5.13: Rhymes and Rhythms
- Page ID
- 89642
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First a short rhyme that gives you practice with M-words: zhī (written with a different character from the zhī used with bǐ ‘pen’) is the M for animals such as chickens (yì zhī jī) and, as below, frogs; zhāng is a M for flat things such as tickets, tables, maps, lawns, as well as mouths; tiáo is a M for sinuous objects. Yǎnjing ‘eye’ is tonally distinct from yǎnjìng ‘glasses’; eyes are counted by way of the default M, ge. Dàshēng, literally ‘bigsound’, is ‘loud’; xiǎoshēng is the opposite.
Yì zhī qīngwā
| Yì zhī qīngwā, yì zhāng zuǐ, | one frog, one mouth |
| liǎng ge yǎnjing, sì tiáo tuǐ. | two eyes, four legs. |
| Nǐ shuō: | You say it: |
| Shuō dàshēng yìdiǎnr: | Say it louder: |
| Shuō xiǎoshēng yìdiǎnr: | Say it softer: |
Dà jiǎo
| Dà jiǎo dà, dà jiǎo dà, | Big feet big, big feet big, |
| yīntiān xiàyǔ bú hàipà; | cloudy fall+rain not fear; |
| dà jiǎo hǎo, dà jiǎo hǎo, | big feet good, big feet good, |
| yīntiān xiàyǔ shuāibùdǎo. | big feet good, big feet good, |
| Nursery rhyme (colloquial) | Big feet’ in contrast to bound feet, presumably. |
Ràokǒulìng ‘tongue twisters’
[Traditional] characters are included to show how the phonetic components of Chinese characters provide visual support for these two tongue twisters.
| Māma qímǎ, mǎ màn, māma mà mǎ. |
| 媽媽騎馬， 馬慢， 媽媽罵馬。 |
| Mum rides horse, horse slow, mum scolds horse. |
| Niūniu qiān niú, niú nìng, niūniu niǔ niú. |
| 妞妞牽牛， 牛佞， 妞妞扭牛。 |
| Little-girl leads ox, ox cunning, little-girl wrenches ox. |