Chinese Signposts
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- pseudoerasmus
- pseudoerasmus
- pseudoerasmus
- biogardener
- pseudoerasmus
- rkhen
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» pseudoerasmus - Excellent article
I can't think of any way to indulge my habit of cavilling at your articles....Except to say that each kanji character could basically be divided into five classes:
pure pictographs
pure ideographs
pictograph-pictograph conjunct
ideograph-ideograph conjunct
pictograph-ideograph conjunct
In any conjunct, one of the constituents is reduced to a "radical".
The finger-waving you talked about among Chinese is seen constantly in the streets of Hong Kong, where the native Cantonese often mangle their Mandarin tones when speaking to Mainlanders and must write in the air to clear up confusions.
Also, this happens between Japanese and Chinese as well. The two languages employ completely different particles and syntax, but most individual words have a common meaning in both languages. So a Japanese speaker like me without the slightest knowledge of spoken Chinese can convey rudimentary meanings to Chinese speakers through the finger-waving method. (See here for an anecdote involving this very thing. It's about a third of the way down.)
The only problem is that many kanji characters have simplified and traditional forms and the Chinese tend to use both, while the Japanese usually employs only one or the other. So some characters are not discernible without thinking a little bit about it. For example, in this my oft-linked image, the first character on the top left of the Chinese road sign is the simplified version of this character, which is the one used in Japanese.
One last thing. Maybe half the Japanese lexicon is etymologically Chinese -- after all, each character in Japanese has a "Chinese reading" as well as a "Japanese reading". But the borrowing wasn't all one-way. Because the Japanese began their industrialisation process long before China, they got to coin many new words, particularly technological ones, that the Chinese later borrowed. One example is the pair of kanji characters which mean "automobile", pronounced jidosha but I don't know what in Chinese.
-- posted by pseudoerasmus
» pseudoerasmus - incomplete thought
I forgot to add that, apart from the use of the simplified character in the Chinese road signs, all the other 7 characters are identical to the ones used in Japanese, and the meaning of the road sign is obvious even with the completely alien syntax. ("Strictly observe traffick regulations".)-- posted by pseudoerasmus
» pseudoerasmus - correction
The last sentence of the first message should read:One example is the trio of kanji characters which mean "automobile", pronounced jidosha in Japanese but I don't know what in Chinese.
-- posted by pseudoerasmus
» biogardener - a true story about Chinese language tones
I knew a missionary who spent all his life in China. He later married the sister of my pastor, so we got to know him really well. His name was Claire Scratch.When he first went to China, he didn't know a word of Chinese and spent months in language school. He was looking forward to preaching his first sermon in his newly learned language. Everyone listened with rapt attention. After it was over, people congratulated him.
One curious listener had a question, though, "What was that pig you were talking about?"
Turned out that the sound for the word 'pig' and 'Lord' are identical except for the pitch. I remember that Claire was not much of a singer, so to distinguish between the 5 pitches was much harder for him than to learn the other sounds.
-- posted by biogardener
» pseudoerasmus - the Hui
Biogardener: There is a people in China called the Hui, who are Mandarin-speaking ethnic Han but also Muslims.It's good your missionary wasn't delivering the sermon in front of them!
-- posted by pseudoerasmus
» rkhen - Here's an interesting Canfact.
Here's an interesting Canfact. Did you know that one of the most famous television comics in the PRC is a Canadian fellow? Whenever a sitcom has a call for a "standard white guy" (or "demon," as the Chinese put it), he plays the role. (Darned if I can remember his name. According to him, neither can most of his audience. They just call him "that funny demon who's in everything.") Last I heard he was working on becoming fluent in Wu, as he wants to branch out into non-token-demon roles and has his eye on regional productions as a means to do it.I saw him interviewed on the CBC a few years ago, by Pamela Wallin I think. When she asked him why he chose to learn Chinese, he said, "Because French was too hard(!)" Apparently, he really did try to learn French in high school, and couldn't do it. I guess every brain is different.
-- posted by rkhen
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