One of my favorite things in language are tongue twisters. I’m horrible at them, but they’re still fun to learn, to learn about, and to attempt! One of my QQ friends (Jennifer) recently asked me for some English tongue twisters, and then offered one in Chinese. The ones I gave her were “Woodchuck” (both question and answer), and then I told her about Dr. Seuss, and gave her the full text of “Fox in Socks”. The tongue twister she gave to me is actually a song, sung by “SHE” (a band of three girls) and entitled 中国话 (zhongguohua, or “Spoken Chinese” / “Chinese language”). I haven’t spent much time on the lyrics yet, but maybe I will come back and add pinyin (and translation if I’m really ambitious). Without further ado, the tongue-twister song lyrics:
扁担宽 板凳长
扁担想绑在板凳上
板凳不让扁担绑在板凳上
扁担偏要绑在板凳上
板凳偏偏不让扁担绑在那板凳上
到底扁担宽还是板凳长
哥哥弟弟坡前坐
坡上卧著一只鹅
坡下流著一条河
哥哥说 宽宽的河
弟弟说 白白的鹅
鹅要过河 河要渡鹅
不知是那鹅过河
还是河渡鹅
孔夫子的话 越来越国际化
全世界都在讲中国话
我们说的话 让世界都认真听话
纽约苏珊娜 开了间禅风Lounge Bar
柏林来的沃夫冈 拿胡琴配著电吉他
各种颜色的皮肤 各种颜色的头发
嘴里念的说的开始流行中国话
多少年我们苦练英文发音和文法
这几年换他们卷著舌头学平上去入的变化
平平仄仄平平仄 (仄仄平平仄仄平)
好聪明的中国人 好优美的中国话
有个小孩叫小杜
上街打醋又买布
买了布 打了醋
回头看见鹰抓兔
放下布 搁下醋
上前去追鹰和兔
飞了鹰 跑了兔
洒了醋 湿了布
嘴说腿 腿说嘴
嘴说腿 爱跑腿
腿说嘴 爱卖嘴
光动嘴 不动腿
光动腿 不动嘴
不如不长腿和嘴
到底是那嘴说腿 还是腿说嘴
全世界都在学中国话
孔夫子的话 越来越国际化
全世界都在讲中国话
我们说的话 让世界都认真听话
全世界都在学中国话
孔夫子的话 越来越国际化
全世界都在讲中国话
我们说的话 让世界都认真听话
2 Comments
Nope. I was wrong. Staring at the Chinese characters doesn’t spontaneously resolve into anything understandable.
You’re wrong in being wrong, my good sir. The Chinese characters mostly stem from drawings of their meaning, put to a system. Of course, they are highly stylized and Simplified has complicated matters even moreso (at least with regards to direct link between visual character and abstract idea; however, it has simplified the written language immensely).
Of course, I could talk all I wanted, but I think that listing a few examples would give you a better understanding of the connection between character and meaning:
男 – male (man)
女 – female (woman)
人 – person (man)This is not displaying properly for me. Strange, as it is one of the more common characters.儿子 – son / child
好 – good (mother with child is a good thing)
学 – study (enlightened child)
朋友 – friend
好友 – good friend
爱 – to love
口 – mouth
说 – to speak
话 – speech / spoken word
叫 – to call / be called
中 – middle
国 – country / kingdom
中国 – China (middle kingdom)
火 – fire
上 – up / on top of
下 – down / below
Notice that some of those examples show how one can sometimes determine the general realm of a character’s meaning simply by recognizing parts within it. Of course, it takes training and you can’t just learn a few parts and try to understand the entire language. I think it can, in some ways, be compared to the prefixes, suffixes, and root-words in the English language.