Politics and the US Election

Here is some vocabulary relating to the US election and some words about Politics in general. Some vocabulary for Chinese politics will have to be in another entry or perhaps several.

Obama 奥巴马 Ao4 ba1 ma3
Biden 拜登 Bai4deng1
McCain 麦凯恩 Mai4 kai3 en1
Bush 布什 Bu4shi2
Clinton 克林顿 Ke4 lin2 dun4
Hillary 希拉里 Xi1 la1 li3
Rice (Condoleeza) 赖斯 Lai4si1
Powell (Colin) 鲍威尔 Bao4 wei1 er3
Gore 戈尔 Ge1er3
Reagan 里根 Li3gen1
Johnson 约翰逊 Yue1 han4 xun4
Kennedy 肯尼迪 Ken3 ni2 di2

President 总统 zong3tong3
White House 白宫 Bai2gong1
Vice-President 副总统 fu4 zong3tong3
Senate 参议院 can1yi4 yuan4
Senator 参议员 can1yi4 yuan2
House of Representatives (USA) 众议院 zhong4 yi4 yuan4
Member of the House of Rep's 众议员 zhong4 yi4 yuan2
Cabinet (govt) 内阁 nei4ge2
Dept. of State 美国国务院 Mei3guo2 Guo2wu4 yuan4
Secretary of State 国务卿 guo2wu4 qing1

Government 政府 zheng4fu3
Democracy 民主主义 min2zhu3 zhu3yi4
Republic 共和国 gong4he2guo2
Policy 政策 zheng4ce4
Foreign Policy 对外政策 dui4wai4 zheng4ce4
Diplomacy, Foreign Affairs 外交 wai4jiao1
International relations 国际关系 guo2ji4 guan1xi4
Civil Rights 公民权利 gong1min2 quan2li4

Election 选举 xuan3ju3
Right to vote 投票权 tou2piao4 quan2
Vote 投票 tou2piao4
Voting machine 投票机器 tou2piao4 ji1qi4

Political party 政党 zheng4dang3
Democratic party 民主党 min2zhu3 dang3
Republican party 共和党 gong4he2 dang3

Economy 经济 jing1ji4
Financial Crisis 金融危機 jin1rong2 wei1ji1
Environment 环境 huan2jing4
Global Warming 全球变暖 quan2qiu2 bian4nuan3

Iraq War 伊拉克战争 Yi1la1ke4 zhan4zheng1
Soldiers 军人 jun1ren2
Withdraw troops 撤军 che4jun1
Withdraw troops 撤兵 che4bing1

War on Terrorism 反恐战争 fan3kong3 zhan4zheng1
Terrorism 恐怖主义 kong3bu4 zhu3yi4
Terrorist 恐怖主义者 kong3bu4 zhu3yi4 zhe3
Terrorist 恐怖分子 kong3bu4 fen4zi5
Terrorist organization 恐怖组织 kong3bu4 zu3zhi1
Terrorist organization 恐怖机构 kong3bu4 ji1gou4
Al Qaeda 基地组织 ji1di4 zu3zhi1
Ben Laden 本拉登 Ben3 La1deng1
Sadam Hussein 萨达姆侯赛因 sa4da2mu3 hou4sai4yin1
Weapons of Mass Destruction 大规模杀伤性武器 da4gui1mo2 sha1shang1xing4 wu3qi4
Disarmament 裁军 cai2jun1

World Financial Crisis--世界金融危机

The US financial crisis has had repercussions all over the globe and is well reported in the Chinese press. Here are some vocabulary items:

Economy 经济 jing1ji4
World/Global economy 世界经济 shi4jie4 jing1ji4
International trade 国际贸易 guo2ji4 mao4yi4
Economics 经济学 jing1ji4xue2
Economist 经济学家 jing1ji4 xue2jia1
Economic crisis 经济危机 jing1ji4 wei1ji1
Financial crisis 金融危机 jin1rong2 wei1ji1
Financial crisis/storm 金融风暴 jin1rong2 feng1bao4
Monetary crisis 货币危机 huo4bi4 wei1ji1
The Great Depression 大萧条 da4xiao1tiao2
Recession/slump 不景气 bu4jing3qi4

Finance 金融 jin1rong2
Financial rescue (bailout) plan 金融救援计划 jin1rong2 jiu4yuan2 ji4hua4
Government Financial rescue (bailout) proposal/bill
政府金融救援方案 zheng4fu3 jin1rong2 jiu4yuan2 fang1an4


