What does 首歌 mean?

[gorgeous_george]

Does any have any idea what 首歌 means. I can't find it in any dictionaries. Is it slang of some sort?

Thanks

[skylee]

歌 means "song". 首 is the count word (量詞) for "song", which helps indicate the number/quantity of "songs". If there is "one song", you don't say 一歌, you have to say 一首歌. If there are "three songs", you don't 三歌, you have to say 三首歌.

ok?

(PS - if it is really a new slang, I would like to know about it too. )

[Altair]

首shou3 is a measure word for songs. I suppose 首歌 shou3 ge1 could be short for 一首歌 yi1 shou3 ge1 and mean "a song." Does this fit the context?

[gorgeous_george]

a measure word! of course. sorry, was a stupid question.

thanks for the replies

[RobinChase]

skylee is correct

[Altair]

Does anyone know the logic of "selecting" 首 as a measure word for 歌? Why would songs and poems be thought to come in units of "heads"?

[shibo77]

I don't know the logic but it has been used for awhile, and "首" is a 通假字 with "作 work (as in work of art)" in 上古汉语Ancient Chinese, which means they sounded roughly the same. But now, people use "首", and never say "一作歌".

-Shìbó

[skylee]

Besides 首, 支 can also be use on songs. 闕 is also ok (that is, where appropriate ). In Cantonese, we also say 一隻歌.

[Altair]

I don't know the logic but it has been used for awhile' date=' and "首" is a 通假字 with "作 work (as in work of art)" in 上古汉语Ancient Chinese, which means they sounded roughly the same. But now, people use "首", and never say "一作歌".

-Shìbó [/quote']

That does seem to explain things quite nicely.

Besides 首, 支 can also be use on songs.[...]In Cantonese, we also say 一隻歌.

Thanks for this, I was not aware of these usages.

闕 is also ok (that is, where appropriate ).

Your comment made me run to my 汉语量词词典 A Chinese-English Dictionary of Measure Words. It has 178 measure words, but, unfortunately, nothing on 闕. !

[skylee]

Your comment made me run to my 汉语量词词典 A Chinese-English Dictionary of Measure Words. It has 178 measure words, but, unfortunately, nothing on 闕. !

Sorry, my fault. I have typed the wrong word (too small, couldn't see clearly). It should be 闋 (que4), not 闕 (que1/4).

This is from 現代漢語辭典 ->

闋 que4 (1)[書]終了；樂~。 (2) 量詞。 a)歌曲或詞一首叫一闋：彈琴一~│填一~詞。 B) 一首詞的一段叫一闋。

Also here ->

量詞。計算歌、詞、曲的單位。史記．卷七．項羽本紀：「歌數闋，美人和之。」

[zhwj]

For a less arcane reference on 阕, there's the incredibly popular song 《千千阕歌》.