Changes

The Chinese language does contain a word with a pronunciation represented by the romanization "shī".  However, the same romanization can represent a large number of words.  What follows is a basic (and brutally oversimplified) explanation of Chinese language, but it should serve to give readers a basic understanding of how to properly identify Chinese words and communicate them to others in an unambiguous way.

The Chinese language does contain a word with a pronunciation represented by the romanization "shī".  However, the same romanization can represent a large number of words.  What follows is a basic (and brutally oversimplified) explanation of Chinese language, but it should serve to give readers a basic understanding of how to properly identify Chinese words and communicate them to others in an unambiguous way.

Mandarin Chinese, also known as standard Chinese or Pǔtōnghuà (普通话), has five distinct tones, four which are tonal and one which is neutral and pronounced without emphasis. <ref>http://www.wku.edu/~shizhen.gao/Chinese101/pinyin/tones.htm</ref>

Mandarin Chinese, also known as standard Chinese or Pǔtōnghuà (普通话), has five distinct tones, four which are tonal and one which is neutral and pronounced without emphasis.<ref>http://www.wku.edu/~shizhen.gao/Chinese101/pinyin/tones.htm</ref>

There are a multitude of ways to represent Chinese pronunciation, but you will most likely encounter PinYin or Wade-Giles in English works.  Wade-Giles is the older of the two systems and is slowly being phased out in favor of PinYin.  Check out the United States [[Library of Congress]] website for up to date information on conversion standards: <ref>http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pinyin/</ref>. I will stick strictly to the PinYin romanization as it is the simplest and most common.

There are a multitude of ways to represent Chinese pronunciation, but you will most likely encounter PinYin or Wade-Giles in English works.  Wade-Giles is the older of the two systems and is slowly being phased out in favor of PinYin.  Check out the United States [[Library of Congress]] website for up to date information on conversion standards:.<ref>http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pinyin/</ref>  I will stick strictly to the PinYin romanization as it is the simplest and most common.

In PinYin the first four tones are represented using accent marks.  The neutral fifth tone is represented by the absence of an accent mark.  It is also acceptable to follow the romanized syllable with a number to represent the tone (first through fourth), no number is needed for the fifth tone.  For example:

In PinYin the first four tones are represented using accent marks.  The neutral fifth tone is represented by the absence of an accent mark.  It is also acceptable to follow the romanized syllable with a number to represent the tone (first through fourth), no number is needed for the fifth tone.  For example:

As should be abundantly clear by now, the romanization of Chinese is quite complex.  Simply equating "shi" with "poem" is woefully ambiguous at best and absolutely incorrect at worst!

As should be abundantly clear by now, the romanization of Chinese is quite complex.  Simply equating "shi" with "poem" is woefully ambiguous at best and absolutely incorrect at worst!

It should also be noted that there also exist two different character systems: Traditional and Simplified.  This article uses only the simplified set.  For more information about the different character sets, check out <ref>http://zhongwen.com/</ref>.

It should also be noted that there also exist two different character systems: Traditional and Simplified.  This article uses only the simplified set.  For more information about the different character sets, check out.<ref>http://zhongwen.com/</ref>

==References==

==References==