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Tuttle Concise Chinese Dictionary: Chinese-English English-Chinese PDF

706 Pages·2008·10.253 MB·English
by  Li Dong
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Tuttle Concise Chinese Dictionary Chinese–English English–Chinese LI Dong 李冬 TUTTLE Publishing Tokyo Rutland, Vermont Singapore The Tuttle Story: “Books to Span the East and West” Most people are very surprised to learn that the world’s largest publisher of books on Asia had its beginnings in the tiny American state of Vermont. The company’s founder, Charles E. Tuttle, belonged to a New England family steeped in publishing. And his fi rst love was naturally books—especially old and rare editions. Immediately after WW II, serving in Tokyo under General Douglas MacArthur, Tuttle was tasked with reviving the Japanese publishing industry, and founded the Charles E. Tuttle Publishing Company, which still thrives today as one of the world’s leading independent publishers. Though a westerner, Charles was hugely instru- mental in bringing knowledge of Japan and Asia to a world hungry for information about the East. By the time of his death in 1993, Tuttle had published over 6,000 titles on Asian culture, history and art—a legacy honored by the Japanese emperor with the “Order of the Sacred Treasure,” the highest tribute Japan can bestow upon a non-Japanese. With a backlist of 1,500 books, Tuttle Publishing is as active today as at any time in its past—inspired by Charles’ core mission to publish fi ne books to span the East and West and provide a greater understanding of each. Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd. www.tuttlepublishing.com © 2011 by Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher. Distributed by: North America, Latin America and Europe Asia Pacifi c Tuttle Publishing Berkeley Books Pte. Ltd. 364 Innovation Drive, North Clarendon, 61 Tai Seng Avenue #02-12, VT 05759-9436 USA. Singapore 534167 Tel: 1(802) 773-8930 Fax: 1(802) 773-6993 Tel: (65) 6280-1330 Fax: (65) 6280-6290 [email protected] [email protected] www.tuttlepublishing.com www.periplus.com 15 14 13 12 11 6 5 4 3 2 1 1109EP Printed in Hong Kong TUTTLE PUBLISHING® is a registered trademark of Tuttle Publishing, a division of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd. Contents Introducing Chinese iv 1 Pronunciation iv 2 Writing Chinese: 汉字 Hànzi viii 3 Vocabulary: Word-formation xi 4 Grammar xii List 1: Meaningful Character Components xv List 2: Measure Words xvii Using the Dictionary xx List of Radicals xxiv Radical Index xxv Stroke Index xliii Chinese-English Dictionary 1 English-Chinese Dictionary 237 Introducing Chinese 1 PRONUNCIATION 1.1 Vowels SINGLE VOWELS There are seven basic single vowels: a similar to a in ah e similar to a in ago ê similar to e in ebb (this sound never occurs alone and is transcribed as e, as in ei, ie, ue) i similar to ee in cheese (spelled y when not preceded by a con- sonant) o similar to oe in toe u similar to oo in boot (spelled w when not preceded by a consonant) ü similar to German ü in über or French u in tu; or you can also get ü by saying i and rounding your lips at the same time (spelled u after j, q, x; spelled yu when not preceded by a consonant) VOWEL COMBINATIONS These single vowels combine with each other or with the consonants of n or ng to form what are technically known as diphthongs. These combinations are pronounced as a single sound, with a little more emphasis on the fi rst part of the sound. You can learn these combinations in four groups: Group 1: diphthongs starting with a/e/ê ai similar to y in my ao similar to ow in how an ang en Introducing Chinese v eng ei similar to ay in may Group 2: diphthongs starting with i ia ie similar to ye in yes iao iou similar to you (spelled iu when preceded by a consonant) ian ien similar to in (spelled in when preceded by a consonant) ieng similar to En in English (spelled ing when preceded by a consonant) iang similar to young iong Group 3: diphthongs starting with u/o ua t uo uai similar to why in British English uei similar to way (spelled ui when preceded by a consonant) uan uen (spelled un when preceded by a consonant) ueng uang ong Group 4: diphthongs starting with ü üe used only after j, q, x; spelled ue üen used only after j, q, x; spelled un üan used only after j, q, x; spelled uan 1.2 Consonants Consonants may be grouped in the following ways. vi Introducing Chinese Group 1: These consonants are almost the same in Chinese and English. Chinese English m m n n f f l l s s r r b pronounced as hard p (as in speak) p p (as in peak) g pronounced as hard k (as in ski) k k (as in key) d pronounced as hard t (as in star) t t (as in tar) Group 2: Some modifi cation is needed to get these