Re: USAGE: Dinos and dragons

On Fri, Oct 13, 2000 at 04:35:45PM -0700, DOUGLAS KOLLER wrote:
[snip]
> With that information in hand, I was planning to look to words for smaller
> lizards -- newts, salamanders and the like, but started with the ubiquitous
> "bi4hu3" (gecko). Voilà! Mandarin "bi4hu3" (wall-tiger) is Hokkien
> "sen7tang5(a2)" (eel-insect). If your dialect expands that to other little
> slimy critters, so be it.
No, it's a specific term for smooth lizards.

[snip]
> I never had the occasion to discuss worms in Taiwanese, so this ain't my
> forté. To me, a non-native, "tang5" definitely sounds like "insect" (I
> suppose "worm" fits under that rubric). "To5wun2" sounds reasonable to my
> ear; "gao5wun2" sounds a little folksy and dialecty.
[snip]

Actually, "tang5" refers to any of the smaller, creepy, crawly things,
such as worms, insects, leeches, etc..


T