Familiarity with the Chinese language: Is it intricate to learn?

Learning a new language can be as exciting as it is scary. Imagine a speech in front of you that has no resemblance to your mother tongue, from its alphabet to pronunciation and pronunciation. It is not strange to want to switch to another language in such a situation. Chinese is one of the languages with a scary appearance, and many language learners do not use it. In this article, we want to get to know Chinese in general and check if this language is as scary as it looks. Stay with us.

Familiarity with Chinese language

Chinese languages, which are also called Sinitic languages ​​and Han languages, are one of the most important languages ​​of East Asia. The roots of these languages ​​are Sino-Tibetan languages. The general public thinks the different Chinese languages are dialects rather than separate languages. Still, linguists have classified these dialects, such as Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese, as other Chinese languages.

Differences and similarities of different Chinese languages

The difference in pronunciation in other Chinese languages ​​is enormous, so much so that, for example, a Mandarin speaker can hardly understand Cantonese and vice versa. Most of the differences between these languages ​​are in the pronunciation and meaning of words and a little in grammar.

The common point of all these languages ​​is their literary language, which has the same characters and structure. This academic language has no specific criteria for pronunciation, and the speaker pronounces it according to his speech. Until about one century ago, classical prose (Wenyan) was used in Chinese, but today it has been replaced by decisive prose (Baihua).

The standard china most commonly used today was created in the early 1900s. Years later, Pinyin, the Latin writing system of the Chinese language, was designed based on the Beijing dialect to help spread the language worldwide.

The general structure of the Chinese language

Chinese is a phonetic language in which tone plays an important role. Pronouncing a word with the wrong sound may completely change its meaning. Standard Chinese has only four sounds, while older Chinese languages, such as Cantonese, have more than 6. Chinese words usually have only 1 part (flood). In Chinese compound words, suffixes are used a lot, and on the contrary, prefixes and inflections are used less. Also, in Standard Chinese, it is rare for a word to end with a silent letter, but this problem is more common in older dialects such as Cantonese.

Chinese words have the same form and are not used in different types. This issue gives the words in the sentences a fixed order. Also, in the Chinese language, there is no word for determining characters like “the” in English. Of course, sometimes the term “one” in Chinese is used in the place of the determiner. Adjectives do not change in this language and are used as adverbs without change.

Types of Chinese languages

Dialects or different Chinese languages ​​include Mandarin, Wu, Min, Hakka, Gan, Xiang, and Cantonese, which we will learn more about later.

1. Standard Chinese

Standard Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect and the Mandarin language. This language has more than 1300 different syllables, 22 initial silent letters, nine vowels, and four vowels. The combination of silent letters, vowels, semi-vowels, and sounds in Standard Chinese has distinguished it from other ​​Sinitic languages. Wade Giles and Pinyin are the most widely used Chinese Latin writing systems; you can choose one of them according to your preference.

In Mandarin Chinese, suffixes sometimes determine the nature of phrases and words. Some of the commonly used extensions are:

• Suffixes -to and -zi indicate that the corresponding term is a noun. For example, fangzi is a noun meaning “house”.
• Suffixes such as -le, -guo, and -zhe indicate the verb tense. For example, the suffix -zhe is for an action currently running.
• Suffixes -de and -bu: If they come at the end of the appropriate phrase, they mean “to be able” and “to be unable.”
• The expression le: is considered the most essential part of the sentence and indicates the new position. For example, xiayu le means “it is raining now.”

2. Cantonese Chinese

Cantonese is the primary language in Hong Kong, Macau, and Guangzhou. This language has fewer silent letters and more vowels than Chinese. The words whose final syllable ends in p, t, and k have three syllables, and the rest of the syllables have six syllables. Cantonese has more than 2,200 syllables, but the word classification is similar to Standard Chinese. Grammatical words are not phonetically similar to Standard Chinese but have almost the same meaning.

3. Other Chinese languages

The world of Chinese languages ​​and dialects is vast, and each has unique characteristics. Hakka dialect, Suzhou, Shanghai, Xiang, and Min languages, such as Xiamen and Fuzhou, are all widely used in Chinese. Some of these languages ​​are a combination of Mandarin and Cantonese. For example, the Hakka dialect has silent letters and some syllables of the Cantonese language. Still, its vowels are similar to the vowels of the Mandarin language. It should be noted that there is no need to learn these languages. Mandarin Chinese is used to teach Chinese in foreign countries.

Is learning Chinese easy?

If you have never learned languages ​​similar to Chinese, you will face a whole new world. Chinese letters, sounds, words, and the structure of Chinese sentences are all unfamiliar to us Persian speakers. Probably the first time you encountered the Chinese language, you feared whether it was possible to learn it. In short, learning Chinese is not as difficult as it seems. Note that we mean standard Chinese. If you are looking for easy languages ​​worldwide, then we have presented why it is easy to learn this language.

1. Chinese grammar is easy.

Chinese grammar is much easier than European grammar and our mother tongue! In Mandarin Chinese, there are no verb tenses and word genders. Gender and tenses are usually topics of new languages ​​that confuse learners. Still, you can make sentences in the first months of learning this language. In simpler terms, most words in Chinese are like bricks, and you need to put them together to make a sentence and don’t worry about grammar.

2. Chinese characters help to understand and pronounce this language.

The shapes and images of Chinese language characters are nothing similar to the letters of our language, and this issue worries many language learners. The number of these characters is vast, but it is enough to learn a little about them. In this case, you will realize these characters are not as scary as they seem. All Chinese characters are made up of elements called radicals, and knowing the meaning of these radicals makes it easier to understand and memorize words. Obviously, at the beginning of learning Chinese, everything will be foreign to you. Still, as you go further, the pattern in front of you will become more apparent and straightforward.

Also, you can learn fewer than thousands of words when speaking Chinese. With only 200 to 300 Chinese words, you can handle everyday and straightforward conversations. On the other hand, if you find it difficult to learn Chinese handwriting, you can use the Pinyin writing system we introduced earlier.

3. The Chinese language has only four sounds.

Chinese is a phonetic language, and in phonetic languages, the pronunciation and sound of a word affect its meaning. Compared to other phonetic languages, Chinese has the least number of phonemes. The sounds take time to master, and memorizing them seems complicated. Still, when you compare Mandarin to European languages, ​​where most words have genders, the difficulty pales.

4. If you are fluent in English, it will be easier for you to pronounce Chinese.

The phonetic system of the Chinese language is more complex for us and even for English speakers. However, more resources in English make learning the language easier. For example, the word zh in Pinyin is pronounced like the part ge in the English word “strange.” Resources that provide these similar pronunciations greatly help the language learner.

you say

Now that you are familiar with the Chinese language, you can better decide whether this language is for you or not. In any case, remember that you have a long way to go before learning a new language. Know that you are not alone on this path; many other language learners are with you, and many have successfully passed this path.

Have you ever tried to learn Chinese? How difficult do you think this language is?