Tag: Myths

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È’ěr‐Nínuò

 

 

È’ěr+ (El 厄尔 厄爾)‐Nínuò+ (Niño 尼诺 尼諾) 👈🏼 Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

[Notes: Tap/click on a Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) expression to reveal its “flashcard”; tap/click on a “flashcard” or its Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) expression to hide the “flashcard”. 📖 📄 ➕ icons mean 📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced, and ➕ Reveal + Symbols re all the “flashcards” in the heading, paragraph, etc. that they are placed at the beginning of.]

At the time of this writing, jw.org was featuring the article with the following title:

English:

Experts Warn of Super El Niño

Mandarin:

📖 📄 ➕ Chāojí (Chāo·jí {Jumping/Leaping Over → [Surpassing]} · Level → [Super] 超级 超級) È’ěr (El 厄尔 厄爾)‐Nínuò (Niño 尼诺 尼諾) Láixí+ (Lái·xí {Is Coming} · {to Attack} → [(of a Storm/Etc.) Is Striking] 来袭 來襲)! Zhuānjiā (Zhuān·jiā Specialized · -ists → [Experts] 专家 專家) Fāchū (Fā·chū Issue · Out 发出 發出) Jǐnggào (Jǐng·gào Warning · Declaring → [Warning] 警告)!

As can be seen above, the Mandarin expression corresponding to the originally Spanish expression “El Niño” is this week’s MEotW, “È’ěr (El 厄尔 厄爾)‐Nínuò (Niño 尼诺 尼諾)”. Obviously, the Mandarin syllables in this expression were chosen because of how much they sound like “El Niño”, not because of the meanings of the supposedly ideographic Chinese characters used to write them out (“Strategic Place/Adversity” “You” “Buddhist Nun” “Promise”??? 🤷🏻).

As the MEotW post about “Hāmǐjíduōdùn (Armageddon 哈米吉多顿 哈米吉多頓)” says:

This emphasizes to us that when it comes to human language, SPEECH is primary—SOUNDS are the primary medium for transmitting meaning, and a writing system that transmits meaning purely with its visual symbols, without any dependency on speech sounds, is not a thing. However, this erroneous concept is so prevalent that there’s a name for it: The Ideographic Myth.

Check out the rest of that MEotW post for a more in-depth discussion about the Ideographic Myth and the linguistic idolatry that it can lead to.

Talking About El Niño in Mandarin

Getting back to El Niño, here are some English and Mandarin excerpts from the above-mentioned article, that we may want to adapt for use in the Mandarin territory:

English:

El Niño is a natural weather phenomenon that occurs every few years. It is caused by unusually warm Pacific Ocean waters, which disrupt weather conditions worldwide.

Mandarin:

📖 📄 ➕ È’ěr ((the) El 厄尔 厄爾)‐Nínuò (Niño 尼诺 尼諾) xiànxiàng+ (xiàn·xiàng appearing · appearance → [phenomenon] 现象 現象) (Shèngyīng (Shèng·yīng Holy · Infant → [the El Niño] 圣婴 聖嬰) xiànxiàng (xiàn·xiàng appearing · appearance → [phenomenon] 现象 現象)) shì (is 是) yì (one 一) zhǒng ({type of} 种 種/种) měi (every 每) jǐ (few 几 幾) nián (years 年 年/秊) jiù (then 就) huì (will 会 會) fāshēng (fā·shēng {issue forth} · {come to life} → [happen] 发生 發生) de (’s 的) zìrán (zì·rán naturally · so → [natural] 自然) qìhòu+ (qì·hòu {air → [weather]} · conditions → [climate] 气候 氣候) xiànxiàng (xiàn·xiàng appearing · appearance → [phenomenon] 现象 現象). Tā (it 它) shì (is 是) yóuyú (yóu·yú {because of} · by 由于 由於) Tàipíng (Tài·píng Supremely · {Flat, Level, Even → [Peaceful]} → [Pacific] 太平) Yáng (Ocean 洋) hǎishuǐ (hǎi·shuǐ sea·waters 海水) yìcháng+ (yì·cháng {differently from} · normally → [unusually] 异常 異常) shēngwēn (shēng·wēn {rising in} · {being warm → [temperature]} 升温 升溫) zàochéng (zào·chéng made · {to come to be} 造成) de ({’s (phenomenon)} 的), huì ((it) will 会 會) yǐngxiǎng (yǐng·xiǎng reflection · sound → [affect] 影响 影響) quánqiú (quán·qiú entire · globe 全球) de (’s 的) qìhòu (qì·hòu {air → [weather]} · conditions → [climate] 气候 氣候).

