@justinrleung
Christ follower, PhDing @uoftlinguistics.bsky.social (heritage languages, LVC, morphosyntax, Cantonese), editing and admining @enwiktionary.bsky.social, learning (about) languages. Prov. 3:5–6. 效基督、學語言、語言學。箴三5–6。 🇨🇦🇭🇰😅
Hi friends, I'm looking for participants in the Greater Toronto for another round of research! Please help me share this widely!
大家好，我嘅研究需要大多倫多地區講廣東話嘅人士嘅參與！請大家幫手分享出去！
Link to the registration form 報名表格: forms.cloud.microsoft/r/R5t4LfwbnN
#Cantonese #廣東話 #Toronto #多倫多 #linguistics #語言學
Hi friends, I'm looking for participants in the Greater Toronto for another round of research! Please help me share this widely!
大家好，我嘅研究需要大多倫多地區講廣東話嘅人士嘅參與！請大家幫手分享出去！
Link to the registration form 報名表格: forms.cloud.microsoft/r/R5t4LfwbnN
#Cantonese #廣東話 #Toronto #多倫多 #linguistics #語言學
"Immanuel, God with us" in the most spoken languages in the world, with an etymology tree for "Immanuel". Attribution for illustrations: Matt Cole
“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). - Matthew 1:23
Merry Christmas!
canto.hk/youth-2025/
犀利，竟然可以集合到咁多小朋友寫嘅粵文作品！
A really cool collection of Cantonese stories and poetry from kids all around the world!
Cantonese Speakers Needed! Participate in a linguistics experiment! How do Cantonese speakers in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) perceive sentences? Help us by participating in our experiment on your own computer! Who we are looking for: Group 1: Born in Hong Kong, immigrated to the GTA after the age of 18, lived in the GTA for over 20 years Group 2: Born in the GTA or came from Hong Kong to the GTA before the age of 6, your parents are from Hong Kong You will receive a gift card for participating ($15 CAD/hour)! Register @ https://forms.office.com/r/sVQfiPYUhD For enquiries, contact: justinr.leung@mail.utoronto.ca Linguistics, University of Toronto
誠邀講廣東話人士 參與語言學實驗！ 大多倫多地區講廣東話嘅人士 係點樣理解句子㗎呢？ 您可以用自己嘅電腦幫手參與實驗！ 招募對象： 第一組：香港出世，18歲後移民到大多地區，住大多地區已超過20年 第二組：大多地區出世，或6歲前由香港移民嚟大多地區，父母來自香港 參與者可以獲得禮品咭乙張（每小時加幣$15） 報名表格：https://forms.office.com/r/sVQfiPYUhD 查詢請電郵致： justinr.leung@mail.utoronto.ca Linguistics, University of Toronto 多倫多大學語言學系
Hi friends, I'm looking for participants for my research! Please help me share this widely!
大家好，我嘅研究需要您嘅參與！請大家幫手分享出去！
Link to the registration form 報名表格: forms.office.com/r/sVQfiPYUhD
#Cantonese #廣東話 #Toronto #多倫多
Bag with a music score, treble clef, 4/4 time. The lyrics are 三碗細牛腩麵 saam1 wun2 sai3 ngau4 naam5 min6.
Look for this bag during the poster session, and learn about my new project on heritage Cantonese in Toronto #NWAV53
(special thanks to Jon Chui of canto.hk for sending this lovely bag my way right in time for NWAV!)
Chapter by Angelika Kiss, Roger Lo and myself on Cantonese sentence-final particles in rhetorical questions is finally out 😊
It is that time of year again for linguistics students to start thinking of graduate school applications. In order to help them out, I wrote the following blog post. It is by far the most popular blog post I ever wrote. ordinaryworkinggrammarian.blogspot.com/2019/12/writ...
