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Off-tone Christmas puzzle #2

December 22, 2017

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Can you guess this popular Christmas activity?

(Pictures created with Boardmaker)

holidays homophones puzzles tones

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拜年貓紙 The complicated world of Cantonese kinship terms

記得細個拜年時出左lift就行到去人地單位果一秒，總會窒住左，問父母：「慘喇！一陣點叫人？」（阿婆會鬧「過年唔可以講個慘字！」😓） Remember when you were a kid going bai3nin4 during Chinese New Year, and you panic at the last second because you don't know how to call your aunt/cousin/uncle's aunt/ cousin's wife's mother? And you ask your parents and they tell you a term that you've never heard of and it's super confusing? Now, there is a app for that! 三姑六婆 Lite - 親戚稱呼計算機 You just plug in your step-by-step relationship with the person in question, and it generates the exact term you should use to address them! You can download the app here and try it out yourself. If you want to go the traditional route, here is a giant family tree chart: Photo credit: Cantonese Museum Kinship terms are really a complicated system of simple formulae; I never thought you could use math to solve a linguistic puzzle! I tried to figure out a few "formulae"/tricks when I was a kid:

12 Slangs to Call Someone Fat in Cantonese | 邊種交通公具最鍾意話人肥？

Subject Body part Term Literal translation Meaning Babies/ kids 形容小孩 Waist 大肚 dum Big tummy A round tummy (endearing) Men 形容男性 Waist 士啤呔 Spare tire “love handles” Waist 豬腩肉 Pork belly meat A chunk of stomach fat hanging over Waist 啤酒肚 Beer belly A round shape starting at below the chest to the abdomen Women 形容女性 Waist 水桶腰 Barrel/Bucket waist Lack of a waistline Arms 拜拜肉 Bye-bye fat Triceps fat; the flabby part of your arm that jiggles when you wave goodbye;“bingo wings” Back/ under-arms 鬼鼠肉 Sneaky fat Back fat or underarm fat; only sneaks up on you when you wear tight clothing Arms 麒麟臂 Kirin arms Untoned arms (Are ki

Chicken Tongue Twisters ｜入實驗室講雞口令

掘柑掘桔掘金桔，掘雞掘骨掘龜骨，掘完雞骨掘金桔，掘完龜骨掘雞骨 gwut gum gwut gut gwut gum gut (Dig for mandarin, dig for clementine, dig for kumquat) gwut gai gwut gwut gwut gwai gwat (Dig for chicken, dig for bone, dig for turtle bone) gwut yuen gai gwat gwut gum gut (After digging for chicken bone, dig for kumquat) gwat yuen gwai gwut gwut gai gwut (After digging for turtle bone, dig for chicken bone) 一蚊一斤龜，七蚊一斤雞，佢話龜貴過雞，我話雞貴過龜，咁究竟雞貴定龜貴？ yat man yat gun gwai (1 buck for a "pound" of turtle) chat man yat gun gai (7 bucks for a "pound" of chicken) keui wa gwai gwai guo gai (she says turtle costs more than chicken) ngo wa gai gwai guo gwai (I say chicken costs more than turtle) gum gau ging gai gwai ding gwai gwai? (So really, does chicken or turtle cost more?) After transcribing the romanization, I am amazed by the alliteration! Also, the translation (i.e. actual meaning of the sentences) really make no sense! Here I created my own Chicken tongue twister. Can y

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