2/23 How come mainland Chinese people say number 1 as "Yao1" instead of
the standard "Yi1"? Also why do they say "we" as "zhai2 men"
instead of the standard "wo3 men"? Are there subtle semantic
differences?
\_ First of all, this is not a "mainland China" thing. The orgin
of this prounciation came from military, as they discover
the prounciation of one and seven (yi1 and qi1) sounds too similar
over the radio. Note that this is not some sort of cryptic code,
as military in Taiwan uses the same prounciation as well :p
It merely a military way of prounciating number in a more distincted
manner: 1 become yao1, 7 become guai3, 0 become dong4, etc.
Americans do something similar with prounciation of alphabets over
the radio too.
There is a subtle differences between "zai men" and "wo men."
"zai men" is a more narrowly defined and strictly used when
yourself as a person is included. So, a wrong way to use "zai men"
is in the context of, let say "we the nation of Chinese..."
Having said that, "zai men" is more of an oral lingo (mostly
in Northern part of China) and should not be used in formal writing.
- kngharv
\_ Do you know what does "lao4 ke'er1" mean? I heard it
said b4 but don't know what it means. |
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