User Comments - changye
changye
Posted on: 最低工资
February 12, 2008 at 2:50 PMClassifying parts of speech in Chinese is somewhat confusing.
Posted on: The Neutral Tone
February 12, 2008 at 2:43 PMHi AuntySue, As well as kakyoism’s posting, Thanks a lot for your precious information on Cantonese. I am now hurriedly packing my belongings for a research tour to Canton. Joking aside, I think that I understand what you and kakyoism would like to say about the entering tone, 入声, in Cantonese. Actually, you can find the same pronunciations as 入声 in Japanese and Korean, and I myself use them all the time in everyday conversation. The problem is that there is no other way to describe it as, for example, “hok”, even though “you chop the sound in anticipation of saying (k)”. Alphabets “k”, “t”, and “p” are standard IPA symbols for 入声sounds, and you commonly find them in textbooks on Chinese phonology, which could sometimes bring about some misunderstandings in pronouncing 入声. They indeed exist, but I agree they are not clearly noticeable, or unnoticeable. Japanese people, me included, apt to excessively emphasize this kind of sounds, because most of 入声 have already changed to open vowels in Japanese. For example, “学” is actually being pronounced “ga-ku” in Japan now, although its Chinese sound was “hak”, of which “k” is 入声, but “ku” is not anymore. That is why some Japanese people tend to pronounce an English word “book” like “bukku” or “pick” like “pikku”. As for me, perhaps I might have a tendency to slightly exaggerate or overemphasize sounds of 入声 in my head. Lastly, I fond your information on Cantonese tones really helpful and encouraging.
Posted on: 最低工资
February 12, 2008 at 9:43 AM如果这是四五年前的话所谓最低工资就 是我公司的老板最讨厌的话题之一但是 随着时代的变化最低工资的意义也变了。 无论工资高低近来车间工人一般不好找， 他们的薪金早已远远高于法定最低工资。 我代表所有住在中国的外国人说一句话， 真的没想到中国也有个劳力不够的难题。
Posted on: The Neutral Tone
February 12, 2008 at 8:41 AMHi kakyoism, Thanks for your quick response. Never mind, I also love “nit-picking”! With regard to the pronunciation of “学”, I still think it should be something like “hok”, as far as I can find in some online dictionaries. But to tell you the truth, I do not know how it is actually being pronounced in 广东 region. It is possible that the sound of “k” is very faint and almost unperceivable in everyday conversation, not sure though. http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/129/
Posted on: The Neutral Tone
February 12, 2008 at 8:10 AMHi shiwuqingren, I think that your joke is not so bad, unless the mother does not live in Mongolia. Mongolian people might take the sentence at face value.
Posted on: The Neutral Tone
February 12, 2008 at 8:00 AMHi aert, The history of the tonal system is one of the most intriguing and challenging parts in Chinese phonology. I have long been standing in the “entrance” to that. The ancient Chinese tonal system had been changing in a relatively regular way, although 去声 (the entering tone) was apportioned to other tones in a complicated manner when it gradually disappeared after about the 10th century. In addition to your explanation, 入声 has changed mainly into a second tone after a voiced consonant, but in case of consonants other than voiced and resonant, there seems to be no clear and simple regularity in their changes. For the record, ancient first tone (平声) has changed to the second tone (阳平), and ancient second tone (上声) to the forth tone (去声)，if they are after voiced consonants. Interestingly, ancient 去声 has remained unchanged until modern times, regardless of its kind of consonant, which I still do not understand why. Likewise, I do not know why some ancient tones have changed in a regular way according to their preposed consonants. In other words, I only know how they changed but do not know yet what on earth induced such changes of Chinese tones. Even from a layman’s point of view, vowel and consonant shifts are relatively understandable. They could be explained by theory of vowel reduction, lenition, palatalization and so on. I am sorry that I seem to be teaching a fish how to swim, since you are a professional linguist! Anyway, Chinese phonology is interesting to me, just because I often come across things I do not understand.
Posted on: Iron Your Clothes
February 12, 2008 at 7:35 AMHi shiwuqingren, Just a piece of cake! My hangover is already over. Pinyin without numbers means neutral. 1) 这汤很烫zhe4 tang1 hen3 tang4 2) 我的舌头被烫了wo3 de she2 tou bei4 tang4 le. 3) 我烫小狗的衣服wo3 tang4 xiao3 gou3 de yi1 fu. 4) 我烫头发了wo3 tang4 tou2 fa le.
Posted on: The Neutral Tone
February 12, 2008 at 6:14 AMHi auntie68, I am sorry for another “nitpicky” story. Cantonese, the final frontier, but I cannot boldly go into the wonderful world of the famous dialect. I hear that it has nine tones and you have to master at least six of them to communicate, which is completely beyond my competence and patience anyway, however Cantonese is very interesting for Japanese people. Cantonese pronunciations of Chinese characters are relatively similar to those in Japanese, Korean and other southern dialects in China. Conversely speaking, only Mandarin (one of northern dialects) has rather different pronunciations from those in other major dialects and neighboring languages. Let me show you, for example, how to pronounce “学” (xue2, to study) in several regions. 普通话 (xue), 日本 (gak), 朝鲜 (hak), 广东 (hok), 上海 (hhok), 潮州 (hag), and 客家 (hok). I am afraid that I do not know how to read it in Vietnamese, but I can imagine that it should perhaps be similar to (hok) in 广东. You can see that only (xue) in 普通话 is very different from the others. Incidentally, in Japan, “学” is being pronounced “gak”, not “hak” or “hok”. That is because there was no consonant “h” in Japanese when the character was imported from China a long time ago, therefore “h” was replaced by a similar consonant “g”. “学” (xue) in 普通话 not only lost its 入声, but also has changed its consonant and vowel considerably, just like “hok” > “hio” > “xue” in chronological order. Why did it happen only in 普通话 (Mandarin), and why did not happen in southern dialects, Japanese, and Korean？That is the question. Do not ask me why.
Posted on: 似曾相识
February 12, 2008 at 3:04 AMHi auntie68, It seems that there is a positive relationship between “即” (ji2) and “既” (ji4), as can be easily expected from the left part of both characters. One of my dictionaries tells me that the shapes of the two characters were more similar to each other than they are now about two thousands years ago. The radicals of “即” and “既” had the same meanings, that is, “a food vessel” for the left parts, and “a man” for the right ones, which describes a man kneeling at the side of a food vessel. And interestingly enough, “即” meant “a man is about to eat”, but “既” meant “a man has already eaten.” Anyway, it is highly understandable why Chinese people often mistake “即” for “既”. It is likely that “即视感” will become more widely accepted and gain “citizenship” in the not so distant future. As the Japanese joke goes, “if everyone crosses against the red light, then there is nothing to be afraid of.” By the way, your lovely stunt toddler avatar has suddenly changed into a peaceful. elderly woman. I guess that she could be your “more than ninety years old” Kiyo (清) , am I right? Her photo reminds me of my grandmother, who is incredibly almost one hundred years old and still up and around.
Posted on: 最低工资
February 13, 2008 at 1:06 AMHi goulniki and casie, 最近景气怎么样？ noun 我公司景气很好。 noun 我的公司很景气。 adjective 世界经济不景气。 adjective