

character, then the characters with one additional stroke, such as ^p* wey f

have not

(yet)1

and >?JN been

'root1.

Next are the characters with two

additional strokes, such as > 3 ^ Ju, a surname, down to characters with as many as 24 strokes, such &s>«Sf ling the

same

radical

with

the

same

!

sill f . number

For different characters under of

additional

strokes,

the

dictionaries differ in their order of arrangement. The problem steps:

of finding a character

in a dictionary thus

involves two

(1) correctly identifying its radical, and (2) counting the number

of additional strokes.

Sometimes characters that appear to have radicals

plus additional strokes are in fact complex radicals that do not involve

additional strokes, for example: y\^ 4"J jj^ ~*fif rf^-'&y ijf^. N ? M and % are all themselves radicals. A majority of characters can be broken down into a left-hand side and a right-hand side, in which case the left-hand side is usually the radical, as in -5^3* ^'^Jn*fr!&& • radicals 181,

Important

exceptions

(referring

to

Table

11) are

18 (variant), 59, 62, 66 (variant), 69, 76, 163 (variant), 172,

and 196, all of which occupy the right-hand side, as in Ijyi^^l Other characters can be divided into an upper and a lower part.

-%y Of

CHINESE PRIMER

159

these, the majority have radicals occurring at the top, such as nos. 8, 40, 87 (variant), (variant).

116, 118

(variant), 122

(variant), 140

(variant), and

173

In cases where the radicals occur at the bottom, as in y\ iJ*1**

(5? 3fo , the number

of different radicals

is actually

greater than the

number of radicals that occur at the top; but the total number of characters that have such radicals is smaller than the number that have radicals at the top. Finally, certain radicals enclose, or partially enclose, or are otherwise mixed up with the residual strokes, as in |^| Hrl ^j^^jf^-^wL-H whose radicals are | I P J j

ji$r ^ C _ ~ |

and js^.

While the above rules will cover most of the cases, many irregular cases For example, "^fc/ is under JfJ

have to be learned individually. £$L

is under ^** and notjj^_ , etc.

and not yf^,

Most dictionaries have a special list of

characters whose radicals are difficult to discern; this list is arranged not by radical, but by the total number of strokes. "possible11 radicals.

characters under several

indexed under sfs^ as well as ]EJ

Some dictionaries list

For example, "ifq

might be

, with a note pointing out which is the

actual radical. Some Chinese-English dictionaries are arranged alphabetically according to the spellings of

a romani^ation

system.

These dictionaries are very

convenient if you already know the pronunciation of a character and simply want

to

check

on

pronunciation, you

its

meanings

still

need

and to

uses.

But

look up the

if you

character

don't by

know

the

finding

its

radical in an index. Order and

Number of Strokes.

In teaching children to write, Chinese

teachers lay great stress on the order of strokes in which a character is written.

There are both aesthetic and practical reasons for this.

When

made with a brush-pen, characters will not have the right shape unless the order of the strokes is correct.

Moreover, since most everyday writing is

in a running hand (see p. 158), in which separate strokes become connected, a wrong order will result in unrecognizable forms.

160

APPENDIX B The general principle of making the strokes is from left to right and

from

top to bottom.

In strokes

that

thin down

to a sharp point,

the

direction is from the thick to the thin end, which in some cases involves making strokes from below upwards or from right to left, as ^

in /

and

When a horizontal stroke and another stroke intersect, the horizontal one is usually made first.

In a character containing a vertical stroke with two

symmetrical parts on both sides, as in^jC^ , the vertical stroke is made first,

followed

by

the

left-hand

side,

then

the

right-hand

side.

In

complete enclosures, the left hand wall is made, then the top and the righthand side are made in one stroke, then the content the bottom stroke added.

filled in, and finally

(For examples, see characters \ih) andrjjtjif in the

Character Workbook, pp. 4 and 68.) In counting strokes, a horizontal from the right end down, as in

line and a vertical line joining it

' , are counted as one stroke.

Similarly an

L-shaped combination of lines is sometimes counted as one stroke.

These two

operations can be combined in a single stroke, as in the last stroke of which is fj . Styles

( S e e ^ - ^ in the Character Workbook, p. 6.)

of

Script.

inscriptions

on

ox

The bones

earliest and

known

Chinese

tortoise

shells,

writing

consisted

of

oracles

of

recording

divination under the rulers of the Shang (Shang JcR ) dynasty, ca. 1766-ca. 1122 B.C. Chou

Next in antiquity we find inscriptions, mostly on bronzes, of the

(JOUJCM

) dynasty, ca. 1122-246 B.C.

Characters written for the same

word differed widely from age to age until finally, under the Ch!in (Chyn JSJ^)

dynasty,

characters1 was

246-206

a

system

of

characters

known

as

'seal

(or 'small seal 1 , as contrasted with the 'great seal* of Chou)

established.

simplified

B.C.,

From

characters

the

time

introduced

of

this

in

the

system

until

People's

the

Republic,

system there

of was

comparatively little change in the basic structure of characters, although the type

and finish

of strokes

changed considerably

as a result of the

change from the stylus to the brush as a writing instrument.

161

CHINESE PRIMER

Current styles of writing consist of (1) juanntzyh 'seal characters1 , now used only 'scribe's kaeshu

characters for

writing', now

'model

or

seals; (2) lihshu 4|^klg or

in actual used

regular

occasionally

for ornamental

writing' ' ^ g ^ g

\

(

f or Jj^

tsang

x

(of the sea) dark blue1?

f

(ship's)

A new list of

simplifications, superceding the 1956 list, was published in three parts: (1) 352 simplified characters simplify other

that cannot

be used

characters; (2) 132 simplified

as character-parts

characters that

to

can be so

used; (3) 1,754 simplified characters that result from combinations of the 132 listed under (2).

The total number of approved simplified characters

thus was raised from 515 to 2,238. In

December

1977, the

most

announced by the State Council

radical

reform

proposals

as a "draft plan".

to

date

were

As in 1964, the new

simplified forms were divided into two groups, those that allowed and those that did not allow

combination with other character parts.

If entirely

adopted, the 1977 reforms would have brought the total number of simplified characters

in general

use to around 4,500.

But the

1977 reforms were

adopted only in a piecemeal fashion in the ensuing years, partly because of practical and aesthetic objections (see pp. 163-164) and partly because they were tainted by association with the rule they had been conceived.

Maoist "Gang of Four," under whose

CHINESE PRIMER

165

The announcements of 1956, 1964, and 1977 did not specify what formal principles underlay the various simplifications.

But by inference from the

lists themselves, one can infer six general principles that cover nearly all the cases.2 1.

Simplification by borrowing of sound.

In some cases less complex

characters are simply substituted for more complex characters that have the same sound.

Thus j\j yuan, originally meaning

as the simplified form of jiyj yuan

T

roundT.

T

the first, original1, serves

In other cases it is only a

character part that is substituted in a more complex character of the same or similar

pronunciation.

For

example C J

yii

'B, the second

(Heavenly

A/

Stem) 1 1J .

is substituted The same £j

million1

to make

in^g*** yih 'skill, art1 to make its simplified form

substitutes for J^» its simplified

in the character J^f yih

form^j^J.

Some of these

T

a hundred

substitutions

appear to be based on regional varieties of Mandarin that diverge somewhat from the official standard, e.g. 3fc-jay

'(military) camp1 is simplified as

jLt ky borrowing %£* tzay 'to be in, at f . 2.

Simplification

cursive

form

based

(tsaoshu)

simplification of/{Sj wei 158) is

an example.

