ljc ([info]taraljc) wrote,
@ 2003-08-15 09:30:00
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Current mood: determined
Entry tags:firefly mandarin

Need mandarin help!
Okay, so, there's a word/phrase from "Safe" which they write out phoenetically in the captions I believe as as "luh-se" and translates, according to the script, as "garbage."

However, according to my dictionary, garbage is "lājī" and that isn't pronounced anything like the above.

So what I'm looking for is the Hanyu Pinyin for whatever word they thought they were using, if that makes sense... I've gone through the entire "L" section of my Mandarin dictionary, and come up blank.

help?


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[info]skripka
2003-08-15 07:48 am UTC (link)
I saw it transliterated as "lese" just the other day? Does that help?

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[info]taraljc
2003-08-15 07:59 am UTC (link)
Unfortunately, according to my co-worker that's a verb (to shit ie. bowel movement) rather than a noun/adjetive (shitty/crappy), and isn't pronounced the same way (the shi is pronounced "shee" and not "se").

Back to the drawing board...

(I do so love the fact that this fandom is determined to teach me mandarin. It's kinda entertaining. Frustrating as hell, but entertaining)

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[info]skripka
2003-08-15 07:58 am UTC (link)
whoo! success!

found it in the Insight. (sorry, i can't do the diacretic marks)

lashi=shit

dash over the "a" and circonflexe thingie over the "i"

(edited because I need bifocals...)

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[info]thewalnut
2003-08-15 07:58 am UTC (link)
I don't have my dictionary with me at work, so I'm kind of stuck, but my understanding was that the phrase translated to shitty or crappy or trashy, not trash itself. (The closed-capitioning according to Shrift's transcript had it as "luh-suh," which isn't pinyin. Trying to translate it to pinyin gets me to luo or lou or lu and "suh" would probably be "se.") I swear I've seen this in a million fics, but I can't find it anywhere right now. Grrr. I did find a strange article though in my googling. Gonna post it at Still Flying.

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[info]taraljc
2003-08-15 08:01 am UTC (link)
Hmmm... could it be lièzhì?

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[info]thewalnut
2003-08-15 08:06 am UTC (link)
I really can't tell until I get to a dictionary or two, but liezhi would be pronounced lee jah or something like that, which doesn't get to luh-suh sounds...

Where are the native speakers?

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[info]taraljc
2003-08-15 08:09 am UTC (link)
Well, I think part of the problem is Sean and Jewel's accents. Because when I asked Allison, my co-worker from the mainland, she was totally stumped.

muttermumblegrumblegripe stupid tonal languages muttermumblegrumblegripe

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[info]rettstatt
2003-08-15 04:15 pm UTC (link)
a lot of native speakers (especially in shanghai and south of there) can't really hear the difference between s and shi, so it's possible that "luh-se" is a lazy pronunciation of "lashi"

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[info]amezri
2003-08-15 05:42 pm UTC (link)
lese (can't find proper accenting at the moment) and lājī both mean "garbage" in Mandarin.
This site notes that lājī is used in the North. I've always heard lese growing up.

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[info]oyceter
2004-02-18 11:37 am UTC (link)
Kind of late...

My Chinese dictionary says that lese (luh-suh, both fourth tones) is actually the correct pronunciation. I do remember my Chinese teacher complaining that everyone says laji because the characters look like they should be pronounced that way (esp. the ji, which, without the dirt/tu radical, would be pronounced ji). So, same characters, different pronunciations.

Of course, this could just be in Taiwan...

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[info]eevee_gurl
2004-12-11 08:37 am UTC (link)
Right. I'm a whole year late. But [info]amilyn mentioned something about you and mandaring and I found this through your memories.

luh-se (luh-suh) is actually more commonly used by Taiwanese people. Technically, the original way to say these characters is luh-suh but these days, everyone in mainland China says La-ji. Hope that helped a bit =)

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