User Comments - changye
changye
Posted on: What Type of Man do You Like?
August 25, 2009 at 1:57 PMHi suxiaoya
明天正好是中国情人节“七夕”。
明天农历七月七号就是中国情人节“七夕”。
Thanks for reminding me! I had forgotten about that.
Posted on: Grab Some Veggies From the Store
August 25, 2009 at 10:25 AMHi sydcarten
Here are several different (approximate) pronunciations of 白菜.
bai-cai ...Mandarin
bak-cak ...Old Chilnese
bak-cai ...Middle Chinese
bok-choi ...Cantonese
pek-che ...Korean
hak-sai ...Japanese
Japanese pronunciation "hak-sai" is based on Middle Chinese "bak-cai". In ancient Japan, the voiced consonant "b" was not placed at the beginning of a word, so "b" was changed into "h" in order to match Japanese pronunciation system. The same is true for "sai".
Posted on: 把 Humbug
August 24, 2009 at 4:02 PMHi ivor88
In addition to my previous comments on "N-L alternation", consonants "N" and "L" have been historically very stable in Chinese. For example, the consonants of "脑" (nao) and "老" (lao) remain almost unchanged in mainstream northern Chinese dialects over the past two thousand years.
And this is the reason why I'm a little surprised to know about this "N-L" phenomenon in some Chinese dialects. Having said that, consonants "N" and "L" are actually very similar to each other. You have the same mouthing and tongue position when you are pronouncing these consonants.
Here is a similar example in korean language. If a Chinese word has a initial consonant "L" , the "L" changes into "N", or "drop off", in south Korea, but this doesn't happen in north Korea. For example, "劳动" (lao2 dong4) is pronounced as "lo dong" (로동) in North, but "no dong" (노동) in South.
Posted on: Dinosaurs
August 24, 2009 at 3:18 PMHi suxiaoya
吃掉 (eat up) sounds more "cruel/vivid" than just saying "吃了".
Posted on: Dinosaurs
August 24, 2009 at 4:34 AM我今天才知道霸王龙就是活在白垩纪的恐龙。那样的话，我觉得的《侏罗纪公园》这个电影名有点不对。没记错的话，这部美国科幻片中演主角的恐龙不是霸王龙吗？我想，应该把《侏罗纪公园》改称为《侏罗-白垩纪公园》才对。还有，我得提出另一个很深刻的疑问。请问大家，有没有人知道这部电影里是否出现过三叠纪恐龙？
Posted on: Dinosaurs
August 24, 2009 at 3:06 AMSpace Shuttle = 航天飞机，太空穿梭机，太空梭
Posted on: Funny Business 4 -- Farewell, Xiao Zhao
August 23, 2009 at 2:28 PMHi paulinurus
Unlike your heaven in the West, our heaven in the East doesn't offer all things free of charge, let alone hell.
Posted on: 把 Humbug
August 23, 2009 at 9:00 AMHi ivor88
Here is a table that shows N/L sounds comparison from a book titled 《汉语方言概要》. It seems some southern dialects also have a similar sound alternation.
.......脑....老
北京 nao lao
西安 nao lao
成都 nao nao
咸阳 lao lao
南京 lao lao
重庆 nao nao
Posted on: Funny Business 4 -- Farewell, Xiao Zhao
August 23, 2009 at 8:29 AMHi tal
Chinese people are very skilled in using bogus bills they carelessly received. They usually "consume" bogus bills at night markets. Very clever.
Posted on: Diet Coke
August 25, 2009 at 2:46 PMHi carlos
That's true. "Seven Up" is translated as "七喜" in Chinese. I've never drank this beverage, though.
Coca Cola 可口可乐 (ke3kou3ke3le4)
Pepsi Cola 百事可乐 (bai3shi4ke3le4)
Sprite 雪碧 (xue3 bi4)
"可口可乐" is said to be a classic Chinese transliteration, both semantically and phonetically, and it's often quoted when explaining about foreign words in Chinese.