Chinese "writing system" 3

[ESquared]

When reading a thesaurus entry for language today, I saw an interesting note:

[ul]Notes: don't use 'language' when you mean 'writing system' - Chinese is a spoken language with no characters; the Chinese writing system uses thousands of characters[/ul]

So do you think saying "I can speak, read, and write Chinese" is truly incorrect? One has to say "I can speak Chinese, and read and write the Chinese writing system?

 

[Grenage]

You are correct, it's days of the week.

Carlsberg don't run I.T departments, but if they did they'd probably be more fun.

 

[Lunatic]

tk808

As my host family explained it to me, it was actually a letter in katakana several hundered years ago. Its been a while so I don't remember exactly what they called that form of katakana, but it was something like Osaka katakana.

It was definatetly not a long 'o', it wasn't Kooki (ko with a - over the 'o' to represent it as an elongated 'o'). They were very specific and said it was with an 'h' sound. It may have been Khoki instead of Kohki, but it was definately an 'h'. I asked about it early on because as we learned the alphabet I couldn't find that sound anywhere.

***************************************
Have a problem with my spelling or grammar? Please refer all complaints to my English teacher:
Ralphy "Me fail English? That's unpossible." Wiggum

 

[tk808]

Interesting. I've not heard of that before...those kansai people..haha. I know there's ha, fu, he, ho. . .so according to them, it's ko-ha/fu/he/ho-ki...all which look weird to me. kouki is a name, dunno about the rest.

When you talk about letters, it's only used for romaji, for foreigners to read without having to know kana or kanji. The only kana not used that used to be there are "we" and "wi"...though sometimes it's used ie. ebisu signs.

Maybe they were trying to explain the kanji they used for the guys name, and in looking at hentaigana, the "ko" looks like a "ho" in katakana...which is a simplified "ko" (old) kanji, not the origin of katakana "ho" which is the kanji meaning to preserve or keep.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hentaigana

You should try remembering the kanji of the name, that might clear things up.

 

[Lunatic]

When you talk about letters, it's only used for romaji, for foreigners to read without having to know kana or kanji. The only kana not used that used to be there are "we" and "wi"...though sometimes it's used ie. ebisu signs.

I'm not sure I'm following you here. I'm using the English equivilents of the katakana characters because I don't have a Katakana/Hiragana/Romaji keyboard. And I'm not talented enough in ascii art to recreate katakana characters.

They specifically said the 'h' sound in Kohki's name was not used anymore but was there. I'll see if I can't dig through my notes and find the kanji for his name, but I'm not sure I have it anymore.

***************************************
Have a problem with my spelling or grammar? Please refer all complaints to my English teacher:
Ralphy "Me fail English? That's unpossible." Wiggum

 

[SantaMufasa]

So, would that be an error in Kanji-gation?

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]

 

[Welshbird]

Dave - I'm gonna have to groan at that one....

Fee

The question should be [red]Is it worth trying to do?[/red] not [blue] Can it be done?[/blue]

 

[SantaMufasa]

...and I'll have to say:

My, how you've groan.

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]

 

[sleipnir214]

Something new from the BBC on Chinese writing systems:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6669569.stm

Want the best answers? Ask the best questions! TANSTAAFL!

 

[jsteph]

Here's the latest 'chingrish' or more like 'Lost in Translation', from a chinese sofa mfr:

http://www.snopes.com/racial/business/sofa.asp

--Jim

 

[SantaMufasa]

I'm sure that the Guangzhou manufacturing company was displeased to find out that there were a few chinks its automated translation software.

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]

 

[flapeyre]

Ahem.

Tibi gratias agimus quod nihil fumas.

 

[SantaMufasa]

Ahem.

chink

Pronunciation: 'chi[ng]k
Function: noun
Etymology: probably alteration of Middle English chine crack, fissure
2 : a weak spot that may leave one vulnerable <His lawyers found a chink in the law>

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]

 

[tk808]

You were just waiting for someone to say something, huh! Either way, very clever.

I'd like to see a sample of those characters...probably like the pictographs that they derive modern kanji from. I want a big one in my house...and a throne.