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Category Archives: consonant elision

Hang the wall on the gun

Scene: A towering glass and granite building located in Shangdi, suburban Beijing, the Silicon Valley of the capital city, not far from the comparatively puny corporate campuses of Google, Baidu, IBM, etc. The building top’s massive, fengshui-correct sculpture is only slightly obfuscated by the awkward bulk of the Beijing Sounds Studios name rendered in two [...]

Posted 06 January 2010 † syz § beijing-r § běijīnghuà § taxi § unexpected érhuàyīn ‡ Comments (19) °

Soundbites: Your *what* went bad?

Today’s pop quiz: Fill in the blank to name that lighting fixture component. Write it down so you can go to the store and buy it. Better yet, try to find it in a dictionary without using the English word that you already know.
24 hours to respond. Answer tomorrow. Winning entry receives usual jackpot. Terms [...]

Posted 16 October 2009 † syz § BJS Daily § érhuàyīn ‡ Comments (7) °

Soundbites: Cushaw

Not even Yuèmǔ U. (i.e. 岳母 / mother-in-law university) is infallible, especially in the face of her mother’s knowledge of the guā (瓜 = squashes) that grow in their Beijing sìhéyuànr (四合院儿 = traditional courtyard house*).
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
TLL (Tàilǎolao 太姥姥, i.e. PBS’s great grandma): Zhè shì wōguā, wōguā.
这是倭瓜，倭瓜
This is cushaw, cushaw.
YU: [...]

Posted 12 October 2009 † syz § ‡ Comments (7) °

Have you been abroad?

On the pointlessness of leaving Beijing (or at least China, at any rate); the BJSLBC™
April 2009, a taxi somewhere across central Beijing…

Posted 05 May 2009 † syz § Beijinger Checklist / BJSLBC™ § taxi ‡ Comments (9) °

Super female students. How much money? An ex-con

No, it’s not sex industry, just sexy běijīnghuà. Who’s responsible for the cheap headline tricks? Blame sexybeijing.tv…
Why had I never come across SexyBeijing.tv before last week?! The hostess, Anna Sophie Loewenberg aka Su Fei, is both forever-single and singular. Whether it’s her sundresses, pretty darned good běijīnghuà, or disarmingly candid questions and commentary — she [...]

Posted 22 January 2008 † syz § běijīnghuà § linguistics § street § érhuàyīn ‡ Comments (11) °