While you’re taking a break from launching artillery setting off new year’s fireworks:

• Got smartphone but no keyboard? From Sinosplice, Aeviou: A Chinese Input Method with Promise
• Pinyin Info reviews the new Wenlin favorably: Wenlin releases major upgrade (4.0)
• Interesting stuff on the potential for consonant clusters in Chinese, Russian Loans in Northeast and Northwest Mandarin: The Power of Script to Influence Pronunciation from Victor Mair at Language Log
• In Phags-pa script did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree… Tibetan Links to Kublai Khan’s Unified Script for his Empire from Bruce Humes

1. If no one has emailed you Amy Chua’s WSJ article about so-called Chinese parenting or you haven’t stumbled across it, I’ll give in and agree that you have no life and no friends. Copies are flying everywhere. Apparently, the piece has hit a nerve, and probably paydirt for Chua. But what’s that got to do with Sinoglot, since we’re about language, not parenting or making vast sums of money on trendy themes? In broad terms, I guess it’s the Pinyin found in mainstream media. That is, the most interesting tidbit from the most interesting response I’ve seen to the Chua article (well, I mean besides the video or the meta-parody) was the news that there exists “an online chat group on Douban called “Fumu Jie Huohai” ['The Scourge of Studious Parents']“. Atypical for mainstream media, the reference does not just use dubbing in print, but actually gives that Pinyin (albeit without tones) — which makes it easy to find. For the curious, then, here’s that group: 父母皆祸害.
2. Chinese-specific instructions for How to Create an e-Book from an Online Reading Site on the Kindle.
3. Discussion from Victor Mair on Language Log of what the new primetime prohibition against “Chinese dialects” might mean.
4. An almost completely dubbed report from China Daily that features a new book of old Beijing sayings (h/t Bruce Humes)
5. Sinocism notes the 106th birthday of Zhōu Yǒuguāng, one of the masterminds of Pinyin (here’s some old Zhou stuff on Beijing Sounds).
6. A nice summary of some of the implications of 儿化音 (érhuàyīn = adding -r to a word) from An Imperfect Pen. Also from AIP: some fascinating discussion of late nineteenth century translations of western names and concepts into Chinese.
7. From the always-interesting China Media Project, “a propaganda directive instructing [Chinese media] not to use the term “civil society,” or gongmin shehui (公民社会), in news reports“
8. From Sinoglot’s own Duncan, on Naxi Script Resource Centre, Family God Worship, or “Suzhu” [sɪ55 tɤ21]
9. And finally, in a flagrant display of conflicted interests, a plug for “Many Heads / Cultural Revolution Medicine” from the long-neglected Beijing Sounds.

A tea marketer is in need of some translation help at Far Outliers:

YUNNAN JING MAI HILL OLD TREES TEA

This article chooses to use Yunnan Jingmai hill old trees tea is raw material, was steam, rumple, nhibitted by traditional craftbut become, that tea Fa-Etty strengthen to show the milli-, green and yellow bright aroma pure and unadulterated of the teaEsoup, the tase joss-stick and return sweet hold out for long time. Often drimking can help the dig-Eest, go to greasy, the pure spirit of adsolute deing is great. Come to wine etc. This,article more Ch-Een is more fragrant can be collect in dry, well ventilated, avoid the light to have no strange Esmell of environment.

Bruce Humes asks why we need English as an intermediary in the translation of Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk’s work, Other Colors… Continue reading →