• VeryFrugal@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    123
    ·
    4 days ago

    1 = 壹 2 = 貳 3 = 參 4 = 肆 5 = 伍

    These exist as well.

    They’re used in places where numbers should NOT be forged(i.e. bank documents…)

    This is how they got their numeric meanings btw.

  • kshade@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    57
    ·
    4 days ago

    The concept of zero is scary, so it’s a wizard shooting lightning from all orifices. Makes sense.

    • Scrollone@feddit.it
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      3 days ago

      I mean… in English we also use different words, such as “pair” and “dozen”, for some specific numbers.

      • Bassman1805@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        3 days ago

        But those are just words for “a group of a special size”

        Some eastern languages have totally different counting words depending on WHAT you’re counting. One set of number-words for flat things, another set for long things, another set for printed/bound things, another set for things with handles…

    • wylinka@szmer.info
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      3 days ago

      Huh. I learnt that 两 is for counting everything. Er is only used if you spell out a number. Like you can’t say “erge ren”, must be “liangge ren”. Maybe you’re confusing it with another liang character, the measure for cars?

      Sorry, I might be wrong, my Chinese isn’t the best.

  • blx@piefed.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    69
    ·
    4 days ago

    Sure, when you mean “zero” it may look a bit excessive. But it’s quite adequate if you want to express “Void, the Dark Realm of Nothingness and End of All Things”.

    ps: Glory to ZA̡͊͠͝LGΌ.

  • ALoafOfBread@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    61
    ·
    4 days ago

    Yeah líng 零 is pretty annoying as a learner of the language.

    The top character is yŭ 雨 which means rain. Confusingly, this is the semantic component - the part that contains the meaning of the character. Explained below.

    The bottom character líng 令 means order/command as a noun and verb. This doesn’t add meaning, it is the phonetic component: basically a pronunciation cue.

    It originally meant “light rain”/“falling in drops, like rain”, actually. It began being used to mean “fragments” or “leftover part”, then as “remainder” in the mathematical sense. Then, eventually, to mean 0. Another form of líng is 霝 which means raindrops. It has 3 kŏu 口 (“mouth”) characters on the bottom to visually represent drops.

    So, like a lot of Chinese characters, it really only makes sense when you understand the etymology - and even then it’s kind of a stretch

    • FosterMolasses@leminal.space
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      3 days ago

      The fact that such intricate characters can even be displayed in such tiny fonts is nothing short of obscene lol, I wonder if chinese phones all have that Assistive / Readability Mode where the text is enlarged and high contrast by default, because I can’t imagine reading texts like that haha

      • Mirodir@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        3 days ago

        As someone who’s learned Japanese a bunch: once you’re very familiar with the symbols, you don’t look at every little line to determine what character it is, just the general shape. The characters are built by combining a discrete and smaller set of “drawings” (called radicals). So the space of possible characters is limited to those combinations. On top of that, not every legal combination actually exists. You won’t suddenly run into 鬱, but with a different radical in the bottom left, unless you’re playing a trivia game of “spot the mistake” (which can even be difficult for native speakers, just in the same way it can be difficult for native English speakers to spell some words they’d have no trouble reading.)

        I would wager some misplaced lines wouldn’t hurt readabiliity much in the same way we, in English aren’t usually struggling to read a sentence even if some of the letters are swapped/missing or a “the” is duplicated, etc. I’m sure you’ve seen examples of that before in English (or your own native language if it isn’t English).

        Of course in some instances, even a tiny difference can change the meaning of a sentence entirely. This is also true both in English and logographic languages. Luckily our brains do a lot of subconscious work here too and figure out where special attention is and isn’t needed by using context and knowledge about the writing system.

        (Small caveat: of course, especially in languages, there are always exceptions to every rule. And also the brain can be tricked, intentionally or not, in a variety of ways.)

  • FosterMolasses@leminal.space
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    3 days ago

    Lmao, I just picked up learning Kanji again after like 3 years (never had time in grad school)

    It is rough. But fierce repetition helps a lot. I can see the characters for “read a book” whenever I close my eyelids now hahaha

    Once something turns into muscle memory you don’t forget.

  • farmgineer@nord.pub
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    edit-2
    3 days ago

    Japanese enters the chat:

    Left: numeral; middle: regular writing; final: certain formal and non-forgery usecases.

