Talk:Mandarin slang

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I see this article has been proposed for deletion. It contains potentially useful information (see Firefly fandom), and might be better moved to Wikibooks instead of being deleted. Crypticfirefly 04:37, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

If we expand this article to include the sociological aspects of Mandarin slang, or something like what is at Cockney rhyming slang and Singapore sexual slang, then this can become a legitimate article. I do not believe this article should be deleted due to the precedent set at Slang#Examples_of_slang, but the information would be also useful at Wikibooks.--Jiang 05:03, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

yeah. I notice that this article also mixes mainland slang with taiwanese slang, without distinguishing the two. these two places use quite a different set of words from each other and i think more value will be added if the differences are explained. (e.g. i think kào for example is taiwanese mandarin, ultimately from minnan). i'm no expert though so i can't say anything :(

Contents 1 Very good 2 Question 3 Niubi 4 Title should be changed 5 Trad characters? 6 Attention: Slang Glossary policy discussion underway 7 Taiwan use

[edit] Very good

Bravo on a very well done article! Badagnani 11:26, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Question

Question: is zázhǒng (雜種) a slang term -- does it belong in this article? If equivalent to the English usage, maybe it's not slang -- just rude/vulgar. Badagnani 00:21, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Niubi

The second character for niubi is given differently from another spelling: 牛逼. What is the difference? Also, the literal meaning for niubi should be given in the article. 131.123.231.143 00:23, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Title should be changed

Title should be changed to Mandarin Slang & Insults

Xihe

[edit] Trad characters?

How about adding the Traditional Chinese characters?

204.95.114.114 23:58, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

I'll start adding the traditional characters in increments as time permits. I'm gonna need others to help me verify them though. In the meantime, this is a good reason to study both character sets :-) Vindictive Warrior 05:05, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

Just checking, are there some expressions that are only used in the PRC and not used in Taiwan, Singapore, etc. where traditional characters are used? If so, does it make sense to add trad. characters for all expressions? While you're at it, why not add wiktionary links for all as well? Badagnani 05:21, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

It looks like it's coming along very well. Badagnani 06:15, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

Wow, I didn't expect a reply so quickly; this page must be quite popular :-p. Anyway, yes, there are definitely variations in the Mandarin used in different areas (I tend to hear my mainland friends say 操 quite often, and my Taiwanese friends say 靠 a lot, for example). In that case, I think it's best to add a note to the end of each entry in which regional differences apply. In the meantime, I don't mind adding traditional characters indiscriminately, I'm bored.

Anyway, for those unable to wait for my next phase and are capable of entering traditional Chinese, notice I revised the format of the entries for easier reading and organization. Those learning Chinese will probably want to read the Pinyin prior to looking at the characters. Pinyin is usually italicized in order for the eyes to quickly distinguish romanization from words (in MediaWiki, this can be done with double apostraphes in place of the <i></i> HTML tags). PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT ITALICIZE CHINESE CHARACTERS, it's a pain in the derrière to read it. I let the simplified characters precede the traditional ones simply because they were here first. If an Instant Messaging abbreviation exists, that should go last within the parentheses. If, in your opinion, this new format is absolutely repulsive, please speak out so we can consider something else. Otherwise, the rest of the entries will be formatted as such.

Vindictive Warrior 06:46, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

I agree with everything, except one thing. I've been working with hanzi and pinyin here for some time now, and I've come to feel that pinyin does not read well when italicized. While words in other languages look okay with italics (French, Spanish, Hindi, or whatever) pinyin does not. Perhaps bold could be used instead, or no italics. Just my thoughts. Badagnani 06:55, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

I see. Well, it's open to experimentation and discussion. Bold does work as an attention-grabber, but just that I see a lot of romanization (such as in Japanese) in Wikipedia as italics. *yawn*, 在加州現在就是半夜, 我下午大概可以回來。再見！ (My Chinese may sound either too formal or too broken, since I'm still learning it) Vindictive Warrior 07:13, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

I'm a "1" level Chinese speaker/reader as well -- what did people do before Wiktionary??  : ) Japanese romanization looks okay with italics, maybe because they only have macrons to deal with. With hanzi there are more tone marks and I guess that's the problem with legibility; they're hard to read in italics. Badagnani 07:26, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

Ugh, my teachers are relentless with homework, as usual, so I haven't been online recently. I guess I shouldn't make promises to return at a given time. Anyway, it does seem that bold-face pinyin looks much better, and doesn't screw up the tone markings as much as italics. Only a matter of time until the article is covered completely. Adding Wiktionary links is an entirely different task though :-p. Vindictive Warrior 06:01, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

I think by now I've put up all of the applicable trad. characters, but since I relied heavily on Wiktionary, it really doesn't replace the knowledge of an expert (since some simp. chars have more than one corresponding trad. char, and so on). (狗娘式開始。。。)Although this isn't the best place to say this, I must say that I hate Wikipedia's edit-conflict handling, discarding the user's work and replacing it with the most recent copy. How's this: show a side-by-side comparison chart, show the user's work on the bottom, THEN invite the user to merge changes from there... (狗娘式完了). I suppose full Wiktionary linking comes next? Vindictive Warrior 07:57, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

By the way, many thanks to Badagnani for formatting the article and cleaning up! Vindictive Warrior 07:59, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

It's great fun! Hope this will be of use to people in the future. Badagnani 08:09, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Attention: Slang Glossary policy discussion underway

Slang glossaries violate the following policy:

Wikipedia is not a dictionary

Wikipedia is not a dictionary or a usage or jargon guide. Wikipedia articles are not:

1. Dictionary definitions. Because Wikipedia is not a dictionary, please do not create an entry merely to define a term. An article should usually begin with a good definition; if you come across an article that is nothing more than a definition, see if there is information you can add that would be appropriate for an encyclopedia. An exception to this rule is for articles about the cultural meanings of individual numbers.
2. Lists of such definitions. There are, however, disambiguation pages consisting of pointers to other pages; these are used to clarify differing meanings of a word. Wikipedia also includes glossary pages for various specialized fields.
3. A usage guide or slang and idiom guide. Wikipedia is not in the business of saying how words, idioms, etc. should be used. We aren't teaching people how to talk like a Cockney chimney-sweep. However, it may be important in the context of an encyclopedia article to describe just how a word is used to distinguish among similar, easily confused ideas, as in nation or freedom. In some special cases an article about an essential piece of slang may be appropriate.

---

Due to the many AfDs which are initiated to enforce this policy and due to the resistance to such deletion by defenders of the glossaries, I have started a discussion at Wikipedia talk:What Wikipedia is not#Slang glossaries to rewrite the policy in order to solve this problem and to readdress this question: should slang glossaries by allowed on Wikipedia? --List Expert 23:44, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

This article is useful to Wikipedia users around the world and provides information that is not available elsewhere. Furthermore, the article Mandarin slang is not a simple glossary but instead includes text and explanations of various usages. Badagnani 00:00, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Taiwan use

I think to use "tongzhi" for homosexual is taiwan use, isn't it? Also, 150 means stupid person, as well. --—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 172.183.130.133 (talk • contribs).