neologisms--newly created words

[sfr@rcn.com]

My Chinese teacher and I were trying to figure out a term for the *wife* of my daughter. For now, we're calling her xi2fu4 (son's wife), but, as my Chinese teacher pointed out, she hasn't lived in China for fifteen years or more.

Surely, by now, modern Chinese have created new words for these new situations. If so, what?

And what process do people use to create these new words? And how well are they accepted?

And what other neologisms might be of interest to this forum?

Thanks,

Sandra

[galitonwu]

xi2fu4 is wife.

son's wife is er2xi2.

If you make this mistake in public place, then your son's wife mybe become angry.

[sfr@rcn.com]

Since I have only daughters, I don't have to worry about my son's wife. Thank heavens, since in the U.S., the mothers of the mothers take care of the grandchildren (mostly), not the mothers of the fathers. But thanks for setting me straight about xi2fu4--I really did think that xi2fu4 meant er2xi2. So, that means that if I call my daughter's wife xi2fu4, I need to say my daughter's xi2fu4, dui4 bu2 dui4?

Sandra

[galitonwu]

your daughter's wife?

maybe your daughter's husband.

son's wife = er2xi2

daughter's husband = nv 3 xu 1

[Quest]

neologisms for neogamy/neogyny, galitonwu

[Alleluia]

Seems that galitonwu didn't quite get your point... Maybe "daughter's wife" still is a foreign concept even in modern China. Sorry, but I can't help you either.

[skylee]

How about 我女儿的伴侣/爱人 (my daughter's partner/spouse)?

A son-in-law (女婿) is also called 半子 (half-son). I wonder if you could call her 半女 (half-daughter) (now I have never heard of it but a new situation may require the invention of a new term.)

[galitonwu]

It is too difficult to understand.

[sfr@rcn.com]

Galitonwu--which one is too hard to understand?

I like half-daughter. It's simple and gets everyone off the hook.

I think I'm asking this question a few years too soon. Sorry. But, in addition to wanting to know how to introduce my daughter's partner to my Chinese-speaking friends, I'm also fascinated by neologisms in Chinese as well as English. They say a lot about the culture as a whole.

Thanks skylee, galitonwu and Alleluia.

Sandra

[galitonwu]

I don't know what means "daughter's wife" now.

[geraldc]

同性恋女子

With new words, I think quite a few new words come from Hong Kong Cantonese. e.g. "cookie" 曲奇which started off in Cantonese but apparently is now used in Mandarin too, but now no longer sounds like the word cookie.

电脑 was a Cantonese term for computer that just became the norm etc.

But then you get terms like karaoke which started of as Japanese, and now you see written in a mixture of Chinese and English.

I guess the people who have the real power regarding creation of new words are the media. If no one hears or sees a new word, it will never be accepted.

[Guest Yau]

I can't see why it is so difficult to understand that.

I think you can simply call her "nu3-er2" (daughter), the same way to call your real daughter. In china, it's common for a father-in-law to call a son's wife "daughter", or "Half daughter" (Ban4 ge nu3 er2). Xi-Fu is equally good.

In fact, there's no any formal word for "daughter's wife" (neither in english or french, i guess). You can just take the traditional term to the new situation.

[sfr@rcn.com]

You guys are right. I'm complicating a perfectly simple term. Right now, I tell people "I'm her po2po mother-in-law." But daughter or half-daughter would probably make both my daughter and her partner happy.

Galitonwu--is it that you are confused by a woman having a wife instead of a husband? My daughter lives with a woman, not a man. (I'm trying to keep these words neutral in case there's some censorship or filtering bot snooping around.) And, in San Francisco, at least for now, same sex couples may marry. So, I have a daughter who has a wife, not a husband.

Thanks, guys.

Sandra

[galitonwu]

Thanks, I see now.

Thare are many same sex couples in China . And lots of Chinese could accept same sex couples now.

But little of same sex couples said ,"I am homoerotism. " or someone said " my son(daughter) is homoerotism".

Just a misunderstand.

[benotnobody]

Just sidetracking from the same-sex terminology discussion...

I think neologisms have been handled very well in Chinese on the whole. Most of them are very logical. eg: 电话 (lit. "electric speech"), 电影 ("electric shadow"). But some of the transliterations sound a bit cheesy, esp. 保龄球.

Btw, does anyone know of any transliterations in Chinese that come from languages other than english?

[skylee]

卡啦OK ...

I thought 電話 was an import from Japanese "denwa" ...

[Claw]

Actually there are several words in Chinese that are directly imported from the Japanese kanji equivalents, such as 科學 (kagaku), and 經濟 (keizai).

[benotnobody]

I thought 電話 was an import from Japanese "denwa"

Actually, I thought the Japanese 電話 denwa would have been imported from Chinese. Chinese has had a fairly major influence on Japanese, especially with 漢字. Although you'd probably know a lot more about this than I do...

[ananda]

xi2fu4 is wife.

son's wife is er2xi2.

If you make this mistake in public place, then your son's wife mybe become angry.

no, xi2fu4's original meaning is son's wife, its meaning gradually

changed to your wife, but the original meaning still works.

[Lu]

Galiton, the term is homosexual (or gay/lesbian), 'homoerotism' sounds a bit strange.