English:

El Niño events in the past have led to intense storms, flooding, severe droughts, and wildfires that result from abnormally dry conditions.

Mandarin:

📖 📄 ➕ È’ěr ((the) El 厄尔 厄爾)‐Nínuò (Niño 尼诺 尼諾) xiànxiàng (xiàn·xiàng appearing · appearance → [phenomenon] 现象 現象) zài (in 在) guòqù (guò·qù past · gone (times) 过去 過去) céng (has 曾) dǎozhì (dǎo·zhì lead · {to extending to} 导致 導致) qìhòu (qì·hòu {air → [weather]} · conditions → [the climate] 气候 氣候) yìcháng (yì·cháng {being different from} · normal 异常 異常), yǐnfā (yǐn·fā {drawing (out)} · {to send out} → [leading to] 引发 引發) xǔduō (xǔ·duō numbers · many 许多 許多) tiānzāi+ (tiān·zāi {(from) heaven → [natural]} · disasters 天灾 天災), bǐrú (bǐ·rú {compared to} · {for example} 比如) mǒuxiē (mǒu·xiē some · {indefinite number of} → [some] 某些) dìfang (dì·fang {(sections of) earth → [places]} · {directions → [places]} → [places] 地方) yìcháng (yì·cháng {differently from} · normally → [abnormally] 异常 異常) gānhàn+ (gān·hàn {being dry} · {(having) drought} 干旱 乾旱), jiéguǒ (jié·guǒ {tied (into a knot) → [formed]} · fruit → [as a result] 结果 結果) fāshēng (fā·shēng {having issue forth} · {having come to life} → [having happen] 发生 發生) sēnlín (sēn·lín {multitudinous → [full of trees]} · forest → [forest] 森林) dàhuǒ (dà·huǒ big · fires → [wildfires] 大火) hé ({(together) with} → [and] 和 和/龢) yánzhòng (yán·zhòng {tight → [severe]} · {heavy → [serious]} → [severe] 严重 嚴重) hànzāi+ (hàn·zāi drought · disasters → [droughts] 旱灾 旱災); zài (in 在) lìng (other 另) yìxiē (yì·xiē one · {indefinite number of} → [some] 一些) dìfang (dì·fang {(sections of) earth → [places]} · {directions → [places]} → [places] 地方) zé ((it) {in contrast} 则 則) yǐnfā (yǐn·fā {has drawn (out)} · {to send out} → [has lead to] 引发 引發) qiángliè (qiáng·liè powerful · intense 强烈 強烈) fēngbào (fēng·bào wind · {(times) being violent} → [storms] 风暴 風暴) hé ({(together) with} → [and] 和 和/龢) hóngzāi+ (hóng·zāi flood · disasters → [floods] 洪灾 洪災).

English:

The Bible promises that God, by means of his Kingdom, will soon take full control of all aspects of the weather, keeping it in perfect balance.

Mandarin:

📖 📄 ➕ Shèngjīng (Shèng·jīng (the) Holy · Scriptures → [the Bible] 圣经 聖經) bǎozhèng+ (bǎo·zhèng guarantees · testifies 保证 保證) Shàngdì (Shàng·dì Above’s · {Emperor → [God]} → [God] 上帝) hěn (very 很) kuài (quickly → [soon] 快) huì (will 会 會) cǎiqǔ (cǎi·qǔ pick · take → [take] 采取 採取) xíngdòng (xíng·dòng {walking → [doing]} · moving → [action] 行动 行動), zhǎngkòng+ (zhǎng·kòng {(have in) palm → [control]} · control 掌控) qìhòu (qì·hòu {air → [weather]} · conditions → [the climate] 气候 氣候). Dàoshí (Dào·shí {having arrived at} · {the time} 到时 到時), zài (at 在) Shàngdì (Shàng·dì Above’s · {Emperor’s → [God’s]} → [God’s] 上帝) Wángguó (Wáng·guó King’s · Nation → [Kingdom] 王国 王國) de (’s 的) tǒngzhì+ (tǒng·zhì {gathering together → [commanding]} · ruling → [rule] 统治 統治) xià (under 下), rénlèi (rén·lèi human·kind 人类 人類) búhuì (bú·huì not · will → [will not] 不会 不會) zài (anymore 再) dānxīn (dān·xīn {carry on a shoulder pole → [bear (a heavy)]} · heart (that) → [worry that] 担/耽心 擔/耽心) yǒu ({(there) are having} → [(there) are] 有) tiānzāi (tiān·zāi {(from) heaven → [natural]} · disasters 天灾 天災) fāshēng (fā·shēng {issuing forth} · {coming to life} → [happening] 发生 發生), nénggòu (néng·gòu {will be able} · enough 能够 能夠) zài (at 在) qìhòu (qì·hòu {air → [weather]} · conditions → [the climate] 气候 氣候) yírén+ (yí·rén {makes to be pleased} · people → [(of weather/scenery/etc.) is pleasing] 怡人) de (’s 的) huánjìng (huán·jìng surrounding · {(set of) boundaries → [(bounded) place] → [situation]} → [situation] 环境 環境) xià (under 下) shēnghuó ({to live} 生活).

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Culture Language Learning Science Technology Theocratic

zhēnlǐ

zhēnlǐ+ (zhēn·lǐ true · reasoning; logic → [[the] truth] 真理) 👈🏼 Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

[Notes: Tap/click on a Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) expression to reveal its “flashcard”; tap/click on a “flashcard” or its Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) expression to hide the “flashcard”. 📖 📄 ➕ icons mean 📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced, and ➕ Reveal + Symbols re all the “flashcards” in the heading, paragraph, etc. that they are placed at the beginning of.]

I have long especially liked 1 Corinthians 13. It contains counsel on what really does and doesn’t matter in life, an extensive description and definition of the most important kind of love, and a sublime discussion about the need to become complete, mature, as a person. As these apply to life in general, so too do they apply to our lives as Mandarin field language learners.

As Mandarin field language learners, it can benefit us greatly to consider what we can learn from 1 Corinthians 13, and along the way, we can also consider some of the Mandarin expressions used in that chapter in the current version of the Mandarin New World Translation Bible (nwtsty).

What Do You Rejoice In?

This week’s MEotW, “zhēnlǐ (zhēn·lǐ true · reasoning; logic → [[the] truth] 真理)”, is used in verse 6 (WOL) of 1 Corinthians 13:

Screenshot of “_zhēnlǐ_” in 1 Co. 13:6 (nwtsty, CHS+_Pīnyīn_ WOL)

(Dark mode for the Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY (WOL) website, as shown in the above image, can be enabled in the Safari web browser by using the Noir Safari extension. Other web browsers may also have extensions with similar functionality.)

For comparison, here are the renderings of 1 Corinthians 13:6 in the current English and Mandarin versions of the New World Translation Bible:

English:

It does not rejoice over unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth.

Mandarin (WOL, Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音)+ 🔗):

📖 📄 ➕ bù (not 不) yīn ({because of} 因) búyì (bú·yì un·righteousness 不义 不義) ér (thus 而) huānxǐ+ (huān·xǐ {does be joyful} · {does be happy} 欢喜 歡喜), zhǐ (only 只 只/秖/衹/祇) yīn ({because of} 因) zhēnlǐ (zhēn·lǐ true · reasoning → [the truth] 真理) ér (thus 而) gāoxìng (gāo·xìng (is with) high · enthusiasm → [is glad] 高兴 高興).

The individual morphemes in “zhēnlǐ (zhēn·lǐ true · reasoning; logic → [[the] truth] 真理)” literally mean “true” and “reasoning; logic”. When these morphemes are put together in “zhēnlǐ (zhēn·lǐ true · reasoning; logic → [[the] truth] 真理)”, the resulting expression effectively means “truth”, or “the truth”.