The

on

is

cursive writing.

recast

in

to do, to be simplification

In

"regular" to /y

this

process,

the

(kaeshu)

form.

The

, as shown in Table 12 (p.

of ^
6C ; * 3 ^ dwo 'seize'

s

^" 3& chorng 'bug' tg ; )jfQtmieh ' extinguish' ) \ ^ ; Jg> goang 'broad' J 5.

Official adoption of existing simplified forms, including forms that

originated in antiquity, such as^£ that have simpler variants

6. >^

wann ' 10,000' for^fn , and characters

in popular use, such as/Jy^j chour 'enemy' for

Arbitrary simplification of certain character parts.

stands

chyuan

(1) for ^

'right, power';

in characters such as # A ^ (2) for J^

huan

in characters

stand1 and X pL jian 'difficult'; (3) for 7§L injf-n" duey 'correct'; and (5) f or jj^

in M j

such

arbitrary

conventions

'joyous'

likex^pL

tan 'vendor's

in %$zj ji 'chicken'.

generates

a

and^X^

shih 'play', (4) for 2fc

based on sound, meaning, or history unifies these cases. of

For example,

great

No principle

But a small number

number

of

simplified

characters. While some simplified characters cannot be explained by any of the above principles (for example the simplification of ^T* dao 'lead, guide' to-^T ) other examples can be explained by more than one of the principles. simplification of v ^

to ^Lj follows principle

The

(4), but since vPj was an

antiquated form, it also follows principle (5). Although most of the simplified characters are now in common use in the People's Republic, especially among youth, others have brought problems and controversy, and have not gained wide acceptance. been three kinds of objections to simplified more characters are simplified are erased. including

For

'offend,

involve, seek, or

example

J

oppose, beseech'

Celestial Stem (tiangan y\^ |

In general, there have

characters:

(1) When two or

into the same form, important gan originally

interfere,

jam

had

distinctions

a variety of meanings,

(a radio broadcast),

as verbs, as well

as

concern,

'riverbank, shield, a

) , and a surname' as nouns.

not complicated enough, the simplification of^fZj*gann to

As if this were j

meant that the

CHINESE PRIMER T

additional meanings of kill

treetrunk, body, talents, capable, to manage, to

(colloq.)' were added

to the burden of the character")

simplification of j&ijgan, also t o T dry, exhaustedT .

167

T

, added the meanings

; and the

clean, diligent,

There arose, moreover, the problem thatjf'JJ is also read

chyan to mean 'heaven, a father, a sovereign1, but in this use it is not simplified

and

remains %\J

mutually distinct, they cause confusion. T

•

(2) Even

when

simplified

sometimes resemble one another

The simplified characters in ) J\

f

characters

are

closely enough to

femalef and yang j w

malef have been criticized for looking too similar, and therefore easily

leading to confusion. (3) There have also been objections to simplified characters on aesthetic grounds.

Such judgments are inevitably subjective, of course, and we will

not try to discuss them.

The problem is naturally less for printed forms

and ordinary handwriting than for the traditional art of calligraphy. Despite

these objections,

most

simplified

common use in the PeopleTs Republic.

characters

have

come

into

Nearly all books and newspapers are

printed in simplified characters, and many young people cannot write the traditional somewhat

characters.

more in the

Traditional

characters are, however, being used

1980s than they were

in the

1960s

and 1970s, for

example in the publication of classical texts and books or newspapers for overseas consumption. Pinyin Spelling.

In the early 1950s, a Research Committee for Chinese

Writing Reform began to study the question of how to design a new phonetic writing

system.

Many

reasons

were

adduced

for

this

effort:

phonetic

spellings, as direct representations of sounds, should be easier to read, write,

and

telegraphy

remember; much

spellings would standard adapt

they

easier;

would

indexing

make of

be an important tool

pronunciation

to romanized

would be facilitated.

books

would

be

typesetting, much

in the important work

of Mandarin; and,

spellings with

typewriting,

assuming

relative

that

and

simpler;

the

of spreading

foreigners

ease, international

could

exchange

Most important, perhaps, was that Chairman Mao Zedong

168 had

APPENDIX B declared

in

1951

that

"we

must

proceed

in

the

direction

of

phoneticization being taken by all languages in the world.11 The initial dilemma in the 1950s was whether the phonetic system should be based on

Roman

letters

or on Chinese

characters.

The promotion of

Latinxua (see p. 148) had been largely unsuccessful in the 1940s, and some argued

that

a

appropriate.

system

derived

from

Chinese

characters

would

be

more

But after three years of studying this question, the Committee

for Chinese Writing Reform concluded that the advantages of Roman letters remained greater.

In February

Phonetic Spelling of Chinese."

1956 they presented a "Draft Plan for the The new system, known as pinyin

f

phonetic

spelling1, was based on Latinxua but designed to phoneticize only standard Mandarin, whereas

Latinxua had been

intended

to serve

several dialects.

After extensive review of the "draft plan," the State Council officially adopted pinyin in 1958. Pinyin has spread much less successfully than simplified characters. of the big problems is that it cannot distinguish homophones.

J different

Hannyeu

characters

tsyrdean

pronounced

f

A Dictionary

shi

of Chinese1

(shyh).

Obviously

characters, they are all spelled the same in pinyin. pinyin spellings normally omit indications of tone.

One

For example, lists

forty

distinct

in

To make things worse, When shi, shi, shi and

shi are all represented as shiy then 79 characters in the Hannyeu tsyrdean all are spelled shi.

Another 113 all are spelled li> etc.

Another major obstacle to the spread of pinyin has been the simple but profound

fact

that

the

Chinese people,

nationalism, continue to prefer characters. up with

familiar customs

letters, on the other appears

on many

for

reasons

and popular.

alien and ungraceful.

signs, posters, product

both habit

and

Characters are intimately bound

and traditions, both elite

hand, seem

of

labels, and

the

Roman

Although pinyin front pages

of

newspapers and magazines, nearly all readers routinely ignore it in favor of the Chinese characters that always appear alongside.

CHINESE PRIMER

169

Perhaps the only context in which pinyin is actively exercised on a broad scale is the grade-school classroom, where teachers use pinyin to identify correct pronunciations of standard Mandarin.

But even here, the utility of

pinyin is limited by the quality of the teacher's own accent. Popularization

of Standard

Mandarin.

We have

noted

efforts that were made during the Republican period spread

the

Essentially

use the

of

standard

Mandarin

same goal was

set

or

in the

language

above

(1910s to T

gwoyeu

national

early years of

1940s) to language*.

the People's

the standard

'general speech'.3

From 1955-1958 the top leadership issued a number of

of

instruction;

workshops

were

called

146)

Republic, although

directives to promote puutonghuah.

was now

(p.

puutonghuah or

All schools were to use it as the medium to

train

language

teachers

in

correct

pronunciation; all cadres (officials and managers) were to learn puutonghuah and use it in their work; pinyin was held up as a key tool for assuring standard

pronunciation.

Certain

groups

in

society

priority targets for the teaching of puutonghuah: public or

official functions, and speakers

were

identified

as

the young, anyone with

of the dialects that

diverge

furthest from the Beijing standard. There are no reliable measures of how much success the campaign to spread puutonghuah has had.

It is clear that more people speak it in the cities

than in the countryside, among the young than among the old, in areas where the native dialect is closer to the Beijing dialect, and among the better educated.

