The traditional Chinese language speech analysis is always starting from syllable, to be specific, the pronunciation of Chinese characters. Every foreign student who is studying in Mandarin language courses in China should know that the syllable of Chinese language is composed of initial consonant, simple or compound vowel and tone, so is that in the contents of Phonetic System of the Chinese language. Some introduction about the three aspects will be made in the following parts.
The initial consonant of Chinese syllable we often say includes b, p, m, f, d, t, n and l and so on. it is incorrect that people say those consonants have no regularity and arranged disorderly. The initial consonant is different from the letter and it is the inheritance of national phonetic system which originated from the system since Song Dynasty in arrangement order. Although the Phonetic System of the Chinese languageuses Latin letters, it does not mean that the pronunciation of the letter is the same as that in Latin. Except p, t, k, m, n, f, s and l, the others have different pronunciation with that in Latin.
The part after initial consonant in syllable is the simple or compound vowel. When teachers teach Mandarin language by applying Phonetic System of the Chinese language, they should pay attention to three points, the pronunciation of “i” and the two dots above “u” and the writing omission of iou, uei and uen. Teachers should stress that the “i” after z, c, s and zh, ch, sh, r can’t be articulated as [i]. What’s more, the two dots above u should be omitted when it is after j, q, x and y from the aspects of convenient writing and beauty.
In addition, when there is initial consonant before iou, uei and uen, they should be written as iu, ui and un. However, in Chinese language teaching, such kind of omission often causes the incorrect reading. Therefore, at the very beginning, teachers can teach them by giving the full forms of the original ones.
The four tones in Chinese language are essential to learn for those who want to learn to speak Chinese, namely, the level tone, rising tone, falling-rising tone and falling tone. We can call them as the first, second, third and fourth tone. It would be effective if the teachers make comparison between the first and the third tones as well as the second and fourth tones.