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Why Do Analysts Keep Talking Nonsense About Chinese Words?
- mytailorisrich 5y agoInsightful article. There are, though, interesting tidbits in many Chinese characters regarding the idea they convey. For example, 'mother'. The article mentions 妈 (ma), which indeed does not imply much, but I think this is because it is mostly to express the universal 'mama' for mothers (and indeed 'papa' for fathers), which is phonetic in nature. But there is a character that specifically means 'mother': 母 (mu) [1]. This one is purely concept-based and its etymology is that it represents a woman with her breasts and nipples emphasised. As it happens (perhaps another case of 'word phrenology') it is sometimes said that in Chinese the concept of mother is more functional than biological. [1] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E6%AF%8D https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E6%AF%8D