Bank 银行 yin2hang2
Home loan bank 房贷银行 fang2dai4 yin2hang2
Federal Reserve Bank 美国联邦储备 Mei3guo2 lian2bang1 chu3bei4
Federal Reserve Bank 美联储 Mei3lian2chu3
Investment bank/ing 投资银行 tou2zi1 yin2hang2
Financial institution 金融机构 jin1rong2 ji1gou4
Insurance company 保险公司 bao3xian3 gong1si1
Insurance policy 保险单 bao3xian3dan1

Wall Street 华尔街 Hua2er3jie1
Stock market 股票市场 gu3piao4 shi4chang3
Stock market 股市 gu3shi4
Stock/securities market 证券交易所 Zheng4quan4 Jiao1yi4suo3
Stock broker 证券经纪人 zheng4quan4 jing1ji4ren2
Stocks/shares 股票 gu3piao4
Stock price 股价 gu3jia4
Securities 证券 Zheng4quan4
Bonds 债券 zhai4quan4
Government bond 公债 gong1zhai4
Treasury bond 国库券 guo2ku4quan4
Investment 投资 tou2zi1
Foreign investment 外资 wai4zi1
Pension 退休金 tui4xiu1jin1
Social security 社会服务 she4hui4 fu2wu4

Credit 信用 xin4yong4
Credit Card 信用卡 xin4yong4ka3
Mortgage loan 抵押贷款 di3ya1 dai4kuan3
Loan 借款 jie4kuan3

US dollars 美元 mei3yuan2

US Government 美国政府 mei3guo2 zheng4fu3
US Congress 美国国会 Mei3guo2 guo2hui4
US Senate 美国参议院 Mei3guo2 can1yi4yuan4
US House of Representatives 美国众议院 Mei3guo2 Zhong4yi4yuan4

Capital 资本 zi1ben3
Foreign capital 外国资本 wai4guo2 zi1ben3
Capitalism 资本主义 zi1ben3 zhu3yi4
Capitalist 资本家 zi1ben3jia1

Unemployment 失业 shi1ye4
Unemployment rate 失业率 shi1ye4lü4
Unemployed person 失业者 shi1ye4zhe3
Risk losing one's job 冒失去工作的危险 mao4 shi1qu4 gong1zuo4 de5 wei1xian3
Look for a job 就业 jiu4ye4
Look for a job 求职 qiu2zhi2
Job applicant求职者 qiu2zhi2zhe3
Employment agency 职业 介绍所 zhi2ye4 jie4shao4suo3
Employment agency 荐头店 jian4tou5dian4

Employment (being employed) 雇用 gu4yong4
Full employment 充分就业 chong1fen4 jiu4ye4
Employ 雇用 gu4yong4
Employer 雇主 gu4zhu3
Employee 雇员 gu4yuan2
Full-time job 全职 quan2zhi2
Self-employed 自由职业 zi4you2 zhi2ye4

Job, occupation, profession, employment 职业 zhi2ye4
Job title 职称 zhi2cheng1
Job duties 职务 zhi2wu4

Occupational safety 职业安全 zhi2ye4 an1quan2
Occupational disease 职业病 zhi2ye4bing4

Relations between labor & employer 劳雇关系 lao2gu4 guan1xi4
Labor union 工会 gong1hui4
International Labor Organization ILO 国际劳工组织 guo2ji4 lao2gong1 zu3zhi1
Labor force, manpower 劳动力 lao2dong4li4
Labor contract 劳动合同 lao2dong4 he2tong5

China in Space

Rev. 6/14/10--During the last few days, all China was watching China's third manned space mission as three Chinese astronauts (taikonauts) circled the globe for a few days, and one of them undertook the first ever space walk for China. Millions of eyes were glued to coverage on CCTV, China's national TV network. They returned safely to earth over the weekend, but there continues to be coverage of the space flight, post mission congratulations, and even footage with commentary on various other factual and fictional space missions (even Clint Eastwood and aging companions in "Space Cowboys," also known as "The Ripe Stuff"). Clearly, space fever has gotten hold of the national consciousness.

I have an extra interest in space missions myself, not only from an enduring childhood interest in this kind of thing, but also because Ron Garan, Jr., one of the two US astronauts doing extended walks in space this spring is the nephew of my wife's childhood best friend.