To the extent that puutonghuah truly has spread, it is likely

that radio broadcasts have had a greater impact than administrative orders. News and political exhortations, beamed across the country and even into remote areas, have used standard Mandarin pronunciation. 3

(Television and

Another term for |Chinese' that has been introduced in the People's Republic is hannyeuy-&J\3g , literally 'the language of Han people.' This term was promoted for the political purpose of showing respect for the non-Han ethnic minorities in China, who, because they are also citizens of China, therefore also speak languages that should count as 'Chinese.' While the term hannyeu is used in formal contexts such as textbooks and course titles in schools, or in official political statements, in everyday use the terms Jongwen, Jong.gwo-huah, and puutonghuah are still much more common. Another difference is that hannyeu, like Jongwen, can refer to either spoken or written language, whereas Jong.gwo-huah and puutonghuah refer only to the spoken language.

170

APPENDIX B

film have functioned similarly, but have not, as of the 1980s, approached radio in audience size.) Among people who do speak Mandarin as a second (or third, etc.)

dialect,

the first or native dialect continues to be the preferred one in daily use. A Cantonese official who speaks Mandarin at his office invariably buys his fish on the way home in Cantonese. it in Mandarin.) and

government

somewhat

(Indeed, he might have trouble getting

Mandarin, used in political meetings, official speeches, media,

inhibiting

often

tone,

carries

while

the

a

formal,

native

partly

artificial,

dialects,

used

in

and

myriad

unofficial contexts, are still the clear favorites for more lively, relaxed, and down-to-earth expression. In Taiwan, beginning right after World War II, a program to spread gwoyeu has

been

quite

successful.

Standard

gwoyeu

in

Taiwan

and

standard

puutonghuah in mainland China continue to be essentially the same, although there are regional variations in both cases.

The written language in Taiwan

continues to use the traditional form of beginning at the other end from Western books and writing in vertical columns from right to left.

In the

mainland, the Western style of horizontal rows is standard.

ADVICE TO THE WESTERN STUDENT The

various

twentieth people.

reform

century

efforts

have

spawned

concerning

the

considerable

Chinese

language

controversy

among

in

the

Chinese

The Western student is best advised to begin by standing clear of

these debates and taking an empirical approach to what the Chinese language is.

Ask first what the pronunciation, grammar, and writing are, not what

they might better be.

It is not your business to ask Chinese to use fewer

characters, but to try simply to learn as many characters as you can.

If a

character has a printed form, a different handwritten form, and yet another simplified form, and all are commonly met with, you eventually will have to learn them

all.

If you

learn the pure

Beijing

dialect

and

later meet

someone with a Chungking (Chorngchinq 5 > ^ ^ ) accent, you will have to learn to attune your ears accordingly.

CHINESE PRIMER

171

In the matter of romanization, it would be well if one system could be used for all purposes. you

But unfortunately this, too, is not practical.

continue far with China

several systems. pronunciation.

studies, you will

eventually

need to

If

learn

GR is the best system for learning and maintaining good

Piny in is used in dictionaries and other publications from

the PRC, and has in recent years become the preferred romanization system in Western newspapers and scholarly publications.

Before the decade 1970-1980,

during which a changeover occurred, most Western publishers preferred WadeGiles, and thus you must learn this system in order to read many important books.

In addition the "Yale system,11 devised at Yale University, is used

in some important textbooks, readers, and reference works.

Still another

system has been used in French scholarly publications.

The 1932 system of

"national

is

phonetic

letters"

(see

p.

146),

which

used

in

some

dictionaries, literary publications, and newspapers from Taiwan, is still well worth knowing. Rather than spending your energy in the debate over which should be "the" system among all these, alternatives, you are better advised to spend the same energy simply learning them—at least most of them. as

formidable

as

it

may

seem.

In

fact,

if

your

pronunciation has been well done, it is quite easy. it

will

seem

plain

as day

that

as both ^ / 5

an

d ^

/&_

After about a year of English dictionaries. identifying radicals 153-157 above.

a

H

foundation

work

in

When you are finished,

Ch!ung-Chfing,

Chungking,

Chongqing, Chungching, and •fXZ. x i £ -

This task is not

Chorngchinq,

refer to the same place, just

do. study, you will need

This will and counting

require you

to begin to use Chineseto develop

the skills

of

strokes, such as are explained on pp.

You are well advised to memorize the numbers of some of the

common radicals, such as, in Chart 11 on p. 154, numbers 9, 30, 32, 38, 61, 64, 75, 85, 86, 120, 140, 149, 162, and 167.

(Note that the numbers may be

different if your dictionary uses a different radical chart.) cut will save you much time.

This short

One fourth of the radicals cover three fourths

172

APPENDIX B

of all characters.

Another time-saving device is to memorize the number of

strokes in frequently recurring parts of characters, e.g.-jrr 4 strokes, so that you

can analyze«*r>»

6 strokes ,

quickly as 6 + 4 =

10 strokes,

without counting every single stroke. In writing

characters, you

style (kaeshu in Table 12). necessarily

to

write,

are best

on the

regular

Eventually you will need also to read, if not

scribe's

characters, and running hand.

off concentrating

writing,

printed

characters,

simplified

Each of these is easy to learn to read if you

begin from a mastery of the regular characters.

It is much less easy the

other way around, e.g., to move from the simplified or running style to the regular form. Be careful never

to associate characters directly with English words,

thereby skirting the Chinese pronunciation and losing the feeling of the Chinese

constructions.

This

practice

vitiates

every

learning, even including proper learning of the writing. living language by regarding it as dead.

aspect

of

language

You cannot read a

GLOSSARY AND INDEX

173

The numbers that follow each vocabulary item tell you where to find it in the lesson texts. Vocabulary items follow the given note number; for example, ae 1.3.24 means that you can find ae in Unit I, Lesson 3, after note 24. (A footnote number of "0" means that the vocabulary item appears before the first note of a lesson.) When a note number is given in boldface, it directs you not only to the location in the text, but to the grammar note where the meaning of the term is explained in additional detail. WARNING: The English glosses provided here are intended only to help you identify which word you are looking up. THEY MUST NOT be taken as "equivalents" of the Chinese words they appear with. To learn the uses and meanings of the Chinese words, refer to the lesson texts and the notes.

.a: ae:

particle with many functions 1.3.21 short (measured from ground up), low 1.3.24 .Ah: interjection of minor surprise IV.2.2 .ai.ia: interjection of surprise or consternation 1.4.21 .ai.io: exclamation for pain V.4.1 Ar: interjection expressing surprise 1.3.29 ay: to love; to have a strong liking VI.3.13 a'yi: aunt (mother's sister; polite form to address parents1 friends) VI.4.4 ay.ren: spouse (mainland usage); lover VIII.1.1 ba: eight 1.5.28 .ba: particle of suggestion 1.4.25 baa: AN for chair and for things with handles 1.2.5; pretransitive III.2.26 baehuoh gongsy: department store VI.1.5 bah (bah.bah): dad VI.2.14 bair: white V.3.4 bair.tian: daytime VI.3.10 ban: class V.3.6 ban: to move VI.3.3 bang-mang: to help II.4.11 barm: half III.4.8 bann: to do V.3.2 bann.faa: method VI.4.6 bannyeh: midnight VI.2.8 baw: newspaper III.2.15 beau: watch, wristwatch V.2.4 beei: north VII.3.2 Beeijing: Peking VIII.1.6

been (beel): AN for book III.2.6 beenlai: originally 1.5.23 beitz: cup II.2.36 benn: stupid IV.4.12 bey...(geei): by VI.3.16,17 bey: to recite VIII.4.1 bi: compel, to force VIII.2.1 bih-yeh: to graduate VI.1.10 bii: to compare III.1.7 bii: writing instrument V.2.3 bii.fang shuo: for example VI.2.6 biijiaw: comparative VIII.3.5 biinggan: cookie, cracker, biscuit IV.2.7 biisay: compete, competition, race, to race II.4.17 bing: ice VI.3.17 binq (bu, mei): actually (not) II.4.1 bor.bor: uncle (father!s older brother; polite form to address parents1 friends) VI.4.4 bormuu: aunt (wife of father's older brother; polite form to address parents1 friends) VII.2.6 Boshyhduenn: Boston V.1.6 bu: no, not 1.1.8 bubih: needn't III.3.15 budah: not very II.2.9 budann...erlchiee...: not only...but also... III.2.5 budann...yee..: not only...but also... VIII.3.13 buderleau: extremely III.2.8 buduey: wrong, incorrect 1.2.10 bugaan: dare not IV.4.5 bugoan: no matter (what) VIII.3.16

