User Comments - f-zim

Posted on: The Depth of 深

“This film deeply impressed me”:

這部電影深深打動了我？
這部電影深深地打動了我？

Which one sounds better?
I often don't know whether to use the 地 or not…

Posted on: Two tones, two meanings for 转

I'm sorry, this example is a bit brutal – but it's a real sentence from a novel:

有個四歲大的孩子，臉被媽媽的巴掌一旋風般的力量打得往後轉。

zhuǎn還是zhuàn？

Posted on: Words with Heart

Thank you for this very useful lesson.

Somewhere in a blog I saw a sentence like this:
“面對這一次又一次無聲的蹂躪與傷害，我真的是灰了心”

What is the 了 doing here? (Is this sentence acceptable Chinese at all?) Can the other words in this lesson be split up as well?

For example if I say:
“他是個很灑脫的人，他從來沒有…”
…will I have to continue with “灰過心” or with “灰心過”? Honestly, when speaking I would try to avoid this by saying “不管怎樣，他都不會灰心”; but this is merely a strategy, not an answer.

It is very difficult to find any indication in dictionaries about whether a word can be separated or not. (Intuitively I would say “放了心” is okay, while “小了心” is not.)

Posted on: Strong (in the abstract)

But maybe you could use 濃厚 nónghòu:

濃厚的興趣、濃厚的懷舊情緒

And could you also say: “從小她對於家庭、父母、親人、朋友都有著濃厚的感情”, or would 深厚 be the better choice here?

Posted on: Strong (in the abstract)

What about 深厚？ It seems to be similar to 深, for instance 深厚的友誼、深厚的感情

Posted on: Strong

謝謝你，Connie! ☺ 

Posted on: Strong

I especially like lessons like this because I am very interested in the exact meaning and usage of words.

What about the word 結實 jiēshi？ Apparently this can also mean ‘strong’: my dictionary explains it as ‘健壯’, as in ‘個兒不高可身體很結實’.

Posted on: The Hunan Accent

Since Lijiang has attracted people from several other areas, locals that don't have the same native language usually speak Yunnan Mandarin with each other, which seems to be similar to Chengduhua or Chongqinghua (but I'm not entirely sure). It is fairly easy to understand for speakers of Putonghua. Most people that I have come across around Lijiang speak Putonghua fluently, except for some Tibetans.

There is a number of people that have mastered Naxi as a second language, who may have grown up with Chinese or a Tibetoburman language. Mosuo is very similar to Naxi; but as far as I know, it is not similar enough to facilitate a smooth conversation (I'm not sure about that either).

Another remark on dictionaries: most of them emphasise Dongba hieroglyphs, and are almost useless for learning spoken Naxi. But since there are new publications every year, it is difficult to give any recommendations, or to say in advance whether you will find something useful in Lijiang.

Posted on: The Hunan Accent

Since Lijiang has attracted people from several other areas, locals that don't have the same native language usually speak Yunnan Mandarin with each other, which seems to be similar to Chengduhua or Chongqinghua (but I'm not entirely sure). It is fairly easy to understand for speakers of Putonghua. Most people that I have come across around Lijiang speak Putonghua fluently, except for some Tibetans.

There is a number of people that have mastered Naxi as a second language, who may have grown up with Chinese or a Tibetoburman language. Mosuo is very similar to Naxi; but as far as I know, it is not similar enough to facilitate a smooth conversation (I'm not sure about that either).

Another remark on dictionaries: most of them emphasise Dongba hieroglyphs, and are almost useless for learning spoken Naxi. But since there are new publications every year, it is difficult to give any recommendations, or to say in advance whether you will find something useful in Lijiang.

Posted on: The Hunan Accent

I’ve got several Naxi dictionaries at home. It seems that each of them was compiled for a different purpose, which can be a bit of a challenge.

Jaron, if you wish to study Dongba hieroglyphs, I suggest you should do it for yourself, as a hobby – and not for practical reasons just because you are living in Yunnan. Besides, Naxis are concentrated around Lijiang, and a bit north of it, so unless you plan on spending a lot of time there, learning their language (called [nɑ̀ɕi kɯtʂɯ̀] in Naxi) will not prove very useful.

As for their accent in Chinese: Naxis will drop everything after the main vowel (-i, -n, -ng disappear), rendering eg. 飛，分 and 風 indistinguishable. This makes it terribly difficult to understand at first, but Naxis usually don't have any trouble with other sounds (such as the notorious s/sh-confusion). Their tones tend to be level tones rather than contour tones.