Chinese sounds from English. Chinese English j as j in jeep (but unvoiced, not round-lipped) q as ch in cheese (but not round-lipped) x as sh in sheep (but not round-lipped) c as ts as in cats (make it long) z as ds as in beds (but unvoiced, and make it long) Group 3: No English counterparts Chinese zh, ch, and sh have no English counterparts. You can learn to say zh, ch and sh starting from z, c and s. For example, say s (which is almost the same as the English s in sesame) and then roll up your t tongue to touch the roof of your mouth. You get sh. TONES Chinese is a tonal language, i.e. a sound pronounced in different tones is understood as different words. So the tone is an indispensable T component of the pronunciation of a word. Introducing Chinese vii 1.3 Basic tones There are four basic tones. The following fi ve-level pitch graph shows the values of the four tones: Pitch Levels high First Tone mā Fourth Tone má ǎ mid Second Tone m Third Tone mà low • The First Tone is a high, level tone and is represented as ¯, e.g. 妈 mā (meaning mother, mom). • The Second Tone is a high, rising tone and is represented by the tone mark ́, e.g. 麻 má (hemp or sesame). • The Third Tone is a falling, then rising tone. As you can see from the pitch graph it falls from below the middle of the voice range to nearly the bottom and then rises to a point near the top. It is represented by the tone mark ˇ, e.g. 马 mǎ (horse). • The Fourth Tone is a falling tone. It falls from high to low and is represented by the tone mark ̀ , e.g. 骂 mà (curse). In Chinese speech, as in English speech, some sounds are unstressed, i.e. pronounced short and soft. They do not have any of the four r tones. Such sounds are said to have Neutral Tone. Sounds with the neutral tone are not marked. For example in 爸爸 bàba (daddy) the fi rst syllable is pronounced in the fourth tone and the second syllable in the neutral tone, i.e. unstressed. t TONE CHANGES Tones may undergo changes in actual speech (“tone sandhi”). The viii Introducing Chinese third tone, when followed by a fi rst, second, fourth or neutral tone sound, loses its fi nal rise and stops at the low pitch. Followed by an- other third tone sound, it becomes the second tone. This is a general E rule and the notation of third tone sounds remains unchanged. For example, in 所以 suǒyǐ (therefore, so), notation remains the third tone for both syllables, but the word is actually pronounced like suóyǐ. Two important words 不 bù (no) and 一 yī (one) also undergo tone changes. You will fi nd the details of their tone changes under these t entries. t 1.4 Syllables: distinct units Normally a consonant and a vowel, said in a particular tone, merge to form a syllable in Chinese. Every syllable is a distinct unit in speech. Learners should say each syllable clearly and give full value to most syllables in speech. The general impression of Chinese speech, described in musical terms, is staccato rather than legato (which could be used to describe English). E 1.5 Pinyin: the romanization scheme to show pronunciation h R As Chinese writing normally does not indicate pronunciation, a romanization scheme, known as pinyin, is used to represent the sounds and tones of Chinese, as in this dictionary. Pinyin is useful for learning the phonetics of Mandarin. 2 WRITING CHINESE: 汉字 Hànzi Chinese is not phonetic like most European languages (in varying degrees). Chinese is written in logograms, known as 汉字 (Hànzi) and generally referred to as “Chinese characters”, or “Sinograms.” Introducing Chinese ix 2.1 Chinese characters as syllables Each Chinese character is pronounced as a syllable. It is of course important to be able to read a character with the correct pronunciation. 2.2 The composition of Chinese characters: meaningful components Chinese characters can be analyzed into components. It is ack- nowledged that there are three kinds of components. Of the three, the most interesting to learners of Chinese is a group of components that convey certain meanings. The presence of such a component in a character gives you some clue to its meaning of the character. Hence, learning the meaning of these component parts will deepen your understanding of characters you know, and help you guess the meaning of unfamiliar characters. See List 1 on page xv. t 2.3 The writing of Chinese characters STROKES Each Chinese character is composed of strokes. The table below shows the basic strokes. Recognizing the strokes in a character is helpful for fi nding a character or radical in the Stroke Index, List of Radicals and Radical Index. Each of the strokes shown in the table is counted as one stroke. r Stroke Writing the stroke Examples left to right Héng top to bottom Shù

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