Comments for Echoes of Manchu

Comment on Sanjiazi 04: The school museum by xongkoro

xongkoro — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 14:28:34 +0000

How do you do ?Mr.Alexander,can you speak manchu?
As I know in manchu language “be” can be omitted in the condition that the whole sentence cann`t be misunderstand ;for exaple:
he has meal:i buda (be)jembi
I read book:bi bithe (be) hvlambi
you spaek manchu:si manju gisun (be) gisurembi
very nice to see your website !I am a manchu living in Shenyang !

Comment on Sanjiazi 04: The school museum by xongkoro

xongkoro — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 13:44:32 +0000

saiyvn?bucin agu!

Comment on Sanjiazi 04: The school museum by bucin

bucin — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 01:07:57 +0000

inu, sini gisun yargiyan kai
manju gisun umesi hocikosaka, bi erebe cihalambi!

be manju gisuni leoleki = be manjuraki

Comment on Sanjiazi 04: The school museum by Randy Alexander

Randy Alexander — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 09:10:07 +0000

@bucin: I’ve seen it in some books that way, and it would mean the same thing, but I don’t think that’s exactly what he said. Of course, there are usually many ways of saying things in every language.

Comment on Sanjiazi 04: The school museum by bucin

bucin — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:46:37 +0000

“si manju gisun gisureme mutembinio” = si manjurambio?

Comment on Sanjiazi 03: A bump in the road, and arrival by Echoes of Manchu » Sanjiazi 04: The school museum

Echoes of Manchu » Sanjiazi 04: The school museum — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 02:19:48 +0000

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Comment on Sanjiazi 02: Journey to the … South? by Echoes of Manchu » Sanjiazi 04: The school museum

Echoes of Manchu » Sanjiazi 04: The school museum — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 00:43:50 +0000

[...] entries: 1, 2, [...]

Comment on Sanjiazi 04: The school museum by Gertraude (Traudl) Roth Li

Gertraude (Traudl) Roth Li — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 06:34:18 +0000

Thanks for another great post, Randy. About your “si manju gisun gisureme mutembinio”: It is quite common for the accusative “be” to be omitted, especially with common phrases or compounds, as in this case “gisun gisurembi”. I doubt that he swallowed it!

Comment on Sanjiazi 04: The school museum by syz

syz — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 02:02:59 +0000

Since apparently you were too shy to explicate the wordplay in the cow caption, I’ll do it for you.

The caption reads: 铁杆庄稼 “黑白花” i.e. tiěgǎn zhuāngjia “hēibái huā”. The second part is straightforward enough — “hēibái huā” is literally “black and white flowers” but my ABC Dictionary says it’s used to mean black-and-white spotted for an animal, so it’s quite prosaic. In the first part, tiěgǎn means “iron rod” and zhuāngjia is “crop.” Tiěgǎn is also used figuratively to mean “guaranteed/surefire”, so a good translation of the whole phrase would be “cash crop,” I think, but an even better translation would be Randy’s “cash cow”!

Great post overall, with enough actual Manchu to increase the suspense for the next Sanjiazi post. But I think the captions take the cake. It just doesn’t get any better than “happy ethnic dance”!

Comment on Sanjiazi 01: An Unexpected Party by Echoes of Manchu » Sanjiazi 04: The school museum

Echoes of Manchu » Sanjiazi 04: The school museum — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:24:15 +0000

[...] entries: 1, 2, [...]