Basic Written Chinese. Cornelius C. Kubler

even though there exist a few differences in usage. Indeed, China has gone the West one better by creating several additional punctuation marks that do not exist in Western languages. One of these is a kind of inverted comma called the 顿号 (頓號) dùnhào that looks like this: 、 One use of the dùnhào is after numbers, for example: 一﹑二﹑三﹑C1.一三五 could either represent the numbers 1 3 5 or stand for the first, third, and fifth days of the week, much like the English abbreviation “MWF.”C2.二四六 could either represent the numbers 2 4 6 or stand for the second, fourth, and sixth days of the week, like English “T Th Sat.”

       The characters in red are in written Cantonese, which is quite different from written Mandarin

      PART 3

      Some Common Personal Names and Place Names

       New Characters and Words

      Study the six characters below and the common words written with them, paying careful attention to each character’s pronunciation, meaning, and structure, as well as similar-looking characters. After you’ve studied a character, turn to the Practice Essentials volume and practice writing it on the practice sheet, making sure to follow the correct stroke order and direction as you pronounce it out loud and think of its meaning.

      13 大 dà big, large, great

      大 is itself a radical. 大 is a picture of a person with the head, arms, and legs all outstretched to make her or him look as “big” as possible. 大 can also serve as a phonetic, e.g., 达 (達) dá “reach.” Contrast 大 and 六 liù (7).

      大 dà big, large, great [SV]

      14 山 shān mountain

      山 is itself a radical. It is a picture of a mountain range, where the middle line represents the highest peak. 山 can itself serve as a phonetic in some rather rare characters such as 疝 shàn as in 疝气 (疝氣) shànqì “hernia.”

      山 shān mountain [N]

      15 明 míng bright

      Radical is 日 rì “sun” [BF]. The colloquial name for this radical is 日字旁 rìzìpáng “side made up of the character 日.” The right-hand component is 月 yuè “moon” [BF]. Together, the “sun” and “moon” are very “bright.”

      明 míng bright [BF]

      16 北 bĕi north

      Radical is 匕 bĭ “ladle” [BF].

      17 京 jīng capital

      Radical is 亠 tóu “head” [BF]. 京 itself can serve as a phonetic, e.g., 鲸 (鯨) jīng as in 鲸鱼 (鯨魚) jīngyú “whale” or 景 jĭng as in 风景 (風景) fēngjĭng “scenery.”

      北京 Bĕijīng Beijing (lit. “northern capital”) [PW]

      18 台 tái terrace; (abbreviation for Taiwan)

      Radical is 口 kŏu “mouth.” This radical is referred to colloquially as 口字底 kŏuzìdĭ “bottom made up of the character 口.” In the traditional character system, there is a much more complex alternate form for 台 that is written 臺, which is sometimes still seen in formal titles like 臺灣銀行 Táiwān Yínháng “Bank of Taiwan” (in simplified characters this would be 台湾银行). However, even in the traditional character system, 台 is now much more common than 臺.

      台北 Táibĕi Taipei (lit. “northern part of Taiwan”) [PW]

      台山 Táishān Taishan, Toisan (county in Guangdong province from which many Chinese emigrated to the U.S.; was upgraded to a “county-level city” in 1992) [PW]

       Reading Exercises (Simplified and Traditional Characters)

      Now practice reading the new characters and words for this lesson in context. Be sure to refer to the Notes at the end of this lesson, and make use of the accompanying audio disc to hear and practice correct pronunciation, phrasing, and intonation.

      A. PERSONAL NAMES

      Read out loud the following Chinese personal names, each of which consists of a surname followed by a one- or two-syllable given name.

      一、王大山

       二、林京

       三、王明山

       四、林明明

       五、王林

       六、王明大

       七、林台山

       八、王明

       九、王山明

       十、林大明

      B. PLACE NAMES

      Read out loud each of the following place names.

      一、台山

       二、北京

       三、台北

      C. CHARACTER DIFFERENTIATION DRILLS

      Distinguish carefully the following similar-looking characters, pronouncing each one out loud and thinking of its meaning.

      一、六 六 六 大 大 大

       二、大 大 大 六 六 六

      Notes

A4.	Reduplicated names like 明明 can be pronounced either with full tones on each syllable (Míngmíng), or with a neutral tone on the second syllable (Míngming), which is how the speaker in the audio recording pronounces it here.
A5.	Some characters can occur both as surnames and in given names. For example, the character 林 is a common surname but can also occur in a one or two-syllable given name.

       Kiosk in Hong Kong selling telephone calling cards and other items

      PART 4

      More Common Personal Names and Place Names

       New Characters and Words

      Study the six characters below and the common words written with them, paying careful attention to each character’s pronunciation, meaning, and structure, as well as similar-looking characters. After you’ve studied a character, turn to the Practice Essentials volume and practice writing it on the practice sheet, making sure to follow the correct stroke order and direction as you pronounce it out loud and think of its meaning.

      19 何 hé who, what, how

      Radical is 人 rén “person,” which is written 亻when occurring at the left side of a character so as not to get in the way of the component at the right. The colloquial name for this radical is 人字旁 rénzìpáng “side made up of the character 人.” The phonetic in 何 is 可 kĕ “may” [BF].

      何 Hé He, Ho [SN]

      20 李 lĭ plum

      Radical is 木 mù “tree” [BF]. The other component is 子 zĭ “son” [BF]. The “plum” is the “son” (or fruit) of the plum “tree.”

      李 Lĭ Li, Lee (also Lee, Rhee, or Yi, the second-most-common Korean surname) [SN]

      21 文 wén writing, literature

      文 is itself a radical. 文 also serves