An initial 4A N2...?

[Billionbridges.com]

> Here is a list of these things in English and Chinese:
>
> http://lostincolours.tripod.com/numbers/
>
> I can't explain the Chinese ones completely. For example, "520" = "wu er
> [ling?]" means "wo ai ni" = "I love you" (a very common one of course),
> "530" = "wu san [ling?]" means "wo xiang ni" = "I miss you", etc., so
> apparently these are at least partly phonetic (allowing a lot of leeway),
> but maybe I'm reading the zero wrong.

No, you're reading the zero right.  My take on this is that "ling" = "zero",
out of the Chinese numbers from 0 to 10, is the closest approximation
you can get of "ni" = "you" (not worrying about the final "ng").  For that
matter, the whole system is premised upon finding the words that most
resemble in pronunciation the numbers 0 to 10.  Some seem a bit of a
stretch to my ears, but then convention wins every time, no?

Interesting how it seems that for Chinese speakers the initials "n" and
"l" are more easily mixed up and/or interchangeable in verbal speech
than they are in English. Then again, I need to qualify that by saying that
my impression is based upon seven years of listening to and speaking with
Mandarin speakers in Taiwan, the vast majority of whom are bilingual in
Mandarin and Taiwanese.  Of course, in Taiwanese "you" is "li", which
would reinforce the appropriateness of "ling" = "you".

> Note "8084" which may be orthographic (= "BABY"), 'translated' as
> "bao bei" (lit., "precious object", orig. "precious shell" I think) =
> "sweetheart" or the coincidentally phonetically felicitous world-English
> "baby".

Must be, as "8084" = "ba ling ba si" wouldn't bring to mind "bao bei".

Don
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