xuechengfeng Posted June 14, 2004 at 12:03 AM Report Share Posted June 14, 2004 at 12:03 AM this word makes me the most mad out of any i've learned so far. is it really necessary to have so many variations of it?!?! in my first year of chinese , i've probably learned 10-20 character versions already, and i'm sure there are many, many more. any idea of # of shi's? any other words like this i should know that will make me cry in the future? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
galitonwu Posted June 14, 2004 at 01:51 AM Report Share Posted June 14, 2004 at 01:51 AM which word, 是 ？ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meng Lelan Posted June 14, 2004 at 02:43 AM Report Share Posted June 14, 2004 at 02:43 AM Heh heh - just open your dictionary to "shi" and count them all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xuechengfeng Posted June 14, 2004 at 02:53 AM Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2004 at 02:53 AM not just 是 all versions of shi1, shi2, shi3, shi4, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quest Posted June 14, 2004 at 03:56 AM Report Share Posted June 14, 2004 at 03:56 AM xuechengfeng, that is Chinese. numerous homonyms. that's why (again) chinese would be confusing without characters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ala Posted June 14, 2004 at 04:39 AM Report Share Posted June 14, 2004 at 04:39 AM haha Mandarin shi is nothing. you still have 4 tonal differentiations. What is in Mandarin's four possible tone combinations of ci, chi, chu, shi, shu, zi, ru might all simply be zi (with English z) in Shanghainese, and they are all in the same tone, since z is voiced and there's only one tone for all voiced initials. Think about the number of characters with the pronunciation zi in Shanghainese. The good thing is that zi by itself can only mean "tree", "to be" (copula), "word", the chess piece (士); every other usage of zi in vernacular Shanghainese occurs in a polysyllabic word (besides surnames). This tendency of Shanghainese to be polysyllabic makes getting rid of Chinese characters also possible for SH. For example-- Mandarin: 我有事。 Shanghainese: 我 有得 事体。(Wo youtach Zithi.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylee Posted June 14, 2004 at 09:23 AM Report Share Posted June 14, 2004 at 09:23 AM My very common dictionary lists 18 shi1, 19 shi2, 8 shi3 and 45 shi4, making a total of 90. Don't cry so soon. For ji, it lists 43 ji1, 35 ji2, 14 ji3 and 49 ji4 (total 141). Don't you think it is good fun? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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