User Comments - changye
changye
Posted on: Pregnancy Series 2: Pregnancy House Ar-rest
January 23, 2009 at 3:28 AM羊水破了。 破水了。
Posted on: University Major: Part 1
January 23, 2009 at 3:20 AMHi altecdell,
The two different readings already existed more than two thousand years ago, and still exist both in putonghua and in dialects. It seems they had the same vowel in the past, and only the consonants were slightly different from each other. In both cases, 会 (hui4) and 会 (kuai4), their original meanings are basically the same, i.e. "gather".
In short, the former "会" (hui4) gathers "people", and the latter one "money, number", which led to the modern meaning "sum up". Incidentally, a well-known ancient city in China, 会稽, is pronounced "kuai4 ji1". The etymology of this name seems to be also semantically related to 会 and 稽, but it's too much for me to explain it in English...!
Posted on: 户籍制度
January 23, 2009 at 1:14 AMHi goulniky,
That's right. Let me show you the list of different "i"s in Hanyu pinyin. The vowel sounds of "i, i, i" below are slightly different from each other. Cleverly enough, the sound of (1) and (2) are all represented by one phonetic mark in bopomofo (注音符号) system in Taiwan.
(1) zhi, shi, chi, ri
(2) si, ci, zi
(3) bi, di, ji, li, mi, ni, pi, qi, ti, xi, yi , etc
Posted on: Hanging Up the Phone
January 22, 2009 at 3:29 AMHi bababardwan,
Let me show you a super realistic phone conversation I often experience here in China. You receive a phone call from a stranger in the very early morning.
You : 喂？ (Hello?)
Caller : 谁呀？ (Who are you?)
You : 你哪位？ (Who's calling, please?)
Caller : 打错了。 (I've got a wrong number.)
Actually, the above version is not so bad. At least, the caller said "打错了". They often hang up the phone without saying a word. I've already got used to these calls.
Posted on: 北京人上海人眼中的中国地图
January 22, 2009 at 3:10 AMHi miantiao,
你小心点，万一四川火锅店的辣妹发火的话，男人好像无法对付！在我看来，中国女性，特别是汉族女人都很厉害。但是，看样子还是有“等级”！
Hi matt_c,
谢谢你。我虽不抽烟，但很喜欢“烟酒不分家”这一句。
Posted on: 北京人上海人眼中的中国地图
January 22, 2009 at 2:26 AMHi miantial,
刚才我查了几个有关啤酒的网站。中国啤酒的酒精度一般为3.5度左右，日本啤酒达５度左右。怪不得我喝两瓶青岛啤酒还觉得不够！
Posted on: 北京人上海人眼中的中国地图
January 21, 2009 at 11:51 PMHi alexyu_yxi,
Here is the "etymology" of 活 (han4) in Taiwan. Looks like it's a very reliable story. It's just interesting.
http://kbs.cnki.net/Forums/35857/ShowThread.aspx
quote --------------
