Re: English is a crazy language
| From: | H. S. Teoh <hsteoh@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, April 23, 2002, 12:04 |
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On Tue, Apr 23, 2002 at 06:45:19AM -0500, Danny Wier wrote:
> From: "H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh@...>
>
> > Have you ever heard of the (in)famous Chinese poems that go "Ma, ma, ma,
> > ma, ma" all with different tones, so that it actually means something?
> > There are several of these around, unfortunately I'm not familiar enough
> > with them to give you concrete examples.
>
> Yeah, the "ma" poem means something like "Did mother scold the horse?",
> right?
Ah yes, that's one of them.
Ma1 Ma4 Ma3 Ma1?
Mother scold horse (interrogative)
There's another one about lions, but I don't remember what it was. I
believe some of these poems actually have several lines/verses, all
consisting of the same syllable with different tones, etc.. Shame on me
for not knowing even one of them :-/
T
--
If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one? -- Abraham Lincoln
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