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Category Archives: DeFrancis

Sound off: The Language

On “the ancient Chinese language”, “language reform”, etc.

[In the Beijing Sounds studio lounge, on the couch next to the ping pong table, two analysts are surfing the web on their broadband (read: sippy-cup slow) internet connections.]
A: [gazing intently at his screen] Wow this is hideous. [scanning further] Unbefu…
B: Ah, the F-bomb infixation. Something wrong on [...]

Posted 06 May 2009 † syz § ‡ Comments (11) °

Wu — sounds from way outside Beijing

On living vicariously through a new blog by Kellen Parker

What is Chinese? You know it’s not just Mandarin, of course, maybe because you’ve read John DeFrancis, or maybe because your one-time Minnesota neighbor, a spry Hong Kongese gentleman of 139 who spent 13 hours a day caring for his voluptuous jade carpet of a lawn, [...]

Posted 08 February 2009 † syz § Blogroll § non-Mandarin Chinese ‡ Comments (20) °

Sound Off: John DeFrancis 1911-2009

The superlatives used to describe him are certainly on target. To quote from the guest book at the John DeFrancis Memorial site (h/t Granite Studio).

towering and generous
shaped national thinking
full of freshness

Posted 12 January 2009 † syz § pīnyīn ‡ Comments (0) °

Read & write Mandarin: no characters required?

Zhōu Yǒuguāng on a Beijing talk show; 4=2 in Beijing; Pinyin and topolects; schadenfreude

Everyone knows that literacy in Mandarin means hour after brutal hour of memorizing and practicing a script whose design clearly shows the influence of sadistic genius. Here are a couple of favorites from the torture rack: two pairs of characters that have [...]

Posted 01 June 2008 † syz § beijing-r § běijīnghuà § education § pīnyīn § érhuàyīn ‡ Comments (4) ° Tagged:

1.3 billion people speak WHAT as a mother tongue?!

On Mandarin learning challenges, the definition of language, and the best taxi-driver critique of hànzì ever recorded.

You’ll be forgiven if you missed the pins-and-needles press conference of foreign minister (wàijiāobùzhǎng, 外交部长) Yáng Jiéchí 杨洁篪 a couple of weeks ago (hat tip to Joel Martinsen at Danwei).

Posted 30 March 2008 † syz § MFL § linguistics § taxi ‡ Comments (12) °