174

CHINESE PRIMER

bugow...: not...enough, insufficient (ly). . . 1.3.8 buguoh: but; however 111.3.8 buh: cloth IV.2.1 buhao: bad 1.3.15 buhaochy: not tasty 1.3.15 buhaokann: ugly, not handsome 1.3.24 buhaoyih.sy: embarrassed IV.1.3 buhuey: will not III.1.22 bujydaw: don!t know (whether) 1.5.26 bujyh.yu: not as (bad) as VI.3.12 bu.sh: no; is not 1.1.13 bu.sh...j iow.sh...: if not...then... V.2.13 busheu: not permit, not allow IV.4.2 bushu.fwu: uncomfortable; not feeling well 1.3.6 bushyng: will not do III.3.24 butay: not quite 1.3.10 butorng: different; difference III.1.23 £utsuoh: not wrong; not bad, pretty good 1.3.13 Auyawjiin: unimportant II.3.26 buyonq: don't have to, don't need to II.3.6 bye...: don!t... I.3.25 bye.de: other 1.5.33 bye.ren: other people VIII.1.7 byitz: nose 1.3.24 chah: differ VI.1.7 chah.buduo: almost, about the same III.1.12 chanq-ge?l: to sing (song) V.2.15 chao-jiah: to quarrel, to squabble VI.3.10 char: tea 1.5.2 charng: long VII.3.4 charngcharng (charng): often, frequently III.3.4 charngtwu: longdistance VI.1.8 charyeh: tea leaves II.1.15 chatz: fork II.2.22 che: vehicle VI.1.2 cheng.hu: to address VIII.1.7 Chern: common surname VI.4.3 chi: seven 1.5.29 chian: one thousand VI.1.11 chie: to cut II.2.23 chihche: automobile VI.3.15 chihshoei (chihshoel): soda 1.5.9 chii.lai: get up (from bed) IV.1.4 chii.lai: begin to... III.3.10 chiing: please (polite expression)

1.4.2; to invite, to treat 1.5.14; to request II.4.10 chin.chi: relative III.3.13 ching: clear 1.5.2 ching: light VI.3.18 chingchar: green tea 1.5.2,4 ching.chuu: clear IV.1.0 chiuh: to go III.4.16 chiuh.nian: last year VIII.1.5 chorng (tsorng): (to do something) over again VI.3.3 chuan: to wear IV.1.2 chuang.huh: w indow 1.3.13 chuangtz: window III. 1.12 chu-chyan: give money, to pay V.4.8 chuei-niou: to brag VIII.3.17 chuen: spring VIII.4.3 chuen.tian: spring VIII.4.0 chujong: junior high school 1.1.15 chu.lai: come out IV.2.11 chwang: bed 1.3.7 chwu.le...yiiway: except for... V.2.7 chy: eat 1.3.15 chyan: money 1.5.13 ...chyan: (time) ago II.4.18 chyang: wall III.2.28 chyan.tian: day before yesterday V.1.4 ...chyan.tou: in front of... IV.3.4 chy-faim: eat (meal) 1.4.24 chyiguay: strange 1.3.19 chyishyr: actually II.2.15 chy-kuei: on losing end 1.5.1 chyng: fine (as of weather) VI.3.4 chyouchaang: ball field or court 1.3.18 chyoushye: sneakers VI.1.5 chyrdaw: (arrive) late III.3.4 chyuan: whole, complete VI.2.1 da: to ride (car, plane, boat) VI.1.2 da X .de che: get a ride with X VI.1.2 daa: to strike, to beat III.4.17 daa-chah: to make an interruption VIII.3.9 daa-diannhuah: make a telephone call V.1.6 daa-hu: to snore V.3.1 daa-hu.lu: to snore V.3.1 dah: big 1.2.2 dahgay: probably, perhaps V.1.12 dahjia: everyone V.2.12 dahsheng: loudly V.2.14 dahshyue: college, university 1.2.2 dahshyuesheng: college student 1.2.2 dai: to stay IV.4.0

GLOSSARY AND INDEX dangchu: at the outset; in the first place VIII.1.4 dangran: of course II. 1.18 dangshyr: at that time VI.4.8 dann.sh: but 1.2.12 danshin: to worry VI.4.1 danyuan: unit 1.1.2 dau-cha: knife and fork II.2.17 dautz: knife II.2.22 daw: arrive II.3.15 daw: contrary to one!s expectations II.3.8 .daw: to, into II.2.35 daw-chiann: to apologize V.4.1 daw...PW...chiuh: go to...PW III.2.15 dawdii: after all IV.1.8 daw...PW...lai: come to...PW III.2.11 daw.lii: principle, reason, argument VIII. 3.15 day: carry with; bring VI.1.5 day: to wear V.2.4 .de: particle of subordination and modification 1.1.6 ....de i-sheng: sound of... 11.3.22,23 dean: o'clock III.4.6 ...dean jong: o'clock 111.4.15,16 deei: have to II.4.31 deeng: to wait III.4.16 deng: lamp III.1.17 denqtz: stool IV.3.0 ....de yawminq: extremely... VI.3.9 di: low VII.3.4 diannchanqj i: phonograph V.2.15 dianndeng: electric light IV.1.9 diannhuah: telephone call; telephone (machine) V.1.6 diannshyh: television VII.2.0 dianntzyy-jihsuannji: computer V.3.6 diannyiing (diannyeengl): movie V.4.1 diaw: to fall II.2.35 .diaw: (resultative complement)—off IV.2.2 dih: floor; ground IV.2.0 dih: ordinal prefix: -st, -nd, -rd, -th 1.1.2 dih.dih: younger brother V.1.6 dih.fang: space IV.4.0; place V.1.8 dii.shiah: bottom, below IV.2.12 Ding: common surname 1.1.5 dinq: set up III.2.21 doan: short VII.3.4 dong: east I.5.25 dong.shi: thing (object) 1.5.24 donq: to move III.4.1

