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

Chilin Shih
Speaker: Chilin Shih

Mandarin Tones


ma1 mother ma2 hemp ma3 horse ma4 to
nan1 baby nan2 south nan3 shy nan4 disaster
xian1 first xian2 virtue xian3 dangerous xian4 limit
mao1 cat mao2 hair mao3 time-word mao4 hat
mai1 mai non-word mai2 bury mai3 buy mai4 sell
mi1 meow mi2 riddle mi3 rice mi4 honey
yi1 dress yi2 move yi3 with yi4 intention
yan1 smoke yan2 salt yan3 eye yan4 swallow
ji1 machine ji2 hurry ji3 crowded ji4 plan

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


mai3mao1 買貓 31 mai4mao1 賣貓 41
mai2mao2 埋毛 22 mai3mao2 買毛 32
mai2mao4 埋帽 24 mai4mao4 賣帽 44