Chapter 1
The tone and character of Mandarin
Chapter 2
Spanish, the global wanderer
Chapter 3
Hindi and the brilliant mosaic of India
Chapter 4
Arabic and the genius of the root system
Chapter 5
English, the ultimate borrowing machine
Ch 1 · The tone and character of Mandarin
duolingo Standard Mandarin features four main tones and one neutral tone, meaning the syllable ma can mean mother or horse based on pitch.
Quiz
Standard Mandarin is a tonal language, but which of these other major world languages also relies heavily on tones?
BETA
duolingo Drag tones onto characters to discover how pitch changes word meanings in Mandarin.
duolingo Chinese writing began as simple pictures carved on oracle bones around 1200 BCE.
Quiz
What is the name of the stroke-by-stroke system used to write Chinese characters in a specific, standardized order?
Quiz
Oracle bone script, the earliest known form of Chinese writing, was primarily carved onto which materials?
Quiz
What Romanization system, developed in the 1950s, uses the Latin alphabet to write Mandarin pronunciation phonetically?
Quiz
Which Chinese language is widely spoken in Hong Kong and Guangdong province, featuring nine tones instead of Mandarin's four?
Fun Fact
Mandarin brain power: Speaking Mandarin uses both left and right temporal lobes of the brain, whereas English speakers only use the left side.
Quiz
In Mandarin, which universal measure word is the most common and can be used for general objects or people?
Quiz
Which grammatical feature, common in European languages, is completely absent in Mandarin Chinese?
Glossary
tone (noun)
The pitch contour of a syllable used to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning. In Beijing, speakers of standard Mandarin utilize four distinct pitch contours to differentiate otherwise identical syllables.
The pitch contour of a syllable used to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning. In Beijing, speakers of standard Mandarin utilize four distinct pitch contours to differentiate otherwise identical syllables.