jbradfor Posted June 27, 2011 at 02:07 PM Report Share Posted June 27, 2011 at 02:07 PM As a gift I received some "ma nao mi ti kuan yin" tea -- otherwise known as Monkey Picked Tea. I'm trying to figure out the characters. The "ti kuan yin" is obviously "铁观音". The romanization isn't strict pinyin, so I need to guess at the rest, and I'm coming up short. The type of money used to pick the tea is apparently 普通獼猴, so I'm guessing that the "mi" could be 獼, although that grammar is weird, with the subject there. Ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylee Posted June 27, 2011 at 02:14 PM Report Share Posted June 27, 2011 at 02:14 PM 馬騮搣鐵觀音 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbradfor Posted June 27, 2011 at 02:33 PM Author Report Share Posted June 27, 2011 at 02:33 PM (edited) Thanks! I would never have figured that out. I didn't know that 馬騮 is another name for a monkey (and neither does MDBG....[1]), and I don't even know the character 搣. Do you happen to know what dialect "ma nau mi" comes from? [1] but they might soon. Just submitted an addition, let's see if they like it B) EDIT: they did. Edited July 5, 2011 at 04:04 PM by jbradfor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xiaocai Posted June 27, 2011 at 02:35 PM Report Share Posted June 27, 2011 at 02:35 PM It's Cantonese. I thought it was quite obvious as skylee was the first person who figured it out... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbradfor Posted June 27, 2011 at 02:40 PM Author Report Share Posted June 27, 2011 at 02:40 PM Ah, OK. I assumed it wasn't Cantonese as MDBG gives the jyutping romanization of 騮 as lau4, not nao/nau. Plus, skylee's skills seem to go beyond Cantonese. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xiaocai Posted June 27, 2011 at 02:42 PM Report Share Posted June 27, 2011 at 02:42 PM That's true. One thing you may think is interesting is that many southerners get n and l mixed up. I do sometimes, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yonglin Posted June 27, 2011 at 02:48 PM Report Share Posted June 27, 2011 at 02:48 PM One thing you may think is interesting is that many southerners get n and l mixed up. I do sometimes, too. For some reason, I was always under the impression that this was only n->l and never l->n. Does anyone know of any (commonly used) words with an l->n shift? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xiaocai Posted June 27, 2011 at 02:53 PM Report Share Posted June 27, 2011 at 02:53 PM Yes, some people from central China (east of 重庆 and part of 湖北) do that, as far as I know. But most of the time it is n-> l. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hofmann Posted June 27, 2011 at 05:42 PM Report Share Posted June 27, 2011 at 05:42 PM You can call it a hypercorrection in Cantonese-speaking areas. I've heard it from Hong Kongers. And that wasn't Cantonese. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbradfor Posted July 5, 2011 at 04:03 PM Author Report Share Posted July 5, 2011 at 04:03 PM I just realized over the weekend that 馬騮 is the term my wife uses as well for "monkey". I've always wondered what the characters were, because there is nothing in Mandarin that sounds similar [1]; I just always assumed that it was one of those occasional words in which the Cantonese and the Mandarin are totally different. But now I know. One more mystery of life solved. [1] "nothing in Mandarin" = "I looked in MDBG and didn't find anything." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylee Posted July 5, 2011 at 04:12 PM Report Share Posted July 5, 2011 at 04:12 PM So your wife uses it. Does she speak in Mandarin or Cantonese, or some other dialects? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbradfor Posted July 5, 2011 at 05:01 PM Author Report Share Posted July 5, 2011 at 05:01 PM Cantonese. Born and raised in Hong Kong. So I'm wondering if it is mostly a Cantonese term? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iriya Posted July 9, 2011 at 02:38 PM Report Share Posted July 9, 2011 at 02:38 PM Does anyone know of any (commonly used) words with an l->n shift? Both 脸=nian and 辣=na are very, very common. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shi Tong Posted July 9, 2011 at 03:13 PM Report Share Posted July 9, 2011 at 03:13 PM hellooo http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict&wdrst=1&wdqb=%E9%A6%AC%E9%A8%AE http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict&wdrst=1&wdqb=maliu Seems to have it now! Did you add it or? I've heard "leng3 (冷)" pronounced as "neng3" in Taiwan before. Very confusing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbradfor Posted July 9, 2011 at 08:33 PM Author Report Share Posted July 9, 2011 at 08:33 PM Did you add it or? See my post #3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xianhua Posted July 9, 2011 at 09:31 PM Report Share Posted July 9, 2011 at 09:31 PM One thing you may think is interesting is that many southerners get n and l mixed up The Hubeinese dialect I am (partially) familiar goes even further and substitutes all 'l' sounds with 'ns'. You end up with things like 辽宁 being pronounced as 'Niaoning' which takes some getting used to. My daughter 丽丽 suddenly becomes 'nini' much to my displeasure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imron Posted July 10, 2011 at 01:08 AM Report Share Posted July 10, 2011 at 01:08 AM 内牛满面 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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