175

donq-shen: set out (on a journey) VI.1.3 donq-shoou: begin to III.3.24 doong: understand IV.1.9 dou: in all cases 1.1.18 duann.liann: to exercise, work out II.4.27 duenn: AN for meal V.I.11 duey: right, correct 1.2.10; for (you) II.2.28; (speaking) to VIII.2.2 duey.buchii: I'm sorry III.2.12 duey.le: yes; right, correct II.3.29 duhtz: stomach; abdomen 1.5.9 duo: many 1.3.17 ...duo: much (more)... III.1.10 duoball: for the most part, the majority 1.5.5 duo-nian: many years; longlasting VIII.3.17 duoshieh: many thanks III.3.11 dwo.me: how, how? I.3.20 dwu: to read VIII.3.6 dwu-shu: to study VI.2.4 dyichiueh: indeed IV.1.10 E: Mby the way11 1.5.11 .e: final particle expressing "you know, you see11 1.3.28 Ee: interjection of surprise 1.2.8 eel.duoo: ear VII.3.4 eh: hungry 1.4.22 ell: two 1.4.18 .eng: interjection of agreement VII.1.5 erlchiee: moreover III.1.14 fanchye: tomato II.3.4 fang.biann: convenient VII.1.2 fangmiann: side, aspect VI.2.2 fann: cooked rice, meal, food 1.3.14 fanngoal: restaurant 1.5.16 fanq: to put III.2.14 fanq.shiah: put down II.2.24 fanq-shin: rest assured; relax III.4.16 fanyih: to translate, translation VIII.3.6 farngdiing: ceiling, roof III.1.20 farngjian: room III.1.5 farngtz: building, house III.3.6 fartz: method II.1.17 fei...bukee: must... III.4.18 feicharng: extremely II.4.24 feiji: airplane VII.2.6 feijichaang: airport VII.3.1 -fen: minute V.2.4; cent, penny VI.1.6 feng: AN for letter III.3.10 feng: wind VI.4.6

176

CHINESE PRIMER

Feycherng: Philadelphia V.1.7 fuhjinn: vicinity III.3.14 fuh-muu: parents V.1.3 g (.geh): general AN 1.1.11 gae: to change, modify VI.2.5 gai: should, ought to VIII.1.8 gang: just, recently II.3.15 gangtsair: just a while ago, just now III.4.5 gan.jinq: clean III.4.8 gann: to do V.3.10 gau: high, tall 1.1.16 gaujong: senior high school 1.1.16 gaushinq: happy IV.4.5 gaw.suh: to tell IV.4.2 ge'l: song V.2.15 geei: give II.3.29 ge.ge: elder brother V.1.6 geh: each; various V.2.2 gen: and, with 1.1.19 genq: even more... III.3.8 goan: take care of VI.2.11 goan...jiaw...: to call... IV.2.5 Goangjou: Canton, Guangzhou VIII.1.6 goantz: restaurant V.1.10 gong.keh: schoolwork VI.3.9 gong.pyng: fair, just VIII.2.3 gongsy: company VI.1.5 gongtzuoh: work III.2.21 goou: dog 1.2.9 gow: enough II.4.7 guah: to hang VI.3.2 guann: accustomed II.1.18 guan.shih: relation VIII.2.1 guay: to blame III.3.23 guey: expensive VI.2.1 gueyshinq: your (honorable) name 1.1.3 guh.shyh: story VIII.4.0 guoh: pass (the days), lead (a life) II.2.5 .guoh: verb suffix—did or have...before II.2.31 guoh.lai: come over IV.3.11 gwojih: international VIII.3.13 hair: still 1.2.13 hair.sh: or (for choice) 1.1.15 hao: good 1.2.9; how, really V.2.8 haochy: tasty, delicious 1.3.15 haohaul.de: properly, well VI.2.1 hao-jia.huoo: Oh boy! goodness gracious! my goodness! III.4.7 Aiojii...: quite a few... III.1.17 haokann: good-looking 1.3.15 hao.shianq: it seems 11.3.8,10

haoting: pleasant to listen to VI.4.6 ...haw: number... III.1.6 he: to drink 1.5.1 .He: interjection for surprise III.4.8 heen: very 1.3.7 been shao: seldom 1.5.5 hei: black IV.1.9 .Hei: interjection for calling attention V.3.4 heihei .de: darkish IV.1.9 herbih: why must? III.4.12 herchanq: to sing together, (chorus) VI.4.8 hershyh: suitable IV.1.11 hertz: box IV.2.1 horng: red 1.5.6 horngchar: black tea 1.5.6 howlai: later (in the past) II.4.26 how.tian: day after tomorrow VI.1.3 how.tou: rear IV.3.9 huah: speech 1.4.10 huah: to paint V.1.0 hual: flower IV.4.1 huall: a painting VI.4.2 huay: bad 1.3.14 huaydann: "rotten egg!" 1.3.26 huei: grey VII.3.2 huey: know how to, can, know (as a language) 1.4.9; will likely 1.5.10 huoh.jee: or (conjunctive) II.1.12 huooche: train VII.3.1 hwang: yellow IV.1.3 hwei: time V.2.7; to return III.4.11 hwei.chiuh: go back IV.2.8 hweidar: answer; to answer VIII.1.4 hwei-jia: return home VII.1.2 hwei.lai: come back III.4.11 hwu-shuo: nonsense VI.4.10 hwu.twu: indistinct, muddled, confused VIII.2.1 i: one I.1.10 iau.chyou: demand, request 1.3.0 ibial VI ibial V2: V2 while VI VI.2.7 ....i.deal: a little bit (more or less) III.1.9 idinq: surely III.4.17 i-fangmiann: on the one hand VI.2.2 i.fwu: clothes II.3.6 igonq: altogether VI.1.3 i-hoel: a moment, a while II.3.11 ijyr: all along VIII.1.2 ikuall: together II.3.1 i-luh: all the way VI.3.3 Ing1wen: English 1.4.11

GLOSSARY AND INDEX inggai: should, ought to III.3.8 in.wey: because 1.4.8 i.sheng: doctor VI.4.1 i-shyr: for the moment VIII.3.12 i-tian-daw-woan: all day II.4.8 iyanq: the same III. 1.13 "j (-jy> - J e ) : suffix for progressive action IV.3.9 jaan: AN for light or lamp III. 1.17 jang: AN for flat things 1.2.5 Jang: common surname 1.1.5 jann: to scand IV.3.0 jao: to look for V.4.6 jauday: entertain 111.3.14 jau-jyi: nervous, anxious VII.1.3 -jaur: complement for getting at, touching, realized V.2.1 jaw: according to IV.1.7 jaw-jinqtz: to look in the mirror V.3.8 jeandan: simple III.3.10 jeang: to lecture, to discuss IV.1.8 jeanjyr: simply VI.3.11 jeau: foot IV.1.2 jeeng.lii: to tidy up III.2.8 jeh: this, these 1.2.1 jehyanq (jehyanql): this way V.4.0 jell: here 1.5.24 jen: truly; true 1.3.14 jen.de: really 1.4.18 jeng: open (eyes) VI.2.9 jenq: just ...-ing, just in the process of... IV.3.15 jenqhao: happen to; as it happens; by coincidence; just at the right time VIII.1.2 jenq.jyh: politics VIII.3.13 jeou: nine 1.5.29 jeuan: a reel, AN for tapes VI.4.4 jey-: this, these 1.2.5 jeyg: word used as !tfiller-in:t VIII.3.10 jey.hoel: this moment IV.3.11 ji: chicken 1.3.15 jia: AN for stores, restaurants, etc. 1.5.16; home II.3.19 jia: clench II.3.20 jiah.chyan: price VI.1.7 Jiajou: State of California VI.3.6 jial: tip V.4.5 jian: AN for room 1.3.12 jiann: AN for things II.2.8 jiann: to splash II.3.6 jiann-miann: to meet VI.3.5 jiau: to teach II.2.21

