User Comments - changye
changye
Posted on: New Clothes
January 30, 2009 at 4:01 AMI've been thinking about the tone of "不" for a long time. Why does it change before the fourth tone? I understand well why 你好 (ni3 hao3) changes into "ni2 hao3" because it's easier to pronounce, but is "bu2 shi4" easier to utter than "bu4 shi4"? Ummm, at least, the former might be more melodious than the latter, haha.
Actually, Chinese people often pronounce "不" with a neutral (?) tone, just like "我不是" (wo3 bu shi4) or 我不要 (wo3 bu yao4), especially when they speak fast. Conversely, clearly pronouncing "bu2 shi4" sometimes connotes emphasis. Personally I don't like the second tone, since it's a bit difficult for me to pronounce.
Posted on: 麻将风波
January 30, 2009 at 3:15 AMThe etymology and history of 麻将 seems to be much more complicated than I imagined, and there is still no accepted one. Even 水浒传 had something to do with this game. The article (in Chinese) below is rather long, but really worth reading if you are an ardent Mah-jong fan.
http://baike.baidu.com/view/10590.htm (百度百科)
One of my dictionaries says the Chinese word for mah-jong tiles have been changed as follows over the past few hundred years. 马吊牌 > 马将牌 > 麻雀牌 > 麻将牌, and Chinese people customarily pronounced 麻雀牌 as "ma-jiang pai" (= 马将), instead of calling it "ma que pai".
That said, there is another theory. Anyway, it's rather complicated.
《清稗类钞》中记载：“麻雀牌是马吊牌一音之转。”麻、马二字同音，江浙一带的乡音称鸟为刁，刁读去音(fourth tone)就是吊。于是，马吊就读了麻将，麻将牌由此得名。 (百度百科)
Posted on: Birth by Chinese Zodiac
January 29, 2009 at 12:54 PMHi zhenlijiang,
Chinese inteligencia traditionaly love editing and publishing dictionaries.
The oldest one dates back to more than two thousand years ago, however, the ways of arranging entry characters and words differ from age to age. In general, finding your target word in ancient dictionaries is rather difficult. It takes academic knowledge to use them efficiently.
The characters/words arrangement in modern Chinese dictionaries are originated in an ancient dictionary titled "字汇", edited in China about four hundred years ago, where all the radicals, direction characters and entry words are arranged in stroke count order.
So the first character listed in this type of dictionaries is, of course, "一" (one). This was an epoch-making innovation in the history of Chinese dictionaries. That famous 康熙字典 (1716) also followed this innovative format.
Most Chinese character dictionaries (漢和辞典) in modern Japan are edited based on 康熙字典. Ironically enough, you usually can't find this kind of "authentic/traditional" Chinese dictionaries anymore in modern China (the PRC), the kingdom of Chinese characters.
Almost all the dictionaries published after the introducation of Hanyu pinyin employ "alphabetical order arrangement", fortunately and thankfully for us foreign learners. If ancient Chinese scholars knew about this, they would certainly be astonished!
Posted on: Birth by Chinese Zodiac
January 29, 2009 at 12:17 PMHi zhenlijiang,
Yeah, you are right. I'm a very honest guy, hehe. As you know, a liar should have a good memory, unlike me. Speaking of Hanyu pinyin, actually it's a big help for us foreign learners of modern Mandarin, however, at the same time, the alphabetical phonetic symbols sometimes confuse learners.
For example, there are three slightly different sounds for pinyin "i", such as "shi", "si", and "xi". Those three sounds are cleverly represented by different signs in bopomofo (注音符号, ㄅㄆㄇㄈ), another pinyin system used in Taiwan, but not in Hanyu pinyin. In short, it's a kind of unwritten rules.
Posted on: Pregnancy Series 2: Pregnancy House Ar-rest
January 29, 2009 at 11:38 AMHi bendidelaowai,
Long time no see! I always envy you guys who can speak a few (several?) European languages. I bet it would be great fun to look into etymologies and historical comparison of words in languages that belong to the Indo-European language family.
I'm ashamed to say, but I've tried to learn German several times so far, without a bit of success. My dead grandmother often told me that I should not take on a language that has more complicated grammar than English. Now I know she was very right.
Posted on: 麻将风波
January 29, 2009 at 10:52 AMMah-jong is called "麻雀" （ma-a-jan）, not 麻将, in Japanese. The Chinese word "麻雀" (ma2que4) means "a sparrow", and is not used in the sense of "mah-jong" in modern Mandarin, but actually, "麻雀" was also used to indicate "mah-jong" in China in the past, since the sound of shuffling mah-jong tiles is like a sparrow chirping. Sparrows in China seem to have a deep voice!
And therefore, the Chinese traditional game is still called "麻雀" in Cantonese. As is often the case, archaic words are still well preserved in dialects. FYI, the word "马将" (ma3 jiang4) also indicated "mah-jong" in China a few hundred years ago. Interestingly, "马将" indicated "thieves" in those days. Please don't ask me about its etymology. It's a rather long story, hehe.
Posted on: 麻将风波
January 29, 2009 at 7:28 AMI've come across a hilarious news article about 人体麻将 (Human Majiang by female college students). 大家注意，严禁摸牌！
人体麻将大赛 136名女大学生当麻将牌
http://tech.enorth.com.cn/system/2008/03/10/002950309.shtml
Posted on: New Clothes
January 29, 2009 at 6:33 AMHi custodian,
但是 is slightly more formal and serious than 不过 and 可是, although they basically have the same meaning "but". And therefore, 但是 is often used in the "虽然～但是" structure. 但 is more formal than 但是. That said, actually, all the words are used both in spoken and in written Chinese. No need to be nervous.
Posted on: 麻将风波
January 29, 2009 at 6:14 AM中国麻将牌比日本的大得多。中国国土大，而且中国人喜欢较大花哨的东西，所以麻将牌也大。日本国土小，再说日本人喜欢较小可爱的东西，麻将牌当然也小。维基百科说，用尺寸大的麻将牌可以防止作弊。中国不愧为麻将起源地，看样子防止老千诈赌的办法也很周全！
Posted on: Birth by Chinese Zodiac
January 30, 2009 at 4:54 AMHi zhenlijiang,
Dont't worry, we are talking about something related to languages, at least. So I believe pete wouldn't warn us ... unless we begin to post comments written only in Japanese, haha.
Yeah, Hanyu pinyin are rather tricky phonetic symbols. It seems to be easy for foreign learners to master, but actually there are a lot of "traps" or "pitfalls" waiting for you in them.
You need to correctly learn them at the very early stage of learning Mandarin, otherwise 一辈子就完蛋了！ "Pinyin/IPA symbols" comparison tables are helpful for understanding 汉语拼音.