那么，北京土语“汗”怎么就跑到台湾去了呢？这还要从民国成立之初说起。1919年在《国音字典》上公布了第一个国音标准。这是一个“折中南北，牵合古今 ”的“标准音”。但是在这套“标准音”中，北京语音占有重要的地位。 1937年开始出版、延续多年陆续出齐的《国语词典》在注音上体现了以北京语音为标 准音的原则，字、词注音按照北京话语音系统，所以连词“和”不读hé，而读hàn。1945年10月台湾光复，日语的“国语”黯然退出，台胞急着要回复祖 国的语文，要说国语，要认汉字。1946年4月2日台湾省国语推行委员会正式成立。台湾国语会的标志性贡献是编订《国音标准汇编》，作为推行标准国语的根 据。1946年5月1日起，由“老北京”齐铁根先生每日在清晨7时，在电台担任“国语读音示范”，播讲民众国语读本、国语会话，国民学校国语、常识、历 史、各种课本，供学国语的人收听，匡正语音。当时的学校教师现听现学现教，使广大的学生也能及时学到国语，学习标准的国音。这位齐铁根当时成了家喻户晓的 大师级人物，直到现在上年纪的台湾人还能回忆起齐先生娓娓动听的“京片子”，连词“和”读hàn（“汗”）就此在台湾深入人心。
多年以后的90年代，老舍的儿子舒乙访问台湾，蓦然发现全岛由北到南，由西到东，由大人到小孩，由外乡人到原住民，全会！ 全岛2000万人全说国语，真是一个奇迹。舒乙先生特地写了一篇“乡音灌耳”记述访台观感，为台湾推广国语的成就感慨了一番。但是舒乙还是发现了一个发现 台湾所有的人在所有的场合把连词“和”字都念成hàn（“汗”），于是好奇地询问为什么。当时台湾作家何欣解释说：“这是齐铁根先生在电台上教的，他的话 就是法律，怎么教就怎么说了。”舒乙大笑，说：“齐先生使劲使过分了。” 随后，由于台湾和大陆的隔绝，台湾人说的国语成了方言岛，“和”保持了hàn的发音。《国音常用字汇》(中国大词典编纂处1949商务)《汉语词典》(中 国大词典编纂处1995商务)以及《大辞典》(台湾三民书局1985)中都将连词“和”标为hàn的发音。前一阵子来大陆的李敖大师，虽然口音远不是纯正 的北京音，但是他说“和”字的发音的确是老北京土话。
既然“和”（han）是老北京话，那么听不到北京人在说呢？《现代汉语词典》就 没有收录这个读音。其实早在明国初年北京人就已经开始把“和”发成和的音了。上面引用的赵元任先生在《语言问题》的回答，“因为白话文里头，‘和’字当 “跟、同、与、及”的意思用的最多，而照字面‘和平’的‘和’跟‘调和’ 的‘和’用的最多，所以现在成了一个既成事实：就是念白话文的时候，‘这一个和那一个’的‘和’，不照平常说话说han跟hai（轻声），而说hé（我个 人从北京多数派习惯说‘这一个跟那一个’，我根本不用‘和（han或hai）’这个连词，就成了一种习是成非了。不过要明白，连词‘和’读hé的读法是白 话文的一种‘读音’，不是‘语音’了。”
直至今日，北京话中的“和”字读轻声han或hai已经绝迹，但是在某种特殊的情况下重音 hàn却没有完全绝迹。直到现在，如果两个北京胡同串子夸耀哥俩好的特殊关系，就会说“咱俩谁hàn（和）谁啊！”要是强调疑惑不解，北京人也会常常会说 “这都哪hàn（和）哪啊！”《现代北京口语词典》(陈刚等 1997)收录了这一条。举的例子就是“哪儿~哪儿”“谁~谁”。---------------------------
P/S. Please someone look up "活"字 in a dictionary published in Taiwan!
Posted on: 北京人上海人眼中的中国地图
January 21, 2009 at 2:02 PMHi alexyu_yxi,
Thanks a lot for your intriguing story about the history of Cantonese. In particular, it never occurred to me that a geographical factor, such as 南岭, is so important in the history of Chinese languages. Incidentally, 儿化 in northern dialects is also said to have been introduced by a northern ethnic group (女真 or 蒙古人？).
Regarding 行 (han4) in Taiwanese, I looked into this issue before in the other thread here in Chinesepod. I'm not sure if it's true, but they say that "han" was originally a dialect sound in Beijing, and it was introduced to Taiwan by 大陆人 (and dictionaries), however the sound "han" later disappeared in Beijing.
Posted on: 北京人上海人眼中的中国地图
January 21, 2009 at 1:15 PMHi matt_c,
谢谢你的答案。没想到“八度”原来就是麦芽度，长见识了！其实我在日本没听说过这个说法，别的国家怎么样？
Posted on: Pregnancy Series 2: Pregnancy House Ar-rest
January 23, 2009 at 5:47 AMHi pete,
很不好意思，我做弊了。其实日文里也有着同样的说法。日本人学中文还是有很多"优惠"，谢天谢地，谢祖先！关于“羊水/羊膜”，这些词语源于古希腊语。听说你会拉丁语，"amnos = lamb", 请告诉我这个对不对。
amnion (anat.) caul. XVII. — modL. — Gr. amníon, dim. of amnós lamb.