8
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Pronunciation of Tang Dynasty Poetry
well, this answer is "limited" only, in relation to poetry in 唐 dynasty & cantonese.
1 cantonese (and several southern dialects/languages) is highly correlated to middle chinese, which was ...
- 15.1k
7
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Why native speakers always say "一块钱" and write "一元钱 "instead of "壹圆钱"？
To begin with, there is one thing called 大写 (daxie, “upper case”), in contrast to 小写 (xiaoxie, “lower case”).
小写：一二三四五六七八九十百千 - 元
大写：壹贰叁肆伍陆柒捌玖拾佰仟 - 圆
Daxie numbers are only used in ...
- 1,867
6
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Accepted
In Cantonese, what is a less "childish" way to call one's own parents?
In Cantonese, 我爸爸 and 我媽媽 are perfectly fine to use to refer to your parents, no matter what your age is. They are neither rigid nor childish. Slightly more familiar terms are 我阿爸 and 我阿媽. In a very ...
- 6,066
6
votes
Pronunciation of Tang Dynasty Poetry
This is incorrect. Cantonese is a modern language just like Mandarin, English and every single other modern language is.
Exactly speaking, Tang Dynasty poetry were pronounced back then in Tang ...
- 378
6
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Would an ancient chinese be able to understand today's language?
I would argue that mutual intelligibility between Chinese speakers 2200 years apart would be essentially nothing, for the spoken language. I say 2200 years as the emperor in the film is the Dragon ...
- 565
6
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jiu3 pronounced as jiu4 ; linked speech feature or slip of the tongue?
jiu3 pronounced as jiu4
It is very prominently pronounced with a descending glissando. It is a distinct 4th tone, phonetically.
This is not true. Tone 4 is high and descending. It has no turning up, ...
- 4,485
5
votes
Pronunciation of Tang Dynasty Poetry
水巷孑蠻 and Rethliopuks gave quite a lot of details. But this does not address quite right to the question.
Read the origin question:
"It was related to me that Tang Dynasty poetry is meant to be ...
- 1,994
5
votes
Accepted
How should I understand the absence of conjunctions in 流行音乐歌唱的大都是男女爱情、歌词贴近生活、通俗易懂、易于传唱、受到欢迎、不足为怪?
流行音乐歌唱的大都是男女爱情、歌词贴近生活、通俗易懂、易于传唱、受到欢迎、不足为怪。
There are punctuation issues in this sentence. A way to modify it is:
流行音乐歌唱的大都是男女爱情、歌词贴近生活、通俗易懂、易于传唱、受到欢迎不足为怪。
We can also replace 顿号（、） with 逗号（，）：
...
- 24k
5
votes
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How do natives pronounce the 2nd tone in regular conversation? (Pitch levels: 35, 33, or 434?)
A tone may, upon certain instances, take on a pitch different from its classic pitch. That is to say, while a pitch is absolute (in sound frequency), a tone is not.
中餐 may change from the classic ...
- 5,595
5
votes
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can I get help with the concept of "balance" in chinese writing/speech?
My answer to this question What is the difference between 有时 and 有时候? How are they used differently in context? may explain some aspects of this topic.
Generally, using the full term make the speech ...
- 77.1k
5
votes
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Why is speaking 书面语 ("written language") a problem?
Question: Why is speaking 书面语 ("written language") a problem?
Using 书面语 ("written language") is not a problem in itself. The problem is when you use it in a situation or with a ...
- 6,066
4
votes
Accepted
How to hear tones in speech better
It will come with more exposure. Watch movies/shows, listen to music, talk with people via voice-chat or in person.
One of the ways I trained myself to recognize the tones is to listen to the same ...
- 320
4
votes
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How do I tell the difference between "ing" and "in"?
The difference between "in" and "ing" is in the ending sound. Say "in", hold it for a second or two, and feel the position of your tongue. Your tongue should be in the front, touching the roof of your ...
- 6,066
4
votes
Accepted
What is @ ("at") called when giving an email address over the phone?
As pointed out by @Daniel Yeung above, they call it 小老鼠 (Xiao3 Lao3 Shu3）in Taiwan, which means 'little mouse'. Takes a little imagination to see the resemblance.
I think that is precisely what you ...
- 320
4
votes
What is @ ("at") called when giving an email address over the phone?
