Lion-eating poet in the stone den cantonese

Which major world language has the most homophones. How to read a chinese poem with only one sound chinesepod. May 02, 2018 probably my favorite tang dynasty poem is. When most people say chinese, they mean mandarin, and mandarin is one of the most homophonous dialects. They are still pronounced differently in todays cantonese.

The point is that classical chinese cant be understood if spoken or phonetically transcribed. When he ate, he realized that these ten lions were in fact ten stone lion corpses. Cantonese language chinese language mandarin lessons learn mandarin chinese phrases chinese words chinese writing chinese. I know this has to do with the 4 tones but what the heck. Shishi shi shi shi is a short narrative poem written in classical chinese that is composed of 92 characters in which every word is pronounced shi when read in presentday standard mandarin, with only the tones differing. Chinese language wikimili, the best wikipedia reader. Jan 31, 2018 a 92 chinese character story by yuen ren chao in which every syllable has the sound shi with only the tones differing. The lioneating poet the lioneating poet is one of the more modern poems on this list, yet its so profound that college professors have actually put a lot of time and effort into researching its true meaning. Second, it proves that mandarin has more deficiency in identifying words as the phenomenon of one syllable representing more th.

The text, although written in classical chinese, can be easily comprehended. Shi eating lions is a passage composed of 92 characters written in classical chinese by linguist and poet yuen ren chao 18921982, in which. Ive highlighted the lines that i particularly like. Problematic treatment of middle chinese j vs zh initials, as they were merged by late middle chinese. While tonguetwisters in all languages take advantage of similar sounding words and syllables to generate confusion, some chinese tonguetwisters also take advantage of the fact that chinese is a tonal language. Note that the recordings in mandarin carry marked accents e. Hidden camera investigation on what really happens to your car cbc marketplace duration. The text, although written in classical chinese, can be easily comprehended by most educated readers. Shi eating lions is a passage composed of 92 characters written in classical chinese by linguist and poet yuen ren chao 18921982, in. At ten oclock, ten lions had just arrived at the market.

Chinese is already confusing enough with all of its tones, characters, etc etc. A 92 chinese character story by yuen ren chao in which every syllable has the sound shi with only the tones differing. People can still read it, but no one can understand it when spoken any more than an english speaker can understand beowulf. What are some of your favorite lines of chinese poetry. Do you have a good command of the tones in mandarin chinese. Taken to the extreme, it is possible to create a tonguetwisters where all the words have the same sound but varying only. First, it shows that romanisation of chinese language is impossible as it would create lots of confusion and ambiguity. Im sure the number one answer most people will provide is chinese. In modern spoken mandarin, however, tremendous ambiguity would result if all of these words could be used asis. They were shi5 shi2 shi5 shi5 in standard mandarin until 1932, but the tradeoff was that you had be5 be5 be5 be5 for. The story of shi shi eating lions is a 92character modern poem written in classical chinese by yuen ren chao 18921982, in which every syllable has the sound shi in different tones when read in modern mandarin chinese. For example, when the same passage is read in cantonese, there are seven distinct. Cantonese master language tho, because its directly descended from middle.

What does the chinese poem, lioneating poet in the stone. It was written to show how classical chinese has become an impractical language for speakers of modern chinese. Bbc world service the fifth floor, an incredible chinese. Yuen ren chao wrote it in the 1930s in the united states, whereas pinyin was not completed until 1958, and was partially based on chaos own gwoyeu romatzyh.

I can imagine that novels in cantonese sound funny novel. For your reference, below is the english translation of this story. Even worse, native speakers of cantonese tend to pronounce standard mandarin sz. However, chinese is actually many different languages or dialects. Shi shi shi shi shi is a famous example of constrained writing by yuen ren chao which consists of 92 characters, all with the sound shi in different tones when read in mandarin. Incidentally in cantonese this is much easier to understand.

Cantonese language chinese language mandarin lessons learn mandarin chinese phrases. Cantonese and other dialects, more than a billion people speak some derivation of this timehonored tongue. All 92 characters of the poem have the sound shi when read in modern. Sep 23, 2014 do you have a good command of the tones in mandarin chinese. Classical chinese simple english wikipedia, the free. With his essay, the eminent linguist tried to spoof the idea of converting chinese character text into a phonetic e. Mandarin chinese simple english wikipedia, the free. In older forms of chinese, one could have been to tell apart the different characters making up the title, as they. The story of mr shi eating lions, recited in mandarin chinese. The piece itself only makes no sense in atonal pinyin, wh. In this case the meaning of the text isnt as important as the pronunciation, so transcription should be preferred. Every single word of the poem is pronounced shi, even though they have different tones.