Tag: Abbreviations

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tōnghuò péngzhàng

tōnghuò péngzhàng ((tōng·huò {through(out) → [common]} · goods → [currency] 通货 通貨) (péngzhàng inflating 膨胀 膨脹) → [inflation; rising prices]) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

Prices are rising worldwide, with reports pointing to the war in Ukraine being a significant factor. As of this writing, jw.org is featuring the article “Soaring Worldwide Inflation—What Does the Bible Say?”. The Mandarin version of this article uses the expression “tōnghuò péngzhàng ((tōng·huò {through(out) → [common]} · goods → [currency] 通货 通貨) (péngzhàng inflating 膨胀 膨脹) → [inflation])”, this week’s MEotW, to correspond with the English expression “inflation”. (“Quánqiú (Quán·qiú whole · globe → [worldwide] 全球) tōnghuò péngzhàng ((tōng·huò {through(out) → [common]} · goods → [currency] 通货 通貨) (péngzhàng inflating 膨胀 膨脹) → [inflation])” is used to specifically correspond with “worldwide inflation”.)

Deflating “Inflation”

If you find “tōnghuò péngzhàng ((tōng·huò {through(out) → [common]} · goods → [currency] 通货 通貨) (péngzhàng inflating 膨胀 膨脹) → [inflation])” to be a bit of a mouthful, then you may be pleased to know that there is an abbreviation for this in the form of the expression “tōngzhàng (tōng·zhàng {through(out) → [common] (abbr. for tōnghuò)} · {inflating (abbr. for péngzhàng)} → [inflation (abbr. for tōnghuò péngzhàng)] 通胀 通脹)”.

Another example of a Mandarin expression that is an abbreviation is “xīnguān (xīn·guān new · {hat → [corona]} → [novel coronavirus (esp. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19) (abbr. for xīnxíng guānzhuàng bìngdú)] 新冠)” (a previous MEotW), which is an abbreviation for the mouthful that is “xīnxíng guānzhuàng bìngdú ((xīn·xíng new · {mould → [type]} 新型) (guān·zhuàng {hat → [corona]} · shape 冠状 冠狀) (bìng·dú disease · poison → [virus] 病毒) → [novel coronavirus (esp. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19)])”.

Through It All…

Interestingly, the “tōng ({[(going)] through[(out)]; open [to]} [→ [common; general | connecting/communicating [to/with] [→ [logical; coherent]]]] 通)” in “tōnghuò péngzhàng ((tōng·huò {through(out) → [common]} · goods → [currency] 通货 通貨) (péngzhàng inflating 膨胀 膨脹) → [inflation; rising prices])” appears in several expressions that at first glance may not seem to be related, for example:

  • tōngguò (tōng·guò through · passing → [passing through] → [through] 通过 通過)
  • pǔtōng (pǔ·tōng common; general; universal; widespread · {through(out) → [general; common]} → [ordinary; common; average; general] 普通)
  • pǔtōnghuà (pǔ·tōng·huà common; universal · {through(out) → [common]} · speech → [(Modern Standard) Mandarin (term commonly used in China)] 普通话 普通話)
  • gōutōng (gōu·tōng {(through) channel} · {(going) through → [communicating]} → [communicating; communication | linking up] 沟通 溝通)
  • tōnglíng (tōng·líng {(going) through to → [communicating/connecting with]} · spirits → [engaging in spiritism | spiritism] 通灵 通靈)
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Current Events

biànzhǒng

biànzhǒng (biàn·zhǒng changed · kind; type; variety → [mutation; variant; variety] 变种 變種) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

[Note: Tap/click on a Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) expression to reveal its “flashcard”, tap/click on a “flashcard” or its Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) expression to hide the “flashcard”.]

As of this writing, deep in the year 2021, the subject of the COVID-19 pandemic has been, to say the least, on people’s minds now for a while. So, it would be good to be able to refer to things related to it in Mandarin when speaking to people in the Mandarin field, or when speaking to our brothers and sisters in the truth.

electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2—also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19

An electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2—also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19
Creative Commons Attribution License logo NIAID

A Variety of Mandarin Expressions for “Variant”

My research has turned up a variety of Mandarin expressions that appear to correspond with the English word “variant”, as in “the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19”. To get a rough idea of how commonly used these expressions are compared to each other, I decided to do a little experiment and compare some Google search results involving these expressions.

