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All 5 items on Vale.Rocks categorised with the tag 'language'. Content relating to structured systems of communication, including speech and written scripts.

ActivityPub Bluesky

The use of ‘he/she’ really annoys me.

‘They’ is much more inclusive than ‘he/she’ and is also quicker to both say and write. Anyone using ‘he/she’ today is either forced to by some obtuse requirements, or is purposefully being bigoted.

‘(s)he’ is no better and is just as needlessly difficult. Also, it is always ‘he/she’, never ‘she/he’. ‘(s)he’ literally demotes the feminine pronoun with parenthesis.

Don’t get me started on cases where an entire document is written with masculine pronouns as ‘default’.

A far from perfect little table, but one that hopefully gets the point across and works as a reference. Scripts ≠ languages, with many scripts being used by many languages.

Script Indicators Example
Chinese Dense, complex, and boxy. 这里的门在哪？
Japanese Mixes dense Chinese-style characters with simpler curved kana symbols. 明日も仕事です。
Korean Highly geometric; lots of circles and straight lines. 어디로 가야 하죠?
Thai Tall, narrow letters with tiny loops/circles at the start of strokes. ตรงนี้มีอะไรขาย?
Khmer Similar to Thai but busier with wavy, ornate tops and more horizontal connection. ខ្ញុំមិនយល់ទេ។
Burmese Extremely round; looks like a collection of interlocking circles. Very few straight lines. ဘယ်လောက်ကြာမလဲ?
Devanagari (Hindi) Distinct horizontal bar connecting letters at the top. बस कब आएगी?
Bengali Has a top bar like Hindi, although segmented. Letters are more triangular/pointy. আমি এখনই আসছি।
Tamil No top bar. Curvy with blocky loops and square shapes. எனக்கு புரியவில்லை.
Sinhala Very curvy and ornate with spiral-like curves. මට ඒක දෙන්න.
Tibetan Top-heavy characters with a horizontal line and long, sharp vertical descenders. ག་རེ་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ཡོད།
Vietnamese Latin alphabet with lots of diacritics (often multiple on the same character). Cửa hàng đóng cửa rồi.
Arabic Flowing connected cursive written right-to-left; many dots above/below letters. هل هذا صحيح؟
Cyrillic Similar to Latin alphabet but with distinctive letters including Ж, Д, Ы, Ф. Как это работает?
Lao Similar to Thai but rounder and less vertically tall. ເຮັດຫຍັງຢູ່?
Gurmukhi Straight top line like Devanagari but with more open rounded forms. ਮੈਨੂੰ ਪਤਾ ਨਹੀਂ।
Telugu Very round with many hanging curves and circular shapes. నాకు అర్థం కాలేదు.
Kannada Rounded like Telugu but more compact and angular. ಇದು ಎಲ್ಲಿ ಸಿಗುತ್ತದೆ?
Hebrew Blocky right-to-left script with compact letters and few curves. מה השעה עכשיו?

Japanese is full of 外gai来rai語go (loanwords), especially from English. A lot of these words end up sounding like English terms with a Japanese accent.

For example, ‘table’ translates to テtēーーブbuルru. The reason for the pronunciation change is that Japanese has a strict moraic structure where most consonants must be followed by a vowel, which here introduces a ‘u’ (though in most dialects it is a devocalised vowel). Additionally, Japanese has a single liquid phoneme, rather than distinct /r/ and /l/ sounds, so the English /l/ sound becomes a Japanese /r/ sound. Thus, テtēーーブbuルru.

Some people misinterpret adoption of a Japanese accent for pronunciation as insensitive, but the language’s phonetic structure necessitates use of Japanese phonology. Words adopted into Japanese are transcribed into Katakana – the original versions are incorrect in Japanese. Using the native Japanese rhythm ensures the word is recognisable and flows naturally within the sentence.

Chinese pronunciations are not intuitive for English speakers. The Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, also known as Hanyu Pinyin or just pīnyīn, is a romanised version of Chinese that uses Latin letters in ways that don’t match typical English usage.

This cheat sheet is not comprehensive but does cover the basics and many common pitfalls.

Consonants

The primary hurdle is the distinction between the J, Q, X sounds (tongue forward/down) and the Zh, Ch, Sh sounds (tongue curled back).

Pinyin Sounds Like… Examples / Notes
C Ts Like the end of ‘cats’.
Z Dz Like the end of ‘suds’.
J Jee Like ‘edge’.
Q Chee A sharp, aspirated ‘ch’ .
X Shee A soft ‘sh’ with the tongue behind the lower teeth.
Zh J Tongue curled back, like the ‘j’ in ‘judge’.
Ch Ch Tongue curled back, like ‘church’.
Sh Sh Tongue curled back, like ‘shore’.
R R / Zh Not a rolled ‘r’. Buzzy, like the ‘s’ in ‘pleasure’.

Vowels & Combinations

Pinyin vowels often change their sound based on the consonants they follow.

Pinyin Sounds Like… Examples / Notes
-i (after zh, ch, sh, r, z, c, s) (Buzzing) A ‘hollow’ vowel; a buzzy extension of the consonant.
-i (after others) Ee Like ‘see’.
e Uh Like the ‘u’ in ‘but’ or the ‘a’ in ‘about’.
-ou Oh Like ‘no’ or ‘tone’.
-ao Ow Like ‘how’ or ‘now’.
-ian Ee-en Often mispronounced, but is closer to ‘yen’.
-ü (Pursed Ee) Make an ‘ee’ sound while rounding your lips into a tight ‘O’.

Common Pitfalls

  • The Hidden ‘ü’: When the ü sound follows J, Q, X, or Y, the umlaut is dropped. Even if written as Ju, it is pronounced like Jü.
  • The ‘ui’ Shortcut: Pinyin -ui is shorthand for -uei. Therefore, Hui sounds more like ‘Hway’ than ‘Hoo-ee’.
  • Unvoiced Consonants: In Pinyin, B, D, and G are ‘unvoiced’. This means B sounds closer to a soft English P, and D sounds closer to a soft English T.

The Four Tones

  1. First (mā): High and level (like a sustained singing note).
  2. Second (má): Rising (like a question: ‘What?’).
  3. Third (mǎ): Low and dipping (like a slow, hesitant ‘Well…’).
  4. Fourth (mà): Sharp and falling (like a firm command: ‘Stop!’).