h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Got a new language for you...Mandarin Chinese.
A267987
please put it up on your page.
Cantonese Chinese also in progress.
Mike

Hey mikonet,

Welcome to 'the guide'.

You've probably been around for a while by now but we haven't had the opportunity to meet as yet.

for 'The Blurb' go here : http://www.h2g2.com/A221789

Thanks for the link to Mandarin, I will put it up as soon as I can - bit pressed for time at the moment. From what I remember, there are several different tones involved in most dialects of chinese, so maybe you could consider including a brief run down about prnounciation. Will come in especially handy for the Cantonese link.

Anyway, see you around some time, and thanks once again.

Thank you very much! Is it alright if I put the tone markings in gradually? I'd have to make a graphic for each word in order to do that, and it'll take some time to figure out how best to do that. Be glad to explain the tones, but few westerners can actually do them unless they've lived here for awhile...sometimes not even then.

Oh, got another page for you too A268337 Non-Chinese languages of China
Thanks! Take your time!
Mike

Hi Mike,

Of course it's alright - take as much time as you need. It's an on-going project, and I'm not really going to have time to update it until mid-march at the earliest anyway, when hopefully I'll be adding a list of translators who are also guide researchers (care to volunteer?), as well as a few more outstanding updates. (outstanding as in overdue, not as in absolutely mind-meltingly good - though who knows?)

I've thought of something that may assist you with the tones, though :

Tone 1: high level

Tone 2: high rising

Tone 3: mid level

Tone 4: low falling (or extra low level)

Tone 5: low rising

Tone 6: low level.


e g - In Cantonese :

fan 1 (divide)
fan 2 (powder)
fan 3 (sleep)
fan 4 (tomb)
fan 5 (energetic)
fan 6 (status)

Then you would't really have to spend time thinking and developing graphics, and could get on with having fun in 'The Guide'

Sounds like you don't need me for the Cantonese at least!
*sigh* I guess numbers will have to do. Very inelegant, though. 4 1/2 for Mandarin, 6-9 for Cantonese, depending on who you talk to, and different numbers for the other Chinese languages. Even Miao has tones. I would be happy to volunteer for Mandarin (SHORT stuff...no term papers!) and Cantonese, too I guess. No formal training in Cantonese, however...just kinda picked it up along the way. And if anyone ever volunteered to help with the non Chinese China languages (yeah, right) I would be delighted

Hi Taipan!
Changed around which words to use for Mandarin
Got a Cantonese page up
Got a Shanghainese page up
Beginning to work on pronuciation for all three. Mand. will be easy, Cant. I'll have to look up as I learned it by ear, shanghai I only know from a book and tapes anyway, so should be just a matter of figuring out the romanization they use.

So, total language pages:

A267987 Handy Mandarin
Chinese Phrases
A269372 Handy Cantonese
Chinese Phrases
A269408 Handy Shanghai
Chinese phrases
A268337 Phrasebook:
Non-Chinese languages of
China

I might make a Chaozhou/Taiwanese page too....should I be making an index page for all of these?

Hey mike,

This is absolutely great. Well done!

I think I may have some time today to start working on the clinic and updating it for your links. You don't need to worry about an index of these links, as I'll be re-arranging the clinic layout shortly, as long as I have the reference numbers when your done.

Thanks.

Thanks Taipan.
This should be the last one....I don't have access to any other languages.....I'll be working on polishing up, improving the vocab list, and putting explanations of whatever sound systems I end up using on the ones we already have now. So here's the *last* one (until I get a chance to visit Hunan, Meixian, or the other few places that have different Chinese languages....which won't be for quite a while, if ever).

A269912 Handy
Chaozhou/Taiwanese Chinese
phrases

hmmm....ya didn't take the non-Chnese languages of China phrasebook... Any way I can improve it?
China has 55 minority groups, most of which have several different dialects/languages. For example, Tibetans have 2 or 3, Miao supposedly have more than 80.
Mike

Mike, sorry - meant to mail you about this yesterday.

I haven't included it yet as I believe we need a bit more input on this one. I know it can be pretty tough to get hold of so I would suggest you pop on over to Petas' Picks at http://www.h2g2.com/A192791 and ask for some input from other researchers and who knows - there could very well be a flock of people wishing to contribute to this.

If you do get any further input, drop me a line and I'll put a link to it from the clinic.

Happy researching!

hmmmm........on most of them I kinda doubt it, but maybe tibetan or uygur....I'll try...
by the way, did you realize that on your Merry Christmas page that both Chinese ones are way too formal to use in anything other than either in writing, or as part of formal public speaking? If you were looking for the everyday way of saying it, it would be Sheng4 dan4 kuai4 le4 in Mandarin and something like Sang dan fai lok in Cantonese...I'd have to look up the spelling on the Cantonese. Of course, some people like the formal (esp. in Taiwan).