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It's a portmanteau (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau); the Chinese aren't exactly unaware of the existence
by ThrowawayR2 8y ago
It's a portmanteau (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau); the Chinese aren't exactly unaware of the existence of sounds outside the pinyin system. 穷 (qiong4) and 丑 (chou3) combine to make "qiou", though I can't even guess which tone it would be.
- yorwba 8y agoSomeone already commented [0] on that below the Weibo post linked in the article. The Pinyin system doesn't always represent the same sound by the same letter sequence. There are usually two forms, depending on whether the syllable starts with a consonant or a (semi-)vowel. The combination "iou" is written "you" when it stands alone and "qiu" when the syllable starts with "q". Writing it "qiou" is just to emphasize the parts of the portmanteau. [0] https://m.weibo.cn/status/4319254188133873 https://m.weibo.cn/status/4319254188133873
- Ericson2314 8y agoThank you for answering my question and not confusing phonetics and orthography.
- vorg 8y ago> 穷 (qiong4) and 丑 (chou3) combine to make "qiou", 穷 is actually qiong2, i.e. 2nd tone > though I can't even guess which tone it would be. Because 没 (mei2) and 有 (you3) combine to make 冇 (mao3), I'm guessing 穷 (qiong2) and 丑 (chou3) combine to make qiou3, i.e. 3rd tone.
- Ericson2314 8y agore 冇: cool, didn't know about that one (My mandarin is shit). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%86%87 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%86%87 says it's actually a lone from Cantonese, which contradicts what you said a bit, but is also cool. I wonder what other examples of non-Madarin dialects influencing the national slang exist.