Tag: ABC Chinese-English Dictionary

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Language Learning Science

Jīdū

Jīdū (Christ 基督) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

Earlier Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus material rendered the English meaning of “Jīdū (Christ 基督)” as “Foundation · {Directing (Person)} → [Christ]”, on the supposition that the meanings of the Mandarin syllables used in “Jīdū (Christ 基督)” may have mattered in their selection for inclusion in “Jīdū (Christ 基督)”. (In contrast, “Yēsū (Jesus 耶稣 耶穌)” (Jesus) is a name, not a title like “Jīdū (Christ 基督)” is, so, like the Mandarin syllables used in other Mandarin names of Bible personages, the Mandarin syllables for “Yēsū (Jesus 耶稣 耶穌)” were obviously also chosen mainly for their sounds, with only secondary consideration given to their meanings.) Unfortunately, while it seems to make some sense, it turns out that this earlier rendering of the English meaning of “Jīdū (Christ 基督)” was a case of Trying Too Hard 😜. (Oh, well, as I once heard a cable guy say as he was preparing to make a new cable, “too much is better than not enough”.)

Now, when one looks up “Jīdū (Christ 基督)” in the Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus Expressions resource, one will see a note about why the English meaning of “Jīdū (Christ 基督)” is now simply rendered as “Christ”:

(This is a transcription of “Christ”, so the syllables were chosen mainly for their sound, not their meaning. For more info, see this Language Log post by Victor Mair.)

Who Is Victor Mair and What Did He Say About This?

Victor H. Mair, who has been mentioned several times in this blog, is an American sinologist and a University of Pennsylvania Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. He also inspired and helped to edit the highly regarded ABC Chinese-English Dictionary. So, we can be pretty sure he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to Mandarin words. (In fact, for what it’s worth, after my several years of researching the Mandarin language, I have come to consider him the most trustworthy living scholarly authority on the Chinese languages.)

Concerning the etymology of “Jīdū (Christ 基督)”, Prof. Mair said the following in the above-mentioned Language Log blog post:

Jīdū 基督 is a short form of Jīlìsīdū 基利斯督, which is a transcription of “Christ”, from Ancient Greek Χριστός (Khristós).

So, I revised the English meaning in the Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus Expressions resource entry for “Jīdū (Christ 基督)”, added the note quoted above, and am gradually revising occurrences of “Jīdū (Christ 基督)” in existing Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus material as time allows. Of course, going forward, new Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus material that includes the expression “Jīdū (Christ 基督)” will simply use “Christ” as its English meaning.

A Reminder That Speech Is Primary

This situation with “Jīdū (Christ 基督)”, in which the deciding factor in how the word is formed is how it sounds, reminds us that regardless of the Chinese cultural obsession with characters and the meanings represented by their intricate visual designs, the basic scientific principle about human languages holds true, that the primary aspect of human languages is actually speech, which represents meanings with sounds. Writing, even writing as revered as Chinese characters are with all their visual embellishments, is at best secondary.

Categories
Current Events History Theocratic

āijiā‐āihù

āijiā‐āihù ((āi·jiā {one after another} · households 挨家)‐(āi·hù {one after another} · doors 挨户 挨戶) → [door[-/ ]to[-/ ]door; house[-/ ]to[-/ ]house]) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

[Notes: 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”. 📖 📄 📘 icons mean 📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced, and 📘 Reveal None re all the “flashcards” in the heading, paragraph, etc. that they are placed at the beginning of.]

As of this writing, the English version of jw.org is featuring this announcement:

BREAKING NEWS | House-to-House Preaching Will Resume on September 1, 2022

The Mandarin version of jw.org renders this announcement this way:

📖 📄 📘 JÍSHÍ (JÍ·SHÍ {(IMMEDIATELY) APPROACHING} · {(PARTICULAR) TIME} → [(OF NEWS) LIVE] 即时 即時) XĪNWÉN (XĪN·WÉN NEW · {(THAT WHICH) IS HEARD} → [NEWS] 新闻 新聞) | 2022 Nián (Year 年 年/秊) 9 Yuè (Moon → [Month] 月) 1 Rì (Sun → [Day] 日) Huīfù ({(There) Will Be Restored} → [(There) Will Be Resumed] 恢复 恢復) Āijiā‐Āihù ((Āi·jiā {One After Another} · Households 挨家)‐(Āi·hù {One After Another} · Doors 挨户 挨戶) → [House-to-House]) Chuándào (Chuán·dào Spreading · Way → [Preaching] 传道 傳道)

As can be seen from the above Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus information, the organization is currently translating “house-to-house” into Mandarin as “āijiā‐āihù ((āi·jiā {one after another} · households 挨家)‐(āi·hù {one after another} · doors 挨户 挨戶) → [house-to-house])”, which literally means “one after another households one after another doors”.

