Archive for Transcription
February 27, 2017 @ 6:56 am· Filed by Victor Mair under Language and science, Language and the media, Spelling, Transcription, Writing
By now practically the whole world knows that Kim Jong-nam, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un's older half-brother, was killed by the extremely toxic nerve agent called VX. VX is much more potent than sarin, which was used by the Aum Shinrikyo cult to kill 12 people and injure thousands of others in the Tokyo subway in 1995. Apparently, it's not clear why this series of nerve agents is called "V" ( "Victory", "Venomous", or "Viscous" are some of the possibilities). Since research on these agents is restricted primarily to the military, not much is known about them in civilian circles. Whatever the "V" stands for, and besides VX, other agents in the series include VE, VG, VM, and VR.
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February 18, 2017 @ 9:35 am· Filed by Victor Mair under Humor, Transcription, Translation
A friend of Anne Henochowicz spotted this T-shirt in an Akihabara, Tokyo shop:
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February 9, 2017 @ 1:24 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Names, Puns, Transcription, Translation, Writing systems
Boris Kootzenko was intrigued by this sign in China:
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January 14, 2017 @ 10:09 am· Filed by Victor Mair under Alphabets, Language reform, Obituaries, Transcription, Writing systems
Zhou xiansheng,
You were my dear friend for decades. I wish that you had gone on living forever. You will be sorely missed, but yours was a life well lived.
As the "Father of Pinyin", you have had an enormous impact on education and culture in China. After you passed the century mark, you spoke out courageously in favor of democracy and reform.
Now, one day after your 111th birthday, you have departed, but you will always be in our hearts, brimming with light, as your name suggests.
Tearfully,
Victor
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January 13, 2017 @ 9:48 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Language and literature, Language and medicine, Transcription, Translation, Writing systems
For several days I've been aware of a strange poem that has gone viral in China:
"Read The Smog-Inspired Poem That China Can't Stop Talking About" (NPR, 1/12/17)
The strangeness of the poem is due to its being written from the perspective of lung cancer and addressed to the patient. You judge for yourself — here's the complete poem:
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January 3, 2017 @ 10:07 am· Filed by Victor Mair under Names, Signs, Transcription, Translation
In several recent posts, I have pointed out how Chinese and Japanese announcements and greetings for foreigners are often pronounced in a special way that deviates markedly from what Chinese and Japanese would say to each other:
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December 25, 2016 @ 8:00 am· Filed by Victor Mair under Language and music, Transcription
Dave Cragin asks, "How did 平安夜 come to mean Christmas Eve?"
Now that's a good seasonal topic if ever there were one.
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December 11, 2016 @ 10:22 am· Filed by Victor Mair under Language and the law, Transcription
There was quite a stir this week surrounding a high profile court case in China over Michael Jordan's suit to control the branding rights to his name. The controversy is described in this NYT article by Sui-wee Lee:
"Michael Jordan Owns Right to His Name in Chinese Characters, Too, Court Rules" (12/7/16)
After reading the article, Ethan Merritt sent in some pertinent observations and questions:
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November 23, 2016 @ 9:16 am· Filed by Victor Mair under Names, Transcription
From the following post, we see that there are three main ways to transcribe Donald Trump's given name in Chinese and two main ways to transcribe his surname:
"Transcription of 'Barack Obama', 'Hillary Clinton', and 'Donald Trump' in the Sinosphere" (10/2/16)
Here are the two prevailing transcriptions of "Trump" in Chinese characters:
Tèlǎngpǔ 特朗普 (mainland China, Macau, Malaysia/Singapore) — 4,970,000 ghits
Chuānpǔ 川普 (Taiwan, Hong Kong, but also on the mainland, especially on the internet) — 1,570,000 ghits
N.B.: The relative popularity of these two forms is shifting among different groups in all of the designated regions.
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November 17, 2016 @ 9:53 am· Filed by Victor Mair under Lexicon and lexicography, Multilingualism, Topolects, Transcription, Translation
Page of a phrasebook published in 1941 (click to embiggen):
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November 16, 2016 @ 8:32 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Punctuation, Transcription
Google Street View in Pittsburgh at 5809 Forward Ave. shows a Young's Oriental Grocery.
The corresponding Hangul transliteration of "Young's" gives "Young 'seu 영 '스".
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November 15, 2016 @ 3:13 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Bilingualism, Lexicon and lexicography, Topolects, Transcription
Ryan of Singapore sent me photographs of a section from a Chinese almanac that amounts to a ten-page English phrasebook phonetically annotated in Cantonese. Here are two of the pages (as usual, click to embiggen):
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November 5, 2016 @ 2:05 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Creoles and pidgins, Language and education, Phonetics and phonology, Transcription
During the last few days, there has been a flurry of excitement over the circulation of photographs and information concerning an old Chinese textbook for learning English. Here are a couple of pages from the book (click to embiggen):
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