There are only 400+ possible syllables in Chinese. That makes listening comprehension (both for me and the person I’m talking to) a bit of a nightmare. But despite the many downsides, there are actually some fun things about a syllabic language.
Besides how amazingly easy it is to rhyme in Chinese, it’s fun that the language allows for syllabic palindromes (i.e. reading the hanzi forwards and backwards, not the individual letters in the pinyin).
Even some individual words can be read forward and backward and mean the same thing (if one seems more common to me it appears in bold). If you can rattle off this list to your Chinese friends it will be just as impressive as saying the “4 is 4, 10 is 10” tongue twister to a Southern China native!
- jìdù 忌妒 = dùjì 妒忌 = to be jealous / jealousy
- jījiàn 击剑 = jiànjī 剑击 = fencing (sport)
- yèxiāo 夜宵 = xiāoyè 宵夜 = late-night snack
- zǔzhòu 诅咒 = zhòuzǔ 咒诅 = to curse
- shìshí 事实 = shíshì 实事 = fact
Isn’t that wild!?
Does anyone know of any others? Share, share!
Can anyone think of any in English? I don’t mean like “pop.” I mean a two WORD palindrome where “paper doll” and “doll paper” mean the same thing (they don’t, of course, that’s why that one doesn’t count). It seems like I thought of a two-word English one once but it might have been when I was just about to fall asleep and I didn’t write it down but if I had it would have seemed really stupid the next morning anyway. You know what I mean.
same: 开花kāihuā – 花开huākāi – abloom
There is a different one: 化开huàkāi，means‘melt’； 开化kāihuà，‘became civilized’.
well, 咒诅 and 实事 are not as commonly used as other ones. I’ve never heard any one says 实事 unless in 实事求是
My favorite English palindrome is this baby:
“A man, a plan, a canal: Panama.”
Words that can be switched in English but still have the same meaning happen often with verb/adverb combinations, i.e. “quickly ran” and “ran quickly.”
Its funny I was reading your blog then I go to class and 老师 teaches us:
式样- style
样式- style
很巧！
互相/相互- each other; mutual
感情/情感 – a feeling
唱歌/歌唱 – to sing a song
Anna,
Yes! I was trying to remember huxiang and xianghu. Thanks for that and the others.
Thewatcher,
Zhen qiao indeed! It’s amazing how often little things like that happen (for example, a friend of mine is haunted by how often the word “emu” comes up in his life).
Sarah,
You’re right, adverbs can go almost anywhere in English (I love that). Maybe that’s what I was thinking of, but it seems like it was some sort of compound word…Oh well.
Joe,
That’s brilliant! Finally an English palindrome I can remember.
kencanau,
I’ve bolded them in the list appropriately. Thanks!
Helen,
Thanks for the two examples. I suppose there’s another topic: “Words that have very different meanings forwards and backwards” (like 蜜蜂 and 蜂蜜).
合适[héshì]/适合[shìhé] – suitable; proper, appropriate
讲演[jiǎngyǎn]/演讲[yǎnjiǎng]– a lecture/to hold a lecture
代替[dàitì]/替代[tìdài] – to replace
负担[fùdān]/担负[dānfù] – to be responsible for; burden
来往[láiwǎng]/往来[wǎnglái] – to come and to go; contacts; relationship
空虚[kōngxū]/虚空[xūkōng] – empty
要紧[jǐnyào]/紧要[yàojǐn] – important
迁移[qiānyí]/移迁[yíqiān] – to move to another place to live, to migrate
阻拦[zǔlán]/拦阻[lánzǔ] – to block; to keep long, to delay
兄弟[xiōngdì]/弟兄[xiōngdì] – brothers
彩色[sècǎi]/色彩[cǎisè] – colour /colourful
进行[jìnxíng]/行进[xíngjìn] – to realize /to go ahead
书写[shūxiě]/写书[xiěshū]– writing/ to write a book
力量[lìliang]/量力[liànglì] – force; power; effect / to the best of one’s ability
前面[qiánmian]/面前[miànqián] – in front of /in the face of
车马[chēmǎ]/马车[mǎchē] – street transport/a horse-drawn vehicle
民军[mínjūn]/军民[jūnmín] – people’s army, people’s emergency volunteer corps/army & people
展开[zhǎnkāi]/开展[kāizhǎn] – to open/to expand, to extend; highly-developed; leading
法语[fǎyǔ]/语法[yǔfǎ] – French languahe/ a grammar
现实/实现-reality;to realize
@Anna,
Thanks for that extensive list! I guess after
彩色[sècǎi]/色彩[cǎisè] – colour /colourful
then we get into words that still have meanings when read backwards, but the meanings are different. Those are good to be aware of but I’m always sure I’ll mess them up.