Poster by Dialect Exchange 方言广场, with an anatomical diagram of a pig's digestive system. Text on the poster: DID YOU KNOW? Pig's intestines (豬腸) in TEOCHEW is called (豬番) "de¹ huang¹" DE¹ HUANG¹ While "intestines" itself is called 腸 in TEOCHEW, only the word 番 "huang¹" is used for "pig's intestine" because 腸 "deng⁵" happens to rhyme with 唐 "deng⁵" (Chinese people) in TEOCHEW, so 番 (Barbarians) is substituted as 豬番 for 豬腸
Cool post I stumbled upon explaining why 豬腸 became 豬番 in Teochew... but it just irks me a bit when people say things "rhyme" when they are *homophones*... They're technically not wrong but what about the maxim of quantity 🤓
Just learned today that some people write #Cantonese jyun4 dam4 doe4 /jyn˨˩ tɐm˨˩ tœ˨˩/ 'very round' (ideophonic form of 圓 jyun4 'round') as "圓 dum the" 😂
香港地道粵語達人挑戰 ２號室 Total points: 912/1000
唔知大家做成點呢？ #廣東話 #Cantonese #香港地道粵語達人挑戰
forms.gle/9wKCwoZsyQ4T...
I am utterly shocked and saddened by the news of Andrew West‘s @babelstone.co.uk untimely passing. He was a huge inspiration, an impressive scholar, and a kind and generous person.
FAMA PER ORA VOLAT
SPIRITUS ASTRA TENET
Is "mouse" 🐁🖱️ losing its polysemous status and turning into a case of homophony? A couple of students have already told me that they're confused why "mouse" is polysemous but "bat" 🦇🏏 is homophonous. Does it have something to do with mouses becoming "tail"less? 🤔
big fan of wiktionary's "hot words"
A plate of Mongolian buuz (steamed meat dumplings). By Mizu basyo (CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mongolian_buuz.jpg).
#Wiktionary #FWOTD for 21 May 2025 (World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development): “buuz • ᠪᠤᠤᠽ” (Mongolian)—“steamed meat dumpling”. Borrowed from Borrowed from Mandarin “包子” (bāozi) en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktion...
He is risen!
cartoon image of anthropomorphized yellow taxi smiling and giving a thumbs-up with one large white hand
A 🧵 on dǎdī 打的.
The Mandarin word dǎdī 打的 meaning ‘hail a cab’, ‘ride in a taxi’ is strange, right? It sounds strange. It looks strange. What’s up with this word?
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A sign at the entrance of Kim Hung Bakery 金興餅家 (959 N Broadway, Los Angeles, California), behind an iron gate. Among the list of items on the sign is 鬆化蛋⿰米達 sung1 faa3 daan6 taat1 'crisp and flaky egg tarts'.
Interesting way of writing taat1 'tart' sighted in LA Chinatown ❤️: <⿰米達> with a 米 'rice' radical instead of the usual <撻>, a phonetic borrowing.
This character is already under the radar of the Ideographic Research Group, so hopefully this will be encoded soon 😊 hc.jsecs.org/irg/ws2024/a...
A copy of Chinese Characters Across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came to Write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese by Zev Handel
Finally received a copy of Chinese Characters Across Asia by @zevhandel.bsky.social ! Looking forward to reading it!
The screen grab of the Boston Morning Post, 23 March 1839: The above is from the Providence Journal, the editor of which is a little too quick on the trigger, on this occasion. We said not a word about our deputation passing "through the city" of Providence. We said our brethren were going to New York in the Richmond, and they did go, as per Post of Thursday. The "Chairman of the Committee on Charity Lecture Bells," is one of the deputation, and perhaps if he should return to Boston, via Providence, he of the Journal, and his trein-band, would have the "contribution box," et ceteras, o.k.—all correct—and cause the corks to fly, like sparks, upward
Happy OK Day!
On 23 March 1839, the word OK appeared for the first time in the Boston Morning Globe. It was a humorous abbreviation for "oll korrect". Funny abbreviations were kind of a fad at the time, kind of like the netspeak we see today.
We at Because Language hope your day is OK.
