tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3919350949272858772.post4966564860741015744..comments2024-02-21T02:19:19.666-07:00Comments on hanzismatter.blogspot.com: tianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14696711693095229683noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3919350949272858772.post-58697274542347359522009-09-28T07:33:13.743-07:002009-09-28T07:33:13.743-07:00You are assuming a present reading of what may be ...You are assuming a present reading of what may be said in a future United States - one which might well carry with it some grammarisms and turns-of-phrase that are currently unknown in any Chinese language (just as many patois and dialects of English carry in them forms of the language unknown in other parts of the English-speaking world).<br><br>In fact, an interesting case of this in English can be seen in the many examples provided in the book <i>Prodigal Tongue: Dispatches from the Future of English</i> by Mark Abley.<br><br>Also, the cases in the short-lived science fiction drama <i>Firefly</i> of horribly spoken wisps of Mandarin Chinese by the characters is another instance of how a language - when uprooted from its cultural context - might change dramatically (although the example of <i>Firefly</i> is a lot more fanciful than the examples provided by Abley).Umludhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09975670307431521495noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3919350949272858772.post-20371292472956018792009-10-04T21:00:54.635-07:002009-10-04T21:00:54.635-07:00Hakseng said:Try this: type "English used to ...Hakseng said:<br><br>Try this: type "English used to be the dominant language. Crazy, huh?"<br>into yahoo's babelfish - guess what you get? Exactly :-)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3919350949272858772.post-80390409227923368832009-10-08T02:44:24.975-07:002009-10-08T02:44:24.975-07:00Babelfish, Google Translate....things NOT to take ...Babelfish, Google Translate....things NOT to take as a reference when translating. You might get the meaning somehow, it's enough to get a glance at the phrase, but don't ever publish the translations by them.Ulasnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3919350949272858772.post-77080743527799438212009-10-09T17:55:06.082-07:002009-10-09T17:55:06.082-07:00That reminds me of two Slashdot posts, one said (i...That reminds me of two Slashdot posts, one said (in pinyin, because of Slashdot's incompatibility with encodings other than cp1252) that one of the most popular phrases of the future would be "Can I ride your rocket?" Someone replied with “不可以。我们做所有你们的东西。”卡库尔 / Kakurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465131642097483957noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3919350949272858772.post-48903829970743566112009-12-26T06:35:59.349-07:002009-12-26T06:35:59.349-07:00I like WIRED but they don't do fact-checking v...I like WIRED but they don't do fact-checking very well sometimes. Aside from the poor Chinese in this sample and in a previous issue where they had a mini-phrasebook, I've seen them screw up biology facts.xenobiologistahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09781983279242647376noreply@blogger.com