Anton (暗洞) Posted April 1, 2007 at 04:18 PM Report Posted April 1, 2007 at 04:18 PM I have recently visited JiNing (济宁, a city in Shandong), and brought back with me a book about this city. I've just started to learn Chinese and I want to develop my skills by translating this book besides studying the "Chinese for beginners". Please help me to recognize a couple of characters I haven't found in the dictionary. Here's the scanned page: http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/3802/jiningng7.jpg (65 Kb). I haven't found the first character in the second line: (?飞的雄鹰). Searched the dictionary by the 月 key. What's the meaning of the phrase, anyway? Some kind of idiom? Also I can't quite understand the last line: is it "前言" a "preface"? Then why does the second character look different on this page? The upper stroke is horizontal there. Thanks in advance. Quote
imron Posted April 2, 2007 at 12:40 AM Report Posted April 2, 2007 at 12:40 AM The character is 腾 téng. It should be in your dictionary. Look again under the 月 radical in the section for 9 strokes. 腾飞的雄鹰 could maybe be translated as "soaring eagle", which I'm guessing is being used here as a metaphor for the city and it's development. The second character 言 looks different because it's using a different font. Just how different letters in English look different when you use a different font (for example g and g), the same is true with Chinese. It's still exactly the same character. Quote
Songyi Posted April 3, 2007 at 12:12 AM Report Posted April 3, 2007 at 12:12 AM The 月 isn't really the radical for "moon". It's actually the 肉 radical. To me, the top stroke looks a little slanted. But I've been reading characters for a year now so I'm probably used to the different "fonts", though the more stylized ones still confuse me entirely =). The more you encounter the different "fonts", the easier it becomes to recognize the different strokes. Good luck! PS. You should get familiar with the radicals and their different "incarnations". I had a intro booklet/workbook from my writing class. If I find it, I'll send you photocopies. Quote
imron Posted April 3, 2007 at 12:49 AM Report Posted April 3, 2007 at 12:49 AM The 月 isn't really the radical for "moon".Nobody said it was. Quote
gato Posted April 3, 2007 at 12:53 AM Report Posted April 3, 2007 at 12:53 AM Anton, do you know that the Chinese name you've chosen 暗洞 means "dark hole"? Quote
Anton (暗洞) Posted April 3, 2007 at 03:37 AM Author Report Posted April 3, 2007 at 03:37 AM Thanks everyone, Gato- yeah, I know it is, but it was the first thing which showed when I typed "an dong", and it sounds not bad, like "dark hole" or "dark cave". Does it sound funny? If yes tell me Quote
HashiriKata Posted April 3, 2007 at 07:18 AM Report Posted April 3, 2007 at 07:18 AM Does it sound funny? If yes tell me It may do. It all depends on how imaginative you'd like to be! Quote
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