dnevnikmelochej

I came across an interesting children's story here in Taiwan.  It recounts the old Chinese story of Old Brother Cat (貓大哥) and Young Brother Mouse (鼠弟弟).  In many traditions, a heavenly divinity (or Buddha) decides to make a calendar with 12 animals representing the 12 year cycle, and in order to determine which 12 animals shall be on the calendar,  the heavenly divinity gathers the animals and announces a running competition to determine the top 12 winners. The mouse, being the clever little animal it is, tricks the cat out of its place in the Chinese Zodiac. And, that, of course is the reason why cats hate mice today.

The particular version of the Cat and Mouse story I have is interesting, not only from a cultural viewpoint but from a linguistic viewpoint as well.  Like all good children stories, this story provides a lot of onomatopoeia and ideophones which are tough to translate to other languages. Here are some examples:

)嘰(ㄐㄧ)嘰(ㄐㄧ)喳(ㄓㄚ)喳(ㄓㄚ)

Jijichacha -- sound of chatter

(ㄆㄨ!)

Pu! -- popping sound (?)

砰(ㄆㄥ)

Peng -- sound of a shot, start of race

呼(ㄏㄨ) 哧(ㄔ) 呼(ㄏㄨ) 哧(ㄔ)

Huchihuchi -- sound of panting, heavy breath

咪(ㄇㄧ) 嗚(ㄨ) 咪(ㄇㄧ) 嗚(ㄨ)

Miwumiwu -- sound of a cat mewing

霍(ㄏㄨㄛˋ) 郎(ㄌㄤˊ) 霍(ㄏㄨㄛˋ) 郎(ㄌㄤˊ)

Huolanghuolang -- sound of gritted teeth

吱(ㄗ) 嘰(ㄐㄧ) 吱(ㄗ) 嘰(ㄐㄧ)

Zijiziji -- sound of mouse squeaking

There are some interesting examples onomatopoeia/ideophones, the variety of which is comparable to the sound effects you might see in Japanese manga.  Heck, there's even one that doesn't have a Chinese character shorthand for it, and it's good old "Pu!" This nearly imitates the Japanese practice of using the syllabary system (like Hiragana) instead of the ideographic system (Kanji) to emphasize a sound effect, perhaps even serving to stretch it out.  I wonder if anyone has done a study on such parallels.

I'm already starting to miss New Haven, and can't wait to return in the fall!