Hello Jingjing and Chacha

Miscellaneous Discussion. Any topics that don't fit in other areas of the forum.


User avatar
Feb 18th, '06, 13:33
Posts: 44
Joined: Jan 23rd, '06, 01:56
Location: South Texas

Hello Jingjing and Chacha

by Kai » Feb 18th, '06, 13:33


User avatar
Feb 18th, '06, 13:45
Posts: 668
Joined: Feb 14th, '06, 22:09
Location: A briar patch.

by rabbit » Feb 18th, '06, 13:45

Image
most def. I thought it interesting, the chinese govt. has 30,000 people who moniter internet usage so that people wont get away with illegal things, whereas the CIA only has 16,000. I also thought it interesting that 'Jing Cha' means 'Police', but 'Cha' also means tea, I guess they leave it up to the subject you are talking about which determains the usage of the word... kinda like japanese, allowing you to 'fill in the blanks'.
"It is never too late to be what you might have been." - George Eliot
Image
Image

User avatar
Feb 18th, '06, 16:30
Posts: 248
Joined: Jul 9th, '05, 00:55

by teaspoon » Feb 18th, '06, 16:30

Isn't Chinese one of those languages that relies heavily on inflection to differentiate between homophones?

~tsp who heard that in a linguistics class somewhere along the line
"My sister and I have this wish before we die...
Tea in the Sahara with you."
~The Police, "Tea in the Sahara"

I am the size of 1 tsp.

User avatar
Feb 20th, '06, 15:17
Posts: 38
Joined: Jan 23rd, '06, 17:48

Re: Hello Jingjing and Chacha

by Jing Cha » Feb 20th, '06, 15:17

Kai wrote:So... is that your avatar Jingcha?
Obviously not! If you look closely, you will see that my avatar is actually smaller and cuter than the one that silly rabbit puts up. Hmmm . . . or maybe he's posting from my Centerfold in the May 2005 issue of Hot Tea Babes.

User avatar
Apr 5th, '06, 14:57
Posts: 83
Joined: Feb 24th, '06, 17:55
Location: Los Angeles

by Phyll » Apr 5th, '06, 14:57

rabbit wrote:I also thought it interesting that 'Jing Cha' means 'Police', but 'Cha' also means tea,...
In China olden time (don't know when exactly...Han dynasty or before maybe?), the Chinese character for "tea" used to be the same "cha" with the meaing of "to research/investigate/check", which is the one used in "jing cha" (police). Later on, an emperor or a scholar or someone who had too much time, decided that tea needed to have a unique character dedicated to it. Thus, today's "cha" as we know it was born. And yes, intonation plays a great role in the meaning of each Chinese word.

+ Post Reply