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轻声 (qīng shēng) — (linguistics) neutral tone, light stress; soft voice, low voice

Definition

轻声 has two unrelated senses: in linguistics, the 'neutral tone' (an unstressed syllable in Mandarin, e.g. the second 妈 in 妈妈); in everyday use, a 'soft, quiet voice'.

noun
(linguistics) neutral tonelight stresssoft voicelow voice

Examples

  • ，轻声。
    Zài pǔ tōng huà lǐ, qīng shēng shì yì zhǒng fēi cháng zhòng yào de yǔ yīn xiàn xiàng.
    In Mandarin, the neutral tone is a very important phonetic phenomenon.
  • ，轻声。
    Tā shuō huà de shēng yīn hěn xiǎo, jī hū chéng le qīng shēng.
    His speaking voice is so soft that it's almost a whisper.
  • 轻声。
    Lǎo shī qǐng wǒ men yòng qīng shēng lǎng dú zhè shǒu shī.
    The teacher asked us to read this poem in a soft voice.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

轻qīnglight
声shēngtone

“轻” gives soft/light, “声” gives tone or voice; together name the soft, unstressed tone.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 輕; 轻 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
車車jūcarriage
Sound part声符shēngfú
巠
巠jīng輕qīng
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 輕 pairs 車, a carriage, with 巠 to give the sound; it originally named a light carriage. The simplified 轻 is only a later shorthand.

Open 轻 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 聲; 声 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
耳耳ěrear
Sound part声符shēngfú
殸
殸qìng聲shēng
Same sound today

The traditional form 聲 pairs 耳 (ear) with 殸 as a sound part; the simplified 声 is a shorthand and does not show those original parts.

Open 声 →
Appears in
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