Here are some relevant links:

CCTV-Home in Chinese, CCTV-home in English.
CCTV-HD viewer with buttons for different channels, including in English, French, and Spanish
(The site will ask you to install something for the viewer--I think quality is excellent for PC viewing, though I don't actually have an HD screen).
Chinese National Space Agency-CNSAEng
Xinhua Chinese News Agency-Xinhua in Eng


Here is some relevant vocabulary for space exploration in general. (The PRC and Taiwan don't use the same words for everything, and some words used to describe foreign space missions may be different from those used for their own missions. The words below may fit into all of these categories.):

Space 太空 tai4 kong1 (this is the word that the taikonaut word for astronaut comes from)
Universe, space 宇宙 yu3 zhou4
Orbit 轨道 gui3 dao4
Space flight 航天 hang2tian1

Spaceship 宇宙飞船 yu3zhou4 fei1chuan2
Space Shuttle 航天飞机 hang2tian1 fei1ji1
International space station 国际空间站 guo2ji4 kong1jian1 zhan4
Hubble Space Telescope 哈伯太空望远镜 ha1bo2 tai4kong1 wang4yuan3jing4
Satellite 卫星 wei4xing1
Space Probe 空间探测 kong1jian1 tan4ce4

Space exploration 太空探索tai4kong1 tan4 suo3
Space program 太空计划 tai4kong1 ji4hua4
Space Race 太空竞赛 tai4kong1 jing4sai4

The Chinese spacecraft that just went up
Shenzhou 7 神舟七号 shen2zhou1 qi1hao4
Shenzhou 7 神七 shen2qi1

Astronaut 航天员 hang2tian1yuan2
Astronaut 航天乘员 hang2tian1 cheng2yuan2

The three astronauts (taikonauts) who just went up
Zhai Zhigang 翟志刚 Zhai2 Zhi4gang1
Liu Boming 刘伯明 Liu2 Bo2ming2
Jing Haipeng 景海鹏 Jing3 Hai3peng2

Launch/Lift off 发射 fa1she4
Landing/touch down 着陆 zhuo2lu4

Space walk 太空漫步 tai4kong1 man4bu4 (sounds like space mambo)
EVA-extra-vehicular activity 舱外活动 cang1wai4 huo2dong4

Chinese National Space Administration 国家航天局 guo2jia1 hang2tian1ju2
(US) NASA 美国宇航局 mei3guo2 yu3hang2ju2
European Space Agency 欧洲航天局 Ou1zhou1 hang2tian1ju2

Astronomy 天文学 tian1 wen2 xue2
Galaxy 银河系 yin2he2xi4
Milky Way Galaxy 银河 yin2he2
Solar system 太阳系 tai4yang2xi4
Sun 太阳 tai4yang2
Planet 惑星 huo4 xing1
Earth 地球 di4qiu2
Moon 月亮 yue4 liang5

Mercury 水星 shui3xing1
Venus 金星 jin1xing1
Mars 火星 huo3xing1
Jupiter 木星 mu4xing1
Saturn 土星 tu3xing1
Uranus 天王星 tian1wang2xing1
Neptune 海王星 hai3 wang2 xing1
Pluto 冥王星 ming2wang2xing1
Asteroid belt 小行星带 xiao3xing2xing1 dai4

Gravity 重力 zhong4li4
Weightlessness 失重 shi1 zhong4
Black hole 黑洞 hei1dong4
Cosmic ray 宇宙射线 yu3zhou4 she4xian4

UFO 幽浮 you1fu2
Extra-terrestrial/alien 外星人 wai4xing1ren2


(in progress)

What things are difficult or easy about Chinese?

Some opening Q & A

In this day of rising interest in China, interest in the language is also exploding.

Can Chinese (standard Mandarin) be learned by English speakers?
Yes, but expect it to take more time to learn to any particular level of proficiency than the commonly studied European languages.

How much longer?
The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (http://www.dliflc.edu/) has grouped languages into three groups in terms of time it takes English speakers to learn them. Chinese is in the third, or most difficult/time-consuming, group, along with Japanese, Korean, & Arabic. Their estimate is that languages in this group take about two and a half to three times as long to learn to certain benchmark levels. This is also reflected in the length of time that each language is studied in their programs. Also keep in mind that their students are already preselected for high presumed ability and likelihood to succeed. They also spend huge numbers of hours a week studying, and are therefore less likely to forget things between lessons. Believe it or not, this is actually intended as an encouragement. In other words, don't be discouraged if you find that studying Chinese by less rigorous methods and schedules is taking you even more than 3 times as long as it took you to learn a less challenging language. On the other hand, this might motivate you to maximize progress and minimize forgeting by daily practice and reinforcement. In addition, I believe that understanding the nature of what it is that you must learn can also help provide you with greater focus.

