Great Proverbs of Hong Kong Cantonese Painting by 阿塗 Image from Passiontimes.hk |
Great Proverbs of Hong Kong Cantonese aims to promote Lingnan culture and educate the public about the importance of Cantonese, hence defending it from dialectic eradication through brutal political gestures.
Pieter Bruegel's Netherlandish Proverbs, 1559 Captured 112 Dutch proverbs and idioms Image from Wikipedia |
Vocabulary:
- "Freudian slip is a verbal or memory mistake that is believed to be linked to the unconscious mind", thus it has nothing to do with vision or sight and is an incorrect translation of 鬼揞眼.
- 有錢使得鬼推磨 can be translated to an English proverb "money makes the mare go".
- 鬼拍後尾枕 has a meaning of saying something you regret because you shouldn't have said it, which could be a secret or something mindless, so a relatively well-fitted idiom is "to put one's foot in one's mouth".
- 呃鬼食豆腐 is basically to tell lies, in English there are many such idioms, one of which is "lead sb up/down the garden path".
- The one word for 鬼畫符 would be "indecipherable".
- 放飛機 has a perfect translation to the English phrasal verb "to stand sb up".
- 兩頭蛇 can be translated into "a two-face", but a more intriguing one, among Transformers' fans, is the Doubledealer, hence a "double-dealer" fits.
- "To cry wine and sell vinegar" fits 掛羊頭賣狗肉, though this English version is not well-known among native speakers.
- 甩繩馬騮 are kids "on the loose"..
- 食拖鞋飯 is "to sponge". A sponge means a person who takes advantage of the generosity of others.
- 樹大有枯枝 can be translated to the proverb "there is a black sheep in every flock".
- 牛唔飲水唔撳得牛頭低 is "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink".
- 捉黃腳雞 is catching sb committing adultery.
T. E. Breitenbach's Proverbidioms, 1975 Captured over 300 common proverbs and clichés Image from Wikipedia |
Screen capture of the game Image from PROVERBidioms app |
Image from greenstonegames |
Resources:
Pieter Bruegel the Elder @Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder
Netherlandish Proverbs @Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlandish_Proverbs
Saving the Cantonese Language in China @China Decoded
http://www.chinadecoded.com/2010/08/04/saving-the-cantonese-language-in-china/
in case you didnt notice - big change coming? @Guangzhou Stuff
http://www.gzstuff.com/forum/topics/in-case-you-didnt-notice-big-change-coming?commentId=1345793%3AComment%3A7498093&xg_source=activity
高登神獸之父阿塗創廣東俗語漫畫集 @ zhimaludoushi
http://goo.gl/aynfLC
T. E. Breitenbach @Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._E._Breitenbach
Proverbidioms @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proverbidioms
Is Cantonese in danger? Hongkongers take steps to protect their heritage @ SCMP
http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-education/article/1450856/hongkongers-take-steps-preserve-their-language-and
Proverbidioms App @ greenstonegames
http://greenstonegames.com/proverbidioms/#.U8CPhtIW33Q
http://psychology.about.com/od/sigmundfreud/f/freudian-slip.htm
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/58/messages/1159.html
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/put+foot+in+mouth
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/lead+up+the+garden+path
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/indecipherable
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/stand-sb-up
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Doubledealer
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/double-dealer
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/on+the+loose
http://tuoitrenews.vn/society/11388/beauty-salons-cry-wine-and-sell-vinegar
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/on+the+loose
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sponge
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/black-sheep
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/you-can-lead-a-horse-to-water-but-you-can-t-make-him-drink
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