14
votes
Accepted
Loanwords with Chinese Equivalents
I'm not sure where you could get an accurate count for how many there are. Considering that loanwords have been coming into Chinese for thousands of years, it definitely won't be a trivial task.
...
- 4,910
12
votes
Accepted
Is this Chinese and what is the meaning: 阿ㄘㄟˊ
It is Amis／Pangcah (阿美族語), the language of one of the Taiwanese aborigines (台灣原住民).
阿ㄘㄟˊ ( ā céi ) means "ridiculous; crazy; unreasonable; nonsense; goofy; outrageous; nuts".
阿ㄘㄟˊ: You are nuts!
...
- 1,974
12
votes
Chinese words with non-Chinese letters / characters?
There are lots of them, here's what I can recall:
T恤衫，T-shirt
X光片，X ray image
卡拉OK，karaoke
K线图，Candlestick chart
A型血，Blood Type A
P图(v.)，Photoshop an image
维生素C，Vitamin C
O型腿，Blount's diseas
...
- 386
8
votes
How does 平均 differ from 均匀?
if i have 10 apples , i give you 5 and keep the another 5 myself , it called "平均";
Here "picture 1" is called “均匀”, while picture 2 is called “不均匀”.
[picture 1]
[picture 2]
- 107
8
votes
Accepted
How are new element names/characters decided?
4 new elements = 4 new Chinese characters? I also know that 4 new elements = 4 new English words.
Actually these new elements have no relationship with China:
113: Nihonium (Nh) is from Nihon, ...
- 366
7
votes
Loan words borrowed from the middle/end of original word?
This article (p. 60-61) provided the reason 氡 (radon) is based on the latter syllable. In summary, this was the result of an argument between Chinese chemists appointed to element naming in the early ...
- 5,445
6
votes
What are the differences in usage and nuances between 现在，正在 and 还在？
现在: Now
A: 你现在在干什么？: What are you doing now?
正在: Currently
B: 我正在做作业。: I am doing homework.
正在is this sentence can be translated to doing something at this particular moment, in English you just ...
- 881
6
votes
Are there loanwords from Portuguese used in Macau Cantonese?
Mostly food? The below examples are from Words.hk:
马介休
loanword from "bacalhau" in Portuguese; Portuguese-style salted fish
馬介休撻
maa5 gaai3 jau1 taat1
bacalhau tart
亞東
「亞東」喺澳門叫法, ...
Mou某♦
- 34.1k
5
votes
Accepted
Modern loanwords in Chinese
互联网 and 因特网 may be different things - "internet" vs "Internet".
Coming up with loanwords isn't a standardised practice; in the beginning you'll have separate groups coming up with different words, ...
- 8,322
5
votes
Accepted
What is the verb for "hacking" (as in computing) in Chinese?
黑 is the verb you are looking for.
被黑了 is the common phrase form of "been hacked".
If you feel 黑 is too ambiguous you can add an object behind it to turn it into a VO (verb object) phrase: ...
Mou某♦
- 34.1k
5
votes
Loanwords with Chinese Equivalents
Adding to the previous list:
Bowling: 保龄球 bao ling qiu 滾木球
Buffet: 蒲飞 pu fei 自助餐
Calorie: 卡路里 ka lu li 热量单位
Cartoon: 卡通 ka tong 漫画
Motor: 摩托 mo tuo 电动机
Sundae: 新低 xin di 水果奶油,冰淇淋
T-Shirt: T-血 T-...
- 91
5
votes
What is the origin of the word 雪茄 (cigar)?
A thread worth reviving.
The word cigar came into English (and most other European languages) from Spanish. I don't really think it's possible to say which one Chinese got it from, based just on ...
- 4,315
5
votes
Accepted
The origin of 水母
Wow it's a fascinating question. I have never thought about that before and this question intrigues me. Because it's a two characters word, meaning that it definitely has an origin, not like the word ...
- 248
5
votes
Accepted
Is 邏輯 a phono-semantic matching of the English word logic?
No, it's a transliteration.
The Chinese term「邏輯」first appeared in a Chinese translation of John Stuart Mill's A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive. The Chinese translation title is 《穆勒名學》 ...
- 21.1k
5
votes
Accepted
History of the pronunciation of 辰
There is no contradiction. The formal Sino-Vietnamese readings of 辰 are thần [tʰən˨˩] and thìn [tʰin˨˩], which correspond nicely to the Middle Chinese [d͡ʑin] (Pulleyblank-Miyake), Old Chinese [djɨn] (...
- 664
4
votes
Accepted
Is there a limited character set for European loanwords?
Yes, there are preferred characters used in transliteration. But in Chinese the case is a little bit complicated than in Japanese.
In Japanese, Katakana is part of the phonetic system of the language ...
- 2,555
4
votes
The origins of "AA制"
Wikipedia has this to say:
「AA」是「Arithmetic Average」的縮寫。意思是「算術平均」。
「AA」是「All Average」的縮寫。意思是「全部平均分擔」。
「AA」是英文「Acting Appointment」的縮寫。
There is no citation or whatsoever, so these could all be wrong.....
- 4,492
4
votes
Transliterated Loanwords From Two Seperate Languages Of The Same Thing
For different translations:
cement: 水门汀、水泥
Internet: 因特网、互联网
vitamin: 维生素、维他命
Sacramento: 沙加缅度、三个馒头 :P
Bourgeoisie: 布尔乔亚、资产阶级
From different languages, actually, there are many, if you count ...
- 1,258
4
votes
Accepted
Email as noun and verb
I guess you should avoid 伊妹儿 (that almost looks like a girls' name or person name). 电子邮件 is the preferred and widely used term.
If you need a verb to express 'to send an e-mail', use 发 with 电子邮件:
E....
- 7,078
4
votes
Modern loanwords in Chinese
I will try to put my two cents in, from a more psychological perspective.
Chinese is largely a semantics-based writing system. Phonetically transcribed loan words are relatively easy to coin, but ...
- 5,218
4
votes
Chinese words with non-Chinese letters / characters?
I'm not totally sure if this is what you are looking for but apart from A-Z, there are examples like:
π节
Where the pi symbol is used.
Alpha is also often used:
α其 (alpha phase)
α状态 (alpha state)
...
Mou某♦
- 34.1k
4
votes
Accepted
Chinese words with non-Chinese letters / characters?
We can obtain the entries in CC-EDICT using the command awk '$1 ~ /^[0-9a-zA-Z]/ { print }' cedict_ts.u8. The following is the results (CC-EDICT timstamp 2020-01-03T04:26:45Z).
It follows the format ...
- 12.1k
4
votes
Accepted
Did the Chinese 獅子 = "lion" originate from the Persian شیر (šīr)?
The mainstream consensus is that the Chinese word for lion was earliest attested as 「師子」 (Zhengzhang OC: /*sri ʔslɯʔ/) in literature roughly contemporary to the Book of Hàn:
《漢書・西域傳》
烏弋地暑熱莽平，其草木、畜產、...
- 21.1k
3
votes
Query about tone and stress in Mandarin foreign transcriptions/loanwords
I don't agree that "Mainland Mandarin" is a stress-timed language. Where did you get the "general agreement"? In addition, I think that Mandarin is Mandarin. The difference between "Mainland Mandarin" ...
- 1,225
3
votes
Accepted
Is it appropriate to use 喂 by text?
Mostly wei can be used when you answer the phone , while it's too oralize to use over text. But someti
mes you can see it like this：
他正在打电话：“喂？”
他不耐烦的说道：“喂，哪位？”
I prefer it is better to use 你好 or ...
- 66
3
votes
Accepted
How appropriate is "拜拜"?
拜拜 is not casualness and/or childishness,it is a more friendly way to express goodbye ,and majority use between people who have good relation,or see somebody for the first time and build a friendship ...
- 186
3
votes
Chinese words with non-Chinese letters / characters?
In Hong Kong, most imported terms are officially transliterated, there's no need to use any English alphabet in these terms.
For example:
store = 士多
toast = 多士
taxi = 的士
bus = 巴士
Also in Hong ...
- 68.1k
3
votes
Loan words borrowed from the middle/end of original word?
The most famous example, I believe, is 美利堅。America used to be transliterated to 亞美利堅。Pretty soon, it is shortened to 美利堅。亞 was dropped. It is further shortened to just 美, 美洲、美國。
- 635
2
votes
What is the origin of the word 雪茄 (cigar)?
Zombie thread!
In Wu dialect (in Zhejiang), this is pronounced as an almost exact transliteration of 'cigar' (like pinyin xiega, but with a short vowel on the first syllable). Several other ...
- 76
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