hum bao and humbao (1990)

[Benjamin Barrett]

Nice find! I can't read Chinese, but can at least identify characters.

On the page for 餡 (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%A4%A1), it says under the Mandarin section "filling (for dumplings etc.)" Since 包 means wrap (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%8C%85. but not defined), that makes sense. "餡包" gets 938,000 Googits.

I wonder if 鹹包 is word play or nonce usage. I've never understood how Cantonese writing works very well, but I think they have some freedom of character use, something along the lines of jukujikun as you mentioned the other day. Still, "鹹包" gets 49,900 Googits, pale in comparison, but still a large number...

BB


On Aug 17, 2011, at 4:03 PM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:

> I can't find really authoritative kanji for "humbow", but here are some
> candidates:
>
> http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/phorum/read.php?12,5331,5354
>
> ... "haam baau" or so in Cantonese, read "xian bao" in Guoyu (with some
> tones either way),
>
> One candidate (2nd post) ...
>
> 餡包
>
> ... seems to 'make sense' but I can't immediately verify it on-line.
>
> Another candidate (9th post) ...
>
> 鹹包
>
> ... at least really exists in some sort of Chinese in more-or-less
> appropriate sense:
>
> http://www.chimeifood.com.tw/product/products.asp?fid=134
>
> Somebody who can read Chinese well can probably do better.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org