Talk:Chinese exclamative particles

Onomatopoeia

I took out the onomatopoeia because it's not really relevant to the topic of exclamatory particles. I'm pasting it back in here in case you want it for any other articles. —Politizer ^talk/_contribs 06:04, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Character(s)	Pronounciations (Hanyu Pinyin, others)	Description
邦	bang	smash, explosion
当	dang	crash
哗哗	hua hua	sliding, rushing sound, gush forward
刷刷	shua shua	swiping (e.g. "刷卡" swipe card )
乒乓	ping pang	"ping pong", i.e. Table tennis
叭	ba	loud noise, gunfire
嘎吱	ga zhi	crackling
咝	si	hissing

• Chinese onomatopoeias

TODO LIST

This is a list for me to do.

• 哦 - oh really?
• 哪 - "then..." or "how?"
• 唩 - archaic/extinct, for picking up telephone. Now use 外 etc etc (verify!!!)
• 啜 - sobbing, weeping (in some movie subtitles)
• 哕 - vomit ("bleugh") (traditional 噦)
  • 哕 yuě resembles the gagging reflex following nausea, such as during morning sickness. -- 李博杰  | —Talk contribs email 05:13, 27 October 2009 (UTC)
• 吒 - shout, roar (not sure if human, or animal oneomatopoeia though)
• 叹 - sigh (descriptive? possibly not a particle, but a verb about the sound)
• 叽 - sigh in disapproval (something like "sheesh")
• 喝 - to yell in disbelief (?) (e.g. "heeh, what is this?")(alternate meaning to drink)
• 喵 - meow (probably only for non-human usage. avoid!!!!!) (嘟 "toot" avoid too)
• 嗳 - "hey", "yo" (VERY COMMON!!!) (traditional 噯)
• 怒 - expressing anger
• 嗯 - a grunt of acknowledgment, e.g. "I understand" (Would one compare this to "Uh-huh"?)
  • You're right that it's comparable to "uh-huh," although my intuition is that it serves a somewhat wider variety of discourse functions (I wrote a brief Conversation analysis paper on it once, although I didn't do any real research for it, so here it would all be original research). The source I sent you at your talk page might have some information on it that you can use. —Politizer ^talk/_contribs 15:21, 7 December 2008 (UTC)
• 哎 "ei？" (as pronounced in this context) - similar to english "what?", an interjection of surprise
  • Here's a source that might be useful: Tsai, I-Ni (2008). "Projecting the Unanticipatory: The Mandarin Particle Ei and its Projectability in Daily Conversation" (PDF). Proceedings of the 20th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics. Retrieved 7 December 2008.. —Politizer ^talk/_contribs 15:21, 7 December 2008 (UTC)
• 唉 - alas, exclamation of surprise or pain
• 诶 - exclamation of confirmation, traditional 誒.
• 啦 - a final particle (for emphasis? as in "hello lah" for example), 啦啦啦 representing singing. Wiktionary puts it as "final particle of assertion".
• 嘛 - ma???
  • 嘛 is used as 什么 in Tianjin dialect, e.g. "嘛玩意儿" is "what the hell", as with Beijing dialect "啥玩意儿" and Standard Mandarin "什么玩意儿". It can also be used as an alternative to 吗 in questions, however this is rather rare, and probably considered informal in some areas. -- 李博杰  | —Talk contribs email 05:18, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

-- 李博杰  | —Talk contribs 10:15, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

I actually wrote a paper on 嗯 and its discourse functions a few months ago....too bad it would all be original research here! —Politizer ^talk/_contribs 14:24, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

In addition to the other sources I've pointed out, here are two more that you should look at:

• Chao Yuen Ren (1968). A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Li, Charles N. (1981). Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar. Berkeley: University of California Press. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

Li & Thompson mostly deal with the more "grammatical" of the particles (ba, ou, la, etc.). It's been a while since I've looked at Chao so I don't remember what exactly he covers. Both of those books, though, are pretty highly regarded—almost every paper on Chinese cites them. —Politizer ^talk/_contribs 15:21, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

哗 as a particle?

I have seen the onomatopoeia 哗 used as a particle (as an expression of force, like "hunh"), so I am not sure if this is worthy of addition. I do not know if this is "standard" usage. (An example I have seen on an entertainment website is "嘩! 向你解釋就叫鄙視你? 問你攞貼士即係打劫你! ", note the traditional form) -- 李博杰  | —Talk contribs 09:22, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

EDIT: Realized that 嘩 is "wa" in Cantonese, referring to "Wow". Aformentioned site is a Hong Kong website. -- 李博杰  | —Talk contribs email 05:21, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

Pinyin with tones please

Could someone please put in the proper pinyin with the tone marks? And please differntiate any other pronunciations (eg as Cantonese) and put them into an appropraite Romanization such as Jyutping. 空隙发财 m.e. (talk) 08:17, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Some exclamations don't really have tones. This is as they are heard. For example, would you add tones to "Hey", "Ouch" and "Damn"? A further example, as per the Nokia Chinese Dictionary, 哼 is "hng", without tone marks. -- 李博杰  | —Talk contribs 23:41, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, but you're forgetting that the hanyu pinyu is essential if one wants to type them! Tooironic (talk) 12:34, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

I added some, where appropriate. --Anatoli (talk) 01:53, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Citations

I shall cite all listed exclamations using Xinhua Zidian. This might take a while, should be up soon. -- 李博杰  | —Talk contribs email guestbook complaints 04:19, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

Other Chinese languages

I think it's gotta be mentioned somewhere that many particles will be language-specific due to phonological differences. 129.97.208.66 (talk) 21:06, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Some suggestions to this article

Hi,

I read through this article, and found it pretty helpful.
It’s got good section layouts and clear structures, allowing the reading to be straight-forward and simple.
Also, it is good that the “Use of exclamative particles” part is backed up with references and foot notes, making it more reliable.
However, I feel that there could be something more in the “Parallels in other East Asian languages” section.
This section is a little vague; it could be more detailed.
For instance, it can be improved by referencing exact examples (phrases/sentences) from the East Asian languages
(i.e. provide a link to the Japanese and Korean examples, allowing the readers to compare back and forth between these languages).
Other than that, it was a good article. =) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Argentum 93 (talk • contribs) 04:37, 17 September 2014 (UTC)

exclamative particles

Why this such feature appear only in chinese and nothing else?2404:8000:1027:85F6:B5A4:6683:A3EC:DFF0 (talk) 10:00, 19 February 2023 (UTC)

Every language has them, I think. For example, English has "hmm", "eh", "ha". What sets Chinese apart from other languages is that it uses ideograms to represent these sounds while pretty much all other living languages have alphabets, syllabaries, etc. SheepTester (talk) 16:50, 23 July 2023 (UTC)