biànzhǒng (biàn·zhǒng changed · kind; type; variety → [mutation; variant; variety] 变种 變種)
Search Terms Google Results Approx. No.
covid 变种 4,570,000
"delta变种" 3,240,000
biàntǐ (biàn·tǐ changed · {body → [form]} → [variant; variation; variety] 变体 變體)
Search Terms Google Results Approx. No.
covid 变体 22,100,000
"delta变体" 215,000
biànyì bìngdú zhū ((biàn·yì changed · {to be different} 变异 變異) (bìng·dú disease · poison → [virus] 病毒) (zhū {trunk of a tree} → [strain] 株) → [virus strain/variant])
Search Terms Google Results Approx. No.
covid 变异病毒株 2,350,000
"delta变异病毒株" 83,600
biànyì dúzhū ((biàn·yì changed · {to be different} 变异 變異) (dú·zhū {poison → [virus]} · {trunk of a tree → [strain]} 毒株) → [virus strain/variant])
Search Terms Google Results Approx. No.
covid 变异毒株 974,000
"delta变异毒株" 507,000
biànyì zhū ((biàn·yì changed · {to be different} 变异 變異) (zhū {trunk of a tree → [strain]} 株) → [(virus) strain/variant])
Search Terms Google Results Approx. No.
covid 变异株 3,210,000
"delta变异株" 1,730,000
bìngdú zhū ((bìng·dú disease · poison → [virus] 病毒) (zhū {trunk of a tree → [strain]} 株) → [virus strain/variant])
Search Terms Google Results Approx. No.
covid 病毒株 4,940,000
"delta病毒株" 245,000
dúzhū (dú·zhū {poison; toxin → [virus]} · {trunk of a tree → [strain]} → [virus strain] 毒株)
Search Terms Google Results Approx. No.
covid 毒株 3,380,000
"delta毒株" 408,000

Of the Mandarin expressions listed above, it seems that this week’s MEotW, “biànzhǒng (biàn·zhǒng changed · kind; type; variety → [mutation; variant; variety] 变种 變種)”, is the one most commonly used on the web at this time to correspond with the English word “variant” when referring to variants of the virus that causes COVID-19. (Note that the results above that are for the search terms in quotation marks, e.g. "delta变种", are the best ones to compare to determine this, since the quotation marks tell Google to look for the exact sequences of characters that are inside the quotation marks.)

By the Way…

Here are some other things I noticed as well:

  • It is common for English words like “COVID” and “Delta” to appear in texts that are mainly made up of Chinese characters, even though Mandarin expressions that correspond with these English words do exist.
  • Some Mandarin expressions that are longer may be more technically accurate or informative, but often, shorter expressions will be used more, because of convenience.
  • Searching for Simplified Chinese characters on Google will sometimes return results that use those characters’ Traditional counterparts, and vice versa.
Categories
Current Events

xīnguān

xīnguān (xīn·guān new · {hat → [corona]} → [novel coronavirus (esp. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19)] 新冠) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

[Note: Tap/click on a Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) expression to reveal its “flashcard”, tap/click on a “flashcard” or its Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) expression to hide the “flashcard”.]

As of this writing, deep in the year 2021, the subject of the COVID-19 pandemic has been, to say the least, on people’s minds now for a while. So, it would be good to be able to refer to things related to it in Mandarin when speaking to people in the Mandarin field, or when speaking to our brothers and sisters in the truth.

electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2—also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19

An electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2—also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19
Creative Commons Attribution License logo NIAID

The Short and the Long of It

This week’s MEotW, “xīnguān (xīn·guān new · {hat → [corona]} → [novel coronavirus (esp. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19)] 新冠)”, is an abbreviation for “xīnguān bìngdú ((xīn·guān new · {hat → [corona]} 新冠) (bìng·dú disease · poison → [virus] 病毒) → [novel coronavirus (esp. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19)])”.

It doesn’t end there, though, because “xīnguān (xīn·guān new · {hat → [corona]} → [novel coronavirus (esp. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19)] 新冠)” and “xīnguān bìngdú ((xīn·guān new · {hat → [corona]} 新冠) (bìng·dú disease · poison → [virus] 病毒) → [novel coronavirus (esp. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19)])” are both abbreviations for “xīnxíng guānzhuàng bìngdú ((xīn·xíng new · {mould → [type]} 新型) (guān·zhuàng {hat → [corona]} · shape 冠状 冠狀) (bìng·dú disease · poison → [virus] 病毒) → [novel coronavirus (esp. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19)])”.

To form “xīnguān (xīn·guān new · {hat → [corona]} → [novel coronavirus (esp. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19)] 新冠)” from “xīnxíng guānzhuàng bìngdú ((xīn·xíng new · {mould → [type]} 新型) (guān·zhuàng {hat → [corona]} · shape 冠状 冠狀) (bìng·dú disease · poison → [virus] 病毒) → [novel coronavirus (esp. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19)])”, “xīn (new 新)” was taken from “xīnxíng (xīn·xíng new · {mould → [type]} 新型)”, and “guān (hat → [corona] 冠)” was taken from “guānzhuàng (guān·zhuàng {hat → [corona]} · shape 冠状 冠狀)”.

Aren’t you glad you don’t have to go around saying “xīnxíng guānzhuàng bìngdú ((xīn·xíng new · {mould → [type]} 新型) (guān·zhuàng {hat → [corona]} · shape 冠状 冠狀) (bìng·dú disease · poison → [virus] 病毒) → [novel coronavirus (esp. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19)])” all the time?