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Tetraphobia
Tetraphobia () is the practice of avoiding instances of the digit . It is a superstition most common in East Asian nations and is associated with death. Rationale The Chinese word for "four" (, pinyin: sì, jyutping: sei3) sounds quite similar to the word for "death" (, pinyin: sǐ, jyutping: sei2) in many varieties of Chinese. Similarly, the Sino-Japanese, Sino-Korean and Sino-Vietnamese words for "four", shi (し, Japanese) and sa (사, Korean), sound similar or identical to "death" in each language (see Korean numerals, Japanese numerals, Vietnamese numerals). Tetraphobia is known to occur in Korea and Japan since the two words sound identical, but not at all in Vietnam because they carry different tones (in the case of the word for "four", whether it is the Sino-Vietnamese reading ''tứ'' or the more common non-Sino-Vietnamese reading ''tư'', neither sounds like the word for "death" which is ''tử'') and Vietnamese nor use Sino-Vietnamese numerals as often in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jyutping
The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanization Scheme, also known as Jyutping, is a romanisation system for Cantonese developed in 1993 by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK). The name ''Jyutping'' (itself the Jyutping romanisation of its Chinese name, ) is a contraction of the official name, and it consists of the first Chinese characters of the terms ''jyut6 jyu5'' () and ''ping3 jam1'' (; pronounced '' pīnyīn'' in Mandarin). Despite being intended as a system to indicate pronunciation, it has also been employed in —in effect, elevating Jyutping from its assistive status to a written language. History The Jyutping system departs from all previous Cantonese romanisation systems (approximately 12, including Robert Morrison's pioneering work of 1828, and the widely used Standard Romanization, Yale and Sidney Lau systems) by introducing z and c initials and the use of eo and oe in finals, as well as replacing the initial y, used in all previous ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
People's Republic Of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after India, representing 17.4% of the world population. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and Borders of China, borders fourteen countries by land across an area of nearly , making it the list of countries and dependencies by area, third-largest country by land area. The country is divided into 33 Province-level divisions of China, province-level divisions: 22 provinces of China, provinces, 5 autonomous regions of China, autonomous regions, 4 direct-administered municipalities of China, municipalities, and 2 semi-autonomous special administrative regions. Beijing is the country's capital, while Shanghai is List of cities in China by population, its most populous city by urban area and largest financial center. Considered one of six ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homophone
A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning or in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (past tense of "rise"), or spelled differently, as in ''rain'', ''reign'', and ''rein''. The term ''homophone'' sometimes applies to units longer or shorter than words, for example a phrase, letter, or groups of letters which are pronounced the same as a counterpart. Any unit with this property is said to be ''homophonous'' (). Homophones that are spelled the same are both homographs and homonyms. For example, the word ''read'', in "He is well ''read''" and in "Yesterday, I ''read'' that book". Homophones that are spelled differently are also called heterographs, e.g. ''to'', ''too'', and ''two''. Wordplay and games Homophones are often used to create puns and to deceive the reader (as in crossword puzzles) or to suggest multiple meanings. The last usage is common in poetry and creat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Triskaidekaphobia
Triskaidekaphobia ( , ; ) is fear or avoidance of the number . It is also a reason for the fear of Friday the 13th, called ''paraskevidekatriaphobia'' () or ''friggatriskaidekaphobia'' ( and ). The term was used as early as in 1910 by Isador Coriat in ''Abnormal Psychology''. Origins The supposed unlucky nature of the number 13 has several theories of origin. Although several authors claim it is an older belief, no such evidence has been documented so far. In fact, the earliest attestation of 13 being unlucky is first found after the Middle Ages in Europe. Playing cards Tarot card games have been attested since at least around 1450 with the Visconti-Sforza Tarot. One of the trump cards in tarot represents Death, and is numbered 13 in several variants. In 1781, Antoine Court de Gébelin writes of this card's presence in the Tarot of Marseilles that the number thirteen was ''"toujours regarde comme malheureux"'' ("always considered as unlucky"). In 1784, Johann Gottlob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vietnamese Phonology
The phonology of Vietnamese features 19 consonant phonemes, with 5 additional consonant phonemes used in Vietnamese's Southern dialect, and 4 exclusive to the Northern dialect. Vietnamese also has 14 vowel nuclei, and 6 tones that are integral to the interpretation of the language. Older interpretations of Vietnamese tones differentiated between "sharp" and "heavy" entering and departing tones. This article is a technical description of the sound system of the Vietnamese language, including phonetics and phonology. Two main varieties of Vietnamese, Hanoi and Saigon, which are slightly different to each other, are described below. Initial consonants Initial consonants which exist only in the Northern dialect are in red, while those that exist only in the Southern dialect are in blue. * /w/ is the only initial consonant permitted to form consonant clusters with other consonants. * In many regions of Northern Vietnam, the pair and have merged into one, they are no longer two o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vietnamese Numerals
