from-China-love-Taiwan
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Hi there, I'm a native-Chinese. Please excuse me because I have to post some Chinese characters here to illustrate my question. Most web browser software running on Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac/iPad/iPhone/Android/Windows Mobile/Linux/UNIX could display Chinese text correctly, if yours not, please ignore the Chinese part or ignore this thread.
I've been learning English for many years, there is a question puzzles me consistently: Why don't English words end up with the same “suffix” to describe the same kind of thing?Or Why don't English words appear in the same form to describe the same thing?
In Chinese, this problem doesn't exist.
Example Ⅰ:
When we say the name of the months in a year, in English, we say January/February/March/April.........December. Do you find any similarity in these names? No, at least I don't find any, in my opinion they are just 12 different words which I must memorize. But in Chinese? We say:
一月(1月)(pronounce “yi yue”, January)
二月(2月)(pronounce “er yue”, February)
三月(3月)(pronounce “san yue”, March)
四月(4月)(pronounce “si yue”, April)
五月(5月)(pronounce “wu yue”, May)
六月(6月)(pronounce “liu yue”, June)
七月(7月)(pronounce “qi yue”, July)
八月(8月)(pronounce “ba yue”, August)
九月(9月)(pronounce “jiu yue”, September)
十月(10月)(pronounce “shi yue”, October)
十一月(11月)(pronounce “shi yi yue”, November)
十二月(12月)(pronounce “shi er yue”, December)
Do you find any similarity in these Chinese names? I believe a five-year-old kid could find the similarity, because all of them are numbers, mathematical numbers. And most importantly, all of them are ended up with “月”(pronounce “yue”) which means “moon; month” in Chinese.
So, why don't we say something like “Januarymonth” or ”Febmonth“ or ”Marchmonth“? Or even simpler, 1st month/2nd month/3rd month.........?
Example Ⅱ:
Homosexual topic. In English we have three words for that: homosexual, gay, lesbian.
But in Chinese, actually we just have one word:同性戀(pronounce “tong xing lian”),
you probably know that “男” means “man; male; boy” and “女” means “woman; female; girl”. So it becomes easy and simple:
homosexual=同性戀(pronounce “tong xing lian”)
gay=男同性戀(pronounce “nan tong xing lian”)
lesbian=女同性戀(pronounce “nü tong xing lian”)
You could see that, we have one word/root for “homosexual”(同性戀), the only thing we need to do when refer to specific gender is to add a gender-prefix (男 or 女). So in English, why don't we say “man homosexual” or ”woman homosexual“? I don't know where the two strange words ”gay“ and ”lesbian“ came from.
PS: 同 means “same”, 性 means “sex”, 戀 means “Romantic love”, so 同性戀=same sex love.
Example Ⅲ:
Science Terminology/Jargon.
Just take a look at these:
Animal VS Zoology
Plant VS Botany
Insect VS Entomology
Fish VS Ichthyology
Bird VS Ornithology
Human VS Anthropology
.............
I can't list more, sorry. I got really confused and frustrated when I met these strange discipline names for the first time. Because in Chinese, their names are accessible and reasonable:
動物VS動物學 (Animal VS Zoology)
植物VS植物學 (Plant VS Botany)
昆蟲VS昆蟲學 (Insect VS Entomology)
魚類VS魚類學 (Fish VS Ichthyology)
鳥類VS鳥類學 (Bird VS Ornithology)
人類VS人類學 (Human VS Anthropology)
You see that, “學” (pronounce “xue”) means “to learn; learning; to study; the study; science; discipline”, you can regard this character as the suffix “-ology” or “-tics”. So if we talk in the Chinese way, things could be like this:
Animal VS Animalology or Animaltics
Plant VS Plantology or Plantics
Insect VS Insectology or Insectics
Fish VS Fishology or Fishtics
Bird VS Birdology or Birdtics
Human VS Humanology or Humantics
............
I guess that might be a horrible blockbuster for some native-English speakers.
Example Ⅳ:
Automobile(motors)/Car/Truck/Bus/Van/Train/Bike/Motorbike.
These words refer to the same thing: land vehicles with round wheels. But I don't see any prefix/root/suffix to tell me that fact. In Chinese, they do.
What do we call “land vehicles with round wheels” in Chinese? Answer: 車 (pronounce “che”)
Automobile(motors)=汽車
Car=轎車, sometimes also 汽車
Truck=卡車 or 貨車 or 大貨車
Bus=公共汽車(公車) or 客車
Van=小貨車 or 麵包車
Train=火車
Bike=自行車 or 單車 or 腳踏車(Taiwanese people say “腳踏車”)
Motorbike=摩托車 or 機車(Taiwanese people say “機車”)
Whatever the name is, there is one common root/suffix: 車. If you never meet the word before, it doesn't matter, bacause the suffix (車) would tell you “whatever it is, it must be some land-vehicle with round wheels”. But in English, we don't enjoy that tip.