A photo of the book Chinese Characters Across Asia by Zev Handel
🎉 🎉 🎉
Have you ever noticed that there is something strange about the Mandarin word wǎsī '(natural) gas'? Looking at the written form 瓦斯, it just doesn’t seem like a typical Chinese compound word. What's a roof tile got to do with gas?
Let’s see if we can figure out what’s going on. 加油!
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Map of China and Taiwan, showing some examples of other names in Chinese languages: 官話 Mandarin > 成都(蓉) Chengdu: 梭老二 ꜀so ꜂nau ɚ꜄ 'slithery second sibling' > 樂山(樂) Leshan: 乾黃鱔 ꜀kan ꜁xuaŋ san꜄ 'dry eel' > 昭通(昭) Zhaotong: 老梭 ꜂naɔ ꜀so 'old slither' 吳語 Wu > 松江(松) Songjiang: 長頭 ꜁zæ̃꜁dɯ 'long one' 湘語 Xiang > 雙峰(雙) Shuangfeng: 溜子 ꜀liʊ ꜂tsɿ 'slithery one' 客語 Hakka > 苗栗(苗) Miaoli: 土龍 ꜂tʰu ꜁liuŋ 'earth dragon' > 銅鼓(銅) Tonggu: 溜哥 ꜀liu ꜀ko 'slithery brother' 閩南語 Southern Min > 高雄(高) Kaohsiung: 溜 ꜀liu 'slither' 鄉話 Waxiang > 沅陵(沅) Yuanling: 虺 ꜂ɸi
Happy Year of the Wood Snake! (your slithery second sibling)
蛇出山穴喜報春!
#CNY2025 #CNY #LunarNewYear
H/t @justinrleung.bsky.social for the map.
I have never heard 蛇 snake called 溜 “liu” (meaning: slither) in Taiwanese, but apparently some people do because of the belief from the old agrarian days that calling the snake by its name 蛇 “tsua” will invite it to come your way 😅
On that note, Happy “Liu” Year！ 🐍
That's it from me! Any interesting etymologies for 'snake' in other languages?
May you be "shrewd as snakes 靈巧像蛇" in this new year! God bless! 5/5
Map of China and Taiwan, showing some examples of other names in Chinese languages: 官話 Mandarin > 成都(蓉) Chengdu: 梭老二 ꜀so ꜂nau ɚ꜄ 'slithery second sibling' > 樂山(樂) Leshan: 乾黃鱔 ꜀kan ꜁xuaŋ san꜄ 'dry eel' > 昭通(昭) Zhaotong: 老梭 ꜂naɔ ꜀so 'old slither' 吳語 Wu > 松江(松) Songjiang: 長頭 ꜁zæ̃꜁dɯ 'long one' 湘語 Xiang > 雙峰(雙) Shuangfeng: 溜子 ꜀liʊ ꜂tsɿ 'slithery one' 客語 Hakka > 苗栗(苗) Miaoli: 土龍 ꜂tʰu ꜁liuŋ 'earth dragon' > 銅鼓(銅) Tonggu: 溜哥 ꜀liu ꜀ko 'slithery brother' 閩南語 Southern Min > 高雄(高) Kaohsiung: 溜 ꜀liu 'slither' 鄉話 Waxiang > 沅陵(沅) Yuanling: 虺 ꜂ɸi
Some other names, many of which reflect the slithering and length of the snake, or analogy to similar creatures.