Historically Vietnamese has two sets of numbers: one is etymologically native Vietnamese; the other uses Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary. In the modern language the native Vietnamese vocabulary is used for both everyday counting and mathematical purposes. The Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary is used only in fixed expressions or in Sino-Vietnamese words, in a similar way that Latin and Greek numerals are used in modern English (e.g., the ''bi-'' prefix in ''bicycle''). For numbers up to one million, native Vietnamese terms are often used the most, whilst mixed Sino-Vietnamese origin words and native Vietnamese words are used for units of one million or above. Concept For non-official purposes prior to the 20th century, Vietnamese had a writing system known as Hán-Nôm. Sino-Vietnamese numbers were written in chữ Hán and native vocabulary was written in chữ Nôm. Hence, there are two concurrent systems in Vietnamese nowadays in the romanized script, one for native Vietnamese and one ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japanese Numerals
The are numerals that are used in Japanese. In writing, they are the same as the Chinese numerals, and large numbers follow the Chinese style of grouping by 10,000. Two pronunciations are used: the Sino-Japanese () readings of the Chinese characters and the Japanese (native words, readings). Basic numbering in Japanese There are two ways of writing the numbers in Japanese: in Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3) or in Chinese numerals (, , ). The Arabic numerals are more often used in horizontal writing, and the Chinese numerals are more common in vertical writing. Most numbers have two readings, one derived from Chinese used for cardinal numbers ( reading) and a native Japanese reading ( reading) used somewhat less formally for numbers up to 10. In some cases (listed below) the Japanese reading is generally preferred for all uses. Archaic readings are marked with †. * The special reading is also found. It may be optionally used when reading individual digits of a number ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Korean Numerals
The Korean language has two regularly used sets of numerals: a native Korean system and Sino-Korean system. The native Korean number system is used for general counting, like counting up to 99. It is also used to count people, hours, objects, ages, and more. Sino-Korean numbers on the other hand are used for purposes such as dates, money, minutes, addresses, phone numbers, and numbers above 99. Construction For both native and Sino- Korean numerals, the teens (11 through 19) are represented by a combination of tens and the ones places. For instance, 15 would be ''sib-o'' (), but not usually ''il-sib-o'' in the Sino-Korean system, and ''yeol-daseot'' () in native Korean. Twenty through ninety are likewise represented in this place-holding manner in the Sino-Korean system, while Native Korean has its own unique set of words, as can be seen in the chart below. The grouping of large numbers in Korean follows the Chinese tradition of myriads (10000) rather than thousands (1000) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sino-Vietnamese Vocabulary
Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary (, Chữ Hán: 詞漢越, literally 'Chinese-Vietnamese words') is a layer of about 3,000 monosyllabic morphemes of the Vietnamese language borrowed from Literary Chinese with consistent pronunciations based on Middle Chinese. Compounds using these morphemes are used extensively in cultural and technical vocabulary. Together with Sino-Korean and Sino-Japanese vocabularies, Sino-Vietnamese has been used in the reconstruction of the sound categories of Middle Chinese. Samuel Martin grouped the three together as "Sino-Xenic". There is also an Old Sino-Vietnamese layer consisting of a few hundred words borrowed individually from Chinese in earlier periods, which are treated by speakers as native words. More recent loans from southern Chinese languages, usually names of foodstuffs such as ' Chinese sausage' (from Cantonese ), are not treated as Sino-Vietnamese but more direct borrowings. Estimates of the proportion of words of Sinitic origin in the Vietname ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sino-Korean Vocabulary
Sino-Korean vocabulary or Hanja-eo () refers to Korean words of Chinese origin. Sino-Korean vocabulary includes words borrowed directly from Chinese, as well as new Korean words created from Chinese characters, and words borrowed from Sino-Japanese vocabulary. Many of these terms were borrowed during the height of Chinese-language literature on Korean culture. Subsequently, many of these words have also been truncated or altered for the Korean language. Estimates of the percentage of Sino-Korean ranges from as low as 30% to as high as 70%. According to the '' Standard Korean Language Dictionary'' published by the National Institute of Korean Language (NIKL), Sino-Korean represents approximately 57% of the Korean vocabulary. History The use of Chinese and Chinese characters in Korea dates back to at least 194 BCE. While Sino-Korean words were widely used during the Three Kingdoms period, they became even more popular during the Silla period. During this time, male aristocrat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sino-Japanese Vocabulary
Sino-Japanese vocabulary, also known as , is a subset of Japanese vocabulary that originated in Chinese language, Chinese or was created from elements borrowed from Chinese. Most Sino-Japanese words were borrowed in the 5th–9th centuries AD, from Early Middle Chinese into Old Japanese. Some grammatical structures and sentence patterns can also be identified as Sino-Japanese. is one of three broad categories into which the Japanese vocabulary is divided. The others are native Japanese vocabulary (''yamato kotoba'') and borrowings from other, mainly Western languages (''gairaigo''). It has been estimated that about 60% of the words contained in modern Japanese dictionaries are ', and that about 18–20% of words used in common speech are '. The usage of such words also increases in formal or literary contexts, and in expressions of abstract or complex ideas. ', the use of Chinese-derived words in Japanese, is to be distinguished from ''kanbun'', which is historical Classical Chin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
