Loan words/ near cognates/ transliterations, or whatever

[bob]

@skeptic_yank

fascist= fa3 xi1 si1

Nice.

Been added.

Thanks.

[skeptic_yank]

greenwich mean time= ge2 lin2 ni2 zhi4 shi2 jian1

[Chris]

False cognates:

book - bu4 簿
bowl - bo1 缽
knead - nie1 捏

[Chris]

And check this out:

酪 (luo = fermented milk), which in Taiwanese is lok, and in Old Chinese was lak - compare to “lactic”; “milk”. This has seriously been posited to be an Indo-European loanword in Chinese.

[sjcma]

砲 pao4 (cannon), as in a cannon goes ‘pow’
坦克車 tan3ke4che1 (tank)
引擎 yin3qing2 (engine)
馬達 ma3da2 (motor)
嗨 hi4 (hi)
拜拜 bai4bai5 (bye-bye)
爸爸 ba4ba5 (pa pa)
媽媽 ma1ma5 (ma ma)
陰陽 yin1yang2 (yin yang)
屎 shi3 (feces), just a letter shy of ‘shit’
福特 Fu2te4 (Ford)
伏特 fu2te4 (volt)
安培 an1pei2 (ampere)
高斯 gao1si1 (gauss)

[Chris]

maid - 妹 mei4 (little sister, young girl)

[tianzi]

A list of words that in one way or another worked their way through Chinese before entering the English language:

oook.info/easia/etymchinese.html

[the_bear]

@Chris

maid - 妹 mei4 (little sister, young girl)

i’ll need evidence on this…just cause a word shares an initial consonant doesnt make it a loan word. mei-mei has existed in chinese for 1000’s of years i think you’ll find.

[Chris]

@the_bear

@Chris

maid - 妹 mei4 (little sister, young girl)

I’ll need evidence on this…just cause a word shares an initial consonant doesnt make it a loan word. mei-mei has existed in Chinese for 1000’s of years I think you’ll find.

I never claimed it was a cognate or a loanword. This fits into the category of “false cognates”, and as such is one of the things being compiled via this thread.

[sjcma]

@the_bear

@Chris

maid - 妹 mei4 (little sister, young girl)

I’ll need evidence on this…just cause a word shares an initial consonant doesnt make it a loan word. mei-mei has existed in Chinese for 1000’s of years I think you’ll find.

I think you’ll find that many of the entries in here fall under the “whatever” category in the title of this thread.

[Chris]

犬 quan3 “dog” - chien (French for “dog”)

Or is that stretching it?

[sjcma]

@Chris

犬 quan3 “dog” - chien (French for “dog”)

Or is that stretching it?

I guess if you pronounce ‘chien’ in English, then it’s kinda close. ‘Chien’ pronounced in French is closer to ‘xian4’.

[Chris]

馬 ma3 “horse” - mare

[the_bear]

@sjcma

@the_bear

@Chris

maid - 妹 mei4 (little sister, young girl)

I’ll need evidence on this…just cause a word shares an initial consonant doesnt make it a loan word. mei-mei has existed in Chinese for 1000’s of years I think you’ll find.

I think you’ll find that many of the entries in here fall under the “whatever” category in the title of this thread.

so whats the point of a list of false cognates?

am i missing something or is this an exercise in futility? ni hao and how are you? so what?

[Chris]

It’s what the OP wanted. Plus there is some usefulness: they can be mnemonic devices for learning, and may be of interest to linguists for various reasons.

Who knows? Many seemingly useless or futile compilations of data have proven useful much later.

[sjcma]

ta3 塔 = tower

[skeptic_yank]

icing on someone else’s cake:

maid…maiden (young, virginal woman)…mei mei (younger sister).

back in chinese 101 we had to do the old family picture exercise.
i told them my big sister’s name was J.J.
little sister’s name was “may” but we call her “may may”
big bros name was gregor
lil bros name was D.D.
mom was mama
and dad was “bubba”

[sjcma]

fei2 肥 => fat

pang4 胖 (fat) = pounds

dou4fu 豆腐 => tofu

[Chris]

堡 bao3 - burg (both words mean “fort” or “castle”). Then there’s Arabic “burj” - “tower”. Perhaps all come from the same ancient root? Cross-language borrowings in ancient times (Chinese from Tocharian, Arabic from Greek)?

Also note 保 “to protect” - perhaps etymologically related to 堡.

[tianzi]

@Chris

犬 quan3 “dog” - chien (French for “dog”)

Or is that stretching it?

I think 犬 (Chinese), Chien (French), Canine (English), Canus (Latin), Kutta (Hindi), qen (albanian), shown (arminian) all trace back to śvāna(Sanskrit) and ku (tocharian)