Introduction to Tones in Mandarin

The aspect of Mandarin Chinese that English learners have to a customise themselves to in addition to the Pinyin system is the fact that Mandarin is a tonal language. There are four different tones in Mandarin Chinese (five if you count the natural tone), and there are nine tones in Cantonese.

Foreign people tend to find it hard to get the tones right and end up speaking in a monotone voice. Also, as in many other languages, a slight difference in tone can have a huge impact on how it is interpreted, and this can be a problem.

The the tones in Mandarin goes as follows:

1. First Tone, or High Tone: A steady high sound.
2. Second Tone, or Rising Tone: A sound that rises from mid level to high.
3. Third Tone, or Low Tone: has a mid-low to low descent, if at the end of a sentence or before a pause, it is then followed by a rising pitch.
4. Forth Tone, or Falling Tone: Features a sharp downward accent ("dipping") from high to low, and is a shorter tone.
5. Fifth Tone, or Neutral Tone is unstressed.

It is interesting to note that Old Chinese dialects do not require a tone and that Chinese has developed these tones during historical times. Moreover, Mandarin Chinese is part of the group of languages called the Sino-Tibetan Languages because of its origin, and most of the languages in the Sino-Tibetan group have are tonal.