Outline of some difficulties

Very briefly, for English speakers, what are some of the more difficult aspects of Chinese to learn?
Basically, in outline, this includes all aspects that are significantly different from English, including:

Writing & Reading: How to write & read several thousand Chinese characters. This includes the formidable question of how to associate those thousands of characters with their pronunciation and with the appropriate tone.

Pronunciation: How to differentiate (both in listening and in speaking) the tones of Chinese and certain sounds or distinctions that we don't have, such as two kinds of "sh" (pinyin sh & x), two kinds of "ch" (pinyin ch & q), or the rather buzzy initial "r" sound, among others. Added to this is the problem of understanding significant numbers of Chinese speakers of Mandarin who are actually native speakers of other varieties of Chinese, and who therefore do not themselves pronounce words in strictly standard fashion.

Vocabulary: Except a small number of loan words, Chinese words bear no relationship to English, and even the loan words can be difficult to recognize without some training.

Grammar: The grammatical difficulties of Chinese lie in areas other than the areas of conjugation and case, that give us some much trouble in European languages.

A few General Observations

In language learning, as in learning in general, it is more difficult to learn things that are different from things one already knows. Similarities with things one already knows, on the other hand, usually make learning (at least initial learning) easier, although when learning two or more similar languages, learning to differentiate a large number of similar but not identical items can also be difficult. Because there are many aspects to languages, a language that is difficult in certain respects may not be so difficult in others. For English speakers, for example, learning the cognate vocabulary component of many European languages may be much easier than learning non-cognate vocabulary, verb conjugations, case endings, or when to use the subjunctive, etc.

Furthermore, both on an aspect for aspect basis and in general, for any language pair, the difficulties faced by speakers of language A trying to learn language B are not necessarily the same or of equivalent degree as those of speakers of language B learning A. Clearly English speakers face a massively more formidable challenge learning how to write and read several thousand characters of Chinese, than is the case in reverse. If, in a very rough kind of way, we can visualize languages (and each constituent aspect) in terms of Venn diagrams, we should ask not only what parts are similar (overlap), but also what is the amount or nature of the parts of the target language that are not like that (/those) already known.

Knowledge of additional languages, can help in at least two or three ways also. First, it can provide a larger repertory of familiar items to drawn upon when learning the new language and a sense of at least a few of the ways in which languages can be different. Secondly, most people who have already studied another language have acquired a better of the formal terms in which languages are usually described (parts of speech, terms for grammatical functions, gender, etc.). In addition, such people also have some prior experience of some methods that may help in learning another language.

Other factors can also enter into the equation, such as motivation, learning styles, attitudes, degree of success in previous language learning, or simple ability to stick with something that cannot be learned in a short amount of time. How a language is taught and or studied can also produce significant differences.


Some Specifics for learners of Chinese

Writing System: Not just the volume ( 3 to 5 thousand characters-汉字 han4zi4), but also learning to visually discriminate so many characters, and the extra problem of learning how to write them! To be sure, this large number of characters has been built up from a much smaller number of constituent parts, including but not limited to the 214 radicals (部首 bu4shou3) by which all characters are classified in traditional dictionaries. In such dictionaries, characters are grouped together with others that share the same classificatory radical (部首 bu4shou3). These radicals themselves have a traditional order in which they occur in dictionaries, based on the nuber of strokes in each (although some radicals have variant forms with different numbers of strokes.

The vast majority of modern characters have at least two, three, or more components, although have been eliminated or otherwise simplified in simplified characters (简体汉字 jian3ti3 han4zi4). So learning to write or recognize these compound characters is not a question of learning several thousand totally different characters, but of remembering which combinations of more or less familiar components they contain. Furthermore, certain components or combinations of components tend to come in particular locations in compound characters, so this also helps one learn. The classificatory radicals mentioned above, tend mostly to come at the top or at the left hand side of compound characters.

A further difficulty is that the characters are not "spelled" phonetically. Although many do contain a component or combination of components that points to some (sometimes quite vague) kind of phonetic similarity (sometimes referred to as "rime"). Unfortunately, the writing reflects similarities in the pronunciation of Chinese of more than a thousand years ago, often very different from that of modern Mandarin, and the similarities may not have been that precise to start with!

