Tones

Hacker, Randi

Publication

Tones

Hacker, Randi

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Abstract

Broadcast Transcript: Chinese is a tonal language. That means the tones are semantic markers. That means the way you say a word affects its meaning. Thus if you say "ma" it means mother but if you say "ma" it means horse. Many people claim that this is what makes Chinese so difficult for speakers of English to learn. English, they say, is not a tonal language. But is this true? Maybe not entirely. Let's take the words "yes" and "no" for example. If we say "yes!" it means "Yes!" but if we say "Yes... " it could mean "maybe" or even "no." And if we say "No!" it means "No!" but if we say "No" it could mean "well" or even "yes". These tones are much used in boardrooms and pre-schools. Our advice? Practice these two tones: you don't want to get caught saying "Yes... " when you mean "No." #ceas #china #hacker

Description

This is one of hundreds of 60-second radio spots created by the Center for East Asian Studies (CEAS) for Kansas Public Radio (KPR). The purpose of this outreach program is to introduce the people of Kansas to the culture and current issues of East Asia.