Book Description

Chinese As It Is: A 3D Sound Atlas is a relatively small volume (radical index + 190 pages of text) but its size is deceptive as it provides a carefully constructed window on the entire language. How so? The core of the book is a 60-page table comprised of four columns and 400 rows. Into this matrix, the sound system is loaded, then each cell is occupied by one or more characters, for a grand total of 2394 characters. Of these, a beginner's subset of 903 characters is clearly called out, and in this sense the book doubles as a list of "First 1000 Characters" in the curriculum...but with several twists that make it potentially of interest to the graduate student as well. In particular, all romanizations are color-coded to indicate different degrees of "tonal weighting"; this is what makes the atlas three-dimensional. Here are some details about the book's special features that set it apart from all similar-looking offerings on the market: 1] Multiple aids to situational awareness: a] Rather than let the four tones of Mandarin be folded into a single dimension, they are made continually visible as the four columns of a 4x400 array, thus honoring them as an integral part of the "soundscape." b] For the romanized entry that accompanies each character, Dr. Boyce lets the color of its font provide an extra layer of information as follows: If there is a SINGLE second-tone word in the language, he prints the entry in red: tang. If there are SEVERAL second-tone tang-words, then he prints the entry in black: tang. If there is a PLETHORA of second-tone tang-words, then in green: tang. And so on. By internalizing this "tonal weighting," the student develops 3D awareness about where s/he is in the soundscape. 2] Avoidance of the 1-character 1-word fallacy: In certain contexts, an adult could infer that 'hazel' and 'wal' were meant as ad hoc abbreviations of 'hazelnut' and 'walnut'; but that fact would hardly justify us teaching a child that "A wal is a kind of nut," as though wal were a legitimate word. In this volume, the author is at pains to point out every hazel- or wal-type situation, rather than gloss over it, as usually happens in books that introduce h]an-z]i to foreigners. 3] Dr. Boyce has carefully chosen his "First 1000 Characters" for their pertinence to the soundscape as it exists in the head of the native speaker. At its core, his list of 1000 overlaps with other such lists, but around the "edges" it is significantly different, as a consequence of that premise.