too much gas

[RonBee]

Originally Posted by lucyarliwu

Wow, it's really a long history about the evolution of English! No wonder it's so rich, complex and flexible...

I couldn't help wondering when you mentioned the word 'tea' is from China, ya, and just as Tdol said it's 'cha' in chinese pronuciation, but how could it turn into 'tea' which is obviously different from 'cha', so as the 'cash', 'pidgin'???
:?

Lucy in curiosity

Why in English (at least AE) it's "tea" is a mystery to me. :)

Here are some more English words that originally came from China: cumquat, chopsuey, chow mein, kung fu, litchi, tycoon.

Do you recognize any of them?

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[RonBee]

Originally Posted by lucyarliwu

Wow, it's really a long history about the evolution of English! No wonder it's so rich, complex and flexible...

I couldn't help wondering when you mentioned the word 'tea' is from China, ya, and just as Tdol said it's 'cha' in chinese pronuciation, but how could it turn into 'tea' which is obviously different from 'cha', so as the 'cash', 'pidgin'???
:?

Lucy in curiosity

The word "tea" is from China, but it is not from Mandarin.

"The word for 'tea' in virtually every major language is originally derived from Chinese. In Mandarin, it is pronounced 'cha', while it is pronounced 'te' in the Fujianese dialect (from whence the word 'tea' came). The Dutch call it 'thee', the Germans 'tee', the French 'the' and the Spanish 'te. The Russians call it 'chai', as do people in India, while the Iranians called it 'cha', the Arabs 'shay' and the Turks 'çay'. Even the various Asian languages share the term: Malay - teh, Vietnamese - cha and Japanese - cha (surprise, surprise!)"

Take the quiz. Go here: http://www.funtrivia.com/playquiz.cf.../dir/4563.html (The above quote is from this site.)

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[RonBee]

English Words from Chinese:
http://spotlightongames.com/quote/chinesewords.html

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Originally Posted by RonBee

Why in English (at least AE) it's "tea" is a mystery to me. :)

Here are some more English words that originally came from China: cumquat, chopsuey, chow mein, kung fu, litchi, tycoon.

Do you recognize any of them?

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HI Ron!

Thanks for your great job on your tracing back some derivative Chinese words for me,especially on the word 'tea', ya,it might stem from the Cantonese, in south areas of China.

And as for the several words given by you, I'm afraid I only know three words of Kung fu(=martial arts,you may know the Jack Chen or Jet Li, and the latter one is my crazy idol :P), Litchi (=lychee, a very scculent fruit,one of my favorates in summer :) ),and Tycoon (=some big rich head of businessmen with great power)
And in Chinese pronuciation, they are as followed:
Kung fu: Gong fu
Litchi=Lychee: Li zhi /li:zhi:/
Tycoon :Da heng

But what about the other rest words:cumquat, chopsuey, chow mein? :?

[RonBee]

Originally Posted by lucyarliwu

HI Ron!

Thanks for your great job on your tracing back some derivative Chinese words for me,especially on the word 'tea', ya,it might stem from the Cantonese, in south areas of China.

Actually, "tea" doesn't come from Cantonese but from a separate Chinese dialect. (It starts with an "f", I think.) I had fun making those discoveries.

Originally Posted by lucyarliwu

And as for the several words given by you, I'm afraid I only know three words of Kung fu(=martial arts,you may know the Jack Chen or Jet Li, and the latter one is my crazy idol :P), Litchi (=lychee, a very scculent fruit,one of my favorates in summer :) ),and Tycoon (=some big rich head of businessmen with great power)
And in Chinese pronuciation, they are as followed:
Kung fu: Gong fu
Litchi=Lychee: Li zhi /li:zhi:/
Tycoon :Da heng

But what about the other rest words: cumquat, chopsuey, chow mein? :?

Do you mean what are those things?

Did you take the quiz? Try it. It's fun! :D

http://spotlightongames.com/quote/chinesewords.html

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Originally Posted by RonBee

Do you mean what are those things?

Did you take the quiz? Try it. It's fun! :D

http://spotlightongames.com/quote/chinesewords.html

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I have looked for the rest unclear words,but still don't know what's "chow mein"! :? :?

I can't get though the link for the moment, I'll try it more later to find fun there. :)

[RonBee]

Originally Posted by lucyarliwu

I have looked for the rest unclear words,but still don't know what's "chow mein"! :? :?

I can't get though the link for the moment, I'll try it more later to find fun there. :)

This is from the website:

chow mein
stew of shredded meat, mushrooms and vegetables served with fried noodles; from Peking Chinese ch'ao mien

You might not be familiar with all of the words, because not all of them are from Mandarin Chinese. And pidgin is, well, pidgin.

http://spotlightongames.com/quote/chinesewords.html

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[RonBee]

P.S. Suggestions/corrections.

But what about the other rest words: cumquat, chopsuey, chow mein? :?

Say: "But what about the other words?" Or: "What about the rest of the words?"

I have looked for the rest unclear words,but still don't know what's "chow mein"! :? :?

Say: "I have looked up the rest of the unclear words, but I still don't know what chow mein is." (Does that seem right?)

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[shane]

I have looked up the rest of the unclear words, but I still don't know what chow mein is."(Does that seem right?)

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Lucy, "Chow Mein" is simply "³´Ãæ" in Mandarin!! :D

[RonBee]

P.S. Here is a link to the language quizzes: http://www.funtrivia.com/quizlistgold.cfm?cat=4563

This one is specifically about words English "borrowed" from Chinese:
http://www.funtrivia.com/quizdetails.cfm?id=87206

This will give you a "head start" on the Chinese/English quiz:
http://spotlightongames.com/quote/chinesewords.html

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