Victor Mair
Posts by Victor Mair:
Bilingualism in Singapore
Within the short space of eight months, Singapore's founding Prime Minister and current Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew, has done a nearly complete about-face in his attitude toward promoting the use of Mandarin in the republic. As late as March of this year, when he was celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the campaign to "Speak Mandarin," Lee was claiming that "In two generations, Mandarin will become our mother tongue.”
In those days, Lee was asserting that people have only so many “gigabytes” in their brains to devote to languages. Though admitting that speaking “dialects” in some situations can provide “extra warmth,” he warned that, by using such languages, “You are losing important neurons with data which should not be there. And like the computer, when you delete it, it doesn’t really go away. It’s there at the back, and you’ve got to go to the rubbish channel and say ‘destroy.’ And it’s still disturbing your hard disk.” (See this useful summary and detailed list of references by Mark Swofford.)
National Language versus Mother Tongue
Grace Wu sent me a photograph taken at Taipei Storyland, shown at the right (click on the image for a larger version).
The characters running down the right side of the picture read as follows:
WO3 YAO4 SHUO1 GUO2YU3, BU4 SHUO1 FANG1YAN2
"I want to speak the national language, not the topolects."
In other words, "Let's speak Mandarin, not Taiwanese, Hakka, Cantonese, etc." Read the rest of this entry »
How NOT to Learn Chinese Characters
There are many ways NOT to learn Chinese characters, but one that I just found out about today is probably the worst, even worse than T. K. Ann's Cracking the Chinese Puzzles. It was written by Alison Matthews ("a statistician who has worked in the oil, aviation, tourism, medical and software industries") and Laurence Matthews (author of books that claim to help you find Chinese characters fast) and is called Learning Chinese Characters: A revolutionary new way to learn and remember the 800 most basic Chinese characters.
Bull Fart
One of the most powerful pieces in the one-man exhibition of Chen Wen Ling now showing at Joy Gallery in Beijing 798 Art Zone is blandly entitled "What You See Might Not Be Real" in English, but the Chinese title is the raw and raunchy "FANG4PI4″ 放屁 ("emit gas, break wind, flatulate, crepitate, i.e., fart [v.]"). Perhaps the artist didn't want to offend the linguistic sensitivities of potential foreign customers, but I must say that I much prefer to translate the title of the piece directly as "Fart," or, with a bit of license, as "Bull Fart" because the atomic cloud depicted by the artist is coming out of the anus of an enormous bovine.
Gibberish Uyghur
On a very interesting and informative blog called "This is Xinjiang", we find the following sign over the entrance to an Ürümchi restaurant:
Kingsoft Strikes Again
Yesterday, I received this message from a young person who has been corresponding with me about ancient DNA and the movements of peoples across Eurasia during the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age:
The police reaved my computer due to I reprinted a news report of US about the National Day of China yesterday. I came back home from police department just now. They said they will check my computer exhaustively. I'm afraid about my thesises on each area. It is not constitutional to do like that. All acts in violation of the Constitution and the law must be investigated. But this is in China. I doubt [VHM: he means "I suspect / fear"] that they will install a detectaphone on my computer and destroy my essays. I feel like crying but shed no tears. The only feeling is indignation for an intellectual.
Although the young man's English is generally quite good, my immediate assumption was that the third word of his message was a typing error for "removed" or that he simply misremembered some other word meaning "seize." However, considering that quirky archaisms are rampant in Chinese use of English, a phenomenon that I have often documented on Language Log, e.g. here and here, I thought that I had better give the young man the benefit of the doubt, so I trudged over to my dictionary and looked up "reave."
Malaysian Multilingualism
Yilise Lin kindly called my attention to this article entitled "is hokkien my mother tongue?" (Hokkien consists of a number of topolects belonging to the Southern Min branch of Sinitic. They are spoken in Taiwan and in parts of the province of Fujian [on the southeast coast of China], and widely throughout Southeast Asia by overseas Chinese.) The article was written by a well-known Singaporean Malay playwright named Alfian Sa'at (he also call himself "Naif" and writes a blog under that name).
Alfian Sa'at's insights on the close relationships between what he correctly terms Southern Chinese languages (such as Hokkien, Teochew, and Cantonese) and Malay are very interesting. His observations on how there are almost no similar connections between Mandarin Chinese and Malay are quite thought provoking. In other words, Alfian Sa'at is saying that Mandarin is a Johnny-Come-Lately to the region and that the inhabitants of Southeast Asia do not have any deep affinity for it. Read the rest of this entry »
Food Choices on Indian Airlines
Whenever I fly on non-Indian carriers to India or there are Indians (South Asians) on non-Indian carriers flying elsewhere, I often encounter individuals who complain that they cannot eat the special meals that they ordered.
