Since I became a Sinologist in 1972, hardly a day has passed when I didn't spend an hour or two vainly searching for a character or expression in my vast arsenal of Chinese reference works. The frustration of not being able to find what I'm looking for is so agonizing that I sometimes simply have […]
There's a Germantown in Philadelphia and a German Village in Columbus, Ohio. in Fredericksburg (the birthplace of Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz) and in New Braunfels, they speak Texas German, and in Amish and Old Order Mennonite communities in many states, they speak Pennsylvania Dutch / German (Deitsch, Pennsylvania Deitsch, Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch, Hinterwäldler-Deutsch).
As soon as I saw the reports about the mobile PaPaPa vans roaming the streets of Chengdu (see "PaPaPa" [2/15/17]), I immediately thought of a similar expression with a similar meaning that I heard forty years ago. On that occasion, someone described to me the actions of a man who was trying (unsuccessfully) to get […]
For some reason, the Chinese have taken to comparing President Elect Trump to a rooster, this year's symbol in the 12-year cycle of the zodiac. A giant chicken sculpture outside a shopping mall in Taiyuan, north China's Shanxi province, that looks like US president-elect Donald Trump Getty Images
There's a controversy over whether President Xi Jinping called President-elect Donald Trump to congratulate him on his victory in the November 8th election. The problem is summarized in this passage from The Economist: Chinese officials pay obsessive attention to ensuring the Communist Party’s line is reflected accurately by the country’s main media. But Mr Trump’s […]
We have looked at the Chinese typewriter again and again: "Chinese Typewriter" (6/30/09) "Chinese typewriter, part 2" (4/17/11) "Chinese character inputting" (10/17/15) By now we are thoroughly familiar with this unwieldy contraption. Given that it has long since been consigned to the museum, where it properly belongs, it is strange that some folks continue to […]
Helen Wang writes: I have a question – what's the etymology of the English word "mouthfeel"? In the last few weeks in the UK I have heard the word "mouthfeel" several times, spoken very naturally as though it's an established English word. I was surprised because I remember kǒugǎn 口感 (lit. "mouth-feel") as being "untranslatable" […]
I was stunned when I read this op-ed piece in the NYT yesterday (10/24/16): "China's Digital Soft Power Play". In it, the author, Jing Tsu (a professor of Chinese literature and culture at Yale), writes: This month, the Chinese government plans to introduce codes for some 3,000 Chinese characters as part of a grand project, […]
Nathan Hopson came across a marvelous Japanese word from the interwar period the other day: naihoku ナイホク.
[This is a guest post by David Moser] We're in the midst of moving to a new apartment. Yuck. So I'm packing boxes with our ayi, who is from Anhui province, and has been helping us with cooking and cleaning house for a few years now. I think she has at least a middle school […]
Judging from these recent Language Log posts and the comments thereto, it is not always easy for native speakers of English to understand what Donald Trump says, especially when he is making lewd remarks: "A non-apology for the ages" (10/7/16) "'Like a bitch'?" (10/8/16) "Trump translated" (9/31/16) "Trump's aphasia" (9/5/15) There have been many other […]
Drawn by a seven year old in Los Angeles: