Chinese Language Weekly Newsletter - Friday, January 30, 2015

Chinese Language newsletter

Top new questions this week: 或: how did "region" become "either"? The character 或 is used today for the meanings "or", "either", "maybe", and "perhaps". Historically, it had the meaning of "region", and it is this meaning that characters like 國 and 域 derive from. ... characters etymology   asked by congusbongus 4 votes answered by Master Sparkles 4 votes Difference between alveolars and alveolo-palatals in Cantonese I would like to understand the difference in distribution between the alveolar consonants s, ts, tsʰ and the alveolo-palatal consonants ɕ, tɕ, tɕʰ in Cantonese. One source told me that the ... cantonese   asked by 無色受想行識 4 votes answered by Michaelyus 4 votes Describing Characters: AB的A/B When trying to describe what specific character one is talking about, people often use the following method: AB的A/B For instance: 包: 书包的包 宇: 宇宙的宇 My questions: What is this thing ... usage   asked by user3306356 3 votes answered by 倪阔乐 3 votes Why the change in tones of the words in some phrases? I am a native Cantonese speaker. I found that we have to change the tones of some words, when used in particular phrases. But I don't know why. It seems that it doesn't follow any "rules of changing ... cantonese tones   asked by Kyson 3 votes answered by Alex 1 vote 不得不, 必须, 只好, 应该: what's the difference? This is what I'm thinking: 不得不 pm. "cannot but, have to" this seems colloquial, and the fact that dictionaries think of this as a set phrase/fixed expression makes me think so. Also feels like ... word-choice mandarin   asked by Ming 3 votes answered by zzy 0 votes I need help translating >how< a word would be spoken I am trying to find someone that will help me take words that are spoken in Spanish, such as Hola, and represent the sounds made by hola in Chinese Pinyin so someone who doesn't speak Spanish could ... translation grammar pronunciation simplified-chinese transliteration   asked by Bob W 1 vote Greeting in an Email Autoresponse: 您好， 亲爱的 or something else? It's a pretty specific situation, so I hope you can help me. word-choice greetings   asked by Franjo Tušek 1 vote answered by Smurf L. 0 votes Greatest hits from previous weeks: Chinese countable/uncountable nouns (How do they work? Examples?) I recall in Mandarin class, my teacher would often discuss an idea about countable nouns. I never really understood how one would easily determine when one is faced with a countable vs uncountable ... grammar word-requests measure-word   asked by Tommie C. 6 votes answered by 倪阔乐 9 votes What is the exact meaning of 吃豆腐, and where does the expression come from? I'm not talking about eating tofu, but the expression that means something more like taking advantage of someone. What exactly does 吃豆腐 mean, and where does this expression come from? mandarin meaning etymology idioms phrase   asked by Ciaocibai 14 votes answered by Don Kirkby 11 votes

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