help for class paper

[brenda]

I'm doing a paper on the language of chinese and I can't find any information out and I have lots of questions. If anyone could please help me with this I would be greatly appreciated.

1. How many sounds (phonemes) are there in the chinese language? ( How many vowel sounds? How many consonant sounds?)

2. How much overlap is there with the sounds in English? Whic hvowel so unds? consonant sounds?

3. Are there nasal consonants? Are there glottal or pharyngeal sounds?

4. What kind of intonation is there is normal speech?

5. When you listen to it, what does it sounds like to you?


Also In what directions is the language read??(left ot right, righ tot left, top to bottom etc)

Is there direct sound-symbol correspondence? Are all the sounds represented in the written form, or are some types of sounds optional in the written representation?

How hard would it be for children literate in this language to transfer their literacy skills to English?



Please help me!! thanks

[couyimin]

brenda wrote:

> I'm doing a paper on the language of chinese and I can't find
> any information out and I have lots of questions. If anyone
> could please help me with this I would be greatly appreciated.
>
> 1. How many sounds (phonemes) are there in the chinese
> language? ( How many vowel sounds? How many consonant sounds?)
Answer:It's about 32 phonemes in Mandarin.
35 in Shandongnese
>
>

[%sig%]

[Rose]

I am doing a paper on the same subject here are some websites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_language
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=China
http://www.fact-index.com/l/la/languages_of_china.html

I really hope these help you.
GOOD LUCK

ROSE