177

jiaw: be called 1.1.7; call (to someone) IV.4.5; tell...to, ask...to V.4.3 jiaw-shiing: wake up (someone) V.2.7 jiawshyh: classroom 1.3.12 jichaang: short for feijichaang VII.3.2 jidann: (chicken) egg 1.3.16 jiee.jiee: elder sister V.1.6 jie: street II.4.30 jieh.shaw: to introduce VII.2.4 jih: to mail VI.4.8 jih.de: remember II.3.19 jihran: since, given that... II.3.5 jih.shiuh: to continue VIII.3.3 ji.huey: opportunity, chance VIII.1.2 jii: how many 1.4.4; several II.4.5 jii-dean: what time V.2.4 jiin.jang: tense, uptight III.3.16 jing.shern: energy (spirit) VI.2.10 jinn: close to, near III.3.5 jinn: enter II. 1.3 jinn.chiuh: go in IV.2.9 jinn.lai: come in III.4.15 jinqtz: mirror V.3.8 jin.tian: today 1.3.4 jinyu: goldfish VI.2.10 jiow: old (state) 1.3.8 jiow: then; immediately 1.4.22; only 1.5.9 jiow.sh: be just the same thing as, simply is 1.5.3 .jiow.sh.le: that's all II.4.28 jiuh: sentence VIII.3.9 jongfann: lunch 1.3.15 Jong.gwo: China 1.1.13 Jong.gworen: Chinese 1.4.8 Jong.gwo-tzyh: Chinese characters 1.4.16 jongjiall: middle IV.3.5 Jong-Meei: Sino-American VIII.3.14 jongshin: center V.1.8 jongshyue: high school 1.1.15 jongshyuesheng: high school student 1.1.15 jongtour (jongtourl): hour III.4.8 Jongwen: Chinese 1.3.19 jong.wuu: noon 1.3.15 jonqyaw: important; significant VII.2.2 joong: type or kind II.3.18 joumoh: weekend V.4.2 juh: to live II.1.20 juhyih: notice, pay attention to II.3.11 juotz: table, desk 1.2.5

178 jy:

CHINESE PRIMER

AN for animals or for one of a pair of things 1.2.9 jy (jel): juice II.3.6 jy.daw: know III.2.17 jye-huen: get married VII.1.6 jyi: nervous III.4.16 ...jyi.le: extremely... 1.5.20 jyue.de: to feel; feel that, think that 1.3.6 jyuedinq: decide III.1.26 jyuhua: chrysanthemum VI.3.13 jyy: only 1.4.16 jyy: paper III.2.26 jyy hao: (the) only good (thing to do is) III.4.2 jyy yaw: provided that, so long as II.4.2 kafei: coffee II.1.11 kai: turn on III.1.15; to open IV.2.10 kai-che: to drive a car VI.1.7 kai-deng: turn on the light or lamp III.1.15 kaishyy: begin II.4.30 kai-wanshiaw: to tease V.4.0 kann: look (at) 1.3.19 kann-baw: to read newspaper III.2.17 kann.chu.lai: make out by seeing IV.4.7 kann.daw: same as kann.jiann VIII.1.7 kann.faa: viewpoint VII.1.1 kann.jiann: see. II.3.15 kann-shu: to read III.3.24 kao: to examine VII.1.1 kaoshyh: test, exam III.3.24 .kee: emphatic adverb II.2.29 keen: be willing to VI.4.6 keendinq: for certain II.4.19 kee.sh: but 1.1.20 keewuh: abominable, destestable V.4.0 /ree.yii: may, can II.3.28 keh: lesson 1.1.3; class 1.4.1 keh: quarter (hour) III.4.16 keh.chih: polite II.3.8 keh.ren: guest III.1.0 kehting: living room VII.1.3 kehwen: text of a lesson V.I.13 kongchih: air IV.4.0 konql: unoccupied time or space, leisure II.1.4 koongpah: afraid; perhaps III.1.3 kuay: AN for money or things that come in lumps or pieces 1.5.30 kuay: fast II.2.11 kuay....le: about to... V.2.5

kuaytz: chopsticks 11. 3.19 kuenn: sleepy V.1.0 . l'a: contraction of .le and .a IV.4.4 laan: lazy III.4.1 lai: come II.2.3 Ian: blue V.3.4 lao: old (referring to age); longstanding 1.2.4; overcooked, tough (of food) 1.3.17; always VIII.1.2 laobor: polite form to address parent's friend or friend1s father VII.2.5 lao perng.yeou: old (longstanding) friend 1.2.4 laoshy: teacher 1.2.3 .le: particle for new situation 1.3.9; for completed action II.1.20 lean: face II.3.7 leang: two (used with AN) 1.4.5 leang-yanql: both kinds II. 1.14 ley: tired 1.3.7 li: "distanced" from III. 3.3 lian: including IV.4.10 liang: cool II.1.10 Lianhergwo: United Nations V.1.8 liannshyi: exercise, practice V.2.7 liann.shyi: to practice, to exercise II.4.3 lianq: AN for vehicle VI.1.10 lianq: bright 1.3.13 lih.hay: serious(ly) VI.3.14 lihkeh: right away III.3.24 lihshyy: history VIII.3.14 Lii: common surname II.2.2 lii: mile II.4.25 .lii: inside II.2.36 liibay: week II.4.5 lii.tou: inside IV.4.0 li.kai: to leave, go away from VI.2.12 linq: another VI.1.7 liou: to leave (behind) III.4.15 liow: six 1.5.29 liuh: green 1.5.4 .lo: final particle for obviousness; of course V.1.12 longshia: lobster 1.5.19 loushiah: downstairs III.3.10 luann: in disorder, in a mess, in confusion III.2.0 luh: road VI.3.3 luh: to record VI.4.4 luh'inday: audiotape V.2.7 luhyiingday (luhshianqday): video tape VI.4.5

GLOSSARY AND INDEX .ma:

final particle indicating obviousness IV.2.6 .ma: interrogative particle 1.1.13 maa.lhasong: marathon II.4.23 maashanq: immediately III.3.14 mae: to buy VI.1.5 ma.farn: to trouble VI.2.11 mang: busy II. 1.3 mann: slow III.3.20 mannmhal.de: slowly, unhurriedly

II.4.27 -mau: dime (ten cents) VI.1.6 maujin: towel VI.1.5 maw.yih: trade V.1.8 meei: beautiful VIII.4.0 meei: every 1.4.13 Meei.gwo: (United States of) America 1.1.12 mei guan.shih: doesn't matter II.3.26 mei.gueyhual: rose VI.3.18 mei.mau: eyebrow VII.3.4 mei-shell: have free time II.1.4; itfs nothing (it doesn't matter) II.3.9 mei-shyh: have free time II. 1.4 mei.yeou (mei): have not; there is (are) not 1.4.3 rael (men): AN for course VIII.3.6 men: door I.3.13 menkooul: doorway IV.4.5 menq: dream VI.3.10 mey.mey: younger sister II.3.24 mha (mha.mha): mom VI.1.0 miannchyan: in front of (a person) IV.3.11 raiau.shiee: to describe VIII.4.0 ming.nian: next year VI.1.10 ming.tian: tomorrow II.4.30 ming.tian jiann: see you tomorrow II.4.32 ming.tzyh: given name; full name 1.1.6 .mm: interjection indicating approval or appreciat ion 11.2.1 muu.chin: mother 1.3.27 muu-neu: mother-daughter VIII.3.0 na: to hold 11.2.19,20; take III.3.11 naal: where 1.5.22 naa.lii: where 1.5.27; a denial of other's compliment, a polite expression (Culture Notes) nah: that, those 1.2.1; in that case, then 1.5.18 nail: there 1.5.24 nan: difficult II.2.29 nan: male 1.1.2

