From: vunzndi@vfemail.net
Date: Fri Jan 26 2007 - 02:35:14 CST
Semantic Shift:-
In Cantonese 吃饭 is read "hek fan" and but people usually say "sik
fan" written 食饭. There is a change of both usage and meaning between
Cantonese and Madarin here. Pinghua speaks say "hek fan" and so use
the character 吃饭. Mandarin usage 食品.
Phonetic Loans:-
In Cantonese one also sees things like "不准泊车" "No Parking!"
(Literally " Not permitted to 'pak' vechile" ) where 'pak'
approximates to the pronunciation of 'park'. Here the pronunciation
of 泊 is borrowed.
Is the use of 食 and 吃 in Minnan based one any of the above mechanisms
is it like writing "I could 吃 a 马" (I could eat a horse) where the
charcter is used is used solely for it's meaning -- what one might
call an ideographic loan.
John Knightly
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