User Comments - mmsans

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mmsans

Posted on: Saved by the Gong: Tai Chi
June 27, 2009, 04:19 AM

Hi Herbdoctor,

Thanks to the Wade-Giles romanization system, or thanks to misunderstandings about it, English speakers regularly mispronounce words like taiji and daoism. In the W-G system, 太极 is written t'ai chi. 太气 is written t'ai ch'i. The apostrophe indicates aspiration. Hence the following W-G spellings:

大: ta    他: t'a
办: pan  盘: p'an
感: kan  看: k'an
道: tao  讨: t'ao

You get the picture. There are other intricacies of this system, but the apostrophe seems to generate the most pronunciation mixups.

Posted on: Pin Number
June 27, 2009, 02:51 AM

Changye,

Good point; I also find mai3dan1 easier to pronounce than mai2dan1.

Thanks and cheers.

Posted on: Pin Number
June 25, 2009, 05:54 PM

Changye,

谢谢你回答我的问题。那， 关于声调，第二声地三声都可以吗？

Posted on: Pin Number
June 24, 2009, 09:47 PM

Greetings from SF,

我以为是埋单而不是买单。到底哪个对？