Archive for Errors
January 22, 2020 @ 4:39 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Errors, Names, Spelling
Alan Kennedy, a dealer of Oriental art based in Paris, New York, and Los Angeles, who was a student of the polymath Schuyler Van Rensselaer Cammann (1912-1991; "Ki" to his friends and acquaintances) at Penn half a century ago, and who is a regular reader of Language Log, sent me this message:
I see a comment from Brian Spooner, and had no idea that he was still at Penn. Decades ago, one of his students told me that he was sometimes called Brain in Afghanistan. Apparently someone there had transposed the 'a' and the 'i' in writing his name.
My reply to Alan:
Hah, that's an appropriate transposition!
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January 7, 2020 @ 1:23 am· Filed by Victor Mair under Errors, Phonetics and phonology, Signs
So asks the Chinese colleague who sent me this photograph:
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September 24, 2019 @ 6:38 am· Filed by Mark Liberman under Errors
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July 26, 2019 @ 5:26 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Errors, Language and politics
Writing on a concrete planter in Hong Kong:
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July 20, 2019 @ 10:59 am· Filed by Victor Mair under Errors, Gender, Writing systems
This came across Jeff DeMarco's Facebook yesterday:
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June 30, 2019 @ 6:21 am· Filed by Victor Mair under Errors, Language and politics, Pronunciation, Reading, Romanization
Xi Jinping commits another pronunciation gaffe. Even if you don't know Mandarin, you can hear it clearly here because it is repeated over and over again. Instead of saying "pīngpāng wàijiāo 乒乓外交" ("ping-pong diplomacy"), he says "bīngbāng wàijiāo 冰邦外交" ("ice states diplomacy"), which some wits are further distorting as "bīngbàng wàijiāo 冰棒外交" ("popsicle diplomacy"):
https://twitter.com/RealEmperorPooh/status/1144817965008744448
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May 2, 2019 @ 11:37 am· Filed by Victor Mair under Errors, Pronunciation
From a colleague (with Romanizations and translations added by VHM):
Two of Xi's recent báizì 白字 ("miswritten / mispronounced character") that the CCP propaganda machine tries awkwardly to cover up:
Reading “jīngzhàn xìnì 精湛细腻” ("consummately exquisite") as “jīng shén xìnì 精甚细腻" ("very refined and exquisite”).
Reading“shànyǎng 赡养” ("support; provide for") as “zhānyǎng 瞻仰” ("pay respect").
Xi has after all only xiǎoxué shuǐpíng wénhuà chéngdù 小学水平文化程度 ("primary school level of education"), as the late Li Rui 李锐 (1917-2019; Chinese historian and politician) had famously commented. Xi therefore shows traits of some deep inferiority complex.
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March 28, 2019 @ 6:50 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Errors, Headlinese
Headline in the Washington Post (a few minutes ago):
A professor at China’s permier university questioned Xi Jinping. Then he was suspended.
Obligatory screenshot:
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February 26, 2019 @ 5:29 pm· Filed by Neal Goldfarb under Errors
After initially declaring that I wouldn’t be posting about the phrase keep arms because I had nothing interesting to say about it, and then declaring that upon further reflection I did have something interesting to say, I’ve realized after drafting a post discussing the phrase that I was right the first time.
So when “Corpora and the Second Amendment: ‘keep arms’” doesn’t appear, that’s why.
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February 11, 2019 @ 8:08 am· Filed by Victor Mair under Errors, Writing, Writing systems
Emma Knightley asks:
My background is that I grew up in Taiwan learning Traditional Chinese and now most of what I use in my professional life is in Simplified Chinese. How exactly should the character of hē, "to drink," be written?
I grew up learning that the character inside the bottom-right enclosure is 人. Now I see that it is mostly written as 匕. I don't know when this changed, and I don't think it's a matter of Traditional vs Simplified, either, as I see both versions in Traditional writing as well. This Wiktionary entry illustrates the confusion nicely. No one I know has noticed this change, which leads me to think that I'm either losing my mind or experiencing the Mandela Effect.
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February 9, 2019 @ 9:11 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Errors, Language and the law, Spelling
Is there a mistake here?
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February 3, 2019 @ 11:37 am· Filed by Victor Mair under Errors, Signs, Writing systems
Sign in Beihai Municipality, Guangxi Province that is circulating on WeChat:
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February 2, 2019 @ 5:13 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Errors, Language and medicine, Signs
Photo taken in the reception area of a hospital:

(Source)
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