Tone Deaf?

"You know, Chinese is a tonal language," is the kind-hearted advice we often hear from Mandarin speakers when trying out a few of our hard-earned phrases on them--evidence that we are far from mastering these illusive voice inflexions called TONES.

1. The first tone is a high level tone. If you say the word, "ma," using a high level tone, you communicate the concept of "mother."
2. The second tone is a rising tone, similar to the intonation we use to ask a question. The Mandarin "ma" using this rising tone means, "hemp." You can see already how this could get one into trouble. "I want my mother," could easily be misinterpreted.
3. The third tone falls and then rises, like your voice is running down into a valley and then coming back out on the other side. This kind of "ma" means "horse." So, "You are beautiful, just like my mother," could possibly be taken the wrong way if you accidentally use that down in the valley tone.
4. The fourth tone is a falling tone...the most difficult one for me to duplicate. I call this the angry tone, so it makes sense that to say "ma" with this intonation, you are saying, "scold."

The Four Tones of Mandarin Chinese

And then there are some special conditions when you combine syllables in Mandarin:

• When two 3rd tones are used together the first 3rd tone becomes a 2nd tone.
• When a first tone syllable comes before the first, second, or third tones it is pronounced in the fourth tone.
• Confused yet?
• When a first tone syllable comes before a fourth tone, it is pronounced in the second tone.
• A fourth tone syllable used before another fourth tone is pronounced in the second tone.

Please pray for us as we endeavor to hear and duplicate these complicated tones!