Linguistic Untruths Fill the “Air”

This world ruled by Satan, “the father of the lie”, is full of linguistic idolatry and mythology (e.g., the myths discussed in the book The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy) surrounding Chinese characters, and it is full of misinformation and disinformation about the Chinese languages in general. (Ephesians 2:2; John 8:44) We Mandarin field language learners need to learn the truth about these things that are such huge factors in our Mandarin learning, and we should ‘rejoice with the truth’ about these things, similarly to how we rejoice over spiritual truth.

Yes, godly love doesn’t just know the truth, it rejoices with the truth, so it chooses the truth. Showing that he lacked godly love, the first man Adam knew the truth, but he loved Eve more, and so he chose to join Eve in rebellion against Jehovah. (1 Timothy 2:14) Also, as we have been reminded by the video series The Good News According to Jesus, the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day had every reason and opportunity to know the truth, but consumed by pride, they loved their tradition and position and status more, and so they chose to bitterly oppose Jesus to the point of eventually brutally murdering him.

What Side Are You On?

At John 18:37, Jesus said:

For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is on the side of the truth listens to my voice.

In this blog and in other places, I have endeavoured to share the truths that I have learned about the Mandarin language and how to best learn it for use in the Mandarin field. If you as a Mandarin field language learner have come to know some of these truths, what are you going to do about it? Are you “on the side of the truth” regarding these matters? According to 1 Corinthians 13:6, if you are motivated by godly love, you will rejoice with the truth about these things, and you will naturally show your love by happily making use of these Mandarin language-learning truths to better share spiritual truths with Mandarin-speaking people you meet. And as Hebrews 6:10 says, “God is not unrighteous so as to forget your work and the love you showed for his name”.

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Culture Experiences History Language Learning Science

Pīnyīn

Pīnyīn+ (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) 👈🏼 Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

[To accompany last week’s repost on “Zhùyīn (Zhù·yīn {Annotating of} · Sounds → [Zhuyin] 注音 註/注音)”, here is a repost of the MEotW post on “Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音)”.]

“Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音)” is the expression commonly used to refer to the phonetic alphabet introduced by China in 1958. This system is also known by longer, more official names:

  • Hànyǔ (Hàn·yǔ {Han (Chinese)} · Language → [(Modern Standard) Mandarin] 汉语 漢語) Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音)
  • Hànyǔ (Hàn·yǔ {Han (Chinese)} · Language → [(Modern Standard) Mandarin] 汉语 漢語) Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Fāng’àn+ (Fāng’·àn {Direction → [Method]} · {Long, Narrow Table or Desk → [Plan]} 方案)

When thinking of Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) and its predecessor Zhùyīn (Zhù·yīn Annotating · Sounds → [Zhuyin] 注音 註/注音) (last week’s MEotW), some focus on the superficial differences between them. However, it’s perhaps even more important to note what they have in common, as indicated by the fact that the names of both systems end in “yīn+ (sound [→ [musical note/sound; tone; pronunciation | syllable | news; tidings]] 音)”: Both systems focus on representing the sounds of Mandarin, sounds which make up Mandarin speech and thus represent meanings. In fact, Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音)’s literal meaning tells us that this system helps people to “piece together sounds” to make up Mandarin speech, and thus convey the meanings that Mandarin speech represents.

汉字 / 漢字? Pīnyīn?

In contrast, many people believe that the Hànzì+ (Hàn·zì {Han (Chinese)} · Characters 汉字 漢字), the Chinese characters, represent meanings more directly through their own visual design, as opposed to primarily being a system that represents Mandarin, Cantonese, etc., speech sounds which represent meaning. This view of Chinese characters, however, is actually a myth, which has been called the Ideographic Myth—God designed our brains and bodies to primarily represent meaning through speech, some humans in their hubris presumed that it would be better for us humans to represent meaning directly through visual symbols, and of course God was right and these humans were wrong.

There are actually many myths and misconceptions that people believe regarding Chinese characters, and sadly, that is also the case regarding Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音).

