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To: maui_hawaii

Chinese characters are 94% phonetic. That jade means nothing, it's a phonetic element. In ancient Chinese (and in Japanese and many Chinese dialects), jade (yu) rhymes with "guo." In Japanese, the jade character is still pronounced "goku." In traditional characters, the phonetic element "huo" obviously also rhymes with "guo." And your additional analysis is merely post hoc, a mnemonic to teach 1st graders so they can remember the character.


19 posted on 01/13/2007 11:08:16 AM PST by exmachinan
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To: exmachinan
Believe whatever you want. Its wrong though.

The Japanese didn't have characters until they got them from China via Buddist texts.

You don't even know what Xang Xing, Xing Sheng, Zhuan Zhu, Hui Yi, or Zhi Shi actually means do you?

I also have NO idea where you got your 94% number from.

So tell us where you learned your Chinese.

23 posted on 01/13/2007 11:31:40 AM PST by maui_hawaii (China: proudly revising history for over 2000 years and counting.)
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