I've heard at least two versions personally.
One is to use the English reading of "at".
The other is "圈(儿)a". Meaning "a" with a circle around it.
It might be different in different regions.
- 8,725
4
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When can nouns be used as verbs?
A noun becomes a verb, this phenomenon exists in many human languages.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthimeria
For example,
- How can I contact you?
- You can message me. / You can send me a ...
- 186
4
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How should I understand the absence of conjunctions in 流行音乐歌唱的大都是男女爱情、歌词贴近生活、通俗易懂、易于传唱、受到欢迎、不足为怪?
流行音乐歌唱的大都是男女爱情、歌词贴近生活、通俗易懂、易于传唱、受到欢迎、不足为怪。
[流行音乐歌] - topic
[唱的大都是男女爱情， 歌词贴近生活]- comment that describes the topic
The comment continues with an opinion:
[通俗易懂，易于传唱] - stating reasons for the opinion
[...
- 77.1k
4
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In the movie 北京遇上西雅图 (Finding Mr. Right), what does 文佳佳 mean when she yells “像话么，你”?
像话么，你? It is a rhetorical question, and it is not a dialect. Pretty much everyone use this.
You thoughts about 像话么，你 is correct. Let's look back to sentences before that
我是花钱买服务的，我整整坐了12个小时的飞机，我需要休息。...
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4
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What does 你就是个托 mean, which 文佳佳 yells at Frank in the movie 北京遇上西雅图 (Finding Mr. Right)?
In this context, "托" means the person who pretend to involve an activity or to support someone to perform a scam typically.
It is related to 衬托, but derogatory sense only.
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4
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What is 'hea' (in Cantonese conversations)?
the actual Cantonese words
well, some argued that it’s 歇 (u+6b47) in toishan “dialect” (台山話)
<https://jonathanovsky.wordpress.com/2015/02/14/再談「hea」字/>
we just use “hea” to write it, no han-...
- 15.1k
4
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In the song 酒干倘卖无 why is the last word spoken with an initial "M" sound?
If we trace back to late Middle Chinese, 無's onset is 微 (w), while 沒's onset is 明 (m). If we go a little bit further back to early Middle Chinese, we only have the onset 明. In other words, the early ...
- 4,485
4
votes
Accepted
梨 (lí) vs 离 (lí)
The general case is discussed here: How to distinguish two words the same pronunciation but different meaning (gāo jià)
For 梨 (lí) and 离 (lí) in particular, they're readily differentiated by ...
- 15.9k
4
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What do people in Hong Kong say when you are approaching a counter to buy something?
Most likely a contraction of "下一位" (next customer please)
下一位/haa6 jat1 wai6^2/ --> 下~位/haat1 wai6^2/
- 77.1k
4
votes
Accepted
What is the man saying in this Cantonese cartoon?
You are correct 咪嘈(don't be noisy) means "be quiet!"
Master Q was saying "咪嘈呀！"
呀 is a final particle that conveys different emotions, and manners or simply emphasizes the sentence ...
- 77.1k
3
votes
What is @ ("at") called when giving an email address over the phone?
我觉得没有什么特别的叫法，只是音译（根据发音翻译）一般叫“艾特” means @
- 17.4k
3
votes
How do Chinese speakers convey emotions by speech?
How can Chinese express emotion if tones determine the meaning of a word? This should be one of the top 2 or 3 items on a Chinese language FAQ. It seems to be a constant source of puzzlement and a ...
- 4,335
3
votes
几 in declarative and interrogative sentence
I think all the sentences with 几 above can turn into interrogative sentences. For example:
后面有几个人笑起来了?
你家有几口人?
上海有几个火车站?
In the mainland mandarin, we usually put 好 in front of 几 in the ...
- 24k
3
votes
Is 如果我们，所有的学生，没有我们的中文老师，我们就永远不能站起来在听众前面说中文 grammatical and does it makes sense?
如果没有老师，我们——所有学生——就绝不可能在听众面前说中文。
I think that "all the students" must be translated and not omitted; here it is used for emphasis. And "would never be able to " is 绝不可能。
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3
votes
Does reading Chinese sentences improve my speaking?
I’m Chinese and currently studying English. If you're just reading, your progress is probably very slow.
I think that the best way to improve your skill is to have conversation with people.
你好，朋友，...
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