Tag: Ideographic Myth

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Tǔ’ěrqí

Tǔ’ěrqí (Turkey 土耳其) ← 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.]

On February 6, 2023, strong earthquakes struck Turkey and Syria, resulting in tens of thousands of people being killed (over 36,000 at the time of this writing), tens of thousands being injured, and hundreds of thousands being left homeless. So, as of this writing, the article “Devastating Earthquakes Strike Turkey and Syria—What Does the Bible Say?” is being featured on jw.org, and this week’s MEotW is “Tǔ’ěrqí  (Turkey 土耳其)”, the Mandarin word for “Turkey”. Knowing this will help us in the Mandarin field as we hear about, talk about, and pray about Turkey in the time ahead.

Note that it is apparent that “Tǔ’ěrqí  (Turkey 土耳其)” was chosen to represent “Turkey” in Mandarin because of what it sounds like, not because of the meanings of the supposedly ideographic (representing meaning directly through visible symbols, bypassing speech) Chinese characters used to write it out (“Soil Ear It”??? 🤷🏻).

Some Related Mandarin Expressions

Here are some other Mandarin expressions from the above-mentioned article that should be useful to know regarding this situation:

  • Xùlìyà (Syria 叙利亚 敘利亞)
  • qiángzhèn (qiáng·zhèn strong; powerful · {quaking → [earthquake]} (abbr. for qiángliè dìzhèn) 强震 強震)
    • dà (big → [great] 大) dìzhèn (dì·zhèn earth·quake 地震)
  • wú‐jiā‐kě‐guī ((wú without 无 無/无)‐(jiā home 家)‐(kě {(that) can} 可)‐(guī {be returned to} 归 歸) → [homeless])
  • cǎnjù (cǎn·jù miserable; tragic · {theatrical work (drama, play, opera, etc.)} → [tragedy; calamity; disaster] 惨剧 慘劇)
  • ānwèi (ān·wèi calming · consoling; comforting 安慰)
    • 📖 📄 📘 “cì (gives 赐 賜) yíqiè (yí·qiè {one (whole)} · {corresponding (set of)} → [all] 一切) ānwèi (ān·wèi calming · comforting 安慰) de (’s 的) Shàngdì (Shàng·dì Above’s · {Emperor → [God]} → [God] 上帝).”—Gēlínduō Hòushū ((Gēlínduō Corinth 哥林多) (Hòu·shū Later · Book 后书 後/后書) → [2 Corinthians]) 1:3 (Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) WOL; Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus).

“Tofu-Dreg Projects”

Some have wondered why so many even relatively new buildings failed to withstand these earthquakes. One news report explains:

experts said there is a mountain of evidence — and rubble — pointing to a harsh reality about what made the quakes so deadly: Even though Turkey has, on paper, construction codes that meet current earthquake-engineering standards, they are too rarely enforced, explaining why thousands of buildings crumbled.

Buildings being poorly constructed, whether or not earthquake-engineering standards exist, is unfortunately not uncommon in this old system of things. There is even a Mandarin expression with its own Wikipedia page that describes such buildings:

“Tofu-dreg project” (Chinese: 豆腐渣工程; pinyin: dòufuzhā gōngchéng) is a phrase used in the Chinese-speaking world to describe a poorly constructed building, sometimes called just “Tofu buildings”. The phrase was coined by Zhu Rongji, the former premier of the People’s Republic of China, on a 1998 visit to Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province to describe a poorly-built set of flood dykes in the Yangtze River.[source] The phrase is notably used referring to buildings collapsed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake disaster.[source][source][source][source][source][source]

In China, the term tofu dregs (the pieces left over after making tofu) is widely used as a metaphor for shoddy work, hence the implication that a “tofu-dreg project” is a poorly executed project.[source]

As we look forward to the new world that will no longer have such natural disasters as these earthquakes, nor the man-made conditions that make them even more deadly, may we keep our brothers and sisters in the affected areas in our prayers to Jehovah, the only true God and the “God of all comfort”—John 17:3, 2 Corinthians 1:3.

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Culture Current Events History Language Learning Names Nations Science

Wūkèlán

Wūkèlán (Ukraine 乌克兰 烏克蘭) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

On February 24, 2022, a few days before the date of this post, Russia sent significant military forces into Ukraine, resulting in the largest scale open warfare in Europe since World War II. So, this week’s MEotW is “Wūkèlán (Ukraine 乌克兰 烏克蘭)”, the Mandarin word for “Ukraine”. Knowing this will help us in the Mandarin field as we hear about, talk about, and pray about Ukraine in the time ahead.

Note that it is apparent that “Wūkèlán (Ukraine 乌克兰 烏克蘭)” was chosen to represent “Ukraine” in Mandarin because of what it sounds like, not because of the meanings of the supposedly ideographic (representing meaning directly through visible symbols, bypassing speech) Chinese characters used to write it out (“Crow Overcomes Orchid”??? 🤷🏻).

