Chinese is a tonal language: in Chinese, tones convey meaning, rather than (or in addition to) what the speaker wants to emphasize. The same sound with different tones can have a completely different meaning. (For that matter, the same sound with the same tones can also have different meanings, but let’s not talk about that.) Speaking a tonal language is a great way to be reminded that when your friends and family in America call your singing “tone-deaf,” they might have actually been on to something.<\/p>\n
Although the concept of tones is a daunting concept to people who are wildly afraid of even thinking about learning Chinese, keeping track of your tones is important. Choosing the right tones can have a distinct effect on whether the person you are talking to thinks you are a crazy person or not a crazy person, which can be a useful distinction.<\/p>\n
Without further ado, the importance of tones, explained in three examples:<\/p>\n
1\uff1a<\/p>\n
\u7ecf\u6d4e (jing1 ji4, meaning: the economy) — something I know a lot about
\n\u7ade\u6280 \uff08jing4 ji4, meaning: sports) — something I don’t know a lot about<\/p>\n
2:<\/p>\n
\u7b11\u8bdd \uff08xiao4 hua4, meaning: jokes) — something I spend too much time thinking about
\n\u6d88\u5316 (xiao1 hua4, meaning: digestion) — something my mother spends too much time thinking about<\/p>\n
3:<\/p>\n
\u5c0f\u5077 \uff08xiao3 tou1, meaning: thief) — something that does not describe me
\n\u5c0f\u5934 (xiao3 tou2, meaning: small head) — something that describes me very well<\/p>\n
As should be clear, these clarifications are frequent occurrences in my life. Whether I am a crazy person or not a crazy person is still unclear, however.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chinese is a tonal language: in Chinese, tones convey meaning, rather than (or in addition to) what the speaker wants to emphasize. The same sound with different tones can have a completely different meaning. (For that matter, the same sound with the same tones can also have different meanings, but let’s not talk about that.) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[68,69,71,70,59],"class_list":["post-190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-china","tag-chinese-language","tag-learning-chinese","tag-the-importance-of-tones","tag-tonal-language","tag-tones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jbfreedman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jbfreedman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jbfreedman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jbfreedman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jbfreedman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=190"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jbfreedman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194,"href":"https:\/\/jbfreedman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions\/194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jbfreedman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jbfreedman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jbfreedman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}