Correct Chinese spelling and pronunciation guide

POSTED BY: Haplo721
UPDATED: Tuesday, September 21, 2004 06:00
VIEWED: 33394
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FFYING2

Monday, January 5, 2004 10:20 PM

Oh, this seems an appropriate thread to plug my new site.

Firefly Chinese Pinyinary
http://fireflychinese.home.att.net ,

in which I have attempted to provide correct hanyu pinyin romanization--and Chinese characters--for the Mandarin.

I've also included some of the written Chinese seen in the show.

Ying
http://fireflyfunsite.home.att.net
http://fireflychinese.home.att.net

JASONZZZ

Saturday, January 10, 2004 10:03 PM

BTW, there is no 'simplied Chinese' when you use the English letters to romanize the sounds. 'Simplied' and 'Full-Form' only applies to the actual Chinese ideograms - the Chinese characters if you will.

JASONZZZ

Saturday, January 10, 2004 10:06 PM

ffying2, is there any 'system' to the way the firefly Chinese is spelled in the dialog/script? Or is it just a mish/mash of whatever/whenever the writers feel like? I do noticed that they much didn't care about at least the differences in the 2 major dialects and just rolled Cantonese and Mandarin altogether.

Quote:
Originally posted by ffying2:
Oh, this seems an appropriate thread to plug my new site.

Firefly Chinese Pinyinary
http://fireflychinese.home.att.net ,

in which I have attempted to provide correct hanyu pinyin romanization--and Chinese characters--for the Mandarin.

I've also included some of the written Chinese seen in the show.

Ying
http://fireflyfunsite.home.att.net
http://fireflychinese.home.att.net

FFYING2

Tuesday, January 13, 2004 4:21 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Jasonzzz:
ffying2, is there any 'system' to the way the firefly Chinese is spelled in the dialog/script? Or is it just a mish/mash of whatever/whenever the writers feel like? I do noticed that they much didn't care about at least the differences in the 2 major dialects and just rolled Cantonese and Mandarin altogether.

It's fairly consistent. Though I don't know why shensheng is written shun-sheng instead of shun-shung. Or why liumang is liou and xi niu/niu are niou, but diu is dio.

I also don't know where the se (pronounced suh) for shi3 in dio-se and elsewhere comes from; it doesn't seem to be a Taiwanism (shr, shi, sai) or Cantonese (si).

What Cantonese have you noticed (besides the Out of Gas warning message and Mal's drink in The Train Job)?

Ying
Firefly Funsite http://fireflyfunsite.home.att.net
Firefly Chinese Pinyinary http://fireflychinese.home.att.net

WILDHEAVENFARM

Wednesday, January 21, 2004 1:32 AM

You all know what would be really shiny? If someone managed capture and post wav files of all these Chinese phrases so that a gaijin(japanese for "gringo") like me has a chance in hell of pronouncing them. Admittedly, I could just look them up on the dvd, but that smacks of effort. I would undertake that endevour, that labor of love my own self, but for lack of adequate technology.

Mary
Always a beast, never a burden.

JASONZZZ

Wednesday, January 21, 2004 5:05 AM

maybe you could also capture and post some correct pronounciations of those same phrases as they are spoken in real Chinese today - right next to the captures off of the show (compared to how the actors have murdered the dialog or as some people believe how the language sounds like in the future)

Quote:
Originally posted by WildHeavenFarm:
You all know what would be really shiny? If someone managed capture and post wav files of all these Chinese phrases so that a gaijin(japanese for "gringo") like me has a chance in hell of pronouncing them. Admittedly, I could just look them up on the dvd, but that smacks of effort. I would undertake that endevour, that labor of love my own self, but for lack of adequate technology.

Mary
Always a beast, never a burden.

Haken needs a new development system. Donate.
http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=5&t=3283

FLAMETREE

Wednesday, January 21, 2004 9:00 AM

It would depend on the person I think classic, northern mandarin sounds clearer than the southern languaes like cantonese for example.

However if you are going to swear it should probably be in cantonese it always sounds angry even if someone is just saying hello!

Da jia zia jian :)
every one good bye

QUIXOTE13

Wednesday, January 21, 2004 10:14 AM

Hey Talrius!

I know I've been away for quite a while, and now I'm pretty busy with a lot of work so I haven't had time to post and help out with the translations. It seems like everybody's faring pretty well here. I'm having a devil of a time reading the romanization because it's not standardized and there are no tones indicated, but there are some diligent and generous people who are working hard at creating the proper translations and transcriptions! Bravo to everybody's efforts!

Take care,

Q13

Ivan Chan Studio: Invite Beauty: www.ivanchan.com

FLAMETREE

Wednesday, January 21, 2004 10:48 AM

It would depend on the person I think classic, northern mandarin sounds clearer than the southern languaes like cantonese for example.

However if you are going to swear it should probably be in cantonese it always sounds angry even if someone is just saying hello!

Da jia zia jian :)
every one good bye

JASONZZZ

Thursday, January 22, 2004 8:00 AM

Just wondering what you mean by "clearer"? The dialects are not simple differences in regions (although there is that too in just Mandarin alone) but almost completely different languages with it's own vocabulary. Spoken Cantonese (and many of the other dialects) really does not have a lot of similarities with the written or literary written Chinese either.

Besides, each region's Mandarin has it's own flavor. In fact, the closer you get to Bei-Jing, the more rolled, heavier, and harsher the r's. As in "BeiJiger". The way Mandarin sounds in BeiJing sure isn't anything that they would teach in a *standard* Mandarin course.

Quote:
Originally posted by flametree:
It would depend on the person I think classic, northern mandarin sounds clearer than the southern languaes like cantonese for example.

However if you are going to swear it should probably be in cantonese it always sounds angry even if someone is just saying hello!

Da jia zia jian :)
every one good bye

Haken needs a new development system. Donate.
http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=5&t=3283

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