为什么单词“非洲”的意思是“non- (非) island (洲)”？
> 取自 aFRIca 的音
为什么我的家乡，英国，被称为“brave (英) country (国)”？
> 取自 ENglish 清朝時作 英吉利
法國
取自 FRANce 稱作 法蘭西
德國
取自 DEUTSCHE 稱作 德意志
GERMAN
以法語發音 稱作 日耳曼
日本
太陽 (日) 所出之地 (本)
又稱為 瀛洲 東瀛 東洋 扶桑
佛
"不是人" 是望字穿鑿
佛字早已存在 非為譯經而新造
譯經時 借用其字音
佛肸 : 讀作 bi4 xi4 人名。
春秋晉國大夫趙簡子的邑宰，據中牟而叛趙氏，曾召孔子往。
中文是一个非常有趣的语言!
今天我开始开始写中国文[Your form has political subtefuge]字, 这是非常有趣的语言如何创造的话。
的人谁不说中国话这似乎令人困惑. 不識中文的人会覺得為奇.
为什么单词“非洲”的意思是“non- (非) island (洲)”？ Because Africa is a continent. The more traditional is to take the "fi" sound in AFRIca. They take the time and care in selecting the meaning of the name.
为什么我的家乡，英国，被称为“brave [or handsome/winsome] (英) country (国)”？ Again the closest sound to England. Same for France,法国, Germany 德国. However, you look at the names of countries China encountered after the imperial times, the names given are just transliteration, long and a bunch of strange sounds being uttered. Japan is another different story since their country uses Chinese characters. Nippon 日本 is what they called themselves. An old term in Chinese for Japan is 瀛州
它是这样一个美丽的语言。我希望英也可以语创造出了这样的话詞/語/句/。
On a different note but similar vein, the word Buddha. This is non-Chinese. Since Buddha is not a god nor an ordinary person, they came up with a new word combining which makes it very interesting. 佛. The left side is the radical for man. On the right is the character for "not". Hence Buddha is not a man! Very meaningful.
Thanks for this entry. Reminded me of such delights in the language.
Pinyin:
Jīntiān wǒ kāishǐ kāishǐ xiě zhōngguó zì, zhè shì fēicháng yǒuqù de yǔyán rúhé chuàngzào dehuà.
De rén shuí bù shuō zhōngguó huà zhè sìhū lìng rén kùnhuò.
Wèishéme dāncí “fēizhōu” de yìsi shì “incorrect (fēi) continent (zhōu)”?
Wèishéme wǒ de jiāxiāng, yīngguó, bèi chēng wèi “brave (yīng) country (guó)”?
Tā shì zhèyàng yīgè měilì de yǔyán. Wǒ xīwàng yīngyǔ chuàngzàole zhèyàng dehuà.
中文是一门非常有趣的语言!
今天我开始开始写中国字, 这是非常有趣的语言如何创造的话。
的人谁不说中国话这似乎令人困惑.
为什么单词“非洲”的意思是“non- (非) island (洲)”？
为什么我的家乡，英国，被称为“brave (英) country (国)”？
它是这样一个美丽的语言。我希望英语创造了这样的话。
Pinyin:
Jīntiān wǒ kāishǐ kāishǐ xiě zhōngguó zì, zhè shì fēicháng yǒuqù de yǔyán rúhé chuàngzào dehuà.
De rén shuí bù shuō zhōngguó huà zhè sìhū lìng rén kùnhuò.
Wèishéme dāncí “fēizhōu” de yìsi shì “incorrect (fēi) continent (zhōu)”?
Wèishéme wǒ de jiāxiāng, yīngguó, bèi chēng wèi “brave (yīng) country (guó)”?
Tā shì zhèyàng yīgè měilì de yǔyán. Wǒ xīwàng yīngyǔ chuàngzàole zhèyàng dehuà.
中文是一个种非常有趣的语言!
When we say A BOTTLE OF WATER, then the word BOTTLE here is not a NOUN, it's a QUANTIFIER that is used to quantify something. In English, quantifier is only used to quantify something uncountable, but in Chinese, quantifier is used for both countable and uncountable noun. It's a big difference. So, when you say a language/a country/a dog/a magazine, we say 一种语言/一个国家/一只狗/一本杂志. Now asmyou see, even if these words are countable, we still have to use quantifiers to describe them, and different quantifiers are used to describe different nouns, so you have to pay attention to them and try to memorize them.
今天我开始开始写中国字汉字, 这是一种非常有趣的语言如何创造的话。
汉字 is the proper noun for Chinese character/words.
的人谁不说中国话对于不会说中文的人，这似乎令人困惑.
Let me explain this,
对于 means FOR/TO
不会 means CAN'T/DON'T
说 means SPEAK
中文 means CHINESE
人 means PEOPLE
together, 不会说中文 should be DON'T SPEAK CHINESE
不会说中文的 is like an adjectival phrase
and we put adjective or adjectival phrase before the described noun, so 不会说中文的 is placed before 人.
为什么单词“非洲”的意思是“non- (非) island (洲)”？
为什么我的家乡，英国，被称为“brave (英) country (国)”？
We call Africa 非洲, because the character 非 sounds like part of the word AFICA, just like what Jeff explained. We usually name these foreign proper nouns in this way, to pick some chinese characters that sounds like them. So you don't have to think too much about what these chinese translation means, because most of the time they don't have any meaning, they just sound like them. It is just like you don't know what Shanghai or Beijing means.
它是这样一个种美丽的语言。我希望英语也能创造了这样的话词语。
也 means ALSO
能 means CAN
了 is used in past tense.
Hi Lewis, it's Claire again! :)
You said today you started to write Chinese, so do you write it on a paper or just type it with a keyboard? Curious to know hahaha!!lol
It's hard for me to explain all these differences between these two languages and I know it's also hard for you to understand, so I really try not to make the explantion complicated. Haha. I don't know whether you can understand what I said, but don't worry, just one step at a time, to master a new language takes time, we all know that. But it's great to see you are interested in chinese.
I guess you turned to the GOOGLE TRANSLATION for help, because it is a little bit like the way it translates words.
Keep moving, Lewis! and let's keep in touch!!
