A Tonal Language

Tonal Language

As discussed in the "Is Chinese Worth it?" post, the concept of a tonal language isn't easy for a non-tonal speaker. A tonal language uses inflections and a range of pitches to help differentiate the meaning of words, while they can still be pronounced the same way. Similar to the English words "son" and "sun" with the same pronunciation but different meanings. In English the only way to differentiate a word's meaning, is by putting the word into context; therefore giving the listener a clue to what the speaker is saying. In Chinese, it is a bit different. For example, the word for horse, and mother both share the same pronunciation.
The only way a Chinese listener is to decipher which word the speaker is using, is by the tone, or pitch, of the word. The tone for mother is the first tone, or a monotone rather. The tone for horse is the third tone, which is what Chinese language educators call the "falling - rising" tone.

Below is a chart of the five different tones. The first tone is a monotone, the second tone is a rising tone, the third tone is a falling rising tone, the fourth tone is a falling tone, and the final tone or fifth tone is neutral. Neutral means there will be no inflection of any kind, but is very softly spoken.

Chinese Tones. Learn NC, UNC School of Education, www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/
     mandarin1/4480. Accessed 24 Jan. 2018.

Using tones to differentiate words is challenging and provides much difficulty to a learner, but can be mastered. Simply put: practice. Practice your tones when ever you have the chance, and this can make you a much better speaker of the Chinese language. Something that every Chinese language student struggles with is pronunciation, and tones. Even with years of practice and learning the Chinese language, good and bad tones make a huge difference.
If you can't get your tones down, do not move on or try to learn more until you do. Someone fluent in Chinese without good tone usage, compared to a first year Chinese student with good tone usage, will struggle to communicate when compared to the first year student. Follow this link to see another explanation of tones.