|
 |
"east of" and "eastern" in Mandarin | ||
Tags: Mandarin | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| maxb Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 7183 days ago 536 posts - 589 votes  7 sounds Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 1 of 9 03 November 2006 at 8:53am | IP Logged | |||||
|
One thing that has struck me when studying Mandarin is that the language make no distinction between "east of" and "eastern". They are both translated into 东边. So "Beijing is in eastern China(北京在中国的东边" and "Japan is to the east of China(日本在中国的东边)" will both use the same word to indicate eastern and east of respectively. Would be interesting to know if this phenomenon is found in other languages.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6768 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 2 of 9 03 November 2006 at 9:41am | IP Logged | |||||
|
In Japanese, the basic construction for "east" and "eastern" is the same, 〜の東, but "eastern" can be made more specific or arranged differently if necessary for clarity. (E.g. you can use the compound word "east-region")
Interestingly, for the in-between directions (southwest, northeast, etc.), the order of the two direction words in the compound can switch depending on use. 北西 northwest of 西北 the northwest 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| victor Tetraglot Moderator United States Joined 7318 days ago 1098 posts - 1056 votes 6 sounds Speaks: Cantonese*, English, FrenchC1, Mandarin Studies: Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 9 03 November 2006 at 9:10pm | IP Logged | |||||
I'm a bit confused: isn't it 北京在中国的东部。(or literally eastern part of China) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| maxb Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 7183 days ago 536 posts - 589 votes 7 sounds Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 4 of 9 06 November 2006 at 4:53am | IP Logged | |||||
Since you are a native speaker I stand corrected, however I think you can use 东边 to mean both "to the east of" and "eastern". At least according to my dictionary. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| victor Tetraglot Moderator United States Joined 7318 days ago 1098 posts - 1056 votes 6 sounds Speaks: Cantonese*, English, FrenchC1, Mandarin Studies: Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 9 06 November 2006 at 9:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Mandarin isn't really my native tongue, so I would also appreciate comments from other Chinese speakers. I think we need to use dongbian in different contexts ("to the east of" and "eastern") in Chinese before making a judgement.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| maxb Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 7183 days ago 536 posts - 589 votes 7 sounds Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 6 of 9 07 November 2006 at 10:19am | IP Logged | |||||
By the way it would be interesting to know if this (east/eastern) distinction is made in cantonese. Does cantonese also use 东边 and 东部 or are other words used to express this? Edited by maxb on 07 November 2006 at 10:32am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Bunni Triglot Newbie United States Joined 6553 days ago 13 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, Mandarin Studies: Cantonese, French, Spanish, Arabic (Written), Portuguese, Korean, Hindi, Indonesian, Swahili, Twi | Message 7 of 9 16 December 2006 at 6:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
I think "dongbu" gives the feeling more that it is in the eastern portion, and "dongbian" gives more of an "eastside" connotation. So I think "dongbian" is "to the east of" from what I remember, like "饭馆在图书馆的东边" (The restaurant is to the east of the library) instead of "饭馆在图书馆的东部" (The restaurant is in the eastern part of the library).
Unless I'm remembering wrong. Maybe someone will correct me if it's not right. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| linguanima Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6718 days ago 114 posts - 123 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Spanish, French Studies: Italian, Latin, German | Message 8 of 9 08 January 2007 at 4:36am | IP Logged | |||||
|
To say 'dongbian' all the way through is really vague. But (I think it's a really bad habit of the Chinese language) as long as the context is clear in everyday conversation it comprehensible.
However, if you want to make it accurate, especially in written language, I recommend saying, in the case of Japan, 'Riben zai zhongguo yi dong' 日本在中国以东. But 'Beijing zai zhongguo (de) dongbu' (as Victor has said, because the word 'bu' 部 means part and conveys a sense of incorporation). In fact, 'dongbian' tends to have a sense of exclusion, because the word 'bian' means 'edge', 'line'. When you ask '... zai nali?' (Where is ...), and you get told '... zai dongbian', you know it's a different place, east to the place you are standing. There is distiction between 'east' and 'eastern' in Mandarin, though, but just not in this case. When you say, for example, 'eastern countries', in Mandarin it's the same thing 'dongbian DE guojia'. The 'de' here can't be omitted since it is a sign of an adjective, corresponding to the English 'eastern' (adj.). 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