It can be very helpful for the learner of Chinese (and also of Japanese or traditional Korean, written with Chinese characters) to see characters that share the same rime components grouped together, because they may be easily confused, sharing one or more components in their appearance and often having a similar sound, though not infrequently with a different tone. Rick Harbaugh's character based dictionary (Zhong1wen2 Zi4pu3 中文字譜, Chinese Characters: A Geneology and Dictionary) does exactly this, but it contains a formidable number of characters, and is, partly of necessity, tradtional character based, because some of the rime components have been lost or changed in simplification.

The online version at Zhongwen.com is definitely easier even for non-beginners to navigate and to move back and forth between traditional and simplified characters. The online dictionary Yellow Bridge, gives a breakdown of the components of each character looked up individually when you click on the etymology tab. If there is a phonectic component, it will be indicated as such. In addition, on the left-hand side of the etymology tab page, there external links that include one directly to the full character in the just cited Zhongwen.com. Once in Zhonwen.com, on the right-hand side of your screen, you will see that character on a "genealogical" tree (or at least a componential compnent tree) placed on a branch under its phonetic rime component along with other characters that also share the same component. If the phonetic component is itself a compound of components, it will also be linked to a node of one of its components, not necessarily phonetically related.

Knowledge of Chinese characters as used in Japanese or Korean can also be somewhat helpful.

Pronunciation:


(to be continued)

The Beijing Olympics and Sports--some vocabulary

Rev 6/14/10--In traditional Chinese society, the number eight is regarded as a propitious number. It is undoubtedly with this in mind that the official opening date of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics is 8/8/08. The Chinese official website in Chinese is
http://www.beijing2008.cn/ and the English version is http://en.beijing2008.cn/. Comparing these. US coverage is available at NBCOlympics.com. CEDICT and Wikipedia (various articles inc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Summer_Olympics) are some good sources of vocabulary, as is a comparison of the Chinese & English versions of the official Chinese site. An English venue map is available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Beijing_2008_olympic_venue.svg. The official Chinese site for the Paralympics (which run from Sept. 6-17, 2008) is http://paralympic.beijing2008.cn/index.shtml. The English version is at http://paralympic.beijing2008.cn/index.shtml

Yellow Bridge Flashcards has some sports terms: under the heading of Themed Word Lists, select Topical Vocabulary, then select sports. And if you happen to have the Longman Chinese-English Visual Dictionary of Chinese Culture (汉英中华文化图解词典), there are about 20 pages of line drawing illustrations and associated vocabulary about sports (not all of them Olympic sports), starting on p. 252 with vocabulary for topic #151. It's a great dictionary, but there is no pinyin. Here is some vocabulary for the games and about sports in general (not only Olympic Events).

Olympic games--奥林匹克运动会--Ao4lin2pi3ke4 yun4dong4hui4
Olympic games (shorter)--奥运会--Ao4yun4hui4
Paralympics--残奥会--Can2ao4hui4
International Olympic Committee--国际奥委会
--guo2ji4 ao4wei3hui4
International Olympic Committee (shorter)--国奥会--guo2ao4hui4

Olympic spirit--奥林匹克精神--Ao4lin2pi3ke4 jing1shen2
One World, One Dream (motto)--同一个世界，同一个梦想
--tong2yi1 ge shi4jie4, tong2yi1 ge meng4xiang3
Five Rings (Olympic Logo)--五环--wu3huan2
Olympic flame (lit., sacred fire)--圣火--sheng4huo3

Gold medal (金牌 jin1pai2)
Silver medal (银牌 yin2pai2)
Bronze medal (铜牌 tong2pai2)
National Anthem (国歌 guo2ge1)

Opening ceremony--开幕式--kai1mu4shi4
Closing Cermony--闭幕式--bi4mu4shi4

Olympic Village--奥运村--Ao4 yun4 cun1
Beijing National Stadium--北京国家体育场
--Bei3jing1 Guo2jia1 Ti3yu4chang3
gymnasium--体育馆--ti3yu4guan3
the track--跑道--pao3dao4
lane--分道--fen1dao4
starting block--起跑器--qi3pao3qi4
starting line--起跑线--qi3pao3xian4
finish line--终点线--zhong1dian3xian4
swimming pool--游泳池--you2 yong3 chi2

Sports-运动-yun4dong4
Sports meet--运动会-yun4dong4hui4
Match, competition--比赛--bi3sai4
Team competition--团体比赛--tuan2ti3 bi3sai4
Individual single event--个人单项--ge4ren2 dan1xiang4
Individual all-around--个人全能--ge4ren2 quan2neng2

