Lizards

[amego]

Its interesting how different dialects perceive and name things differently. House lizards are called, in

Mandarin its 壁虎 bi4hu3， "wall tiger", so its a tiger

Hokkien its 蟮蟲 Siān-thâng, so its a worm

Cantonese its 檐蛇/簷蛇 yim3 seh2, "roof snake", it becomes a snake．．．

Teochiew its 錢龍 jih3 leng1, its a dragon...

Hainanese its 神郎 din3 lang3, it turns into a god

Hakka its 壁蛇 biak4 sak3, its back to a wall snake

Any mistakes please correct and please add on

[fireball9261]

Lizards are snake (with 4 legs), dragon (because of being a snake), and worm (because they are) all at the same time. I have no clue why it's called tiger for its original Chinese written name -- I think it might because it is fierce like a tiger when it moves.

[calibre2001]

Isn't snake 鹽蛇 in cantonese?

[amego]

Snake is 蛇，　anyway http://zh-yue.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%AA%90%E8%9B%87

[calibre2001]

Sorry i meant lizard. Typo on my part

[skylee]

It is also 蜥蜴 in Cantonese.

[heifeng]

well I dunno about how many of the non-mandarin names I'll be using, but now I know that a gecko in apparently also called a house lizard in "English"...

[magus]

I think it might because it is fierce like a tiger when it moves.

i agree. and some of my friends said that it might be because geckos are like the king of wall-climbing, thus Chinese compare it to the conqueror of forest--tiger.

but, 熊猫（giant pandas) is not 猫 （cats）， whales (鲸鱼）and shakes (鲨鱼）are not fish, and geckos (壁虎) wont be tiger or dragon.. Chinese just use certain animals' names to describe "certain" characteristics of other animals' .

and guess what "蝇虎" is? it's neither 苍蝇（fly）nor 老虎 （tiger）, it's a kind of fierce spiders!

[muyongshi]

whales (鲸鱼）and shakes (鲨鱼)

But there seems to be a little more logic in WHY they might be thought as a 'fish'.

[Lu]

Whales aren't fish, but I'm pretty sure sharks are.

Funny that Hainanese would call them gods... makes me suspect they first called it something different, but at some point got superstitious and afraid to anger something that lives in their house by calling it something unpolite, so started calling it god to appease it. Or some other good story.

[in_lab]

That's an interesting list, amego. Here's another good name for them: wall pigeons (because of the presents they leave).

[liuzhou]

But what is the best way to cook them?