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Interestingly, Mandarin generally refers to the spoken official dialect<br>
of China. They don't call it Mandarin here. They call it "hanyu" which<br>
is the "language of the Han people". The same language in Taiwan is<br>
more often called "guoyu", the "national language". The written<br>
language is zhongwen, the literary language of the Central Kingdom.<br>
<br>
Some people say that zhongwen is the spoken language. That might<br>
be true to some extent because all dialects seem to be based upon<br>
the written language in its modern styling.<br>
<br>
There are an large number of local dialects with various modifications<br>
of pronunciation and usage in the spoken language. Some of them<br>
can be understood at least partially by most Chinese. One fellow<br>
said of the local language of the place where he was working that it<br>
was so strange that the people might as well be speaking English for<br>
all of it he could understand (he speaks no English except maybe Hello).<br>
<br>
Many of the local languages are said to be derived from Tang Dynasty<br>
Chinese. It's really hard for me to find how they know that since
there are<br>
so few extant audio recordings from the 8th century. It is also said
that<br>
Cantonese and related dialects like Vietnamese are relics of the Tang<br>
Dynasty language. I have noted that the language of Dr. Qiao's hometown<br>
has some similarities to Cantonese also. Modern Mandarin Chinese is<br>
said to have been heavily modified by the Manchu Qing Dynasty who were
from the<br>
north. <br>
<br>
Some Manchu place names in the North seem to have been assigned names
in Chinese<br>
characters by some wise guy with a sense of humour, like the Yalu River<br>
(Duck Green River) and town names like Hu-shi-ha which is nonsensical<br>
in Chinese.<br>
<br>
It has been said that the language changes every few kilometers. It
seems<br>
that TV and radio and education have done little to change that. People<br>
still seem comfortable with their local dialects. Indeed even<br>
different parts of Beijing have different dialects, but there is also<br>
a general Beijing dialect that uses lots of "r" sounds and nasal tones.<br>
Ge You, the famous actor/comic speaks a very classic and distinctive <br>
strongly Beijing dialect. I should learn to talk like him. I suppose<br>
he took some time to learn how to talk like that also.<br>
<br>
But the written language in its modern form is understood by all.<br>
There is a classic form of the language that is different in style<br>
from the modern "clear speech" style of writing. The modern style<br>
seems to save a lot of time.<br>
<br>
Chinese grammar is very simple but like Greek it seems backwards
sometimes because<br>
the subject and object seem misplaced relative to English. <br>
<br>
There is one syllable for each character, and since there are many more<br>
characters than there are syllables, there is much opportunity for <br>
clever puns and Cockneyed phraseologies. The internet community<br>
has its own language with Roman letters standing for certain syllables<br>
and even numbers like "2" as a shorthand for "250" which means "stupid"<br>
in Beijing dialect. (250 means the bottle is half full, typically<br>
directed toward some mindless bureaucrat...[500ml being a full bottle])<br>
<br>
The simpified forms of characters are at least as ancient as the complex<br>
forms it seems. Some ancient texts use very simplified forms not seen
in use<br>
today even with systematic simplification after by the '49ers.<br>
<br>
The complex forms are generally more beautiful or at least<br>
interesting but they take a lot of time to write and in informal writing<br>
the complex parts of characters are summarized with various squiggles.<br>
There are a lot of very obscure complex form characters. I have
undertaken to<br>
learn some of those particularly those that apply to my work.<br>
<br>
There are a lot of characters for various jargon pertaining<br>
to ancient ideas in animal husbandry. There are characters<br>
that mean a pig 2 weeks old, 1 month old, 3 years old, a sow, etc.,<br>
that most people do not know and perhaps have never seen unless<br>
they read some ancient texts or read the dictionary.<br>
<br>
The Arabians traded with the ancient Chinese and it seems clear that<br>
the Arabic numerals are derived from the Chinese number system as a <br>
they became written in everyday shorthand. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 are obvious<br>
shorthand Chinese. 7 in Chinese is the crossed 7 used in math and
physics simply <br>
inverted. Nine is a shorthand form of the Chinese nine sans tail. The
Chinese<br>
quite irritatingly often write 9 backwards so it looks like a P. They<br>
say it doesnt matter. I tell them it matters to me. The number 8 is a
<br>
bit more of a reach but it is a looped shorthand form of the Chinese 8,<br>
a fat downpointing alpha.<br>
<br>
*<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On 08/19/13 8:31, Carl G. Estabrook wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:DFFE9BE1-577A-4EA9-A759-C11CCD55BF3D@illinois.edu"
type="cite">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
How about this?
