TAC 2017 - vijayjohn

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Re: TAC 2017 - vijayjohn

Postby księżycowy » 2017-02-25, 0:02

I've always wanted to learn some Teochew. Unfortunately I have yet to run into any good resources, including native speakers.

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Re: TAC 2017 - vijayjohn

Postby vijayjohn » 2017-02-25, 0:29

I'm not sure it would be too hard for me even without relying on the native speakers much since I already know Mandarin pretty well. There are a bunch of Teochew movies and operas on YouTube but with subtitles only in Chinese. I've watched bits of some of them many times. So far, I'm not noticing any major grammatical differences from Mandarin (though I may have read of such differences in academic research, in which case I've forgotten all about them by now anyway). The trickiest part for me would probably be the tones.

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Re: TAC 2017 - vijayjohn

Postby księżycowy » 2017-02-25, 0:35

I suppose that's a big part of the problem for me. I don't know any form of Chinese yet. :P

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Re: TAC 2017 - vijayjohn

Postby vijayjohn » 2017-02-25, 0:56

Yeah. I remember when I was in college formally studying Mandarin to a pretty high level, I felt like probably most other varieties of Chinese sounded like the same thing but with all the tones pronounced the wrong way. :silly: One of my classmates said she felt the same way.

The example that comes to mind for me is around 2:40 in this video, the beginning of a modern Teochew opera where the lady in yellow is celebrating her 80th birthday IIUC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9zfQYivYZ8
She's speaking Teochew, of course, but saying what pretty much sounds like hào! hào! hào! in Mandarin with a sharply falling tone. In Mandarin, this word would be hǎo with a falling-rising tone (as in the greeting 你好 nǐ hǎo), although hào actually is a possible pronunciation of that word in Mandarin as well but means something a bit different and would sound weird in this context, where it's used basically in isolation.

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Re: TAC 2017 - vijayjohn

Postby księżycowy » 2017-02-25, 10:33

Are they speaking Teochew through the whole thing?
From what exposure I have had with Mandarin (and other forms of Chinese), it does kinda sound like Mandarin. :shock:

I assume that Teochew has stop finals (like Cantonese and Taiwanese), but I'll be damned if I could heard even one.

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Re: TAC 2017 - vijayjohn

Postby vijayjohn » 2017-02-25, 15:30

księżycowy wrote:Are they speaking Teochew through the whole thing?

Yes, except for two songs in Mandarin (5:19-5:44 is the beginning of a popular Taiwanese Mandarin song, and 8:19-8:35 I think is from another popular Mandarin song from the PRC) and the word "hello" around 9:02.
From what exposure I have had with Mandarin (and other forms of Chinese), it does kinda sound like Mandarin. :shock:

The older kid at my neighbors' house used to say Teochew was a combination of all the other dialects of Chinese. :P I think it may also have something to do with the fact that this is opera, though. I think the other movies from the same channel have a lot more Teochew-specific vocabulary, such as this one (especially after the intro song):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiBM5Z4QJwk
I assume that Teochew has stop finals (like Cantonese and Taiwanese), but I'll be damned if I could heard even one.

I think the first one is around 1:05, where the 失 in 如有闪失 is pronounced [sik̚] or maybe [siʔ].

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Re: TAC 2017 - vijayjohn

Postby księżycowy » 2017-02-25, 16:20

Damn it, Vijay! At this rate I'll be doing some Chinese in no time, and I can't afford to change my plans as it is! :evil: :P :silly:

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Re: TAC 2017 - vijayjohn

Postby vijayjohn » 2017-02-25, 17:03

Even though ironically, I'm still not doing Teochew :lol: I am doing Chinese, though. But then I minored in it in college anyway, so...

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Re: TAC 2017 - vijayjohn

Postby księżycowy » 2017-02-25, 17:25

When you do start, I'd be very interested to see what you post in/on Teochew.

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Re: TAC 2017 - vijayjohn

Postby vijayjohn » 2017-02-25, 21:05

Yeah, but I'm not sure when that'll be. I don't seem to know much about Papuan languages yet, and I'm still trying to get as comprehensive a view as possible of the languages of the entire world. I don't want to keep falling into the Eurasian trap, and I guess I'm slightly more familiar with indigenous languages of the Americas (with the exception of most of Brazil's languages, I guess) than with Papuan languages. :)

Meanwhile, I've moved on to the Russian forum. I'm not finding all that much to post there, to be honest, so if I can get out of there really quick, I will then move on to the Turkish forum. I've heard it isn't very active these days, so if I get out of that pretty soon, too, then I'll move on to Arabic, then the African languages forum (Dinka and then Amharic), then maybe English, Krio, Swahili, Hindi/Urdu, ASL, Thai, Tagalog, Indonesian, Oirata, Teiwa, Australian Kriol, Light Warlpiri, Quechua, Mapudungun, Lnuismk, and Michif, in that order.