Athlete--运动员--yun4dong4yuan2
Athlete, competitor--选手--xuan3shou3
Team--团体--tuan2ti3
spectator, audience--观众--guan1zhong4
spectator's grandstand--看台--kan4tai2
(soccer) fan--足球迷--(zu2qiu2) mi2


Track and field events--田径运动--tian2jing4 yun4dong4
田径 is also called "athletics" at the Beijing Olympics site.

track events--竞赛--jing4 sai4
(foot)race--赛跑--sai4pao3
sprint, dash--短跑--duan3pao3
middle distance race--中跑--zhong1pao3
long distance race--长跑--chang2pao3
relay--接力赛跑--jie1li4sai4(pao3)
hurdles (race)--跨栏赛(跑)--kua4lan2sai4(pao3)
hurdle--跨栏--kua4lan2
steeple chase--障碍赛跑--zhang4ai4 sai4pao3
cross country--越野赛跑--yue4ye3 sai4pao3
marathon--马拉松--ma3la1song1


field events--田赛--tian2sai4

long jump--跳远--tiao4yuan3
triple jump--三级跳远--san1ji2 tiao4yuan3
high jump--跳高--tiao4gao1
pole vault--撑杆跳高--cheng1gan1 tiao4gao1

shot put--推铅球--tui1qian1qiu2
shot--铅球--qian1qiu2
discus throw--掷铁饼--zhi4tie3bing3
discus--铁饼--tie3bing3
hammer throw--掷链球--zhi4lian4qiu2
hammer--链球--lian4qiu2
javelin throw--掷标枪--zhi4biao1qiang1
javelin--标枪--biao1qiang1

decathlon--十项(全能)--shi2xiang4 (quan2neng2)
pentathlon--五项(全能)--wu3xiang4 (quan2neng2)
modern pentathlon--现代五项--xian4dai4 wu3xiang4

Gymnastics--体操--ti3cao1


weightlifting--举重-ju3zhong4

Martial Arts--武术--wu3shu4

Karate--空手(道)--kong1shou3(dao4)
Judo--柔道--rou2dao4
Taekwondo--跆拳道--tai2quan2dao4
Taichi--太极拳--tai4ji2quan2

shooting--射击--she4ji1
fencing--击剑--ji1jian4

Swimming--游泳--you2yong3
freestyle swimming--自由泳--zi4you2yong3
butterfly--蝶泳--die2yong3
breaststroke--蛙泳--wa1yong3
backstroke--仰泳--yang3yong3

synchronized swimming--花样游泳--hua1yang4 you2yong3

diving--跳水--tiao4shui3
springboard--跳板--tiao4ban3
high platform diving--高台跳水--gao1tai2 tiao4shui3
diving platform--跳台--tiao4tai2

water polo--水球--shui3qiu2


Ball games
play ball--打球--da3qiu2

soccer--足球--zu2qiu2
soccer field--足球场--zu2qiu2chang3
basketball--篮球--lan2 qiu2
tennis--网球--wang3 qiu2
table tennis --桌球--zhuo1qiu2
ping pong--乒乓球--ping1pang1qiu2
ping pong table--乒乓球台--ping1pang1qiu2tai2
baseball--棒球--bang4 qiu2
volleyball--排球--pai2qiu2
beach volleyball--沙滩排球--sha1tan1 pai2qiu2


(I may still add a few things.)

Varieties of Chinese & Standard Chinese

Language Family and "Dialects"
The Chinese language is part of the Sino-Tibetan language family (han4zang4 yu3xi4 汉藏语系) and may be referred to in Mandarin by any of several terms, including zhong1wen2 中文, zhong1yu3 中语, zhong1guo2hua4 中国话, han4yu3 汉语, hua2yu3 华语, or hua2wen2 华文. Chinese includes a range of mutually incomprehensible geographical varieties, which therefore from a purely linguistic standpoint could all be called different languages, but due to emphasis on the cultural and historical unity of China are usually referred to as dialects (fang1yan2 方言). To choose middle ground between the terms "language" and "dialect," DeFrancis and Mair have chosen to translate fang1yan2 方言 as regionalect and topolect, respectively. However, going in the other direction, fang1yan2 方言 is the standard translation for "dialect." Furthermore, linguists often note that even as used in Europe, the terms language and dialect often do not reflect mutual comprehensibility as much as feelings with regard to historical, cultural, or ethnic unity or independence. The principal difference is that in Europe the main tendency has been to call linguistically similar varieties "languages" if they belong to groups asserting their political or ethnic differences, whereas in China, the emphasis on unity has been to call linguistically rather different varieties merely "dialects." In both arenas, socio-political reality and implications are significant factors. Indeed a commonly cited definition often attributed to Max Weinreich, is that "A language is a dialect with an army and a navy." At any rate, suffice it to say that the major geographical varieties of Chinese are at least as different as major languages of Europe.

