The need to know dinosaur names in mandarin

How about watching this then http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XODg2NTAxMzY=.html  - the Chinese is a bit smallish and in traditional characters, but you get the DVD with simplified characters in China, anyway :-)

pete

I suggest a qingqwen lesson featuring qingwenpdfosaurus

Hi henning

Dinosaur names in Chinese are so "visual" that they are easy (even) for me to remember. In contrast, dinosaur names in Japanese are all clumsy transliterations of English names, as is often the case with loanwords used in Japan, and they are really tough to remember especially for old guys like me. I think that most Japanese children just learn them by rote without knowing their etymologies.

I love how they all have the dragon character 龙.  It's hard to believe there isn't a lesson on dinosaurs. 

I second the need for that lesson...it'd be lots of fun, especially with David's great audio engineering.

Addition. This question came up at breakfast:

Spinosaurus: 棘龙

What about Muttaburrasaurus? I'm not sure how you find these Chinese names Henning,but I had some trouble with this one as mdbg ,google translation,wikipedia [did you use some other version of wikipedia?],and a google translation of the wikipedia article all come up with zippo.However I found 木他龙 ,which appears to be a partial transliteration, from a baidu link here.

Hi babardwan,
when on the Wikipedia-Muttaburrasaurus-Page, look on the left hand side for "languages", select 中文 and voilá: You are on the 木他龙-page.

Thanks for adding another one to the list (and one that is not in my son's 400-page Dinosaur-encyclopedia).

Henning,

Thanks heaps mate.One lives and learns.I was trying to use google translate to translate the English version of the wikipedia which didn't help,but your tip,well as you say...voila.I've been to Muttaburra years ago which is in outback Queensland here [way outback ] in Australia.There is nothing of interest within cooee of the joint so it almost makes one a tad sceptical that they'd have to come up with something like this to have a claim to fame,but I know it really is bone fide.

ps You're more than welcome :)

These questions just came from my son (who refuses to let me work in peace in my home office...):

Allosaurus: 异特龙

Plesiosaurus: 蛇颈龙 (OK, that one is not a real Dinosaur)

Henning, we will indeed have to do a lesson on this. Due to production cycles it might take a month or so but I'll make it happen. :-)

Joachim,
...what I watched was the Chinese version of the BBC series "Walking with Dinosaurs" ("Dinosaurier - Im Reich der Giganten") on Tudou.

The Chinese is 与恐龙同行. There you have Chinese subtitles and voice-overs. But I found it really, really hard to follow - both language and quality wise.

Had to include this:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_m6sVhskT_Fs/SUhbTcURsWI/AAAAAAAADWE/8kIQvex11gU/s1600-h/11_1195.jpg

Henning, we are currently writing a UI Dinosaur lesson - just for you (and your son). I'll schedule it for the first week in August (can't do it any earlier as we've uploaded July already) :-)

I too am looking forward to that. There are also a few dinosaurs where I work, but that is a different kind of ancient.

I just skyped with my son who is currently in Beijing. His 姥姥 got him a toy dinosaur and he asked me for the German name. English or German - I couldn't locate it:

暴利龙

I got the slight suspicion this might be a name invented by the supersitious toy producer (sudden huge profit Dinosaur???).

Any ideas?

BTW: Thanks, Matt! We are already counting the days (although we will probably only be able to hear it with at least a week delay - after our trip to the 北戴河 beach - yeah!!).

Henning,

If you take the first two characters separately they could mean sudden and violent followed by sharp or benefit. Maybe this guy is just an efficient predator.

There is a small hunter called Coelophysis bauri. He is a predator and bao li could be a transliteration and also convey his deadly hunting ability. After that Im out of ammunition. Good luck.

RJ,

thanks! Coelophysis sounds good - and my son already knows that species...

But still.."Getrichquicksaurus" perfectly describes the nature of the dinosaur toy business.

Just returned from 北戴河, where my son and I found that the channel to watch after a long beach day is CCTV 10 - they got all the dinasaur shows...

Hi henning (and your son）

Please hang in there just a bit longer. A lovely dinosaur lesson is just a few million years seconds away! ;-0

Cool!

Please make it Advanced or UI so my son can listen in! He doesn't know any English apart from one line each from "Happy Birthday to you" and "What shall we do with the drunken sailer" (= Pirate music).