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Re: TAC 2017 - vijayjohn

Postby kevin » 2017-02-25, 21:18

księżycowy wrote:At this rate I'll be doing some Chinese in no time, and I can't afford to change my plans as it is! :evil: :P :silly:

But, I mean, who would seriously consider doing Chinese when he still has Irish on his list? :P

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Re: TAC 2017 - vijayjohn

Postby vijayjohn » 2017-02-25, 21:25

kevin wrote:
księżycowy wrote:At this rate I'll be doing some Chinese in no time, and I can't afford to change my plans as it is! :evil: :P :silly:

But, I mean, who would seriously consider doing Chinese when he still has Irish on his list? :P

Hey! I know a little bit of Irish, too, y'know! I was studying it sort of actively back when I was in grad school and my cubicle (read: closet) was right next to this Irish lady's. We were teaching assistants for the same class in our first semester.
Then again, of course, I don't count, being the language whore I am. :dimwit:

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Re: TAC 2017 - vijayjohn

Postby kevin » 2017-02-25, 21:37

Good thing that I said having it on your list rather than knowing it.

Anyway, I fully expect you to know a bit of more languages than I even know to exist. ;)

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Re: TAC 2017 - vijayjohn

Postby vijayjohn » 2017-02-25, 21:48

kevin wrote:Good thing that I said having it on your list rather than knowing it.

But I do have it on my list!

...Just not my language profile on UniLang. :silly:

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Re: TAC 2017 - vijayjohn

Postby kevin » 2017-02-25, 21:54

On the TAC list? I didn't see it there. But of course, it would be a worhwhile addition. ;)

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Re: TAC 2017 - vijayjohn

Postby księżycowy » 2017-02-25, 21:56

vijayjohn wrote:Yeah, but I'm not sure when that'll be.

I didn't say start it tomorrow. But you need to.







But seriously, where as I'm very interested in Teochew, I'm not looking to do anything with it anytime soon. I'd prefer to learn some of another form of Chinese first anyway. And unless I find a way to squeeze in a sixth language this year (which seems quite unlikely ATM), I won't be doing anything with Chinese until next year at the earliest. So you have time. :lol:

kevin wrote:But, I mean, who would seriously consider doing Chinese when he still has Irish on his list? :P

Me. :silly:
I've been interested in Chinese in one form or another for at least as long as I've been interested in Irish, if not longer. I have a few varieties of Chinese only list too. Well, profile list anyway.

Of course, having said that, I'll do my utmost to honor my plans and the 5 languages I selected for this year. :wink:

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Re: TAC 2017 - vijayjohn

Postby vijayjohn » 2017-02-25, 22:10

kevin wrote:On the TAC list? I didn't see it there. But of course, it would be a worthwhile addition. ;)

No, on my list of languages to learn! :twisted: (Also, on the list of languages I was learning back when I was in grad school, a few years before I joined UniLang)
księżycowy wrote:I didn't say start it tomorrow. But you need to.

:lol: Okay Vijay, let's go! One language from every Papuan family by the end of the day (and yes that includes all the ones that are proposed to form part of Trans-New Guinea)! Oh boo hoo you wanna eat and sleep and go to the bathroom before you go to work tomorrow, well TOUGH LUCK MOTHERFUCKER!!!
:P
I've been interested in Chinese in one form or another for at least as long as I've been interested in Irish, if not longer.

This. I've definitely been seriously interested in Chinese longer than Irish.

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Re: TAC 2017 - vijayjohn

Postby księżycowy » 2017-02-25, 22:18

For me, I'd say that where as Chinese might be a longer interest, the level of interest is about the same. Though I admit a "slight" bias for East Asian languages. "Slight." *cough, cough*

I do love the way Irish looks, and the way it sounds. It's just cool.

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Re: TAC 2017 - vijayjohn

Postby kevin » 2017-02-25, 22:58

księżycowy wrote:
kevin wrote:But, I mean, who would seriously consider doing Chinese when he still has Irish on his list? :P

Me. :silly:

Ah. Hm. You might have a point there. :lol:

Maybe I am the strange person here. Everyone seems to be crazy about them, but East Asian languages do nothing for me. I seem to be completely immune to wanderlust for them.

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Re: TAC 2017 - vijayjohn

Postby vijayjohn » 2017-02-25, 23:37

Nah, you've just been taking your anti-East Asian language vaccines. Too many Americans are worried about vaccines. ;) :P


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