Common Myths and Misconceptions

  • “Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) is just a pronunciation aid. It’s not really a writing system like the characters are.”

    • But, is Pīnyīn even really a writing system? Interestingly, the Chinese national standard Zhōngguó Mángwén (中国盲文/中國盲文, Chinese Braille) is basically a transliteration or conversion of Pīnyīn into braille letters. Braille is obviously a writing system, so Pīnyīn must also be a writing system, not just a pronunciation aid.

  • “Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) is just training wheels. Characters are real wheels.”

    • Since Pīnyīn is not just a pronunciation aid, but a full writing system, it is not “training wheels”—it’s regular wheels. On the other hand, Chinese characters are like non-round wheels—more difficult than necessary.

  • “Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) on its own can’t be understood because there are too many homophones (words that sound the same, but have different meanings) in Mandarin.”

    • When people are just speaking Mandarin, with no characters in sight to help them, do they have problems understanding each other because of all the homophones? Can blind Mandarin-speakers, who cannot see characters, still “see” what people mean when those people speak Mandarin? Native Mandarin-speakers have confirmed to me that no, homophones are not a significant problem in spoken Mandarin—people can use the context and understand each other okay. So, people can use the context and understand each other okay when using Pīnyīn too, since Pīnyīn directly represents the sound of spoken Mandarin.

      • The above quote is from the article “Pīnyīn Was Plan A”. Check it out for more on this subject.

  • “Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) is less accurate than Zhùyīn (Zhù·yīn Annotating · Sounds → [Zhuyin] 注音 註/注音).”

    • Some people say that Zhuyin is more accurate or correct than Pinyin. Actually, both Zhuyin and Pinyin represent the same Mandarin sounds, just with different symbols. In fact, it’s not difficult to find tables that directly map the corresponding Zhuyin and Pinyin expressions to each other—a simple Google search for “pinyin zhuyin table” turns up many, many results. Pinyin and Zhuyin are just like different codes for encoding the same Mandarin message, so basically, neither is more accurate or correct than the other.

      • The above quote is from the tiandi.info post “Pinyin and Zhuyin”. (If you need login information for the parts of tiandi.info that require it, request it by email, and include information on who referred you and/or what group/cong. you are in.)
  • “Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) makes your Mandarin sound like English.”
    • This is only true if you are using it wrong. For example, if you read a French word and you make it sound like English when you read it out, the problem is not that the French word is written using the Latin alphabet like English is—the problem is that you are thinking of English sounds when you see the French word, when you should be thinking of French sounds. Similarly, you shouldn’t blame Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) if you are thinking of English sounds when you see it, because it’s up to you to understand that Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) represents Mandarin sounds, not English sounds.
    • Don’t worry, it becomes second nature to properly associate Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) with Mandarin sounds after you get familiar with Mandarin sounds and used to the Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) system. However, if you, say, prematurely stop using Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) and instead turn to characters in an effort to avoid the baggage of English sounds, you may actually never really get the hang of Mandarin sounds. Seriously, I’ve seen people who focus on characters remain in this speech Twilight Zone for years and years! That’s because while characters do represent Mandarin speech sounds, they’re just bad at it—it’s just not what characters focus on. In stark contrast, Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) is all about the sounds of Mandarin. It literally spells out in a simple way how a Mandarin syllable sounds at the beginning, at the end, and in between. Characters, though, represent the complex sound of a Mandarin syllable as one coarse lump, in a complex and often unrelated way—you either get it or you don’t, and many don’t.
      • Yes, characters are like a conceited jerk who convinces you with grand promises to jump from a high place, doesn’t bother to catch you, and then makes you think it’s your fault that you can’t fly. Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音), though, is like a modest and straightforward person who clearly explains each step for you so that you can dependably and confidently get to where you want to go.

For more information regarding Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) and how we in the Mandarin field should view it, check out these articles:

“Pīnyīn is a Good, Workable Writing System On Its Own”
This article is a brief overview of why it’s important for those of us in the Mandarin field to recognize that Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) is a full writing system, not just a pronunciation aid.

“Pīnyīn Was Plan A”
This extensively researched in-depth article discusses how we in the Mandarin field should view Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音).

(Short link: tiandi.info/articles)