The Language of China
3 min readGrammar and Tones
Chinese grammar is much simpler than that of European languages.There are no article（a，an，the），no tenses and no plurals.The basic point is that，like English，Chinese word order is subject-verb-object.In other words，a basic English sentence like”I（subject）love（verb）you（object）”is constructed in exactly the same way in Chinese.The catch is mastering the tones.
Chinese is a language with a large number of words with the same pronunciation buta different meaning；what distinguishes these”homophones”is their”tonal”quality-the raising and lowering of pitch on certain syllables.Chinese has four tones-high，rising，falling-rising and falling，plus a fifth”neutral”tone which can be all but ignored.The pronunciation of the Chinese words to indicate four kinds of life style for getting weight is “tang”.When pronounced with the four tones respectively，it means having a lot of soup or broth，favoring sugar or sweet food，sleeping or lying excessively and eating food while itisboiling hot，and they will sure make a person put on extra weight.The variation of tones not only affects the meaning，but also the grammatical functions.
Pinyin
The Chinese in 19 58 adopted a system of writing their language using the Roman alphabet.It’s known as pinyin.Since 1979 all translated texts of Chinese diplomatic documents，as well as Chinese magazines published in foreign languages，have used the pinyin system for spelling names and places，pinyin replaces the old Wade-Giles system of Romanizing Chinese script.Thus，under pinyin，”Mao Tse-tung”becomes MaoZedong，”Chou En-lai”turns into Zhou Enlai，and”Peking”is now read Beijing.The name of the country remains as it has been written most often into”China”in English and German，and”Chine”in French-in pinyin it’s”Zhongguo”.The same is true of some other names which still remain as they are，such as”Peking University”，”Qiang Kai-shek”（Jiang Jieshi），”Kuomintang”（Guomindang），for they are already widely accepted worldwide.
The Future of Chinese
As it is said that in the light of examining the cultural traits of a nation it is imperative to acquire a perspective through a window of its language and script.Language and script function as a threshold leading human beings from ignorance to civilization.The language and script of every nation are not molded at random，but hinge on the features and patterns of thinking of that nation，carry its rich cultural contents.Thus the Chinese language truly and fully presents the way of life and the thinking pattern of the Chinese.
The creation and application of the Chinese characters has not only propelled the development of Chinese culture，but also greatly influenced world culture.For instance，the creation of the Chinese characters profoundly influenced the writing systems of neighboring countries.The characters of Japan，Vietnam and Korea were all created on the same basis as the Chinese characters.
A language is the cultural sign deeply rooted in the soul and flesh and blood of a nation，providing a true record of the nation’s progress and enabling the extension of the culture to the future on the very basis of its history.To us Chinese，any abandonment and ignorance of our own mother tongue is an unpardonable crime that will surely bring shame on us.
