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Author Topic: That's interesting  (Read 202 times)

Offline AKIron

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That's interesting
« on: June 30, 2003, 01:37:26 PM »
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=571&ncid=571&e=8&u=/nm/20030630/hl_nm/brain_language_dc_2

"The word "ma" for example can mean mother, scold, horse or hemp, depending on the tone."

Kinda bizarre having the same word for all four of those. I'd love to hear it pronounced each of those ways.
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Offline Curval

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That's interesting
« Reply #1 on: June 30, 2003, 01:50:48 PM »
There are lots of Vietnamese words that rely on intonation to bring meaning.  My wife tried a few examples on me...they all sounded like gobbledygook to me....I could not tell one from the other...causing her to have fits because I could not hear the difference.
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Offline AKIron

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That's interesting
« Reply #2 on: June 30, 2003, 02:00:39 PM »
Had a friend in Okinawa (native Okinawan) that tried to teach me a bit of Japanese. He tried to correct me by exaggerating my errors. Listening to him do my Texas drawl had me in stitches.
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