Blasts from the Past

Chinese field “old-timers” may remember that this wasn’t always the expression used to translate “house-to-house”. Here are some expressions that have been used to do so in the past:

  • āijiā‐zhúhù ((āi·jiā {one after another} · households 挨家)‐(zhú·hù {one by one} · doors 逐户 逐戶) → [door[-/ ]to[-/ ]door; house[-/ ]to[-/ ]house (old translation)])

    • Regarding this expresison, the Referenced Theocratic Expressions (RTE) resource says: “from house to house (old translation); Acts 5:42 NWT(2001-C 1984-E, 2013 not checked) +pinyin “from house to house”; w11 2/1 p.13 ∼传道 “door-to-door preaching”. Without the hanzi, it seems this is not recognisable to most Chinese; one suggested 每家都去 (měi jiā dōu qù); 2019-NWT uses 挨家挨户 āijiā’āihù (which is in ABC [the ABC Chinese-English Dictionary])”
    • “Zhúhù (Zhú·hù {one by one} · doors → [door[-/ ]to[-/ ]door] 逐户 逐戶)” on its own has been used in the past.
      • RTE says about this expression: “house-to-house; w08 7/15 1st std article title (dict.cn “door to door”). See also 挨家逐户. Without the hanzi, it seems this is not recognisable to most Chinse, so try using 每家都去 instead.”
  • zhújiā‐zhúhù ((zhú·jiā {one by one} · households 逐家)‐(zhú·hù {one by one} · doors 逐户 逐戶) → [door[-/ ]to[-/ ]door; house[-/ ]to[-/ ]house (old translation)])

    • RTE: “house-to-house; 2009 songbook song 101; g00 7/8 p.30. See also 逐户, 挨家逐户, 挨家挨户 (ABC dictionary), and 逐家.”
    • As with “zhúhù (zhú·hù {one by one} · doors → [door[-/ ]to[-/ ]door] 逐户 逐戶)”, “zhújiā (zhú·jiā {one by one} · households → [house[-/ ]to[-/ ]house (old translation)] 逐家)” has also been used on its own in the past.

      • RTE: “house-by-house; my 108 (Paul entering one house after another to persecute). In 2009 songbook song 101 as part of 逐家逐户 (hence wtl09 doesn’t find this occurrence if you search for just 逐家)”

Sticking with False “Perfection” vs. Progress

While the older expressions mentioned above are not technically wrong or incorrect, the currently used expression “āijiā‐āihù ((āi·jiā {one after another} · households 挨家)‐(āi·hù {one after another} · doors 挨户 挨戶) → [door[-/ ]to[-/ ]door; house[-/ ]to[-/ ]house])” is the best one the organization knows of at this time for translating the English expression “house-to-house”.

Some criticize Jehovah’s organization for sometimes changing rather than somehow being completely perfect from the beginning, but change is required for progress. The alternative for any imperfect humans in this system of things is to continue being less correct, less good than they could be, e.g. continuing to believe in hellfire, the Trinity, etc., and continuing to meddle in politics, to support the wars of human nations, etc. We can be thankful then that Jehovah’s organization continues to pursue better and better ways of thinking, speaking (and translating), and doing. As the Bible says at Proverbs 4:18:

But the path of the righteous is like the bright morning light
That grows brighter and brighter until full daylight.

Categories
Current Events

gāowēn

gāowēn (gāo·wēn high · {being warm → [temperature]} 高温 高溫) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

[Notes: 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”. 📖 📄 📘 icons mean 📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced, and 📘 Reveal None re all the “flashcards” in the heading, paragraph, etc. that they are placed at the beginning of.]

Currently, many around the world are being affected by high temperatures, which scientists say is part of a pattern of global warming caused by human activity. As of this writing, jw.org is featuring the article “Record-Breaking Temperatures Worldwide—What Does the Bible Say?”. The Mandarin version of this article uses the expression “pò (breaking 破) jìlù (records 记/纪录 記/紀錄) de (’ 的) gāowēn (gāo·wēn high · {(incidents of) being warm → [temperatures]} 高温 高溫)” to translate the English expression “record-breaking temperatures”. (When talking to people, mentioning that the temperatures being reported worldwide are “pò (breaking 破) jìlù (records 记/纪录 記/紀錄)” (record-breaking) will emphasize that these are noteworthy, atypical (unusual) temperatures.)

The morpheme “wēn ({[is] warm} [→ [temperature]] | {warm [up]} [→ [review; revise | recall; recollect; relive]] 温 溫)”, as used in “gāowēn (gāo·wēn high · {being warm → [temperature]} 高温 高溫)”, can be thought of as being short for “wēndù (wēn·dù {(of) being warm} · {degree of intensity} → [temperature] 温度 溫度)”, which is often used to translate “temperature”.

Stative Verbs

We can also note that in “gāowēn (gāo·wēn high · {being warm → [temperature]} 高温 高溫)”, “wēn ({[is] warm} [→ [temperature]] | {warm [up]} [→ [review; revise | recall; recollect; relive]] 温 溫)” has a literal meaning of “being warm”. Thus, it is here being a stative verb.

“Wēn ({[is] warm} [→ [temperature]] | {warm [up]} [→ [review; revise | recall; recollect; relive]] 温 溫)” is also a stative verb in past MEotW “wēnhé (wēn·hé {[is] warm} · {[is] gentle}; {[is] mild}; {[is] moderate} [→ [mildness]] 温和 溫和)”. The MEotW post for “wēnhé (wēn·hé {[is] warm} · {[is] gentle}; {[is] mild}; {[is] moderate} [→ [mildness]] 温和 溫和)” said the following about stative verbs:

The ABC Chinese-English Dictionary, edited by John DeFrancis and Victor H. Mair, among others, tells us the following about the entries in it that are marked as stative verbs:

S.V. (Stative Verb, Xíngróngcí 形容词).

These entries are frequently translated into English as adjectives, even though they actually behave in Chinese as verbs. That is, the sense of ‘to be’ is already incorporated into these verbs, e.g. Zhèige hěn hǎo ‘This is quite good.’ In fact, it is simply ungrammatical to place the verb shì, ‘to be’, directly in front of a stative verb.

Because stative verbs are actually verbs, they are directly negated by bù, e.g. bù hǎo ‘not good’, and can be further modified by adverbs of degree such as hěn ‘quite’, fēicháng ‘extremely’ and shífēn ‘very; utterly’. One common function of stative verbs is that they may serve as adverbs to other actions, e.g. mànmàn in mànmàn chī ‘Take your time (eating)’ and rènzhēn in rènzhēn de xiě ‘write carefully’.

Usage Examples

Here are a couple of examples of “gāowēn (gāo·wēn high · {being warm → [temperature]} 高温 高溫)” in use, taken from the above-mentioned jw.org article:

English:

[Recently,] record-breaking temperatures [have been] reported worldwide.

Mandarin:

📖 📄 📘 Zuìjìn (Zuì·jìn most · {being near → [being recent]} → [recently] 最近), shìjiè (shì·jiè {generation → [world]} · extent → [world] 世界) gèdì (gè·dì various · lands 各地) dōu (even 都) chūxiàn (chū·xiàn {have put out} · {appearings of} 出现 出現) pò (breaking 破) jìlù (records 记/纪录 記/紀錄) de (’ 的) gāowēn (gāo·wēn high · {(incidents of) being warm → [temperatures]} 高温 高溫).

English:

Rising global temperatures have led many to fear that mankind will ruin the earth.

Mandarin:

📖 📄 📘 Zài (in 在) shìjiè (shì·jiè {generation → [world]} · extent → [world] 世界) gèdì (gè·dì various · lands 各地) fāshēng (fā·shēng {issuing forth} · {coming to life} → [happening] 发生 發生) de (’s 的) gāowēn (gāo·wēn high · {(incidents of) being warm → [temperatures]} 高温 高溫) ràng ({have made} 让 讓) hěn (very 很) duō (many 多) rén (people 人) gǎndào (gǎn·dào feel · {arriving at} 感到) hàipà (hài·pà feeling · fearing → [fearing] 害怕), dānxīn (dān·xīn {carry on shoulder poles → [take on (heavy)]} · hearts → [worry] 担/耽心 擔/耽心) dìqiú (dì·qiú earth · globe 地球) huì (will 会 會) yīncǐ (yīn·cǐ {because of} · this 因此) bèi ([passive signifier] → [by] 被) rénlèi (rén·lèi man·kind 人类 人類) huǐmiè (huǐ·miè {be destroyed} · {be extinguished} 毁灭 毀滅).