Timeline for How to Pronounce 化学 "Chemistry"?
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8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jun 18, 2014 at 21:39 | comment | added | blutorange | To me, if anything, this topic illustrates why Japanese might not need kanji; without them alternative words such as ばけがく would spread spread more quickly and gain acceptance. After all, there seems to be a need for such alternatives even now with kanji. | |
| Jun 18, 2014 at 17:15 | comment | added | Eiríkr Útlendi | @snailboat: Thanks for that, I knew the 旧字体 and that the lower portion of 売 was ultimately the same as 買, but I didn't know the 士 on top used to be 出. (Or, rather, I must have forgotten, as I see in my notes that I did know that at some point in the past. :) | |
| Jun 18, 2014 at 17:04 | comment | added | user1478 | @EiríkrÚtlendi You can see the relationship in the older forms of the characters, too: 売 was formerly 賣, which is 士 over 買, and 士 here is a simplified form of 出, so 売(賣) = 出＋買 "put out for buying" = "sell". | |
| Jun 18, 2014 at 16:56 | comment | added | Eiríkr Útlendi | @senshin, re: Chinese, both 売 and 買 are simply two sides of the same activity, so it kinda makes sense that they're almost the same word: 売 (mài, high falling tone), 買 (mǎi, low tone rising slightly at the end). For that matter, Japanese 買う is, at its root, the same word as 代う, 換う, 替う, 交う, all かう with a root meaning of "to trade, to swap, to exchange". By extension, these are the roots of かわる・かえる "to change". | |
| Jun 18, 2014 at 15:56 | comment | added | Kaji | @senshin That right there is an excellent justification for why Japanese needs kanji, thinking about it. Take those words written in kana and even with context it would be hard to tell which was intended. | |
| Jun 18, 2014 at 15:33 | comment | added | naruto | 中国語では「買売」でmai maiですが、アクセントが違うので困らないそうです(^^;) | |
| Jun 18, 2014 at 15:29 | comment | added | senshin | I feel like the 売【ばい】・買【ばい】 issue must come up a lot. It always struck me as weird that these two antonyms have the same reading (and even show up in the same word - 売買). | |
| Jun 18, 2014 at 15:25 | history | answered | naruto | CC BY-SA 3.0 |