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Re: THEORY: Expanding in translation?

From:Douglas Koller <laokou@...>
Date:Monday, March 10, 2008, 1:47
From: Henrik Theiling <theiling@...>

> MorphemeAddict writes:
..
> > Chinese seems to have the shortest.
> I don't doubt that. It felt extremely concise when I learned it.
> And then, I was extremely surprised how long the equivalent of > 'Don't drink and drive!' was in Chinese. I forgot, however. Anyone? > It was really long.
In Taiwan, it was: He1 jiu3 bu4 kai1 che1 Kai1 che1 bu4 he1 jiu3 If you drink, don't drive; if you drive, don't drink. Less a matter of expansion than developing a catchy couplet which is more mnemonic (and it's not *that* long :) ). Kou

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Henrik Theiling <theiling@...>