Tone, Intonation, and stress.

[symaa]

Thanks you so much for all your answers.

[TheParser]

But that doesn't make English 'a tone language' in the sense that Chinese is. (as it does with ma

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


Oh, my!

I do NOT claim to know Chinese. Or (to use my favorite word): I do not really know Chinese.

But I shall never forget what my Chinese-language teacher (in 1960!) told me.

To show how important tones are (in Mandarin), he gave us this sentence:

ma ma ma ma.

Each "ma" has a different tone.

The sentence means something like: Was Mother angry with the horse?


James

P.S. Because I cannot remember the tones, whenever I try to speak Mandarin, the listeners always ask: What?!