I came up with this 看图猜謎 based on Cantonese jyutping. Is it a valid riddle in Mandarin?
猜一句詩 (guess a verse in a poem)
Answer:
美人如玉劍如虹
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Sign up to join this communityI came up with this 看图猜謎 based on Cantonese jyutping. Is it a valid riddle in Mandarin?
猜一句詩 (guess a verse in a poem)
Answer:
美人如玉劍如虹
The short answer is NO, because this is essentially a riddle based on puns, and puns, famously, don't work across languages.
The longer answer is if the languages are close enough, some speakers might be able to make some intelligent guesses. But regardless, they can only be guesses, and not logical means to arrive at the answer.
So, to answer your question: No, this is not a valid riddle in Mandarin.
If he elaborates, the whole point of asking the question would be gone.
I suppose only Cantonese speakers would see the point as it is a play on 魚 and 如 which in Cantonese sounds exactly the same, but pronounced in Mandarin as 魚, (Yú), and 如, ( Rú)
The poem's correct title is 美人如玉劍如虹. The riddle is substituting 魚, for 如 as they sound exactly the same in Cantonese.
Will it work in Mandarin? A Mandarin speaker with no knowledge of Cantonese would not get it. I hope I got that right?
神馬 --> 什麽
do not rhyme either, and the tones of 炒雞--> 超級
are too different.
– dROOOze
Jun 25 '20 at 12:25
Base on the answers I've got so far, in order to make it a valid riddle in Mandarin, the pinyin must be the same in Mandarin for the puns to work
Example:
This one works in Cantonese only
Because:
薯桃銅龜 and 殊途同歸 sound the same in Cantonese but not in Mandarin
This one works in both Cantonese and Mandarin
Because:
薯露銅龜 and 殊路同歸 sound the same in both Cantonese and Mandarin. 路 = 途. 殊途同歸 is also a correct answer
Since 美人魚肉劍魚紅 and 美人如玉劍如虹 only sound the same in Cantonese, it is not a valid riddle in Mandarin