1/24 Any mandarin speakers here? When do you call the mother of a friend
(say, Chen) "chen2 bo2 mu3" and when do you call her "chen2 ma1 ma1"?
Is there any difference between Mainland China and Taiwan? Thanks.
--- Cantonese speaker
\_ mama is informal and buomu is more formal. On a related question,
why do Mainlanders call China "Middle Nation" and
Taiwanese call China "Big Land"? And what's the difference
between hua-ren and jon-kuo-ren?
\_ These questions certainly will spark debates around unification
vs. independence which deserve a separate thread.
\_ I seriously doubt there are enough FOBs on motd to spark
these debates.
\_ Is this a real question? Both of those have pretty obvious
meanings. Incidentally, Koreans also call China "Middle Nation."
The US is "Beautiful Nation."
\_ Chinese calls the US "Beautiful Nation" as well. Japanese
calls China "Middle Nation" and the US "Rice Nation." Anyway,
the "Middle" in CJK are taken for its meaning, whereas the
"Beautiful" in CK and the "Rice" in J are just taken for the
sound of the Chinese characters.
sound of the two Chinese characters. |