All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken.
A light from the shadow shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

~J.R.R. Tolkien

Thursday, February 02, 2012

Wordy affair

I am too free.


A screencap from Chinese Characters. I think they are just very funny (in a benign way). Especially the last word, the radical (部首) is trying so hard to contain everything in it, which includes a heart, a horse and a moon xD. The pronunciation "biáng" is as funny as the word. Wiki says it refers to Biangbiang noodle. I wonder what are the ingredients of such noodle that it needs such complex expression to describe it, hmhm. It is said that the pronunciation comes from the noise the noodles make when cooked and eaten.

The first word, "zhé", comes with four dragons! Very appropriate for the Dragon Year, but its meaning is not very likable ><.
This really reminds me of hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia (pronounce it out loud and get your tongue twisted). I can't tell which one is more horrible if I were to be punished to write them a hundred times. xD These characters are really bad for the eyes if they ever appear in novels, and I used to think 憂鬱 (melancholy) is bad enough. Hekhek.

I discovered that the Hiragana and Katagana actually come from Chinese characters and kinda follow their respective pronunciations, quite surprised as I thought the kana systems are intentionally developed like the Korean hangul, though some kanas are very obvious derivation. Hemhemhem, no wonder katagana looks so Chinese.

Sources: Wikipedia


Huhuhu, I feel very excited upon this discovery. Very very interesting.