Search

...alphabet. Pinyin (e.g. nǐ hăo for ‘hello’) was adopted as the official system in the People’s Republic of China in 1958 and has since become the standard and most-used form of transcription. This course uses Pinyin in the teaching of pronunciation. Tones Chinese is a tonal language. In Mandarin Chinese, there are four tones (five if you include the neutral tone)....

...alphabet as English and generally you pronounce the words phonetically, so pronouncing every letter of the word as you read along. However, there a few letters that look and sound different: ä, ö and ü (with two dots, called Umlaut in German), for example in München or Köln. Those vowels with Umlaut sound different to a, o, and u. You might have noticed this when...

...alphabetically in national order.’ ‘For your convenience, we recommend courteous, efficient self-service.’ ‘It is forbidden to enter a woman even a foreigner if dressed as a man.’ ‘Specialist in women and other diseases.’ ‘Order your summers suit. Because is big rush we will execute customers in strict rotation.’ ‘Ladies may have a fit upstairs.’...

...alphabet we use for modern-day English. Now let’s look at another passage from approximately four hundred years later. This is in what’s known as Middle English, and was written around the late fourteenth century. How much of this passage can you read? But the serpent was feller than alle lyuynge beestis of erthe which the Lord God hadde maad. Which serpent seide to...