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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 79
journeyman
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OP
journeyman
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 79 |
In Japanese, you say something like five round-things-quantifier balls, two human-quantifier people, etc.
I was thinking of this example when asked how many counting systems there are in Irish. But Japanese has two systems also.
A. Chinese reading
1. ichi
2. ni
3. san
4. shi ("yon" is used because "shi" sounds like death)
5. go
6. roku
7. shichi (pron "nana"; see 4 above)
8. hachi
9. kyu
10. juu
These are combined with count-words like "hon", "nin", "mai", "hiki" or whatever, depending on what's being counted. E.g. sambiki no kobuta - the 3 little pigs.
B. Japanese reading:
1. hitotsu
2. futatsu
3. mittsu
4. yottsu
5. itsutsu
6. muttsu
7. nanatsu
8. yattsu
9. kokonotsu
10. too
These are used without any count-words; e.g. kobuta ga mittsu - (there are) 3 little pigs.
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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
Thanks, Hib. In English, we have issei, nisei, sansei, and yonsei for first, second, third, and fourth generation Japanese-Americans. Thought the Japanese count one from the original immigrant, issei, whereas in English we count from the first native-born.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 428
addict
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addict
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 428 |
Let's see if we can figure it out!
Well done! I never would have thought of casting it as a function. Can you give me a phonetic pronunciation of "col duine"?
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
In reply to:
In Japanese, you say something like five round-things-quantifier balls, two human-quantifier people, etc.
Indonesian has the same thing.
the most common ones are:
orang for humans (literally person) tiga orang anak = three children
ekor for animals (literally tail) tiga ekor singa = three lions
helai for flat things tiga helai kertas = three sheets of paper
buah for everything else(literally fruit) tiga buah mobil = three cars
There are lots more (like batang (literally stalk) for plants) but they're not used so much nowadays except in very literary or old-fashioned Indonesian. Notice that if you have a number you don't need a plural in Indonesian. Mobil-mobil = cars; tiga buah mobil = three cars.
Bingley
Bingley
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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 79
journeyman
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OP
journeyman
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 79 |
Can you give me a phonetic pronunciation of "col duine"?
It's not a real word in Irish, so not a very useful thing to know how to say!
But I can try to describe it: "col" is pronounced something like I would say the English word "cull" - /kVl/. "Duine" (meaning "person") is pronounced a bit like a British person would say "dinner" (with no "r" sound) - /dIn@/.
Now, to be more exact:
consonants in Irish have a "broad" and a "slender" pronunciation depending on context. The slender version is palatalised and occurs if the consonant is preceded by or followed by "e" or "i". Otherwise it is broad.
In "duine", the n is slender. This means its sound tends somewhat towards Spanish ñ. Furthermore, the "d" is not clear and crisp like an English [d], but is softer, about halfway between /d/ and /D/.
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