languages and writing
TRANSCRIPT
Languages and Writing
PacificOcean
Major language families of Eastern Asia
PacificOcean
A LTA I C L A N G U A G E S
SINO-TIBETAN
AUSTRO-ASIATIC
Major language families of Eastern Asia
Regions of China
ManchuriaMongolia
Xinjiang(E. Turkestan)
Tibetan Plateau China Proper
Taiwan
Linguistic groups in ChinaChinese
Mandarinother dialects
Non-ChineseTibetan
TurkicMongolian
Sino-Tibetan
Other "southern" groupsKam-TaiMiao-Yao
Altaic
Wu
XiangGan
Yue
Hakka
Southern dialect group
Anyang, Henan河南安陽
ca. 1200 BC Anyang
Changing scope of Chinese linguistic area
koine: A medium of communication between peoples of different languages, a lingua franca.
Mandarinputonghua="common language"Taiwan: guoyu="national language"
Initials: b p m f d t n l g k h z c s zh ch sh r j q x w y
Finals: a o e ai ei ao ou an ang en eng ong u ua uo uai uiuan uang un ueng i ia ie iao iu ian iang in ing iong ü üe
Chinese syllables
zh + an = zhan 站 (to stand)
∅ + an = an 安 (to be still, stable)
Tones in modern Mandarin
mā
má
mǎ
mà
ma
火 huo fire車 che cart火車 huoche train
morphologysyntax
S V O
我寫字。Wǒ xiě zì.I write [Chinese] characters.
Oracle Bone inscriptionca. 1200 BC
moonpersoneyemountain
yuerenmu
shan
ideographA character or figure symbolizing the idea of a thing, without expressing the name of it.
"poison""toxic""danger""do not ingest"
毒 dúpoison, toxin
嶺
山
令 頁
lǐng: mountain range
Oracle Bone inscriptionca. 1200 BCE
Bronze inscriptionsca 8th c. BC
Bamboo slipsca. 3rd c. BCE
Writing on Bamboo stripsca. 2nd. c. BC
Stele inscriptionQin Dynasty, ca. 220 BC
Clerical Scriptoriginates 1st c. BC
Modern Standard Calligraphyoriginates in 2nd c. AD
Artistic cursive script
貝贝
龍龙
bèishell, cowry
lóngdragon
Simplified charactersfirst introduced in PRC in 1956
QuizFriday, September 5geography and Pinyin system of romanizationstudy guide available onlinesee course website
zhea. jeeb. juhc. zuhd. zee
cia. kihb. tseec. tsihd. kee
qua. chuhb. kuhc. kood. choo
xia. sheeb. jihc. cheed. kih
Quiz on Pinyin romanization systemhandout