Steward(ess): But, sir, you ordered a vegetarian meal, didn't you?
Passenger: Yes, but I cannot eat this kind of vegetarian meal.
Steward(ess): I can assure you, sir / ma'am, that our vegetarian meals have no meat or meat products in them.
Passenger: But what you have given me has X, Y, Z in it. I cannot eat it. Please get me something else.
Steward(ess): I am sorry, we do not have any other kinds of vegetarian meals.
Whereupon the passenger pulls out some biscuits from his / her carry-on bag and survives on them and whatever else he / she can scrounge up for the duration of the flight.
Stefan Krasowski recently booked a flight on India's Jet Airways. Here are the choices he was offered for meals:
Sino-American Name Reversion
Yesterday an applicant from China came to my office and introduced herself to me as Runxiao ("Moist Dawn"). However, in previous correspondence, she had always referred to herself as Layn (a variant of Lane; other variants of the name Lane are: Laen, Laene, Lain, Laine, Laney, Lanie, Layn, Layne, and Laynne ("living near a lane"; "descendant of Laighean or Luan" in Gaelic) — so say the name books. When I asked her which name she preferred, she said, "You can call me Runxiao."
"But what about Layn?" I asked. "Didn't you used to go by the name Layn?"
"Oh, yes!" she replied cheerfully with a gleaming smile. "When I was in China, I called myself Layn, but now that I'm in America, I call myself Runxiao." Read the rest of this entry »
Please be careful
Not only are the stereotypical Japanese fastidiously clean, they are also extraordinarily polite. They will not just tell you to be careful not to endanger yourself. They will be sure to preface the warning with a "please" (actually the word for "please" in Japanese, KUDASAI, comes at the end of the sentence).
In today's Japan mail (from Kathryn Hemmann) come two signs, one warning, "Please Be Careful to Strong Sunlight" and the other, "Please be careful to traffic."
Quadrilingual Washlet Instructions
Half an hour before touchdown at Narita, the pilot turns on the "fasten seat belt" sign. Because something (or some things) served during the in-flight meals on the 14-hour flight did not quite agree with your alimentary tract, you are already experiencing ominous rumblings down in your bowels.
You do your best to ignore the bouncing and jolting of the huge 747 as it descends through the various layers of stormy clouds. Breathing deeply and slowly, you focus all of your thoughts on the first toilet you will encounter when you enter the terminal.
Finally, the plane screeches to a halt, then slowly, ever so slowly and with many pauses and turns, it taxis to the gate. Since you know that you will have a major evacuation and it may take some time, you deplane along with everyone else. But, horrors! You are guided down lengthy hallways and escalators, then stand in line to wait for a bus that will take you to another part of the terminal to go through immigration. After arriving at the immigration hall, you stand in line, alternating between doing a jig and exercising maximum sphincter control. At last you pass through immigration and customs, then race to the nearest toilet you can find, open the door, dash to he only unoccupied stall you can find, enter, and come face to face with THIS.
Smallpox / Ceiling Light
Fail Blog has a picture of a panel with two switches labeled as follows:
天花燈 夜燈
SMALLPOX NIGHT LIGHT
This photograph elicited considerable discussion at Fail Blog, but — despite well over 150 comments — there was much consternation and little comprehension of why or how the confusion occurred. The quality of the discussion at ADS-L was much higher (though far more limited), yet still left a number of questions unresolved.
Since, in the past, many Chinese friends (and even many Chinese teachers) have asked me why the Mandarin words for "smallpox" and "ceiling" share the same two characters, I've decided to make a fairly determined effort to explain how it happened. Here's the etiology, not of smallpox, but of the failure.
Transletteration
A friend in Taiwan sent me the following inquiry:
===
From an article in the NYTimes:
"Early Thursday, the attackers sent out a wave of spam under the name Cyxymu, which is a Latin transliteration of the Cyrillic name of the capital of Abkhazia, Sukhumi."
By which is meant that Latin Cyxymu is a "transliteration" of Cyrillic Сухуми (in italics С у х у м u ) .
I think that this is an improper use of the word "transliteration" (to refer to "Sukhumi" as a transliteration of Cyxymu, however, would be correct), but I don't know what to call this rendering of Cyrillic Cyxymu as Latin "Cyxymu".
