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Spinning Wheel of Fortune in Pinyin

by Zhang1 Ju1 Li3

The Wheel of Fortune is an extremely successful TV game show in the U.S. It debutted on January 6, 1975. Since then this 30-minute program has been aired on week days or evenings, and attracting millions of people. It has also been adapted to many other languages, aired world wide. To learn more about this game, please visit details of this game www.wheeloffortune.com and http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Wheel_of_Fortune.

This article discusses a modified version of the Wheel of the Fortune in Chinese language. The Chinese culture has lasted thousands of years. There are more than one billion native speakers of Chinese in the world. The Chinese wheel of fortune is expected to spin so successfully as it is in other languages.

An English Example. When the game starts, the puzzle appears:

           

Clue: Personal name

Solution:

A L   G O R E


There are four tones in Chinese. They are respectively represented by superscript 1, 2,3, and 4, and placed at the right-hand upper corner of syllables.

Chinese example #1. When the game starts, the puzzle appears:

      2     2         1

Clue: Personal name

Solution:

m a o 2 z e 2 d o n g 1


An alternative is to use the piniyin's tone marks, that is, ˉ, ˊ, ˇ, ˋ, for the tones. The above Chinese example will become:

m a o ˊ z e ˊ d o n g ˉ


In the following examples, I will use only numerals to indicate the tones.

Chinese example #2. When the game starts, the puzzle appears:

          1       3           2       2

Clue: an idiom (cheng2yu3)

Solution:

x i o n g 1 y o u 3 c h e n g 2 z h u 2


Chinse example #3. When the game starts, the puzzle appears:

      2         4       3     2       2

Clue: a herbal medicine

Solution:

y i n 2 q i a o 4 j i e 3 d u 2 w a n 2


Chinese example #4. When the game starts, the puzzle appears:

        4         1       2     2         3


    4       3           4         1         3

Clue: two lines by poet Du4 Fu3:

Solution:

h u i 4 d a n g 1 l i n 2 j u e 2 d i n g 3


y i 4 l a n 3 z h o n g 4 s h a n 1 x i a o 3



Chinese example #5. When the game starts, the puzzle appears:

      4           1     3         1         2


-         4       4

Clue: xie1hou4yu3

Solution:

w a i 4 s h e n g 1 d a 3 d e n g 1 l o n g 2


- z h a o 4 j i u 4



Chinese example #6. When the game starts, the puzzle appears:

    4       1     1       3 :           1       4       4

Clue: scientist:theory

Solution:

a i 4 y i n 1 s i 1 t a n 3 : x i a n g 1 d u i 4 l u n 4



Chinese example #7. When the game starts, the puzzle appears:

        4     3       2         2 -           1         4

Clue: nickname/hero(hao3han4) in the classic novel Shui3 Hu3 Zhuan4

Solution:

l a n g 4 l i 3 b a i 2 t i a o 2 - z h a n g 1 s h u n 4



Chinese example #8. When the game starts, the puzzle appears:

        2         3         2

        2       1         1

Clue: Names of two Chinese actors.

Solution:

w a n g 2 x i a o 3 t a n g 2

w a n g 2 x i n 1 g a n g 1



Some syllables in Mandarin are defined as in 'light tone'. The light tone is indicated by superscript '0' in this design.
Chinese example #9: When the game starts, the puzzle appears:

    3     2   0 ,     3       4       1       3


Clue: title of a song
Solution:


m a 3 e r 2 a 0 , n i 3 m a n 4 x i e 1 z o u 3


Chinse example #10. When the game starts, the puzzle appears:

      3       3     0     4       4

Clue: a movie of 1950s

Solution:

l i u 3 b a o 3 d e 0 g u 4 s h i 4

Copywright © 2002-2005 by zhang1ju1li3

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