Editing Chinese language (section)

== Phonology ==
{{Further|Standard Chinese phonology|Historical Chinese phonology|Varieties of Chinese#Phonology}}
[[File:Edmund Yeo - voice - ch 150127 1828.wav|thumb|A man speaking Mandarin with a Malaysian accent]]
Syllables in the Chinese languages have some unique characteristics. They are tightly related to the [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphology]] and also to the characters of the writing system, and [[phonologically]] they are structured according to fixed rules.

The structure of each syllable consists of a [[syllable nucleus|nucleus]] that has a [[vowel]] (which can be a [[monophthong]], [[diphthong]], or even a [[triphthong]] in certain varieties), preceded by an [[syllable onset|onset]] (a single [[consonant]], or consonant + [[semivowel|glide]]; a zero onset is also possible), and followed (optionally) by a [[syllable coda|coda]] consonant; a syllable also carries a [[tone (linguistics)|tone]]. There are some instances where a vowel is not used as a nucleus. An example of this is in Cantonese, where the nasal sonorant consonants {{IPA|/m/}} and {{IPA|/ŋ/}} can stand alone as their own syllable.

In Mandarin much more than in other spoken varieties, most syllables tend to be open syllables, meaning they have no coda (assuming that a final glide is not analyzed as a coda), but syllables that do have codas are restricted to nasals {{IPA|/m/}}, {{IPA|/n/}}, {{IPA|/ŋ/}}, the retroflex approximant {{IPA|/ɻ/}}, and voiceless stops {{IPA|/p/}}, {{IPA|/t/}}, {{IPA|/k/}}, or {{IPA|/ʔ/}}. Some varieties allow most of these codas, whereas others, such as Standard Chinese, are limited to only {{IPA|/n/}}, {{IPA|/ŋ/}}, and {{IPA|/ɻ/}}.

The number of sounds in the different spoken dialects varies, but in general, there has been a tendency to a reduction in sounds from Middle Chinese. The Mandarin dialects in particular have experienced a dramatic decrease in sounds and so have far more polysyllabic words than most other spoken varieties. The total number of syllables in some varieties is therefore only about a thousand, including tonal variation, which is only about an eighth as many as English.{{efn|{{harvp|DeFrancis|1984|p=42}} counts Chinese as having 1,277 tonal syllables, and about 398 to 418 if tones are disregarded; he cites Jespersen, Otto (1928) ''Monosyllabism in English''; London, p.&nbsp;15 for a count of over 8000 syllables for English.|name=DeFrancis p42}}

=== Tones ===
All varieties of spoken Chinese use tones to distinguish words.{{sfnp|Norman|1988|p=52}} A few dialects of north China may have as few as three tones, while some dialects in south China have up to 6 or 12 tones, depending on how one counts. One exception from this is Shanghainese which has reduced the set of tones to a two-toned [[pitch accent]] system much like modern Japanese.

A very common example used to illustrate the use of tones in Chinese is the application of the four tones of Standard Chinese, along with the neutral tone, to the syllable {{transliteration|cmn|ma}}. The tones are exemplified by the following five Chinese words:
{{Chinese tones}}
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Examples of Standard Chinese tones
! scope=col | Tone !! scope=col | Character !! scope=col | Gloss !! scope=col | Pinyin
![[Chao tone]]!! scope="col" | Pitch contour
|-
! scope="row" | 1
| {{zhi|s=妈|t=媽}}
| 'mother' || {{tlit|cmn|mā}}
|{{IPA|˥}}|| style="text-align:left" | high, level
|-
! scope="row" | 2
| {{zhi|c=麻}}
| 'hemp' || {{tlit|cmn|má}}
|{{IPA|˧˥}}|| style="text-align:left" | high, rising
|-
! scope="row" | 3
| {{zhi|s=马|t=馬}}
| 'horse' || {{tlit|cmn|mǎ}}
|{{IPA|˨˩˦}}|| style="text-align:left" | low falling, then rising
|-
! scope="row" | 4
| {{zhi|s=骂|t=罵}}
| 'scold' || {{tlit|cmn|mà}}
|{{IPA|˥˩}}|| style="text-align:left" | high falling
|- align=center
! scope="row" | [[Neutral tone|Neutral]]
| {{zhi|s=吗|t=嗎}}
| {{gcl|INTR|interrogative}}.{{gcl|PTC}} || {{tlit|cmn|ma}}
| {{varies|''varies''}}
| {{varies|''varies''}}
|}

In contrast, Standard Cantonese has six tones. Historically, finals that end in a [[stop consonant]] were considered to be "[[checked tone]]s" and thus counted separately for a total of nine tones. However, they are considered to be duplicates in modern linguistics and are no longer counted as such:{{sfnp|Matthews|Yip|1994|pp=20–22}}
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Examples of Standard Cantonese tones
! scope=col | Tone !!  scope=col | Character !! scope=col | Gloss !! scope=col | [[Jyutping]] !! scope=col | [[Yale romanization of Cantonese|Yale]]
![[Chao tone]]!! scope="col" | Pitch contour
|-
! scope="row" | 1
| {{zhi|s=诗|t=詩}} || 'poem' || {{tlit|yue|si1}} || {{tlit|yue|sī}}
|{{IPA|˥}}|| style="text-align:left" | {{ubl|high, level|high, falling}}
|-
! scope="row" | 2
| {{zhi|c=史}} || 'history' || {{tlit|yue|si2}} || {{tlit|yue|sí}}
|{{IPA|˧˥}}|| style="text-align:left" | high, rising
|-
! scope="row" | 3
| {{zhi|c=弒}} || 'assassinate' || {{tlit|yue|si3}} || {{tlit|yue|si}}
|{{IPA|˧}}|| style="text-align:left" | mid, level
|-
! scope="row" | 4
| {{zhi|s=时|t=時}} || 'time' || {{tlit|yue|si4}} || {{tlit|yue|sìh}}
|{{IPA|˨˩}}|| style="text-align:left" | low, falling
|-
! scope="row" | 5
| {{zhi|c=市}} || 'market' || {{tlit|yue|si5}} || {{tlit|yue|síh}}
|{{IPA|˨˧}}|| style="text-align:left" | low, rising
|-
! scope="row" | 6
| {{zhi|c=是}} || 'yes' || {{tlit|yue|si6}} || {{tlit|yue|sih}}
|{{IPA|˨}}|| style="text-align:left" | low, level
|}