New Message (aryan invasion)

[Peter D Banos]

On Mon, 16 Dec 1996 dlusthau at mailer.fsu.edu wrote:

>  (NB: In Chinese "ticket" would also be one syllable). Chinese 
> uses fewer words, and each word is monosyllabic -- that equals faster 
> speaking time; we start to catch up while their gesturing, but they still 
> have the edge.

My understanding is that modern spoken Chinese is not truly monosyllabic.
It _looks_ like it because of the writing system, but in fact many of the
"character combinations" they have evolved to get around the homonymy
problem are now regarded as having become true polysyllabic words. This is
especially true of the "Mandarin dialect;" Cantonese and other Southern
speechforms have retained more phonetic distinctions (eg more tones, final
stop consonants), therefore less homonymy, therefore more retention of
simple monosyllables.

(I'm not an expert, but if anyone wants I can probably dig up a source or
two for the above.)

						-Peter D. Banos
						pdb1 at columbia.edu

"For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the
people; but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen
upon thee. And the gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the
brightness of thy rising."