    または in point 7 means either variant is OK

    The last line says one can use the modern yen sign as well (though some would argue that it’s bad manners in at least some situations, but I have no dog in that fight).

    万 = 10k. Several countries use both 1k and 10k units (Japan traditionally was on the 10k side but had a lot of influence so now we see both a lot. A used car price might be 130万円 or something ( = 1,300,000 yen)

    数字	通常の漢字	金額で使う旧字体(大字)  
    0	零	零  
    1	一	壱  
    2	二	弐  
    3	三	参  
    4	四	肆  
    5	五	伍  
    6	六	陸  
    7	七	柒(または 漆)  
    8	八	捌  
    9	九	玖  
    10	十	拾  
    100	百	佰  
    1k	千	仟  
    万	万	萬  
    円	円	圓(もしくは「円」のまま)  
    

    Chart from here that looks better: https://saiseich.com/business/kanji_kingaku/

    We have a way of writing numbers in certain situations. Think of it like checks in the US where we write things in a certain way so that the numbers can’t be easily changed to increase the value or something.

    • Chrobin@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      3 days ago

      I see, the right column is used because they share their Chinese reading 音読み with the numbers, that makes sense. I don’t know all of the Kanji, but the ones I know fit.

  • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    3 days ago

    write all of the numbers on top of each other then scribble on them. does that look anything like zero? i don’t know kanji, i’m just understanding my own bad handwriting and trying to understand how they’d get there

    • webpack@ani.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      2 days ago

      nope, doesn’t come from that rei character breakdown here’s the kanji breakdown (note that kanji is stolen from Chinese)

    • Jyek@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      22
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      4 days ago

      And now an English lesson:

      The past tense of teach is taught. Teached is not a word.

      • Glytch@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        10
        ·
        4 days ago

        It’s not an officially recognized word, but you understood what they were saying, so it still functions the same as the “correct” word.

        • Robust Mirror@aussie.zone
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          3 days ago

          I understand my 3yo as well but that doesn’t mean they should continue to speak that way just because they can technically be understood.

          • Glytch@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            3 days ago

            Yes, but your 3yo isn’t a stranger on the internet that you’re condescending to, so the situation is a bit different, no?

            • Jyek@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              3 days ago

              I wasn’t condescending to anyone. I presume, based on the incorrect tense form of a very common English word, and the fact that they appreciated learning a bit of Chinese, they might appreciate some polite correction. Not everything has to carry a negative tone

            • Robust Mirror@aussie.zone
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              3 days ago

              Not entirely, because if I never corrected them they would be a stranger on the internet to SOMEONE talking that way eventually.

              Ultimately the ability to understand something doesn’t make it correct and I get tired of the “language evolves” and “you understood it, right?” arguments because even if true we can also understand “me want job” and “John hungry” but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t both attempt to speak correctly and continue to learn.

              I’m learning a second language and I would prefer to be corrected and speak naturally in it as much as possible rather than the bar simply being understood.

    • Nutomic@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      3 days ago

      In Korean it’s not so bad: 한, 둘, 셋, 넷. Or 일, 이, 삼, 사. Yes there are two different types of numbers…

      • nonfuinoncuro@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        3 days ago

        the latter set is just the same chinese characters spelled out phonetically

        i feel like most people nowadays are getting lazy and just using the chinese numbers more and more instead of learning a new word for each new ten (twenty thirty forty etc)

        • Nutomic@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          2 days ago

          Thats good to hear, I made a lot of mistakes of using the wrong numbers for times or dates.

          • nonfuinoncuro@lemmy.zip
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            2 days ago

            unfortunately hours (not minutes) ages and number of days/months (not years) are still korean numbers not chinese

            but i guess you can always just say the year of birth and spell out the date instead both of which would be chinese… haha languages are weird

    • Katana314@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      4 days ago

      Wait. I’ve played a lot of Fatal Frame, and they only signify the Zero Lens by its kanji, and it’s not that square shape. So now I’m confused…

      Maybe its ghost folklore origins put it more on the Chinese side?

      • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        4 days ago

        That’s because 四 is 4

        In Japanese they also use 零 (rei) for zero. Or 〇 (maru) or ゼロ (zero)

      • AeronMelon@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        4 days ago

        Chinese characters are seen in Japanese media as stylistic choice, yes.

        The ones I typed are proper Japanese Kanji, which are derived and very simplified forms of Chinese characters. Even more so than Simplified Chinese.

        • renzhexiangjiao@piefed.blahaj.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          4 days ago

          kanji are not a stylistic choice, but an integral part of the writing system

          also I think you mean the syllabaries (hiragana, katakana) are ultimately derived from chinese characters, japanese kanji are largely the same as chinese hanzi

          • AeronMelon@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            4
            ·
            4 days ago

            You misunderstood me because that’s not what I was saying.

            If there are Chinese characters in a Japanese game, they’re there for the visual appeal of them… unless they’re trying to actually teach Chinese, which I doubt the Fatal Frame series (horror) is doing.

              • ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                5
                ·
                edit-2
                4 days ago

                I think they mean Ateji/当て字, when they’re used phonetically just to represent something as foreign or for style. Like how sushi is 寿司, but the characters have nothing to do with sushi other than the pronunciation.

                Of course, these are the exception. Kanji is integral to japanese writing and it’s a pain in the ass without them.

              • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                3
                ·
                4 days ago

                I wonder when kanji stop being Chinese characters in the same way that souvenir used by someone speaking English isn’t using a French word. Like characters with different variations in Japanese technically aren’t used (and weren’t ever used) in China, like 誤 vs 誤 (prob won’t show up right with the font on here but the Japanese component on the bottom right uses 六 without the top dot and Chinese uses 大). The kana were all derived from kanji as well, so could those be “chinese” characters? The etymology is obviously Chinese in the same way souvenir is French, but what does that really mean?

                Dunno, maybe it’s mostly semantics, especially when trying to talk about it in English

                • renzhexiangjiao@piefed.blahaj.zone
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  ·
                  4 days ago

                  to me, “Chinese characters” means a certain writing system that is used by several languages (and not just Japanese and Mandarin, but also Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese etc.), but doesn’t inherently belong to any one of them. So, in my opinion, Japanese variants or 国字 are totally valid Chinese characters.

                  whether kana are also Chinese characters is a very interesting question. I think the main thing that makes them distinct is the purpose they serve, as they no longer convey any meaning by themselves but are instead used to write language phonetically. but I wouldn’t be so sure when it comes to 万葉がな. although manyogana was used the same way as modern kana it retained the shape of chinese characters. so maybe it’s the combination of both the evolved shape + different purpose that makes kana distinct from kanji?

        • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          4 days ago

          A) Kanji are Chinese characters.

          B) Both languages simplified their characters, but Chinese was actually more aggressive in simplifying than Japanese, not the other way around.

          For example, look at the character for turtle:

          Traditional Chinese: 龜
          Simplified Chinese: 龟
          Japanese: 亀

  • JennaR8r@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    3 days ago

    Three pigs

    Two pigs

    One pig

    Zero pig ? Or zero pigs?

    Honest question. Do we pluralize nouns of zero count? Or should they be singular?

    • AlfalFaFail@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      3 days ago

      It’s plural, but not because there are many pigs.

      “How many pigs are there?” And answering with “There are no pigs” use the noun “pigs” in the same way. They are referring to the “pig” category or kind. When answering knowing the actual count, it’s a specific number or token.

        • AlfalFaFail@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          3 days ago

          But they are asking with the number zero specifically. “There is zero pig” is not how we speak.

            • JcbAzPx@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              3 days ago

              It’s because English is three or four languages all smashed together, usually by force.

            • AlfalFaFail@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              3 days ago

              If you insist on “is” then “zero” doesn’t work. But if you use “are” the sentence, “There are zero pigs” is totally cromulant. That’s because “pigs” in that sentence is addressing the category.

      • TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        3 days ago

        “How many pigs are there?” And answering with “There are no pigs” use the noun “pigs” in the same way. They are referring to the “pig” category or kind. When answering knowing the actual count, it’s a specific number or token.

        There are one pigs

      • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        3 days ago

        And also it’s not just zero, plural is for literally anything other than (positive) one: 2.3 pigs, -1 pigs, 0.2 pigs, etc.