A Daoist Wood Goat!

[Marblehead]

What are you talking about?

Surely you aren't expecting me to know?

 

 

Well, okay, we were talking about the vowel accent symbols that used to be a part of most Latin based languages but American English has forgotten and stopped using.

Edited February 17, 2015 by Marblehead

[Apech]

Ì àgréé ãbõut the áccents.

[blue eyed snake]

Ì àgréé ãbõut the áccents.

[cheya]

You guys are too literal.

The accented A is (also) an artistic touch, adds to the visual, lands nicely in the middle for symmetry.

And reminds us (well, me anyway) that this is not just another english word. 

 

I like it.

[Nungali]

I thought the same thing.... and then remembered that Qing is a color which doubles as Green and Blue, depending context...

 

Wiki explains it as:

Although Chinese now has a separate word for "blue" (蓝), it traditionally grouped most shades of blue together with green under the name 青 (qing), whose character derives from the idea of sprouting plant life. This color corresponds to the Chinese element of wood (i.e., vegetative life), represents nature and renewal, and often indicates spring. The color implies vigor and vitality.

 

Thanks but I still dont get it ? Are all wood goats green ?  We had the year of the black water dragon .... does colour change in another  3rd cycle like animal and element ?

 

I was born in 1955, so I am a wood goat ,  was that a green wood goat in 55 ? 

 

Interesting about the blue green  qing ... are we still evolving our colour vision?  or was it a  Genetic Chinese trait  or  just word usage ? 

[cheya]

Yes, all wood goats are green. The color is tied to the element. If it's a wood goat, it's green, because the element wood is associated with the color green. If it is a water dragon, it's black because black is the color associated with the element water. Over 5 cycles through the 12 animals (60 years), the animal and the element of the year you were born will repeat. During those 60 years, your goat would have occurred once in each element before it gets back to the one you were born in.

 

So naming the associated color is a little redundant, but more fun.

[sean]

But this accented A business?  We haven't used phonetic accents in English for centuries.  The ö, as in coöperation lasted longer but was dropped at least 100 years ago.  Nobody knows what they mean anymore.  That accent does not indicate to anyone how better to pronounce the word.  Just looks pretentious.

 

the accented dào is not english, it's pinyin. the accent here is much more than a pronunciation hint. it indicates tone, an essential component to differentiating chinese words. e.g., dāo, dáo, dǎo, dào refer to completely different words in pinyin.

 

it's also an artistic flourish. blame it on the goat.

 

sean

[Nungali]

Yes, all wood goats are green. The color is tied to the element. If it's a wood goat, it's green, because the element wood is associated with the color green. If it is a water dragon, it's black because black is the color associated with the element water. Over 5 cycles through the 12 animals (60 years), the animal and the element of the year you were born will repeat. During those 60 years, your goat would have occurred once in each element before it gets back to the one you were born in.

 

So naming the associated color is a little redundant, but more fun.

 

 

Ahhh, there is nothing like a clear simple answer - thank you  

[Nungali]

the accented dào is not english, it's pinyin. the accent here is much more than a pronunciation hint. it indicates tone, an essential component to differentiating chinese words. e.g., dāo, dáo, dǎo, dào refer to completely different words in pinyin.

 

it's also an artistic flourish. blame it on the goat.

 

sean

 

Interesting I thought all Chinese was tonal (for some reason) .  Polynesian has 6 ways of saying  vowels and two ways of 'saying' the 'stop' - which is actually no sound ... two ways of saying no sound   ...  well, it is a sound, but it is the sound of air being stopped in the glottis - 2 ways of stopping air and a word can begin with a stop or not (but it is stopped at the beginning  anyway to separate words ... but not at the end of the last word but at the beginning of the next word and they have different meanings           - that's when I gave up. 

[soaring crane]

Oh hey, Haaapy Neew Yeear from the neighbors: