Four tones in Chinese 汉语声调 (2)

 Four tones in Chinese —

-Why learn Chinese?
-Four tones and toneless / neutral tone:
1st tone: mā  -  mother
2nd tone: má - hemp, linen
3rd tone: mǎ - horse
4th tone: mà - accuse, blame, curse, scold
Neutral tone: ma - a question particle best translated as: “…, or not?”

-

拼音 pīnyīn - Pinyin will rescue You to write down Your vocabulary without Chinese characters. And Pinyin will allow You to get the tones on paper. We will use the example word of “ma”.

Tone1 - The high tone:

Spoken with a high pitched voice it will be first tone.
mā

Tone2 - Rising tone:

Spoken with beginning low, then rising to a high pitched voice.
má

Tone3 - Falling and rising tone:

You start with a high pitched voice, lower it and then go up again.
mǎ

Tone4 - The falling tone:

The word starts high pitched and falls down to a very low frequency according to some textbooks. I can hardly hear this falling but one thing that is clear. The word is spoken short with a aggressive voice.
mà

The neutral tone or soft tone:

This tone has no special pronounciation. Yet it is different from the other tones. It’s short, in a middle frequency and soft. Soft means no so loud as the other ones.

_________________________________

What are the meanings of mā má mǎ mà ma?

妈 mā - mother . Mother is the meaning of the character, however if  you want to say the word “mother” it’s  妈妈 (māma).

妈 mā  -  mother
麻 má - hemp, linen
马 mǎ - horse
骂 mà - accuse, blame, curse, scold
吗 ma - a question particle best translated as: “…, or not?”

___________________________________

Thus, a nice little tongue twister of those with an interest in Chinese tones is:
妈妈骑马,马慢,妈妈骂马。

Mother is riding a horse. The horse moves slowly. Mother curses the horse.
____