One thing I have noticed recently is that many Chinese learners are not well-equipped to read Chinese names. This is because textbooks usually have names like 王朋 and 张天明 that use basic characters learners already know. But real Chinese names often contain characters that are not taught in classes/textbooks.
I compiled a corpus of over 515 characters found in around 1000 female given names. These names came from members of idol groups (like SNH48 and AKB48-SH) and participants on idol survival shows (like Produce 101 China). I did my best to remove duplicate individuals (like the AKB48 members who participated in CZ101) and not include stage names that are not authentic Chinese names (like 欧若拉). A lot of performers go by stage names that sound authentic or have changed their legal name–I included these. I separated the names into individual characters and then counted how many times each character occurred in the corpus as a whole. Note that these data are not necessarily representative of the overall populations of China and Taiwan. However, I think this info is still valuable.
Below I have the top 75 characters, aka those that were found at least 7 times. I’ve included all the counts for those who may be interested.
佳 jiā - beautiful, fine, good / 35
怡 yí - harmony, pleased / 31
雨 yǔ - rain / 29
欣 xīn - happy / 26
嘉 jiā - excellent, auspicious, to praise, to commend / 24
i’m doing all this research on when “like” is used as a filler vs. “um” or “uh” or whatever & i’m really loving this
basically my fav pattern so far is how these teen girls use “like” pretty exclusively when they’re sharing these concepts that are unknown to them or just guess work, ya know?
they’ll say “here’s the, um, living room” but then they’ll say “in this picture my brother is, like, howling or something”
& i love it i mean i love the way they use “like” to express uncertainty and idk pensiveness? “um” expresses a break in a sentence, some disfluency. but “like” holds actual semantic meaning and is an indicator that expresses what follows isn’t gonna be totally accurate but just to the speaker’s best estimation.
I love new places, new people, new ideas. I love cultural differences, and I’m fascinated by the truth - all the different versions of it. #Tokyo #Japan #quotes #japanese #flight #flying #culture #new #Asia #love #travel #travels #vacation #semester #holiday #language #airplane #photooftheday #japan2018 (på/i Tokyo Japan とうきよう 小図の森)
Original tiktok poster, Artistinmotion78: Clarence Iron, can you tell us how to say “hippopotamus” in Cree?
Clarence Iron: ewako kihcimihtahtatomitanâwkispakasakêwimistipwâmimahkitôninîswâpitêwiatâmipêkopimâtakâwikohkôs (this is the way: great thick skinned thick thighed big mouthed two toothed underwater swimming pig.)
Check out Lesson 3 in our Thai in 2 Minute Series. This time I teach you some useful “Joining Words” that will come in handy in day to day conversation.
Hey, we are going to start a very easy to follow and easy to learn Thai in 2 Minutes series of videos. What do you think, good idea, bad idea? With 12 years of living in England I am fluent in both languages. So let me know, looking forward to your comments… I think
there’s nothing to explain, “vermillion” absolutely is a green word
verde in spanish, italian, portuguese and romanian means green. vert in french means green. verdant means green. viridescent means green. it tracks that vermillion would mean green, and that it doesn’t just proves that english is a ridiculous language with absurd rules.
For once, this is not English’s fault!
Although the red pigment vermillion is derived from the mineral cinnabar, it is very similar to kermes dye, which is obtained from an insect: the word vermillion ultimately derives from the Latin vermis, meaning worm. So, “worm color”.
Verde, verdant, viridian, and all those green words come from the Latin word for green, viridis, which itself is derived from vireō, “I sprout”.
It’s just a coincidence that the words sound similar. English will be held responsible for its many crimes, but this is Latin’s fault (I can say this, I’m Italian).
It started when I took a couple weeks off all forms of social media, but then I never came back to tumblr when I realized that it was where I spent the most time aimlessly scrolling. I’m returning now because I miss everyone on this platform and I really enjoy running this blog. I can’t wait to keep talking about language with you guys.
Anyways, send me any posts I’ve missed that you think I should see, or just come say hi!!