<div><br>
</div>
<div>~ "virtually" is an adverb modifying "any-," a special sort of
adjective (sometimes called a "determiner") modifying "-thing."</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>So the sentence would indeed imply that some things could not be
distributed but most things could.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Or perhaps it's just another indication of the inadequacy of
traditional English grammar. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>It was remarked long ago that English has no grammar, just a
rhetoric. But I'm sure Chomskyans would disagree. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I'd love to be able to consider a similar question in Mandarin...</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>--CGE</div>
<div><br>
<div>
<div>On Aug 18, 2013, at 5:42 PM, "E. Wayne Johnson 朱稳森" <<a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:ewj@pigsqq.org">ewj@pigsqq.org</a>>
wrote:</div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
<blockquote type="cite">
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<title></title>
<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
My English gets worse and worser.<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">we can distribute virtually anything we
come up
with</blockquote>
<br>
Is virtually an adverb modifying anything "virtually anything",<br>
implying that some things could not be distributed but most things
could?<br>
<br>
or<br>
<br>
Is virtually an adverb modifying distribute "distribute virtually"<br>
indicating use of an electronic medium for distribution?<br>
<br>
<br>
On 08/19/13 2:34, Stuart Levy wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:521113A1.7000908@illinois.edu" type="cite">
Hey Karen and everybody,<br>
<br>
We seem to be evenly split between meeting virtually vs meeting at 4.
Karen (Medina) and I are game to show up at 4 today, at the usual White
Horse, with whoever else would like to, for say not more than 45
minutes... and we can distribute virtually anything we come up with.<br>
<br>
<br>
Two important things I left out of the earlier note:<br>
<br>
1) Right, <b>Quad Day: Sunday, </b><b>Aug. 25th, noon-4PM.</b><br>
I haven't heard of any arrangements so far. I think David Green
was asking SJP whether they'd let us join them, but don't know if we've
heard back yet. The ISO also has a table, and perhaps we could ask
them. Both are near the northwest corner of the quad, in a ghetto
reserved for political groups, on a diagonal sidewalk just south of the
western side of the Illini Union.<br>
<br>
A question for us: if we have the chance to, <b>how should we
present ourselves</b> at Quad Day? We don't currently have a
what-is-AWARE flyer; <b>would anyone be up for work on creating one? </b>
In
any case, we could bring some recent demonstration flyers, and
possibly a demo sign if our host agrees to that. Carl liked one that
we'd been using at the Farmer's Market, celebrating three great
whistleblowers - Ellsberg, Manning, Snowden.<br>
<br>
In any case we'd want the signup clipboard. Gathering contact
information for interested people will be important.<br>
<br>
2) <b>March on Washington</b>, next <b>Sat, Aug 24th</b>.<br>
Next weekend is the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on
Washington. A large demo is planned for the 24th.<br>
<br>
The NAACP (at least) is organizing buses from around Illinois, and
trying to get people to DC. Several buses are planned from around the
state - not sure whether one is passing through C-U, but it could be,
and may depend on whether there's interest. The rally is Saturday
morning and afternoon, so I imagine a bus might leave (here or Peoria
or Kankakee) sometime Friday afternoon, and return some time Sunday.<br>
<br>
Patricia Avery, of the NAACP of Champaign County <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://naacpcc.org/">http://naacpcc.org</a>,
is
I think coordinating:<br>
patricicavery {at} <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://gmail.com">gmail.com</a> (yes, really
patricicavery).<br>
<br>
There are buses from Kankakee and Chicago; there's also one from
Springfield which could stop in C-U if there's enough interest. The
Springfield bus plans to stay overnight in DC ($99 hotel rooms), the
others will drive back after the rally.<br>
<br>
<big>What could people of the peace movement expect from this
event? There's been some discussion of that on the UFPJ mailing
list. Phyllis Bennis wrote:</big><br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div><font size="4"><small>If we look back at the October 2010
"One
Nation Together" march, the first re-connection of the labor and civil
rights movement in years, there was a similar challenge. Anti-war
organizations, especially UFPJ, were part of the organizing, but there
were no officially designated representatives of the peace movement
among the speakers. But when the UAW's Bob King and the great Harry
Belafonte took the stage, both wrapped powerful anti-war messages into
their speeches, and the huge crowd went wild.</small> </font></div>
<div> </div>
<br>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span
style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><font><font size="4">Harry
spoke of Dr. King's recognition in 1967 that the war in
Viet Nam was not only unconscionable, but also unwinnable. And then he
said </font></font></span></div>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span
