57
It's easier to rhyme in Mandarin than in English (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
28 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Just personal observation, maybe it feels different for a professional English song lyric composer.

I don't have a spreadsheet, but so many characters have the same ending sounds in Mandarin that I could easily find a rhyming word when writing song lyrics.

English is a struggle to find a rhyming word that fits into the context of the contents, and it feels kinda like a forced rhyme.

I haven't really spoken Mandarin for over 15 years, somehow it's still easier to do rhyming.

P.S. Cantonese has more variety of sounds and less characters have the same ending sounds, so its harder to rhyme in Cantonese.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 4 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Ok, it's a bit off topic, but can I ask a naive question?

What the reasoning behind the different terminologies for the Chinese languages? Usually I see them then referred to as Mandarin and Cantonese, but sometimes I see the terms "simplified Chinese" and "traditional Chinese". Or have I totally misunderstood what those terms mean? (Entirely possible)

Please forgive my ignorance.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] [S] 6 points 10 months ago* (1 child)

    "Chinese" can refer to a variety of languges in China.

    It could refer to 中文 --> Chinese Language
    It could refer to 汉字 --> "Han Characters" (aka: Chinese Characters)
    It could refer to 国语/普通话 --> National Language / Mandarin
    If its overseas, the English term "Chinese" could also refers to the overseas lingua franca, which historically had been Taishanese, but now is Cantonese, and slowly being replaced by Mandarin as more non-Cantonese Chinese people emigrate.
    Cantonese-Chinese people usually just ask "識唔識白話" ("Do you speak Cantonese?" in Cantonese), then if no response, immediately switch to Mandarin "普通话？" ("[Do you speak] Mandarin?")

    Cantonese, [could be refered to as any of the following: 廣東話/廣州話/廣府話/粵語/白話], is the "prestige dialect" of a variety of Chinese known as Yue-Chinese. In China, it's referred to as a "dialect". It's only used in Hong Kong and Guangdong, but overseas it was, and still kinda is, the lingua franca due to most of the diaspora being from there.

    Traditional 繁體 is the older set of characters that has been in use for... idk how long but a very long time.

    Simplified 简体 is the newer set of characters, standarized by the PRC Government after they won the KMT-CCP Civil War. It's to make writing easier and faster. ROC (aka: Taiwan) didn't adopt these simplifications. Hong Kong also didn't adopt the simplifications afaik.

    -Am a Native Speaker of both Cantonese and Mandarin, currently residing overseas

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    Other replies answered what's what. I think the reasoning for this many names is just there are many variants. After all, the current "nation" is several ethnic groups (many with their own languages) merged together for over thousands of years, spanning a large area.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 0 points 10 months ago
    • (Standard) Mandarin: the Chinese "dialect" that most westerner learns.
    • Chinese: languages such as mandarin, min, yue, which are not necessary mutually comprehensible. For example, there are eight tones in zh-min-nan, compared to four in standard mandarin. The grammar, common words and idioms are also somewhat different, although sloppy translations are unifying the grammar of zh-min-nan and mandarin in Taiwan.
    • SC, TC: They both refer to Standard Mandarin in most contexts, but different script and words are used. Mostly mutually comprehensible disregarding political issues. However, these two terms can also refer to the script (simplified vs. traditional) themselves. Note that TC shouldn't be mapped to zh-tw, since zh-tw and zh-hk are no less different that en-us and en-gb.
  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent