User Comments - changye
changye
Posted on: The Olympic Mascots
June 18, 2008 at 3:16 AMHi LostinAsia,
Don't worry about that. China has a proverb "转祸为福", and I believe that 北京奥运会 will be successful.
Posted on: Missing Luggage
June 18, 2008 at 3:02 AMHi pulosm,
Let me tell you some info on “genders” in languages, which I hastily gathered from Wikipedia Japan. Sanskrit, Hindu and Urdo have genders, and this is very understandable because they belong to the Indo-European language family, but Persian does not. And I’m surprised to know that some Semitic languages, such as Arabic and Hebrew, also have genders. In general, east and southeast Asian languages don’t have genders, fortunately for me!
Posted on: SBTG: Sun Yatsen
June 18, 2008 at 2:25 AMHi melop,
It seems that you are right. The Cantonese pronunciation of "孙日新" is actually closer to "Sun Yatsen" than 孙逸仙 is.
Anyway, I didn't know at all that he had another name "孙日新". 孙中山 really had many names, probably because he didn't use his real name especially when he lived in exile in foreign countries.
By the way, I've found an interesting article about the origin of the name "孙中山". I think this webpage is really worth reading.
(excerpt)
孙中山的“中山“，其实是日文的姓，不是中文的名。孙文流亡日本时登记住宿，不便留下真名，他灵机一动想起路过一座挂名“中山“的府邸，遂自命为“中山“。在日本，中山是姓不是名，孙文遂在“中山“之后加一个“樵“字，从此“中山樵”便成了孙文的日本名。
宫崎寅藏在1902年 写出了介绍孙中山革命事迹的日文书《三十三年落花梦》，后由留学日本的章士钊译成中文。但在翻译过程中，章士钊一时疏忽，把“孙文“与“中山樵“的中日两 个姓连在一起，写成了“孙中山”。此书出版后，“孙中山“的大名流传开来，成为人所共知的伟人。所以说，“孙中山“之名源起日本，创造者为章士钊。
孙中山与日本 (Sun Yatsen and Japan)
http://blog.ifeng.com/article/1444204.html
Posted on: Regional Accents Part II
June 18, 2008 at 1:46 AMHi melop,
By the way, do you happen to know the origin of 儿化 in northern Chinese dialects? Actually, I’ve never given it serious thought before, but pulosm’s comment really got me interested in 儿化. Thank you.
Posted on: Regional Accents Part II
June 18, 2008 at 1:28 AMHi melop,
I am sorry for the late reply. I’ve just noticed your comment on May 30 about 垃圾. As you pointed out, the ancient pronunciation of 圾 is not “kiek” (or kiak), but “kiep” (kiap) or something like that. Thank you for correction.
I’ve also looked up it in 康熙字典 and found its 反切 was 鄂合 (in 集韵), which actually suggests its entering sound is “p”, not “k”. If I were a Korean, I wouldn’t have made this kind of mistake, because the sound of 圾 is “kup” (급) in Korean. But, it is “kyu” (きゅう) or “kou” (こう) in Japanese.
＞ K sound might have changed to "ts" by patalization,
＞ forming "tsap". Since the ending for "垃 lap" is "p",
＞ the initial "t" got assimilated, yielding "lappsap".
This is very plausible. I will buy it! Thank you.
Posted on: Missing Luggage
June 17, 2008 at 11:55 PMHi henning,
You got me there! I should have looked up it in a dictionary or written "French" instead of German. The suitcase is "feminine" in French...... according to an online dictionary I've just found.
Posted on: Missing Luggage
June 17, 2008 at 1:49 PMHi pinkjeans,
I believe that 行李 definitely has "性" in German, or other European languages.
Posted on: Regional Accents Part II
June 17, 2008 at 1:47 PMHi guys,
Having read auntie68’s above comment, I’ve also become to think that Cantonese might possibly have been selected as 普通话, as pulosm wrote in his comment. You know, 毛泽东 (Mao Zedong) comes from 湖南省！
As for 儿化 in northern dialects, I guess that it must be one of major issues in linguistics in China. I think that it’s highly possible that 儿化 was brought into Chinese from 蒙古语 (Mongolian) or 满族语 (Manchuria).
I heard before that the Mongolia’s rule of China and Korea, between the 12th and 13th century influenced the pronunciation system (and vocabulary) of Chinese, as well as Korean, to some extent. Wow, 儿化 has a long history.
I’ve just found an article that says 儿化 came “mainly” from 满族语 (Manchuria) during the rule by 满族 (清朝, 1644～1912). The author took some place names in 东北地区, 哈尔滨 and 齐齐哈尔, as evidences for that.
Historically speaking, 满语(Manchurian) had also been influenced by 蒙古语. The character set for 满文 was invented by modifying Mongolian characters. Just thinking about 儿化 can take you on a journey through Chinese history!
Good night!
Posted on: Missing Luggage
June 17, 2008 at 12:45 PMHi billm,
Hehe, you've come up with an interesting question. Let me try. How about "行李箱也有情"?
Posted on: Bangkok
June 18, 2008 at 6:24 AMThe pronunciations of 曼谷.
北京话 (Mandarin) man gu
广东话 (Cantonese) maan guk
潮州话 (Teochew) bhuang gog
台湾语 (Taiwanese) ban kok
The Taiwanese one is the best transliteration for the English name “Bangkok”. I also found another Chinese name “盘谷” (pan2 gu3) for Bangkok, but it’s not commonly used in China, although its pronunciation seems to be better than that of 曼谷 (man4 gu3). I don’t know how the name of the city actually sounds in Thai.