Major Geographic Varieties of Chinese
Some of the major geographical varieties of Chinese include Mandarin (in the sense of dialect group with about 850 million speakers, called Bei3fang3hua4 北方話 or guan1hua4 官话--this of course includes Beijing dialect, Bei3jing1hua4 北京话), Wu (Wu2yu3 吴语,which includes Shanghainese Shang4hai3hua4 上海话), Cantonese (Yue4yu3 粤语, more specifically for Canton itself, Guang3dong1hua4 广东话), Hakka (Ke4jia1yu3 客家语, Xiang (Xiang1 湘), Min (Min3yu3 闽语which includes Taiwanese, Tai2wan1hua4 台湾话), and Gan (Gan4 赣). Maps of regional dialect groupings with further links can be found at Wikipedia's articles entitled Chinese Language and Spoken Chinese, and an outline of their place in the broader picture at Sino-Tibetan language family. According to the numbers in the Wikipedia article on Chinese language, Mandarin, with about 850 million speakers is by far the largest dialect group, followed by Wu, with about 90 million, Cantonese, with about 80 million, Min at 50 million, Xiang and Hakka at 35 million each, and Gan at 20 million.

Some Historical Varieties of Chinese
Broad historic phases of Chinese are referred by the terms Old Chinese (shang4gu3 han4yu3 上古汉语) stretching from the Shang Dynasty (shang1chao2 商潮) to the Former Han (qian2han4 前汉 or Western Han xi1han4 西汉), Middle Chinese (zhong1gu3 han4yu3 中古汉语), and Modern Chinese (xian4dai4 han4yu3 汉语). The term classical Chinese (gu3wen2 古文 or gu3dian3 han4yu3 古典汉语) is used to refer to Chinese writing from the Zhou Dynasty to the end of the Han Dynasty. The term literary Chinese (wen2yan2wen2 文言文 or simply wen2yan2 文言) is used to refer to the linguistically conservative form, or register, of written Chinese used from the end of the Han Dynasty until early modern times when it gave way to vernacular Chinese (bai2hua4 白话), based largely on the modern spoken language. The largely logographic nature of the writing system, which did not have to be pronounced in the same way to be understood, and the classical literary education of all civil servants ensured by the civil service examination system helped to keep literary Chinese around for a long time, but in the meanwhile the differences between Chinese dialects were growing, as was the difference between the written and the spoken language. It should also be noted, that despite the large geographic differences in Chinese, it was principally only the standard language, used and spread throughout the country by civil servants, or officials also known to us as Mandarins, that was committed to writing.

Mandarin as a Dialect Group & as Standard Chinese
Mandarin is a term that has at least two different meanings. On the one hand, Mandarin (see Mandarin Linguistics and Mandarin Dialects) refers to the largest dialect group of Chinese, and on the other hand it is often used to refer to Standard Chinese. As a dialect group, Mandarin is spoken over vast stretches of China, in most of the north and the west, by about 850 million people and is by far the largest dialect group. While some of this scale may include somewhat more recently sinicized regions of China, which may therefore have somewhat less linguistic diversity than the sheer scale suggests, there is still room for very considerable variation from the Standard Mandarin that we study. This variation is most likely not just limited to phonology, but could include items of lexicon, grammar, and sociolinguistic factors.

A Couple of Mandarin Dialect Group Differences from other Chinese Dialect Groups

One of the most notable phonological characteristics of the Mandarin dialect group is its historical loss of syllable final consonants other than "n" or "ng." Other final consonants, such as "p," "t," "k," or "m," are present not only in other Chinese dialect groups, but also in modern day pronunciations of words in Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese based on the pronunciations of Chinese characters of in many cases, more than a thousand years ago. A look at romanized signs in almost any Chinatown will show many such final consonants, reflecting as they so often do, Cantonese or other non-Mandarin dialects.

The loss of most final consonants in Mandarin has had a major effect also on the lexicon, that has further differentiated Mandarin from other dialect groups. Older forms of Chinese and other dialects are noted for a high frequency of single syllable words. The loss or merger of final consonants that used help to distinguish many formerly single syllable words in Mandarin has produced large numbers of homophones instead. Among modern Chinese dialects, Mandarin therefore has the largest number of words of at least two syllables. Some are produced by combining two characters of similar or complementary meaning and some others by the addition of an element such as "zi" (子, a simple noun suffix).

