User Comments - johnyaku

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johnyaku

Posted on: Chinese Idol 2
October 24, 2009 at 5:53 AM

I don't know for sure, but I strongly suspect that 吉他 is a better transliteration for "guitar" in a dialect other than Mandarin, because "j" becomes "k" in a lot of southern dialects (and in the Japanese readings of many characters that start with "j" in modern Mandarin).

A lot of early contact took place down south, so my guess is that that's where the borrowing took place.

Posted on: Dubai
October 20, 2009 at 3:20 AM

Is there are difference between

买不起 and 买不到?

Possibly "I can't afford that (it's out of my league)" versus "I don't have enough money for that (but I might come back again after I get paid next week)"

... or am I reading too much into this?

Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Halal
October 2, 2009 at 3:44 AM

Some of the sounds in the vocab section don't seem to be working...

Posted on: Introducing Hotels
January 7, 2009 at 4:53 AM

The transcript lists "backpacker" as bei4bao1, but my ears hear this as bei1bao1. I seem to remember that this character has two pronunciations, depending on whether it means "back" or "carry on (one's) back".

Can someone please clarify which is which?

Thanks :-)