Re: OT: Translation (Was: Re: OT: Official language post)

On Tue, Apr 08, 2003 at 03:41:09PM -0400, Douglas Koller, Latin & French wrote:
> HS writes:
>
> >That'll teach you to omit tones in Taiwanese transcriptions. :-P
>
> Indeed it will :). Now, normally you know I'm fairly precise in my
> tonal renderings, but since Adam started the atonal marking and it
> was understandable to me, I simply followed his lead. So, blame Adam!
> :)
Ah yes, the ultimate weapon of defense, the FOB.[1]


[1] Finger Of Blame.

> Actually, there is a chatspace online where you can schmooze in
> Chinese (Mandarin), no one marks tone, and it's fairly easy to divine
> the meanings. Context is key, of course; lots of it is "Hey, anybody
> there?" "So, what do you do?" usw. Not, "So, what are your thoughts
> on eugenics?"
'Tis true, context is key. But it's also rather sensitive to dialectal
differences and cultural backgrounds. I sometimes engage in a Hokkien
conversation over email with a friend who grew up together with me; we
don't mark tones (he probably doesn't even know what's a "tone number")
but we can understand each other easily. Of course, anybody not from
Malaysia (or even from Penang---we have our own idiosyncratic set of
expressions and in-jokes outsiders wouldn't understand) would understand
very little of it, probably less than 25%. It's filled with borrowings
from English and Malay, has manglings and contractions that only a
Malaysian Hokkien-speaker would understand.

> So, if you're not too embarrassed to indicate, what was the expletive
> you had in mind? I do so love learning to swear like a Marine in
> various langs.
[snip]

I'd rather not say it, but it's in the swear-by/at-your-ancestors
category.


T

--
I think the conspiracy theorists are out to get us...