@Phil,
I guess yours would fall into that category also where the words still have meaning, but the two meanings are not equal.
这不算奇的啊，还有更长的可倒过来念的诗句，有一个专业的名词，叫做“回文诗”，举一例：
《回文旋图诗》
开篷一棹远溪流，走上烟花踏径游。来客仙亭闲伴鹤，泛舟渔浦满飞鸥。
台映碧泉寒井冷，月明孤寺古林幽。回望四山观落日，偎林傍水绿悠悠。
可倒读为:
悠悠绿水傍林偎，日落观山四望回。幽林古寺孤明月，冷井寒泉碧映台。
鸥飞满浦渔舟泛，鹤伴闲亭仙客来。游径踏花烟上走，流溪远棹一篷开。
More example please refer:http://baike.baidu.com/view/46546.htm
bystand and stand by
Although I guess bystand isn’t technically a word without the -er, I have heard it used as a verb.
One more Chinese palindrome:
力气 lìqì 气力 qìlì
strength, energy
Anna thank you. You have find so many exemples..
Are you living in sweden?
here are some new examples that I found while checking Chinese dictionary:
白银[bái yín] /银白[yín bái] – silver/silver white colour
黄金[huáng jīn] /金黄[jīn huáng] – gold/ golden yellow colour
黄土[huáng tǔ] /土黄 [tǔ huáng] – loess (yellow sandy soil typical of north China), aeolian soil/sallow, pale colour
黄蜡[huáng là] /蜡黄 [là huáng] – yellow wax/wax-white colour, waxen
绿豆[lǜ dòu] /豆绿[dòu lǜ] – mung bean; golden gram, green gram/pea-green
火炉[huǒ lú] /炉火 [lú huǒ] – oven, stove/ fire in the oven, fire of a stove
人工[rén gōng] /工人 [gōng rén] – human labour, artificial / manpower / manual work /a worker, a workman
工农[gōng nóng] /农工 [nóng gōng] – workers and peasants/ agricultural worker / abbr. for 农业工人 / peasant and worker (in Marxism)
刷牙[shuā yá] /牙刷 [yá shuā] – to clean teeth, to brush teeth/toothbrush
油菜[yóu cài] /菜油 [cài yóu] – oilseed rape (bot.)/rapeseed oil, canola oil
橱柜[chú guì] /柜橱 [guì chú] – cupboard
寻找[xún zhǎo] /找寻 [zhǎo xún] – to seek, to look for
动手[dòng shǒu] /手动 [shǒu dòng] – to set about (a task) , to hit , to punch , to touch / manual , manually operated , manual gear-change
动感[dòng gǎn] /感动 [gǎn dòng] – innervation, dynamism /to move (sb) , to touch (sb emotionally) , moving
乱动[dòng luàn] /动乱 [luàn dòng] – to fiddle with, to tamper with, to meddle with, to move randomly, to flail abou t /turmoil, upheaval, unrest
糖果[táng guǒ] /果糖 [guǒ táng] – candy/fructose
运转[yùn zhuǎn] /转运 [zhuǎn yùn] – to work. to operate, to revolve, to turn around /to forward goods, to ship, to distribute, transshipment, a lucky break, change of fortune (for the better)
命运[mìng yùn] /运命 [yùn mìng] – fate, destiny /fate, one’s fortune
运输[yùn shū] /输运 [shū yùn] – transport, haulage, transit /to transport, transportation