Mandarin Nasal Finals Ask A Chinese Teacher 18 Columbus School of Chinese

Hello and welcome back to the Columbus School of Chinese. My name is Donald Newman and this is Ask a Chinese Teacher. On today's episode we're going to be talking about a portion of this finals chart we have not previously talked about. That is all these options down here that end in an N or an NG. These are what are called the nasal finals and we'll be talking about the two different categories of them, how to produce them, what your tongue should be doing in your mouth in just a moment. But before we get into that if you're enjoying these episodes of Ask a Chinese Teacher please make sure you subscribe to us here on YouTube. Check us out at thecolumbusschoolofchinese.com for more information about our company and classes that might be available for you. And like us on Facebook for a lot more free Mandarin learning resources. So without further ado we have the nasal finals today. Why are these called nasal? The words that end in an N or an NG sound that's because your tongue when you produce these sounds is stopping the air from flowing through your mouth and forcing some of it or all of it to go through your nose. Just like in English we kind of have different locations of where these nasal sounds happen. If an English word ends in just an N your tongue kind of comes up near the front of your mouth to stop the air force it to go through your nose you'll feel your nose vibrating. For example the word John the end of the word John my tongue kind of comes right up here to close this off the air is coming out of the of my nose right. That's called a frontal nasal and a back nasal sometimes very similar to something called a so if this is my tongue this is the tip of my tongue this is down towards where it connects to my throat your tongue's moving back to stop the air back there as opposed to up front. There's a handy chart here I found online kind of mapping out what your tongue is doing for these front and back nasal sounds. For the front nasal sounds they're called front nose sound these are the front nasal sounds your tongue is closing off the airway right near the front of your mouth for the back nasal sounds your tongue is closing off the airway with the very back of the tongue it's moving back closing off the air farther back towards almost where it's going down your throat so with these front and back nasal sounds there are three pairs that we can compare side by side in mandarin they are that a e and i followed by either n or n g kind of compare and contrast them this way. What's happening between a e and i is the starting position of your mouth so with ah your tongue is very low your mouth is very open with your tongue is kind of in the middle it's raised a little bit compared to this a and your lips are starting to pull back a little bit into a smile with e we've gone all the way from open all the way to really tight your lips are pulled pretty far back pretty tight and your tongue is pretty high up in your mouth it doesn't have to move very far to stop that air passageway to produce this nasal sound so let's give these front nasal sounds a try remember your tongue is stopping the sound by moving up very close to the front of your mouth on your hard palate here do you feel your tongue coming up to close off the air passage excellent next we have the back nasal sounds remember you're closing off the air passageway by moving your tongue back the very back of your tongue is closing it off near your throat all right do you feel your tongue kind of moving back to stop that stop that airflow you should feel your nose get a little bit tingly that tells you you're doing the right thing you've stopped the air and you're forcing some to go through your nasal passageway that you can feel your your nose vibrate before we go let's compare them back to back all right um all right that does it for today's introduction to the nasal sounds if you're enjoying these videos please make sure you share them with other mandarin learners and subscribe to the channel check us out on facebook and our website columbuschoolofchinese.com thank you we'll see you next time