Re: USAGE: Dinos and dragons

On Fri, Oct 13, 2000 at 06:07:11AM -0700, DOUGLAS KOLLER wrote:
[snip]
> Mandarin for "lizard" is "xi1yi4". Both my mainland and Taiwan Hokkien
> dictionaries give "si3ka1zua5" (four-footed snake)
In my flavor of Hokkien, si3ka1zua5 refers to the category of lizards with
rougher scales and darker color, and more fearsome looks in general.
Lizards with smooth skin are called "sin1tang5". It *might* be a term
specific to the local version of Hokkien, AFAICT.

> and "do7ding7" (looks like characters arbitrarily selected for sound)
> as the equivalents.
Hmm. I never heard of this one before.

[snip]
> all the possibilities one by one, but I found nothing under "new". "Worm" in
> Mandarin is "qiu1yin3", the Hokkien equivalent given is 'to5wun2"
> (earth-worm) (also "gao5wun2" [monkey-worm]).
Hmm. My version of Hokkien simply uses "tang5" for "worm". I guess some of
the terminology has changed, perhaps under the influence of local Malay
dialects -- I don't think I *ever* heard of "to5wun2" or "gao5wun2"
before.


T