179

nan: south VII.3.2 nandaw: do you mean to say? IV.4.11 Nanjing: Nanking VIII.1.6 nanperng.yeou: boyfriend 1.1.20 nan sheng: male student 1.1.2 nanshow: feel bad VI.3.12 nanting: unpleasant to hear VI.3.11 naw: to disturb; noisy VI.3.11 naw-shiaw.huah: make a fool of oneself II.2.30 .ne: particle for follow-up questions 1.2.7 neaul: bird VI.4.6 neei: which 1.2.5 .ne.me...ne?: VIII.3.4 nemm.me (nemm): so, to that extent 1.3.11 neng: can, be able to 1.5.31 Neouiue: New York City V.1.4 neu: female 1.1.2 neu.erl: daughter VIII.2.0 neuperng.yeou: girlfriend 1.1.20 neu sheng: female student 1.1.2 ney-: that, those 1.2.1 nian: year II. 1.20 nian.jih: age VI.4.8 -nianjyi: grade, year VI.1.10 niann: to read aloud IV.4.8 niann-shu: to study II.4.9 nii: you (singular) 1.1.5 nii.de: your, yours 1.1.20 nin: you (polite form) IV.1.2 niourow: beef 1.3.15 .Oh: "Oh, I see11 1.4.18 .ou: particle for mild warning: mind you VI.2.14 pa: plop! II.3.21 pa: to lie (on stomach) IV.3.9 pao: to run II.4.13 pao-buh: jog II.1.1 par: to climb; to crawl IV.3.0 parngbial: side II.2.35 paw-char: steep tea II.1.17 peir: keep company, accompany VII.3.6 penq: to bump V.4.5 pern: (flower) pot VI.2.10 perng.yeou: friend 1.1.2 pian: AN for articles VIII.3.14 piann: to trick, deceive, to fool III.4.2 piaw.lianq: pretty II.3.7 pyan.yi: inexpensive 111. 3.2 pyibau: wallet, purse 1.5.20 ranhow: and then III.2.28

180

CHINESE PRIMER

ranq: let IV.3.2 reh: hot II. 1.9 ren: man, woman, person, human being, people 1.1.1 renn.de, renn.shyh: to know, recognize (a person, word, character) V.2.10 roan: soft 1.3.7 rong.yih: easy II.2.26 row: meat 1.3.15 ruguoo: if VIII.1.8 san: three 1.4.18 sao-dih: to sweep the floor III.2.23 shafa: sofa VII.1.2 shang: to wound, injure II.4.26 shanq: above 1.4.19; attend (class) III.4.16; previous IV.1.7; to board VII.3.1 shanq-ban: go to work VIII.4.5 shanq PW...chiuh: go to... (a place) 1.5.23 shanq-chwang: go to bed V.I.I Shanqhae: Shanghai VIII.1.6 shanq-keh: hold class, attend class II.2.10 shanq.lai: come up IV.3.2 shanq-shyue: go to school VI.1.0 shanq.tou: above IV.4.6 shanq.wuu: morning III.4.14 shanshoei-huall: landscape painting IV.4.6 shao: few; less 1.3.18 sheang: loud(ly) V.2.17 sheang: to think, would like to 1.5.17 sheang.chii.lai: recall VIII.3.13 sheau: small I.1.14 sheauharl: child VI.4 .6 Sheau Jen: a girl's name VI.2.1 sheausheng: in a low voice, hush VII.3.4 sheau.shin: careful VI.3.18 sheaushyue: primary school 1.1.14 sheaushyuesheng: primary school student 1.1.14 shehhuey: society V.I.14 sheir: who 1.2.2 sheir.de: whose 1.2.9 sheng: raw, undercooked 1.3.15 sheng-chih: to get mad; to be angry VI.4.10 sheng.hwo: life VI.2.1 sheng.in: sound VI.3.2 shengtsay: lettuce salad II.3.2 shen.shanq: on the body II.3.25 sherm.me (sherm): what? 1.2.9; some-

thing (indefinite) 1.5.2 ...sherm.me.de (.sherm.de): ...and what not VIII.4.3 shi: west 1.5.25 shia: shrimp 1.4.20 shiah: below 1.4.20; next III.3.17 shiah (shiall): 'a stroke1, AN for verbs II.3.13 shiah.chiuh: go down IV.3.3. shiah-keh: get out of class V.2.5 shiah.tsyh: next time V.2.6 shiah.wuu: afternoon 1.4.3 shiah-yeu: to rain VI.3.4 shian: first, in advance 1.5.1 Shi'an: Sian, Xian VIII.1.6 Shianggaang: Hong Kong VIII.1.6 shiangshinn: to believe II.4.4 shianntzay: now 1.4.2 shianq...jehyanql: like this... III.3.4 shianqlai: all along III.3.20 shian.sheng: Mr.; teacher; husband VIII.1.7 shiau.shyi: news VI.3.13 shiaw: to laugh (at) IV.1.1 -shie: some V.1.8 shie: to rest IV.3.0 shiee: write 1.4.16 shieh: to thank 1.5.35 shieh.shieh: "thank you" 1.5.35 shih: department in a college VI.2.1 shii: to wash V.3.9 shii.huan: to like 1.4.11 shiing: to wake up V.2.7 shii-tzao: to take a bath VI.1.5 shin: heart VI.3.13 shin: new 1.1.21 shingchi: week III.2.23 shingchi...: (for days of the week III.2.23 shinn: believe 1.4.18 shinn: letter III.3.10,13 shinq: surname; have the surname of 1.1.4 shinq.chiuh: interest VIII.3.2 shinq.chyng: temperament 1.3.19 shinq.kuei: fortunately III.4.15 shinsheng: new student, freshman VI.1.9 shinwen: news III.2.18 shiou-che: to repair a car VI.1.8 shiou.lii: to repair VI.1.11 shiou.shyi: to rest VII.1.2 shiwanq: hope; to hope VI.2.1 shoei: water II.2.16

GLOSSARY AND INDEX shoeipyng: level II.2.10 shoou: AN for poem, song VIII.3.6 shoou: hand II.3.24 shour: familiar VIII.1.9 shu: book III.2.5 shu: to lose II.4.20 shuai: to slip and fall II.4.26 shuang: pair VI.1.5 shuenn.lih: smooth, without diffuculty VI.3.3 shuey: to sleep V.2.1,8 shuey-jaur: to fall asleep V.2.1 shuey-jiaw: to sleep V.I.13 shu.fwu: comfortable 1.3.6 shuh: tree IV.4.1 shujiahtz: bookshelf III.2.14 shuo: say; speak 1.3.15 shuo-huah: to talk, to speak II.2.10 shuo menqhuah: to talk in one's sleep VI.3.10 shu.shu: uncle (father's younger brother; polite form to address parents' friends) VI.4.4 shuuchi shyueshiaw: summer school VIII.3.3 shy: poem VIII.3.7 shye: shoe IV.1.3 shyh (sh): be, is, etc. 1.1.9 shyh (shyh.chyng): matters, things (business, affairs) II.1.4 shyh: to try IV.3.1 shyh (sh), shyh.de (sh.de): yes I.1.10 ....shyh.de: it seems 11.3.10 shyhjieh: world V.1.8 Shyhjieh Maw.yih Jongshin: World Trade Center V.1.8 shyiguann: be accustomed to II.2.10; habit VI.2.5 shyng: be fine, will do II. 1.13 shyr: ten 1.5.29 shyrday: era, period V.1.15 shyr.howl: time II. 1.17 shyrjian: time III.2.22 shyrjianbeau: timetable, schedule III.2.22 shyryann: lab (class) III.4.16 shyue: to study 1.4.11 shyue.sheng: student 1.1.9 shyueshiaw: school 1.3.13 sonq: send VI.1.11 ss: interjection of hesitation VIII.3.11 suann: be considered as 111.3.7