I've been learning English for many years, there is a question puzzles me consistently: Why don't English words end up with the same “suffix” to describe the same kind of thing?Or Why don't English words appear in the same form to describe the same thing?
In Chinese, this problem doesn't exist.
Example Ⅰ:
When we say the name of the months in a year, in English, we say January/February/March/April.........December. Do you find any similarity in these names? No, at least I don't find any, in my opinion they are just 12 different words which I must memorize. But in Chinese? We say:
一月(1月)(pronounce “yi yue”, January)
二月(2月)(pronounce “er yue”, February)
三月(3月)(pronounce “san yue”, March)
四月(4月)(pronounce “si yue”, April)
五月(5月)(pronounce “wu yue”, May)
六月(6月)(pronounce “liu yue”, June)
七月(7月)(pronounce “qi yue”, July)
八月(8月)(pronounce “ba yue”, August)
九月(9月)(pronounce “jiu yue”, September)
十月(10月)(pronounce “shi yue”, October)
十一月(11月)(pronounce “shi yi yue”, November)
十二月(12月)(pronounce “shi er yue”, December)
Do you find any similarity in these Chinese names? I believe a five-year-old kid could find the similarity, because all of them are numbers, mathematical numbers. And most importantly, all of them are ended up with “月”(pronounce “yue”) which means “moon; month” in Chinese.
So, why don't we say something like “Januarymonth” or ”Febmonth“ or ”Marchmonth“? Or even simpler, 1st month/2nd month/3rd month.........?
Example Ⅱ:
Homosexual topic. In English we have three words for that: homosexual, gay, lesbian.
But in Chinese, actually we just have one word:同性戀(pronounce “tong xing lian”),
you probably know that “男” means “man; male; boy” and “女” means “woman; female; girl”. So it becomes easy and simple:
homosexual=同性戀(pronounce “tong xing lian”)
gay=男同性戀(pronounce “nan tong xing lian”)
lesbian=女同性戀(pronounce “nü tong xing lian”)
You could see that, we have one word/root for “homosexual”(同性戀), the only thing we need to do when refer to specific gender is to add a gender-prefix (男 or 女). So in English, why don't we say “man homosexual” or ”woman homosexual“? I don't know where the two strange words ”gay“ and ”lesbian“ came from.
PS: 同 means “same”, 性 means “sex”, 戀 means “Romantic love”, so 同性戀=same sex love.
Example Ⅲ:
Science Terminology/Jargon.
Just take a look at these:
Animal VS Zoology
Plant VS Botany
Insect VS Entomology
Fish VS Ichthyology
Bird VS Ornithology
Human VS Anthropology
.............
I can't list more, sorry. I got really confused and frustrated when I met these strange discipline names for the first time. Because in Chinese, their names are accessible and reasonable:
動物VS動物學 (Animal VS Zoology)
植物VS植物學 (Plant VS Botany)
昆蟲VS昆蟲學 (Insect VS Entomology)
魚類VS魚類學 (Fish VS Ichthyology)
鳥類VS鳥類學 (Bird VS Ornithology)
人類VS人類學 (Human VS Anthropology)
You see that, “學” (pronounce “xue”) means “to learn; learning; to study; the study; science; discipline”, you can regard this character as the suffix “-ology” or “-tics”. So if we talk in the Chinese way, things could be like this:
Animal VS Animalology or Animaltics
Plant VS Plantology or Plantics
Insect VS Insectology or Insectics
Fish VS Fishology or Fishtics
Bird VS Birdology or Birdtics
Human VS Humanology or Humantics
............
I guess that might be a horrible blockbuster for some native-English speakers.
Example Ⅳ:
Automobile(motors)/Car/Truck/Bus/Van/Train/Bike/Motorbike.
These words refer to the same thing: land vehicles with round wheels. But I don't see any prefix/root/suffix to tell me that fact. In Chinese, they do.
What do we call “land vehicles with round wheels” in Chinese? Answer: 車 (pronounce “che”)
Automobile(motors)=汽車
Car=轎車, sometimes also 汽車
Truck=卡車 or 貨車 or 大貨車
Bus=公共汽車(公車) or 客車
Van=小貨車 or 麵包車
Train=火車
Bike=自行車 or 單車 or 腳踏車(Taiwanese people say “腳踏車”)
Motorbike=摩托車 or 機車(Taiwanese people say “機車”)
Whatever the name is, there is one common root/suffix: 車. If you never meet the word before, it doesn't matter, bacause the suffix (車) would tell you “whatever it is, it must be some land-vehicle with round wheels”. But in English, we don't enjoy that tip.