One exception among these is 虺, which is the rare retention of the ancient (probably Sino-Tibetan) word for snake in Waxiang! /4
Map of China and Taiwan, showing some examples of respectful names in different Chinese languages: 官話 Mandarin > 貴陽(貴) Guiyang: 老蛇 ꜂lau ꜁se 客語 Hakka > 梅縣(梅) Meixian: 蛇哥 ꜁sa ꜀ko 閩東語 Eastern Min > 福州(榕) Fuzhou: 老蛇 lau꜅ ꜁lie (< s-) 莆仙語 Puxian Min > 莆田(莆) Putian: 大蛇 tua꜅ ꜁lyɒ (< ɬ-)
In some Chinese languages, some morpheme showing "respectful familiarity towards harmful creatures" (Jerry Norman 1988) may be in the name, e.g. 老蛇 in some southern Mandarin dialects, Eastern Min and Puxian Min, the same 老 'old, venerable' as in 老虎 🐯 and 老鼠 🐭. /3
Map of China and Taiwan, with the pronunciations of 長蟲 in different Chinese languages: 官話 Mandarin > 北京(京) Beijing: ꜁ʈʂʰaŋ ·ʈʂʰuŋ > 赤峰(赤) Chifeng: ꜁ʈʂʰaŋ ꜁ʈʂʰuŋ > 達州(達) Dazhou: ꜁tsʰaŋ ꜁tsʰoŋ > 海拉爾(海) Hailar: ꜁ʈʂʰaŋ ꜁ʈʂʰuŋ > 哈爾濱(哈) Harbin: ꜁ʈʂʰaŋ ·ʈʂʰuŋ > 昆明(昆) Kunming: ꜁ʈʂʰã ꜁ʈʂʰoŋ > 蘭州(蘭) Lanzhou: ꜁ʈʂʰɔŋ ·pfʰən > 連雲港(連) Lianyungang: ꜁ʈʂʰaŋ ꜁tsʰoŋ > 青島(青) Qingdao: tʃʰaŋ꜄ ·ʈʂʰoŋ > 瀋陽(瀋) Shenyang: ꜁tsʰaŋ ·tsʰuŋ > 烏魯木齊(烏) Ürümqi: ꜂ʈʂʰaŋ ·ʈʂʰuŋ > 西安(鎬) Xi'an: ꜁ʈʂʰɑŋ ·pfʰəŋ > 襄陽(襄) Xiangyang: ꜁tsʰaŋ ꜁tsʰoŋ > 銀川(銀) Yinchuan: ꜁ʈʂʰaŋ ꜁ʈʂʰuŋ 晉語 Jin > 長治(潞) Changzhi: ꜁ʈʂʰaŋ ꜁ʈʂʰuŋ > 臨河(臨) Linhe: ꜁ʈʂʰɑ̃ ꜁ʈʂʰuŋ 粵語 Yue > 鬱林(鬱) Yulin: ꜁tɕa ꜁tɕoŋ
A colloquial term for the snake, most common in northern China, is 長蟲 'long worm'. /2
Map of China and Taiwan, with the pronunciations of 蛇 in different Chinese languages: 官話 Mandarin > 合肥(合) Hefei: ꜁ʂe > 柳州(柳) Liuzhou: ꜁siɛ > 蒙自(蒙) Mengzi: ꜁sɔ > 武漢(漢) Wuhan: ꜁sɤ > 遵義(遵) Zunyi: ꜁sei 晉語 Jin > 太原(并) Taiyuan: ꜀sɤ 吳語 Wu > 上海(滬) Shanghai: zo꜅ > 溫州(甌) Wenzhou: ꜁zei 湘語 Xiang > 長沙(長) Changsha: ꜁ʂa > 婁底(婁) Loudi: ꜁ʑiɔ 贛語 Gan > 南昌(昌) Nanchang: sa꜄ 客語 Hakka > 河婆(河) Hepo: ꜁ʃa 粵語 Yue > 香港(港) Hong Kong: ꜁sɛ 平話 Pinghua > 南寧(邕) Nanning: ꜁se 閩北語 Northern Min > 建甌(芝) Jian'ou: yɛ꜄ 閩南語 Southern Min > 廈門(廈) Xiamen: ꜁tsua 瓊語 Hainanese > 海口(椰) Haikou: ꜁tua
蛇年大吉！Happy Year of the Snake!
Here are different ways the Chinese languages have landed on naming the slithery creature 🧵
The most common name is 蛇, attested in the oracle bones as 它. (The etymology of this word is uncertain; see en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%9B%87) /1