Some Related Mandarin Expressions

Here are some other Mandarin expressions that should be useful to know regarding this situation:

  • Éluósī (Russia 俄罗斯 俄羅斯)
  • Sūlián (Sū·lián Soviet · {Uniting → [Union]} 苏联 蘇聯) – Make sure you don’t use this expression to refer to present-day Russia, since the Soviet Union no longer exists. Some say that a desire to restore the power and influence of the old Soviet Union is one of Russian president Putin’s main motivations for waging war on Ukraine.
  • Bái Éluósī ((Bái White 白) (Éluósī Russia 俄罗斯 俄羅斯) → [Belarus])
  • zhànzhēng (zhàn·zhēng war · contending → [war; warfare] 战争 戰爭)
  • hépíng (peace | {[is] peaceful} (nwtsty-CHS Appx. A2 says this term mainly refers to the absence of war or conflict) 和平)

Neutrality

As pointed out in the article “Russia Invades Ukraine” on jw.org:

There are more than 129,000 of Jehovah’s Witnesses living in Ukraine. Like the Witnesses in every other country, they imitate Jesus by remaining politically neutral and refusing to take part in war. (John 18:36)

There are also thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia, who are being persecuted for their faith. We can be sure that like their Ukranian brothers and sisters, they are also remaining politically neutral and refusing to take part in war, such that none of the Russian military personnel currently attacking their neighbours (and maybe in some cases, friends and relatives) in Ukraine are Jehovah’s Witnesses.

May we keep our brothers and sisters in the affected areas in our prayers to Jehovah, the only true God and the “God of all comfort”—John 17:3, 2 Corinthians 1:3.

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Current Events

Àomìkèróng

Àomìkèróng (Omicron 奥密克戎 奧密克戎) ← 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, near the end of 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

This week’s MEotW, “Àomìkèróng (Omicron 奥密克戎 奧密克戎)”, is one way to say “Omicron”—as in the Omicron variant of the virus that causes COVID-19—in Mandarin.

Another way to say “Omicron” in Mandarin is “Àomǐkěróng (Omicron 奥米可戎 奧米可戎)”.

To get an idea of how commonly used these expressions are compared to each other, consider the numbers of Google search results involving these expressions, together with “biànzhǒng (biàn·zhǒng changed · kind; type; variety → [mutation; variant; variety] 变种 變種)” (a past MEotW) and “biànyì zhū ((biàn·yì changed · {to be different} 变异 變異) (zhū {trunk of a tree → [strain]} 株) → [(virus) strain/variant])”, two common ways to say “variant”:

Àomìkèróng (Omicron 奥密克戎 奧密克戎)
Search Terms Google Results Approx. No.
"奥密克戎变种"
(Àomìkèróng (Omicron 奥密克戎 奧密克戎) biànzhǒng (biàn·zhǒng changed · kind; type; variety → [mutation; variant; variety] 变种 變種))		 696,000
"奥密克戎变异株"
(Àomìkèróng (Omicron 奥密克戎 奧密克戎) biànyì zhū ((biàn·yì changed · {to be different} 变异 變異) (zhū {trunk of a tree → [strain]} 株) → [(virus) strain/variant]))		 4,220,000
Àomǐkěróng (Omicron 奥米可戎 奧米可戎)
Search Terms Google Results Approx. No.
"奥米可戎变种"
(Àomǐkěróng (Omicron 奥米可戎 奧米可戎) biànzhǒng (biàn·zhǒng changed · kind; type; variety → [mutation; variant; variety] 变种 變種))		 4
"奥米可戎变异株"
(Àomǐkěróng (Omicron 奥米可戎 奧米可戎) biànyì zhū ((biàn·yì changed · {to be different} 变异 變異) (zhū {trunk of a tree → [strain]} 株) → [(virus) strain/variant]))		 0

(Note that the quotation marks in the search terms tell Google to look for the exact sequences of characters that are inside the quotation marks—the results of searching without the quotation marks can be very different.)

Sounds Like…

Note that both “Àomìkèróng (Omicron 奥密克戎 奧密克戎)” and “Àomǐkěróng (Omicron 奥米可戎 奧米可戎)” are Mandarin expressions that were constructed, not because of the meanings represented by the Chinese characters used to write them, but because the Mandarin syllables used to say them sound like the English word “Omicron”.

In fact, when talking or writing in Mandarin about the Omicron variant, it is very common for people to just use the actual English word “Omicron”, which sounds more like the English word “Omicron” than anything else, and is not a Mandarin word written using the supposedly ideographic (representing meaning through visible symbols) Chinese characters.

Omicron
Search Terms Google Results Approx. No.
"omicron变种"
(Omicron biànzhǒng (biàn·zhǒng changed · kind; type; variety → [mutation; variant; variety] 变种 變種))		 3,880,000
"omicron变异株"
(Omicron biànyì zhū ((biàn·yì changed · {to be different} 变异 變異) (zhū {trunk of a tree → [strain]} 株) → [(virus) strain/variant]))		 2,850,000

It is no surprise to linguists (language scientists/scholars) that people naturally focus on what words sound like when spoken, because, while of course meaning is what, well, gives life meaning, one of the basic principles of modern linguistics (the scientific study of language) is that speech is primary, and writing is secondary. That means that God designed us humans to express meaning via language primarily using speech that is heard, not writing that is seen, no matter how much lovers of Chinese characters traditionally focus on that visually intricate writing system above all else.—1 Corinthians 14:8–11.