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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!hao!kpno!ut-sally!utastro!bill
From: bill@utastro.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: triple (quadruple, etc) homonyms
Message-ID: <627@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 16-Sep-83 13:11:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: utastro.627
Posted: Fri Sep 16 13:11:00 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 18-Sep-83 08:37:00 EDT
References: <244@houxa.UUCP>
Organization: UTexas Astronomy Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 22


	>> As an aside, is English unusual in the number of homonyms it has?

   Chinese and Japanese are also renowned for having many homonyms, even if
   one demands that two Chinese homonyms have the same tone, but my knowledge
   of both languages is too sketchy for me to give examples without a
   dictionary.

Yep, in Chinese at least homonyms abound, as a result of which, the Chinese
are very fond of puns.  My teacher once recited a story in which each word
was pronounced "shi"; something about stone lions, I recall.  It had something
like 100 characters in all (One couldn't understand it when spoken, only when 
written).  My handy dictionary lists 16 different characters pronounced "shi" 
in the first tone, 15 in the second, 7 in the third and (get this) \41/ in the 
fourth, plus two in neutral tone.  Many characters have multiple entries 
(different meanings for the same character).

	Bill Jefferys  8-%
	Astronomy Dept, University of Texas, Austin TX 78712   (Snail)
	ihnp4!kpno!utastro!bill   (uucp)
	utastro!bill@utexas-11   (ARPA)