Some Mandarin Dialect Group Internal Variability

Not all varieties of Mandarin are readily mutually comprehensible. Phonologically, vowel and consonant values may vary. Diphthongs such as "ai," "ei," "ao," "ou," may be pronounced as single vowels (monopthongs), without the vowel glide. Speakers of some Mandarin dialects (and some non-Mandarin dialects) lack the retroflex initials "zh," "ch," "sh," & "r," (pinyin values) replacing the first three with "z," "c," "s," and values such as "z" or "w" for "r." See the Wikipedia articles cited for more.

Middle Chinese had 4 tones (ping 平 "even," shang 上 "rising," qu 去"departing," ru 入 "entering"), as do most regional subdialects of modern Mandarin (yin1ping2 阴平, yang2ping2 阳平, shang4 上, qu4 去, that we usually just call tones one to four) . The relationship between the two is more complex than either the mutual existence of four tones or the similarity in the Chinese names for the tones might suggest. Tables in the Wikipedia article on Mandarin Dialects indicate that an interaction between the Middle Chinese (MC) tones and the type of MC initial consonant produced the Modern Mandarin tone categories. The first three MC tones split and regrouped somewhat depending on MC initial. The final MC tone was redistributed to the other tone categories in different ways in different regional dialects of Mandarin, although it was actually preserved as a fifth tone (ru 入) principally in the Jianghuai regional dialect.

Just because most Mandarin dialects have four tone categories, by no means indicates that the tonal contour of each of the categories is universally that of the idealized Standard Mandarin tonal contours we have studied. In the same way there is regional variation in the pronunciation of consonants and vowels, an additional table in Mandarin Dialects article gives a sobering idea of just how different those contours can be in different parts of the Mandarin dialect group area.

Mandarin as Standard Chinese--Modern Standard Mandarin, MSM

Mandarin as a standard language is referred to differently in different places. In the People's Republic of China, it is called pu3tong1hua4 普通话 or "common speech", in Taiwan it is called guo2yu3 国语 (written 國語 in Taiwan) or "national language," and Singapore has adopted more neutral hua2yu3 华语 or "Chinese (lit., language of the Chinese people)." The term guan1hua4 官话 or "language of the officials (mandarins)" reflects the historical role of the Mandarins, or civil servant bureaucracy, in spreading and establishing a more or less standard form of Chinese. Geographically, Modern standard Chinese is based largely on the educated Chinese of Beijing, although Nanjing and other historical capitals of China have also played a role in the development of the modern standard.

The term "Parisian French" suggests the important role that a capital can play in defining a national language standard, but the existence of Cockney in the middle of London is a reminder that socioeconomic and educational factors, among others, also play a role. The media also play an increasingly important and evolving role in defining language standards, in addition to literature and education. The standard German of Germany, though largely based on northern dialects, is not identical with that of any particular place and is said to owe a lot to the language of the stage (Bühnensprache). For the UK, the prestigious Received Pronunciation (RP), is sometimes called the Queen's English and sometimes BBC English, although these days at any rate, accents on the BBC exhibit more diversity. The central and regional media of the PRC and of Taiwan undoubtedly provide models of Standard Mandarin which one can compare with the supposedly standard Mandarin one is supposed to be taught in school or which one may have been told others spoke locally.

Differences in Standard Mandarin occur in many forms. For writing, mainland China uses simplified characters (jian3ti3zi4 简体字), whereas Taiwan uses traditional characters (fan2ti3zi4 繁体字, or officially in Taiwan zheng4ti3zi4 正体字). In terms of the spoken language, although some use of final vocalic "r" (er2hua4 儿化) is found in the media and the HSK vocabulary tests, the extensive use of this feature found in Beijing is thought be a feature of local Beijing dialect. Other regional phonological and vocabulary influences may flavor people's attempts to speak Standard Mandarin. For some examples for Taiwan, see the references in the sociolinguistics section of the Wikipedia article on Taiwanese Linguistics and in the pronunciation section of the Wikipedia article on Taiwanese Mandarin.

A number of differences in vocabulary between the mainland and Taiwan are reported in the Taiwanese Mandarin article, in a few pages at the back of the Langenscheidt Concise Chinese-English Dictionary, and a small number in a list at Yellow Bridge (http://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/mandarin-differences.php).