Get ready because we're going to be talking about tones

Listen to these four Chinese tones, which we'll do in their traditional order

ma má ma mà

Again

ma má ma mà

Ok, so you're an English speaker, you're probably like,

they just said the same word in four different ways

Well, not quite

See, in English, I could say, "Ma???"

And that'd mean like, "is that you, mom?"Then I could say, "Ma!!"

Which would mean perhaps, "mom, you're embarrassing me!!!"

But in both cases the word "ma" is refering to the same thing

But, things work differently in Chinese

The way you say the word, determines which word it is

Now listen again to what we said are different words in Chinese

ma má ma mà

Again

ma má ma mà

To a speaker of Chinese each of these words is perfectly distinguishable from the others

The different tones keep them apart the same way that

in English different consonants set off "ma" from "pa" and different vowels set off "ma"

from "me" So giving a word a wrong tone can be just

as disastrous as giving it a wrong consonant or vowel

For example, if you say this: ma, when what you meant was this: ma,

you basically just called your mother a horse

So, let's take a look at the visual representation of each tone

The vertical scale covers about an octave Just which octave it is, of course, depends

on your voice Now this is a somewhat greater range than

you would use in English Since the top of the range will seem slightly

too high for comfort and the bottom's going to seem slightly too low

The first tone, or high tone, word "mother" and the third tone, or low tone, word "horse",

will help you locate these extremes Have a listen:

ma ma Again, "mother" and "horse", high versus low

má mà People often equate Chinese tones to notes

on the musical scale And like you just heard, the distinctive difference

between the two tones is that one is high and one is low

But you may have noticed that while the high tone was like a single steady high note,

the low tone was lower in the middle than at either end

For a more dramatic example of such a difference in contour,

listen to the second tone, or the rising tone, word "hemp" and the fourth tone, or falling

tone, word "to scold"

má mà Again, "hemp" and "to scold", rising versus

falling

má mà Can you see the distinctive contours of the

tones? You can also see it suggested in the accent

mark used to indicate the tones of the romanization Tones also differ in length, the third tone's

the longest and the fourth tone is the shortest They also have different patterns of loudness,

which you can see in the width of the curves So let's go through the tones in their traditional

order By the time we're done we'll have contrasted

each tone with every other tone

The first tone is called the high tone It's pitch is near the top of your speaking

range and it's contour is level Listen to the high tone word which means "mother"

ma ma ma We don't really use such high level intonation

in English, so the high tone might seem sung rather than

spoken

ma ma ma Try repeating "mother" after the speaker

Make sure you stay on the same high note throughout

ma ma ma If you're getting it right, it should feel

a bit unnatural Try saying the high tone word "mother" and

then repeat after the speaker

ma Notice that the mark in the romanization shows

its level contour Try saying "mother" again, and repeat after

the speaker

ma The second tone is called the rising tone

It starts in the middle of your range and almost immediately rises sharply to the top

of your range Listen to the rising tone word, which means

"hemp"

má má má In English, if you want to ask, "Is that YOU

mother?", you can say, "ma????", with a rising intonation

So, think of that question, "ma????", and it may help you pronounce the rising tone

word which means "hemp" But remember that it's not a question and

it has nothing to do with mother Try repeating "hemp" after the speaker

má má má Now try saying the rising tone word "hemp"

yourself, and repeat

má Notice that the tone mark in the romanization

rises from left to right Try saying "hemp" again and repeat

má Now let's compare the high tone with the rising

tone Both are in the upper part of the pitch range

But the high tone stays level, while the rising tone climbs sharply,

staying slightly below the high tone and then reaching the top of the range

Listen to "mother" followed by "hemp"

ma má Again, high tone - rising tone

ma má Let's turn them around now, "hemp" followed

by "mother"

má ma Again, rising tone - high tone

má ma The third tone is called the low tone

It has a slightly dipping contour It starts fairly low, and then dips to the

very bottom of your range You can almost feel and hear it scraping bottom

At the end it swoops up a bit The most important part, and the part to listen

for and the part to really emphasize, is the low part in the middle

Remember, also, that this is the longest tone Listen to the low tone word, which means "horse"

ma ma ma Try repeating horse, concentrating on getting

as low as you can

ma ma ma Now try saying the low tone word "horse" yourself

and repeat

ma You can see the the dipping contour in the

tone mark Try saying "horse" again and repeat

ma It's pretty easy to tell the high tone and

the low tone apart, since they contrast in contours as well as

in pitch The high tone is level and the low tone is

dipping Listen to "mother" followed by "horse"

ma ma Again, high tone - low tone

ma ma Now, we'll turn them around, "horse" followed

by "mother"

ma ma Again, low tone - high tone

ma ma The contrast between the rising tone and the

low tone is a bit harder Most students actually find it hardest of

all One reason is that their starting points are

not too far apart, and they also both rise at the end

The best way to tell them apart is to keep your mind fixed on the features which give

them their names For the rising tone, think rising

All the energy goes into reaching the ceiling The tone actually gets louder as it rises

For the low tone, think low All the energy goes into reaching the floor

The rising tail of the low tone is almost an afterthought

In fact, the rising tail is completely lost in certain circumstances as we'll see in another

lesson Listen to "hemp" followed by "horse"

má ma Again, rising tone - low tone

má ma Now, the other way around, "horse" followed

by "hemp"

ma má Again, low tone - rising tone

ma má Now, the fourth tone is called the falling

tone It's an sudden drop from the top of your range

to the bottom Listen to the falling tone word, which means

"to scold"

mà mà mà Since in English we use a falling intonation

at the end of statements and exclamations, the falling tone might sound declarative or

emphatic Listen to the answers in this English conversation

"Who's mowing the lawn?" "Ma"

"Whatdya say??" "Ma!!"

Try repeating the verb "to scold", sliding all the way down the scale as fast as you

can

mà mà mà Now try saying the falling tone word "to scold"

yourself and repeat

mà Notice that the tone mark drops from left

to right Try saying "to scold" again and repeat

mà The contrast between the high tone and the

falling tone should be clear Since one stays high and one starts high but

drops sharply to the bottom The rising tone is a mirror image of the falling

tone Except that the rising tone rises from the

middle of your range to the top, while the falling tone falls the whole way

down from top to bottom The easiest way to tell them apart is to think

of the English question and statement intonations But remember that the rising tone has nothing

to do with questions and the falling tone has nothing to do with statements

The contrast between the low and falling tones shouldn't present any difficulty

Just remember that the falling tone drops sharply through the full range,

while the low tone spends most of its time at the bottom

It helps that the falling tone is the shortest tone and the low tone is the longest

Well, that's the end of this lesson Remember to head over to Lenguin

com to do the exercises for this lesson That's Lenguin as in Lenguin the Penguin

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