Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Chinese language

The Chinese tend to pronounce bs as ps which is where the word Pidgin, as in Pidgin English comes from: it derives from the word "business" via the intermediate mispronunciation "pidginess". This was brought home to me today when I was talking to a cab driver in Singapore. He told me that the Chinese word for "yes" is "sir" and "no" is "poosir", describing it thus, "The Chinese word for 'no' is 'poosir', just like 'bush', President Bush: we call him President Poosir!"

4 Comments:

Blogger Eurodog said...

I'll stick to Flemish.

8:36 am  
Blogger Welshcakes Limoncello said...

And quite right, too. Lovely post which has made me smile.

8:48 pm  
Blogger Whispering Walls said...

Hi ED & WL - sorry I haven't had a chance to catch up with your blogs but am looking forward to doing that next week.

12:13 am  
Blogger Ellee Seymour said...

Welshcakes, but does it make President Bush smile too?
Another lovely anecdote.

6:36 pm  

Post a Comment

<< Home