The Hangeul Alphabet Moves beyond the Korean Peninsula
In a report from the Yonhap News Agency out today under the title "Indonesian tribe picks Korean alphabet as official writing system" comes a stunning story that is sure to warm the cockles of all Hangeul devotees everywhere. I'll let the report speak for itself:
Let the Beer-Divider Be Chief!
Yesterday, in a post about a traffic sign, I momentarily mistook the phonophore YOU3 酉 (calendrical symbol) for QIU2 酋 ("chief") in the character JIU3 酒 ("beer"). It turns out that YOU3 and QIU2 are both semantically, graphically, and phonetically related to JIU3 ("beer, alcohol").
YOU3 酉 is actually the original form of JIU3 酒; it depicted a jar full of beer (imagine the bottom as tapered rather than squared). YOU3 酉 was subsequently borrowed to indicate the 10th of the 12 Earthly Branches (DI4ZHI1 地支, calendrical symbols), with the bleaching of the original meaning ("jar [full of beer]"). But as late as the Shuihudi manuscripts (late 3rd c. BC), the pictograph YOU3 酉 by itself could still signify JIU3 ("beer"). In these recently discovered manuscripts, which include laws of the Qin Dynasty, there are prohibitions against the brewing of beer by peasants.
Don't Drive in the What, er?
A couple of days ago, I posted about a problematic modified rebus, in the form of a heart with a skull and crossbones superimposed ("Love to Die / Death", 7/31/2009). Now we have yet another complicated graphic combination consisting of a pictograph plus a sinographic semantic key / classifier (or radical) plus a slash over the pictograph.
Love to Die / Death
The photograph below, taken earlier this month in Beijing, shows some of the best English-language bloggers now writing about language and culture in China and Taiwan. Read the rest of this entry »
Protests, Complaints, and Representations
In "Xinhua English and Zhonglish," I discussed the phenomenon of a peculiar style of English that has developed in China. Since it is not outrageously incorrect in terms of grammar or grossly unidiomatic, this type of English cannot be labeled Chinglish. On the other hand, this particular style of English, which we may call Xinhua English or New China News English, is distinctive enough to be recognizable as an emerging dialect.
The latest instance (like the previous one) was brought to my attention by Victor Steinbok, who keeps a keen eye out for pertinent examples. It is in today's headline from China View, an organ of Xinhuanet: "China lodges solemn representation over Japan's permission for Rebiya Kadeer's visit."
American English pronunciation of Uyghur proper nouns
The discussion following my original post ("A Little Primer of Xinjiang Proper Nouns", 7/13/2009) has proven quite edifying, at least to me. One thing that I realized from the lively comments is that I forgot to give an indication of how the name Xinjiang itself should be pronounced. There's also the question of what sort of "pronouncers" or "respellings" to provide for speakers of American English who need to pronounce these names but cannot be expected to render them exactly the way a native speaker of Uyghur would.
I must preface the following remarks by stating that I'm probably not the best person to offer standard American English readings of these names because I'm a fluent speaker of Mandarin and know a bit of Uyghur. Consequently, when I want to say these words as an American would, I'm afraid that my Mandarin and my Uyghur get in the way. Still, I will make an honest effort to separate the three modes and offer useful guides for speakers of American English.
A Little Primer of Xinjiang Proper Nouns
Following the serious unrest in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the Peoples Republic of China that erupted last week, "Xinjiang," "Uyghur," "Urumchi," and other names pertaining to the region have become household words. Unfortunately, people around the world have been confused about how to pronounce these words. This is understandable for several reasons. In the first place, we have to confront both the original Uyghur terms and their full and truncated versions in Mandarin. Second, there is often a plethora of variant romanizations for each name.
Ed Wong, the New York Times correspondent who has been keeping us so well informed about the events as they unfold, told me that the NYT had
"received an email from a reader saying the NYT should change its 'pronouncer' on Uighurs. Right now, in our articles, the editors insert (WEE-gurs) as the pronouncer. One reader said this is not the correct pronunciation, and sounds strange to the Turkic speaker’s ear."
As I told Ed, it would have been helpful if the person who sent the NYT the e-mail would have indicated the correct pronunciation, not just told them that WEE-gurs sounds wrong.
In an attempt to clarify how the most important Xinjiang names are actually pronounced in Uyghur and in Mandarin, I here provide various orthographic forms along with audio clips. As to what sort of "pronouncers" should be developed for the major media, presumably to represent appropriate Americanized pronunciations, I invite suggestions.
[Update: I give "pronouncers" and recordings of suggested American English renditions in a later post, "American English pronunciation of Uyghur proper nouns", 7/15/2009.)