User Comments - changye
changye
Posted on: A Day at the Races
February 8, 2009 at 3:47 AMHi paulinurus
You are welcome! Here is another interesting episode about standardization of readings in modern Chinese.
At the meeting "读音统一会" held in 1913, scholars/linguists from southern regions were more dominant than those from northern China, and the southerners insisted that southern dialect sounds should be adopted as standard ones in China.
Then, northern scholars persuaded the chairman into taking a majority vote on province basis. In short, one province had one vote in a voting. Northerners won, fortunately for us foreign learners. Southern dialects usually have 6～9 tones!
Posted on: Funny Business -- 搞笑， 好笑， 可笑
February 8, 2009 at 3:19 AMThis is another useful lesson.
滑稽 (hua2 ji) = comical, funny
这个丑角的表演很滑稽。
zhe4ge chou3jue2 de biao3yan3 hen3 hua2ji.
The clown gave a comical performance.
Posted on: A Day at the Races
February 8, 2009 at 12:43 AMHi paulinurus
骑 is not a multi-reading character (多音字) anymore in modern Mandarin (and modern Chinese dictionaries), but it was before 1985, when the Chinese authorities announced 《普通话异读词审音表》 in order to standardize some different readings of Chinese characters.
http://baike.baidu.com/view/248604.htm
The character "骑" had two different readings until then, namely "qi2" and "ji4". The former one "qi2" was used in the sense of "ride (verb)", and "ji4" indicated "a horse for riding (noun)".
The authentic/traditional reading is "qi2", and I guess that 骑 was also pronounced as "ji4" because of influence of the character 骥 (ji4, a thoroughbred horse), perhaps. It's possible that some ancient guys mixed them up, haha.
Modern China have tried several times to standardize different readings of Chinese characters so far. As far as I know, the oldest attempt in the 20th century was done at the meeting 读音统一会 held in 1913.
As is often the case, some old pronunciations (unofficially) survive. In particular, people tend to keep using old readings when they use jargons or technical terms. Maybe this is the reason 坐骑 is pronounced as "zuo4 ji4" in the dialogue.
Anyway, dictionarywise, the correct reading is "zuo4 qi2".
Posted on: 中国崛起
February 7, 2009 at 1:59 PMBBC servery: Global attitudes towards China are worsening.
Global attitudes towards Russia and China are worsening, a poll carried out for the BBC World Service suggests. China's positive ratings fell six points over the year to 39%, while negative views of Russia jumped eight points to 42%, according to the survey.The survey was taken after President Barack Obama's election, but 43% still felt the US impact was negative. More than 13,000 people in 21 countries were interviewed for the poll, part of an annual survey of world opinion.
The rankings themselves are not so important. The point is "self-evaluation" by people in every country. I'm afraid that I only have the date of the last year's survey.
According to that, 56% (35%) American people have positive view towards their own country, Germany 75% (56%), Russia 78% (37%), Britain 60% (50%), India 59% (41%), France 63% (50%), and China 90% (47%). Numbers in (...) indicate global average positive ratings towards these countries.
It's worth noting that China has the largest gap (90% - 47% = 43%) in positive rating between self-evaluation and third-party evaluation. Of course, the former one (selkf-evaluation positive rating) is higher than the latter.
I guess this tendency basically stays unchanged in the survey of this year. It pays to know this fact, at least it won't hurt you, if you would like to further understand modern China. Chinese people might be much more proud of their country than you thought......?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7873050.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/06_02_09bbcworldservicepoll.pdf
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/02_04_08_globalview.pdf
Japan, my country, is the only state of which self-evaluation (36%) is less favorable than third-party's evaluation(56%). Japan ranked 2nd (with 56% positive rating, the same as German) last year, and 4th this year with the same positive rating as last year's.
Strangely enough, Japanese people themselves only show 36% of positive view towards their own country, which might be partly due to their self-deprecating and cynical propensity, but, I guess, mainly due to (thanks to?) the least patriotic/nationalistic education system in Japan after the war, unlike China and North/South Korea.
Honestly, I don't know whether or not it's good for Japan.
Posted on: Illegal taxis
February 7, 2009 at 10:47 AMHi missworldtraveler and pete
correction :
的 is also used for some transliterations like 的士, but in this case, 的 is pronounced with first tone (di1shi4), probably because its Cantonese sound "dik7" has first tone-like entering tone. For the record, 的士 is "dik7 si" in Cantonese.
In short, 的 (dik) in Cantonese is pronounced with high tone that ends with a stop consonant "k", which consequently sounds just like first tone (high flat tone) in putonghua.
Posted on: Illegal taxis
February 7, 2009 at 7:56 AMHi sushan
I got it. Underground (illegal) publishing is 地下出版/非法出版 in Chinese. Probably the former one connotes more nuance of "anti-government". You can also say "something 的地下版".
Posted on: Illegal taxis
February 7, 2009 at 7:03 AMHi sushan
Umm.... it should be 盗版 (dao4 ban3, pirated copy). 黑版 just means "black color type, black color version" or something like that, perhaps.
Posted on: Illegal taxis
February 7, 2009 at 6:52 AMHi missworldtraveler and pete
The correct sound of 的 is "di2" when it means "exactly". The only word of this kind that is frequently used in everyday conversation is 的确 (di2que4, exactly, certainly), just like 她的确很漂亮.
的 is also used for some transliterations like 的士, but in this case, 的 is pronounced with first tone (di1shi4), probably because its Cantonese sound "dik1" has first tone. For the record, 的士 is "dik1 si" in Cantonese.
P/S. The same goes for 了 (le). It's often pronounced as "liao" in songs.
Posted on: Sign Here, Please
February 7, 2009 at 5:18 AMHi kesirui,
I've never heard of the joke. Maybe it's not a joke for your Chinese husband, haha, cause his wife has three 心 in her name. Actually, the original character of 蕊 is 惢 (suo3/rui3, three 心s), and this means "suspicion" and "depression". But don't worry, I believe that the three hearts in your name definitely implies a warm-hearted young lady who comes from the United States.
Posted on: 中国崛起
February 8, 2009 at 5:27 AMAt first I thought that 暴发户 was a relatively new word, but I've found the word in a Japanese/Chinese dictionary edited about thirty years ago. Additionally, 《百度百科》 says that 暴发户 had been already used in a classic Chinese novel 《儒林外史》 published in the early 19th century. Chinese people traditionally show good sense of humor when coining a new word, such as 迷你裙 (miniskirt).