Comments on: Stump the Chinese: Stunt

By: Carl

Carl — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 08:17:42 +0000

Evidently, MDBG does not list either 笑噱 xiàojué and or 发噱 fāxué. Wenlin FTW.

By: Carl

Carl — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 08:15:05 +0000

Wenlin gives us xuétóu for 噱头, but also defines 噱 as jué and xué, both meaning “laugh”. It also lists 笑噱 xiàojué and 发噱 fāxué as derived terms.

By: Chris Gait

Chris Gait — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 05:26:17 +0000

My Pleco dictionary found it right away, confirming that it is pronounced Xue2 or Jue2 and means to laugh. The term 噱头 Xue2Tou2 is ‘words/acts meant to amuse’ in the ABC dictionary. The large all-Chinese dictionary in Pleco defines this as being used ‘in certain regions’.

Stunt should be 绝技 JueJi4, I think.

Pleco is out for iPhone, by the way, and the HWR got even better than the PDA version. It’s my main learning tool for Chinese and I highly recommend it.

By: Kaiwen

Kaiwen — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 02:54:45 +0000

According to 國語辭典, 噱 is pronounced jue2 when it means ‘to laugh’ or ‘a laugh’, and xue1 when it means ‘something that makes you laugh’. (This refers to what is correct according to the ROC Ministry of Education, not how people are supposed to or actually do talk in Guangdong)

I think it’s interesting that the 头 here isn’t neutral tone.

By: Duncan

Duncan — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:03:37 +0000

Well, as for most things of a lexicographical nature 汉典 is useful here. The fanqie for 噱 is listed ’其虐‘ in the 说文, which gives us jue; and some more modern dictionaries suggest that xue is a regional variant – with the lexical marker (方).

I would therefore be inclined to suggest that the ‘standard’ pronunication is jue and a modern variant is xue, but both are acceptable.

By: shan

shan — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 13:26:43 +0000

sorry if this is a repeat comment, my last one didn’t seem to post …

I would say that I’ve heard juetou more than xuetou, though both are correct, but it could also be regional. I’m originally from the south (Jiangsu). even in our dialect, it’s more often jue vs. xue, and jue on its own can also be an adjective meaning 了不起

It’s also a more colloquial term, which may be why no one recognized the character, since it’s seldom in written form

By: Tanya

Tanya — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 05:57:42 +0000

According to Xinhua Dictionary, both pronunciations are correct. 噱is a 多音字duōyīnzì. “jue2″ is used as a verb or noun. But when it’s pronounced xue2, it’s still a noun.

By: Jeannie

Jeannie — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 04:32:39 +0000

I think Chinese characters went through thousands of years plus they are used in a huge area. A character could be pronounced differently in different period of time or different area. Here are some other resources for your references:

http://www.internationalscientific.org/CharacterASP/CharacterEtymology.aspx?characterInput=%E5%99%B1&submitButton1=Etymology

http://www.zdic.net/zd/zi/ZdicE5Zdic99ZdicB1.htm

http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/dictionary.html

By: Kencanau

Kencanau — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 02:28:54 +0000

It’s actually has nothing to do with whether it is by itself or not

By: Kencanau

Kencanau — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 02:28:15 +0000

I checked it out.
When “噱” is used as a verb or noun, it should be pronounced “jue2″. But this is not common in modern Chinese.

When it is used as an adj., it’s pronounced “xue2″. 噱头 seems to be this case.