Puns Forbidden in China

[Prelate Diogenes Shandor]

And i would recommend that you look the definition of "parsimonious" up in a dictionary, because I don't think it has the connotation you're trying to go for.

Don't just read the top definition.

2. Using a minimal number of assumptions, steps, or conjectures.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

And i would recommend that you look the definition of "parsimonious" up in a dictionary, because I don't think it has the connotation you're trying to go for.

Don't just read the top definition.

2. Using a minimal number of assumptions, steps, or conjectures.

Maybe you should look up the definition for "connotation" while you're at it. 

[Prelate Diogenes Shandor]

And i would recommend that you look the definition of "parsimonious" up in a dictionary, because I don't think it has the connotation you're trying to go for.

Don't just read the top definition.

2. Using a minimal number of assumptions, steps, or conjectures.

Maybe you should look up the definition for "connotation" while you're at it. 

I've seen the word "parsimonious" used hundreds of times, and it has always been in the context of either efficiency (which is the context I'm aiming for) and/or simplicity. And I've never once seen it used in a negative context.

I come from a science background however. I suppose it might be used differently elsewhere.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

And i would recommend that you look the definition of "parsimonious" up in a dictionary, because I don't think it has the connotation you're trying to go for.

Don't just read the top definition.

2. Using a minimal number of assumptions, steps, or conjectures.

Maybe you should look up the definition for "connotation" while you're at it. 

I've seen the word "parsimonious" used hundreds of times, and it has always been in the context of either efficiency (which is the context I'm aiming for) and/or simplicity. And I've never once seen it used in a negative context.

I come from a science background however. I suppose it might be used differently elsewhere.

Is there something about this time of year that just FORCES people into pompous, unfounded public dumbassery?

You are basically doubling-down on your statement that written Chinese (assuming you mean Mandarin, here, since you refuse to clarify) is "backwards-ass" because it isn't simple. And that appears to be all you have to offer. Since you don't appear to have an argument beyond that single statement, it's kind of hard not to wonder whether your motivation for declaring another culture's written language "backwards-ass" (a bit of a loaded term) is some kind of bigotry.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

And i would recommend that you look the definition of "parsimonious" up in a dictionary, because I don't think it has the connotation you're trying to go for.

Don't just read the top definition.

2. Using a minimal number of assumptions, steps, or conjectures.

Maybe you should look up the definition for "connotation" while you're at it. 

I've seen the word "parsimonious" used hundreds of times, and it has always been in the context of either efficiency (which is the context I'm aiming for) and/or simplicity. And I've never once seen it used in a negative context.

I come from a science background however. I suppose it might be used differently elsewhere.

Is there something about this time of year that just FORCES people into pompous, unfounded public dumbassery?

You are basically doubling-down on your statement that written Chinese (assuming you mean Mandarin, here, since you refuse to clarify) is "backwards-ass" because it isn't simple. And that appears to be all you have to offer. Since you don't appear to have an argument beyond that single statement, it's kind of hard not to wonder whether your motivation for declaring another culture's written language "backwards-ass" (a bit of a loaded term) is some kind of bigotry.

The man flat out told us that he thinks yellow people are backwards on the mere way of the way they write, and white people are in charge because they made writing less complicated. This is his stated opinion.

Aside from blatant cultural bias, I would like to point out that the English language nevertheless gets ever more complicated, ever more jargony and that the likelihood of running into anyone with a complete English vocabulary probably approaches nil, and I can't stress this enough, if you think that English enjoys global popularity for anything other than lucky twists of historical events, you're fucking dumb. Period.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

And i would recommend that you look the definition of "parsimonious" up in a dictionary, because I don't think it has the connotation you're trying to go for.

Don't just read the top definition.

2. Using a minimal number of assumptions, steps, or conjectures.

Maybe you should look up the definition for "connotation" while you're at it. 

I've seen the word "parsimonious" used hundreds of times, and it has always been in the context of either efficiency (which is the context I'm aiming for) and/or simplicity. And I've never once seen it used in a negative context.

I come from a science background however. I suppose it might be used differently elsewhere.

Is there something about this time of year that just FORCES people into pompous, unfounded public dumbassery?

You are basically doubling-down on your statement that written Chinese (assuming you mean Mandarin, here, since you refuse to clarify) is "backwards-ass" because it isn't simple. And that appears to be all you have to offer. Since you don't appear to have an argument beyond that single statement, it's kind of hard not to wonder whether your motivation for declaring another culture's written language "backwards-ass" (a bit of a loaded term) is some kind of bigotry.

The man flat out told us that he thinks yellow people are backwards on the mere way of the way they write, and white people are in charge because they made writing less complicated. This is his stated opinion.

Aside from blatant cultural bias, I would like to point out that the English language nevertheless gets ever more complicated, ever more jargony and that the likelihood of running into anyone with a complete English vocabulary probably approaches nil, and I can't stress this enough, if you think that English enjoys global popularity for anything other than lucky twists of historical events, you're fucking dumb. Period.

I love the English language for its flexibility. However, one thing it profoundly lacks is parsimony, whether in the charitable sense of simplicity or in the uncharitable sense of simplicity. It has neither.

[Doktor Howl]

If English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

But unlike everyone else here he comes from a science background, so he must be right, despite not speaking or writing any Chinese or having any training in linguistics. He heard that his sister's Chinese professor once said so.

[zarathustrasbastardson]

How do you say deer hunter in mandarin?

[hooplala]

Chinese is backwards...because it is more complex.  OK.  Kinda like how Skyrim is backwards, because it uses a more complex engine than Pong.  Makes sense.

It's also written backwards.  Making it doubly backwards.  Or is that forwards?

I used to be an idiot, but I turned that around 360 degrees.

Can I say, this just made me laugh for about an entire minute. Thank you Roger.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

A thread well-bumped.

[Cainad (dec.)]

Isn't written Chinese shared by most of the languages in China? The idea that a written language that can cross spoken language barriers isn't somewhat impressive is... well, it sounds exactly like the kind of position Shandor would dig his heels in for.

[Cain]

They have the same alphabet (hanzi), but the words/morphemes/lopograms don't necessarily have the same meanings in their different dialect or language usage.

Kinda like how Spanish, Italian and French all share the same alphabet, all share the same historical origin, have quite a lot of overlap and similar grammar, but are still distinct languages.

[Cainad (dec.)]

Ah, ok. I vaguely recalled from some high school history class that one of the Chinese dynasties (Qin, maybe?) created a standardized written language, but I don't really know anything beyond that.

[von]

They don't even have an alphabet!

It wouldn't have to be the latin alphabet; it could just as easily be cyrillic, or greek, or kana or a totally new system, but not having an alphabet at all is backward and makes the language needlessly obtuse.

Mandarin Chinese has a syllabary called zhuyin or bopomofo. It was derived from ancient chinese character forms in 1910 and is used similar to japanese furigana in taiwan to help children with pronunciation. 

So, yes, they do have an endemic syllabic system for writing sounds down.

If you want a backwards writing system, look to old norse -- they wrote that shit with an alphabet that didn't even contain enough graphemes to express all of the phonemes in the language.
Hell, modern danish doesn't have a character to mark the stød, and god help non-natives reading swedish or norwegian with tonal accents. And don't even get me started with how poorly the early icelanders seemed to understand the whole concept behind latin consonants... I mean, do you think the romans put a rollicking tounge-slap somewhere in the middle of 'puella'?

Zhuyin at least covers all of mandarin's phonemes and tonal qualities and without weird shit that doesn't make sense...