style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"></span> </p>
<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> </font>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;"><font><span
style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">"</span><span
style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Calibri">Now today, almost half a
century later, as we gather in this place where Dr. King prayed for the
soul of this great nation … the wars that we wage today in far-away
lands are unconscionable, immoral, and unwinnable. </font></span><span
style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">…</span><span
style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Calibri">The president’ s
decision to escalate the war, in that region alone, costs the nation
$33 billion.</font></span><span
style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><font
face="Calibri"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">That sum of money could
not only create 600,000 jobs, but would even leave us a few million to
start rebuilding our schools, our roads, our hospitals and affordable
housing. It will also help to rebuild the lives of our returning
wounded veterans….</span><font size="3"> Peace is necessary for
justice. It is necessary for hope. It is necessary for our future.”</font></font></font></div>
<font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> </font>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Calibri" size="3"> </font></p>
<font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> </font>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><small><font><font size="4"><small><font
face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif">The crowd
roared. P<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">eople there
had largely been mobilized by the labor movement and the civil rights
movement, not the peace movement. But their openness, eagerness, to
take literature, engage in conversations, talk about the costs of war,
even buy t-shirts! - was amazing. They - not the count of speaker
affiliations - is still why we go.</span></font></small></font></font></small></div>
<small><br>
<br>
<font size="4"><small>There are plenty of limitations in how
the
leadership of next week's march, 50 years after the 1963 march on
Washington, is framing the issues - and the lack of a specific focus
on wars and military spending is certainly top of my list of problems.
But that's precisely why a major presence of anti-war and peace voices
needs to be there. Big protests are never only about who's on the stage
and what they say - although that's important. </small></font></small><br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 8/18/13 10:28 AM, Karen Aram
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:BAY177-W36B4A0A25E6314A31F7C5A3410@phx.gbl"
type="cite">
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<div>
<div dir="ltr">Stuart<br>
<br>
I am okay with 4:00pm. If you and Karen need a ride to the meeting, let
me know.<br>
<br>
Question: Do we share a table with a group at the Quad on Quad day?
Carl was going to ask David Green about that. If so, we need to discuss.<br>
<br>
I am also interested in discussing support and assistance for David
Green's campaign.<br>
<br>
Sorry, I wasn't at last weeks meeting so I am uninformed.<br>
<br>
Karen A.<br>
<br>
<div>
<hr id="ecxstopSpelling">Date: Sun, 18 Aug 2013 09:16:00 -0500<br>
From: <a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:salevy@illinois.edu">salevy@illinois.edu</a><br>
To: <a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:peace-discuss@anti-war.net">peace-discuss@anti-war.net</a><br>
CC: <a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:salevy@illinois.edu">salevy@illinois.edu</a><br>
Subject: [Peace-discuss] AWARE meeting - What do we need this week? (re
5pm Sun showing of locally-made film)<br>
<br>
Peaceable people,<br>
<br>
What do we need to decide at our next meeting, normally today at 5pm?<br>
<br>
It's at the same time as the only showing of a locally made film (<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://smilepolitely.com/arts/enter_house_of_thaddeus/"
target="_blank">"House of Thaddeus"</a>, 5pm sharp at the Art Theater,
today, Sunday the 18th). I'd really like to see this, maybe others
would too. Can we do business by e-mail today? Or, Karen suggests,
we could meet earlier, say 4pm. Or we could meet at 5 as usual. <br>
<br>
<br>
Upcoming events:<br>
<br>
10AM Tuesday, Aug 20th: Comprehensive Immigration Reform rally at
Rep. Rodney Davis' office, 2004 Fox Drive, Champaign.<br>
The Immigration Forum group is encouraging anyone interested in
immigration reform to attend this rally, to help press Davis to support
the cause. (In Peoria, Illinois People's Action recently got Aaron
Schock, a right-wing Republican, to agree to support having a path to
citizenship.)<br>
<br>
<br>
8-noon, Saturday, Aug 24th: still not sure whether we'll have a
space at Farmer's Market next week. The spaces are full, though
they're checking whether we might be able to be on a waiting list.<br>
<br>
<br>
1:30PM Sunday, Sep 1st, Champaign Public Library: David Green
announces his candidacy for US Congress!<br>
<br>
<br>
2-4PM Saturday, Sep 7th, Main & Neil: monthly demonstration.<br>
<br>
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</blockquote>
<br>
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