bcla
On our rugged Eastern foothills.....
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2012
I've tried learning different languages and I've always marveled at how there is different construction of words. In particular I've got some Chinese friends who tried to teach me some words/phrases and where I saw how the ways words are constructed changes the way people think about things.
For instance, "airport" is "jī-chǎng" which literally translates into "machine field". An "airplane" is "fe-jī" or "flying machine". But sometimes it's more detailed like calling it "Fe-jī-chǎng" which is "flying machine field". I believe that last character can also translate into factory, although I could be mistaken about the intonation.
I guess the oddest one is the description of bodily functions. To urinate and defecate are "xiǎo-biàn" and "dà-biàn", or literally small and big versions of bodily functions. The modified word doesn't directly translate into anything in English in that context. I guess it's more a formal set of phrases for #1 and #2.
But the interesting one for me is how important rice is to the language. They have different words for rice. Uncooked rice is "mi" while cooked rice is "fàn". And the description of having a meal is "chī-fàn" which means "eat rice".
Also - I tried using direct Chinese characters (grabbed from Google Translate) but apparently those aren't allowed, even the character for "small".
For instance, "airport" is "jī-chǎng" which literally translates into "machine field". An "airplane" is "fe-jī" or "flying machine". But sometimes it's more detailed like calling it "Fe-jī-chǎng" which is "flying machine field". I believe that last character can also translate into factory, although I could be mistaken about the intonation.
I guess the oddest one is the description of bodily functions. To urinate and defecate are "xiǎo-biàn" and "dà-biàn", or literally small and big versions of bodily functions. The modified word doesn't directly translate into anything in English in that context. I guess it's more a formal set of phrases for #1 and #2.
But the interesting one for me is how important rice is to the language. They have different words for rice. Uncooked rice is "mi" while cooked rice is "fàn". And the description of having a meal is "chī-fàn" which means "eat rice".
Also - I tried using direct Chinese characters (grabbed from Google Translate) but apparently those aren't allowed, even the character for "small".