The Chinese name for Coca-Cola is among the best examples I've found yet of why I love the Chinese language so much.
可口可乐 sounds like "ke kou ke le," which you hear in that second ad. But Mandarin Chinese is rich in homonyms, and the characters their people chose to represent those sounds translate to "palatable" and "pleasant". Then the 可, which is a functional particle that means something like "-able" or "-ing", sounds like 渴--which means thirsty. So you've got the sound of Coca-Cola, which is all people actually think about when they hear it, but there's a whole world of meaning and implication hidden in that brand.
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3 comments:
B, this video is real cool.
It took me a while, but I sleuthed out the lyrics: tuanjie de liliang da; tuanjie de liliang jiu shi da.
United, our strength is great.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zCSnfDDOEbQ
The Chinese name for Coca-Cola is among the best examples I've found yet of why I love the Chinese language so much.
可口可乐 sounds like "ke kou ke le," which you hear in that second ad. But Mandarin Chinese is rich in homonyms, and the characters their people chose to represent those sounds translate to "palatable" and "pleasant". Then the 可, which is a functional particle that means something like "-able" or "-ing", sounds like 渴--which means thirsty. So you've got the sound of Coca-Cola, which is all people actually think about when they hear it, but there's a whole world of meaning and implication hidden in that brand.
Cool, huh?
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