181

suhsheh: dormitory 1.3.9 suoo: AN for buildings III.3.6; emphatic adverb IV.1.8 suoo yeou .de: all IV.4.9 suoo.yii: so; therefore 1.1.19 sweiran: although 1.2.12 syh: four 1.5.29 syy: die 1.5.12 ....syy.le: extremely... 1.5.12 ta: he, him; she, her; it 1.2.2 taang: to lie (on back) IV.3.8 ta.de: his; her 1.2.5 Tairbeei: Taipei VIII.3.3 Tair'uan: Taiwan VIII.1.6 tang: soup II.3.24 tanq: scalding II.3.27 taoyann: to find disgusting V.2.18 tarn: to talk, to chat II. 1.9 tarn.de-lai: can talk (with someone)—find (someone) congenial VI.3.7 tarng: AN for classes 1.4.4 tarng: candy; sugar VI.2.7 tarn-huah: to talk, to chat VII.3.5 tay: too, excessively 1.3.0 tay.tay: Mrs.; wife VIII.1.5 tehbye: special; peculiar IV.1.11 tian: day 1.4.2; sky IV.1.4 tian.chih: weather VI.3.3 tiaw: to jump II.2.34 tie: to paste, to stick III.2.28 tiing: very, rather III.3.2 ting: to listen (to) II.2.14 ting.chu.lai: make out by listening VI.3.2 ting-doong: understand from listening II.2.14 ting.jiann: hear VII.2.1 toei: leg II.4.26 torngshyr: at the same time VIII.3.14 torngshyue: schoolmate II.3.0, V.3.3 torng'ul: roommate VI.3.0 tour: the first VIII.4.2 tour.faa: hair VII.3.2 tsa: to wipe II.3.12 tsai: to guess IV.4.12 tsair: only then II.3.12 tsaodih: lawn IV.4.1 tsay: dish VI.4.2 tsehsuoo: toilet V.3.7 tsong.ming: intelligent, smart IV.4.12 tsorng (chorng): from V.1.6; (to do something) over again VI.3.3

182

CHINESE PRIMER

tsorng (TV) chii: starting from (TW) III.2.21 tsornglai (bu, mei): never III.3.22 tsuoh: wrong, incorrect IV.1.6 tsyh: a time, AN for verbs II.2.32 twushugoan: library III.2.19 tyau: AN for animals and things in strips IV.2.3 tyautz: note III.4.15 tzao: early; good morning 1.3.2 tzao.chern: morning II.4.13 tzaofann: breakfast 1.3.14 tzao.shanq: morning 1.3.15 tzar.men (tzarm): we (including the person addressed) 1.1.21 tzaugau: what a mess, gosh! 111.3.12 tzay: again II.2.25 tzay: to be in (at, or on) 1.5.24 czay-jia: be at home III.4.6 tzayjiann: goodbye VI.4.10 tzeem bann: what should one do V.3.2 tzeem hwei shyh: what's this? what's the matter? III.4.9 tzeem.me (tzeem): how 1.4.21; how come II.2.19 tzeemyanq: how could that be? III.1.25 tzemm.me (tzemm): so, thus 1.3.11,13; in this manner II.1.22 tzemmyanql (tzemmyanq): in this way II.2.23 tzoei: mouth VII.3.4 tzoong (tzoong.sh): always, generally speaking II. 3.16 tzoou: to walk; to leave II.4.31 tzoou-luh: to walk VI.3.17 tzuey: the most...; ...-est III.3.6 tzuey hao: had better... III.2.25 tzuey how: last, final VI.4.1 tzuoh: sit 1.4.2; to ride (vehicle, ship, airplane, etc.) VI.1.7 tzuoh: to do III.3.10; to make VI.4.2 tzuoh-ren: (how) to be a person VI.2.5 tzuoh-shyh: do things III.3.19 tzuoh-tsay: to cook dishes VI.4.2 tzuoo: left II.2.22 tzuoo.bial: left side IV.3.9 tzwo.tian: yesterday 1.3.15 tzwugow: fully sufficient VI.1.7 tzyh: character,word 1.4.16,17 tzyhjii: self IV.1.3 Tzyhyoushern-shianq: Statue of Liberty V.1.9 .uai: hello (on telephone) VI.3.1 utz: room 1.3.9

wal: to play IV.4.0 wan: to finish II.2.24 wanchyuan: entirely 11. 3.8 Wang: common surname IV.2.0 wann: ten thousand VI.1.10 wanq.le: forget III.2.14 way.gwo: foreign countries 11.3.16 way.tou: outside IV.4.0 wenn: ask II.4.7 wenntyi: problem II.3.27; question VIII.1.2 wenshyue: literature VIII.3.5 wey: AN for people (polite) 1.3.22 weysherm (weysherm.me): why 1.4.7 woan: bowl II.3.24 woanfann: supper 1.3.15 woanhuey: evening of entertainment; social evening VI.4.1 woan.shanq: evening 1.3.15 woo: I, me 1.1.3 woo.de: my 1.1.6 woo.men (woom): we; us 1.1.17 woo.men.de: our 1.2.2 wuh-shyh: cause delay, bumble matters III.3.22 wuluenn: no matter (what) VIII.3.16 wuu: five 1.5.29 wuufann: lunch VII.2.6 Wuu-syh: the May Fourth Movement V.1.15 ya ? i: dentist III.4.3 yanqtz: appearance IV.1.10; shape VII.3.4 yan.seh: color V.2.2 yau: to shake IV.4.4 yau-tour: shake head IV.4.4 yaw: to want, to require, to need 1.4.11 yawjiin: important VI.2.4 yawminq: (see ....de yawminq) yaw.sh: if II. 1.15 Yeajou (Yahjou): Asia VIII.3.14 yeang: to raise (animals) VI.2.11 yean.jing: eye 1.3.24 yeau: to bite II.3.6 yeau-ya: to gnaw VI.3.10 yee: also 1.1.10 yeesheu: perhaps 1.3.8 yeou: have; there is (are) 1.3.5 yeou.de: some VIII.1.5 yeou i.deal: a bit, a little 1.3.5 yeou konql: have free time II.1.4 yeouming: famous 1.3.17 yeou shyr.howl: sometimes II.2.12 yeou yih.sy: interesting VIII.4.4

GLOSSARY AND INDEX yeuyan shyrshyishyh: language lab V.2.7 Yi: interjection for surprise VI.4.9 yih.sy: meaning IV.1.8 ...yiichyan: before... V.I.14 yiichyan: in the past II.4.22 ...yiihow: after... VIII.3.3 yiihow: in the future III.2.16 yii.jing: already II.2.4 yiitz: chair 1.2.5 yiiwei: think (mistakenly) II.2.13 yinq: hard 1.3.8 yng: to win II.4.20 yonq: to use II.2.16 yonq-gong: diligent(ly) (study) VI.2.3

183

youchyi: especially III. 3.5 yow: again 1.3.16 yow: right II.2.22 yow.bial: right side IV.3.9 yu: fish VI.2.11 yuan.guh: reason VI.3.10 yuann.yih: willing, glad to VI.3.12 yueh: month II.2.4 yueh...yueh...: the more...the more... III.2.1 yuh.bey: to prepare V.2.7 yunn.donq: (physical) exercise; to exercise II.4.9

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