Linguistics 401--Introduction to General Phonetics
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Chilin Shih
Speaker: Chilin Shih

Mandarin Tones


ma1 ¶ý mother ma2 ³Â hemp ma3 °¨ horse ma4 ½| to
nan1 ¦_ baby nan2 «n south nan3 ³i shy nan4 Ãø disaster
xian1 ¥ý first xian2 ½å virtue xian3 ÀI dangerous xian4 ­­ limit
mao1 ¿ß cat mao2 ¤ò hair mao3 ¥f time-word mao4 ´U hat
mai1 mai non-word mai2 ®I bury mai3 ¶R buy mai4 ½æ sell
mi1 «} meow mi2 °g riddle mi3 ¦Ì rice mi4 »e honey
yi1 ¦ç dress yi2 ²¾ move yi3 ¥H with yi4 ·N intention
yan1 ·Ï smoke yan2 ÆQ salt yan3 ²´ eye yan4 ¿P swallow
ji1 ¾÷ machine ji2 «æ hurry ji3 À½ crowded ji4 ­p plan

Listen to the tone patterns of these two syllable phrases, and figure out their meaning.


mai3mao1 ¶R¿ß 31 mai4mao1 ½æ¿ß 41
mai2mao2 ®I¤ò 22 mai3mao2 ¶R¤ò 32
mai2mao4 ®I´U 24 mai4mao4 ½æ´U 44