too much gas

[RonBee]

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?

8)

 

[RonBee]

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.cfm?qid=87206&origin=http://www.funtrivia.com/dir/4563.html (The above quote is from this site.)

8)

 

[RonBee]

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

8)

 

[lucyarliwu]

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?

8)

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 ), 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 a heng

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

 

[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?

8)

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.

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 ), 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 a 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!

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

8)

 

[lucyarliwu]

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!

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

8)

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

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

 

[RonBee]

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!

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

8)

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

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

8)

 

[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"! :? :? :shock:

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?)

8)

 

[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?)

8)

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

 

[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

8)

 

[lucyarliwu]

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

Sorry, Shane?

I'm afraid I can't understand what that special mark means?!

So could you help me in another way if it's easy for you?

Thanks Shane in advance!

 

[lucyarliwu]

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

8)

Thanks Ron for your corrections for me on the following sentence:

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

It's quite right after your amending. It seems that what I wrote before is just one good example of "pidgin English",am I right?

BTW, thanks for the links, I'll try them later since the linking here is pretty slow.

 

[RonBee]

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

It's quite right after your amending. It seems that what I wrote before is just one good example of "pidgin English",am I right?

I am not sure, but I think pidgin English has more to do with speech than writing. I don't really know much about it tho. It might be something interesting to do a little research on.

BTW, thanks for the links, I'll try them later since the linking here is pretty slow.

Perhaps it is your Internet connection. The links always work fine for me.

Here is another word we English speakers got from China: silk. Interesting, huh? You are probably familiar with the ancient trading route called the Silk Road. I am sure there are a lot of interesting stories that are associated with that.

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

8)

 

[RonBee]

Here are some more English words that were "borrowed" from Chinese.

bohea
bonze
cangue
cash
China
ginkgo
ginseng
Hun
Japan
judo
junk
kaolin
ketchup
ling
loquat
mien
oolong
pan
pekoe
shaman
tan
tofu
Turk
tycoon
typhoon
yen
wok

http://acadprojwww.wlu.edu/vol4/BlackmerH/public_html/xliberty/oed/chinese.html

8)

 

[Tdol]

char

 

[RonBee]

English Words from Chinese

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

pidgin

• a simplified speech used for communication between people with different languages from "pidgin English", pidgin being the word in pidgin English for "business", i.e. a changed form of the English word "business". Pidgin English is/was a form of Chinese English used for business purposes in the Orient.

• Pidgin English
  http://www.hku.hk/linguist/program/contact4.html
  http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/publications/jpcl/online/snotes/sn24.htm

 

[Casiopea]

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

From the Chinese, Amoy dialect t'e:
Dutch tee, chief importers (1610)
French the
Spanish te
German tee
English tea (1644)

From the Chinese, Mandarin dialect ch'a
Russian cha
Persian cha
Greek tsai
Turkish say

From French caisse
English cash

From the Chinese pronunciation of business.
English pidgin

www.etymonline.com

 

[Tdol]

The Portuguese say 'cha' and it was a Portuguese princess, married to Charles II (I believe), who introduced tea to Britain. ;-)

 

[Casiopea]

The Portuguese say 'cha' and it was a Portuguese princess, married to Charles II (I believe), who introduced tea to Britain. ;-)

His-story

 

[Susie Smith]

Cha

IN England we also call tea 'char', which is much closer to the Chinese. ;-)

In Portuguese (at least in Brazil) the word for tea is "chá" which is pronounced as "shah". I had no idea it came from Chinese!