Usually, the adjective comes right after the noun (Le manteau rouge)
Short and common adjectives are often placed before the noun - beau/belle (beautiful), bon-ne (good), bref/brève (brief), grand-e (tall/big), gros-se (fat), faux/fausse (fake), haut-e (high), jeune (young), joli-e (pretty), mauvais-e (bad), meilleur-e (best), nouveau/nouvelle (new), petit-e (short), vieux/vieil/vieille (old) - (La jeune fille)
If there are at least two coordinated adjectives, they come after the noun and are connected by a coordinating conjunction(Elle est drôle et belle)
If not, they go on each side of the noun (Une belle porte noire)
Some adjectives can go both before or after depending on their meaning:
Ancien-ne: former (Une ancienne boutique) VS old (Un bâtiment ancien)
Brave: respectable (Quel brave homme) VS courageous (Un chien brave)
Certain-e: particular (Un certain âge) VS sure (C’est un fait certain)
Cher/chère: dear (Ma chère Sophie) VS expensive (Une voiture chère)
Curieux/curieuse: odd (Une curieuse manie) VS interested (Un chat curieux)
Dernier/dernière: last of all (Une dernière fois) VS most recent (Lundi dernier)
Drôle: strange (Une drôle d’histoire) VS funny (Une histoire drôle)
Grand: great (Un grand homme) VS tall (Un homme grand) - only works with Homme
Pauvre: pitiful (Un pauvre garçon) VS moneyless (Une famille pauvre)
Prochain-e: next (La prochaine fois) VS coming (La semaine prochaine)
Propre: own (Mes propres mains) VS clean (Des mains propres)
Pur-e: simple (Une simple demande) VS pure (Une demande simple)
Sacré-e: awesome (Une sacrée fille) VS holy (Une parole sacrée)
Sale: disgusting (Une sale histoire) VS dirty (Une cuisine sale)
Seul-e: only (Une seule femme), VS alone (Une femme seule)
Simple: modest (Une simple demeure) VS simple (Une questions simple)
Vrai-e: real (Une vraie histoire) VS true (Une histoire vraie)
‘still’ (ex : Il respirait encore quand je suis arrivée - He was still breathing when I got here)
‘again’ (ex : Vous vous êtes encore réveillés - You woke up again)
‘but also’, often after the conjunction Mais (but) (ex : Nous sommes non seulement les premiers à finir mais encore les seuls à réussir)
‘evenmore’, after the adverb Plus (more) (ex : Je suis encore plus grande que toi - I’m even taller than you) as a graded quantifier
‘but then’, at the beginning of a clause (ex : Tu pourras choisir ta chambre, encore faut-il que tu arrives à l’heure - You’ll be allowed to pick your room, but then you have to be on time)
‘at least’ (ex : Si encore il acceptait d’être raisonnable! - If at least he would agree to be reasonable)
‘again?!’ (ex : Comment ça ? Elle sera en retard ? Encore ?! - What are you saying ? She’ll be late ? Again ?!)
‘nonetheless/still’ (ex : De toutes les bêtises que tu as fait cette année, celle-ci est encore la pire - Out of all the stupid things you did this year this one is still the worst)
‘rather’ (ex : Elle déteste tellement les épinards qu’elle préfère encore manger des choux de Bruxelles à tous les repas - She hates spinach so much she’d rather eat Brussels sprouts for every meal)
Toujours :
is an adverb of time and can be used as :
‘always’ (ex : Il est toujours en retard - He’s always late)
‘usually’ (ex : C’est toujours moi qui prends - I’m always being blamed)
‘still’ (ex : Elle est toujours aussi drôle - She’s still so funny)
‘withoutexception’, in a negative sentence (Ex : On ne peut pas toujours gagner - We can’t always win)
‘anyway’ (ex : Essaie toujours, qui sait - Try anyway, who knows)
‘anyhow’ (ex : C’est toujours ça - Anyhow, we at least have that)
The Navajo language was chosen to code U.S. military operations because it has no written form and is almost impossible for non-native speakers to learn. After the operation was declassified in 1968, the Japanese Chief of Intelligence admitted that though his army had been able to decipher many U.S. codes, they were never able to crack the Navajo code. SourceSource 2
If you wanna try some Navajo words, check out the NavajoWOTD (Word of the Day) archive :)
Here’s an example of one of the verbs. There’s also a huge archive of Navajo words at the NavajoWOTD SoundCloud! (https://soundcloud.com/navajowotd)
