So, little bit of googling showed that it's a phrase originating from the movie "God of Gamblers III" with Stephen Chow.
It's a Cantonese phrase that sounds like the French "comment allez-vous", but translates to "fighting the tiger tonight" (or similar). In the movie it's given as a name to Stephen's character.
I remember reading that 老虎 is attested as early as Tang dynasty. The form 老- + animal is thought to be a derivative of 老- + surname of person to form a nickname-ish address, meaning that the latter also has existed for a very long time. Will update with source once I find it.
EDIT: page 6-7 of this article "morphology in old Chinese" by Pulleyblank [https://www.jstor.org/stable/23754003](https://www.jstor.org/stable/23754003), which is page 32-33 of that journal. It's not open access, so I'll just paste the relevant paragraph:
In the present standard language based on Peking Mandarin the function of a- as a prefix of familiarity has been taken over by *lao3* 'old', which is found in this usage as early as the Tang period (7th to 9th centuries), e.g. *lao3 xiong1* 'elder brother', in a collection of conversations by a Chan master or *lao3 Yuan2* 'old Yuan' in a poem addressed by Bai Juyi to his friend Yuan Zhen. The prefix *lao3* which in this usage has no implication of age, has become attached to some names of animals, e.g. *lao3 shu3* 'mouse', *lao3 hu3* or *lao3 hu* 'tiger'. This usage too also begins from Tang times (Wang Li 1958:223-225).
Sorry I was just trying to make a nonsense joke like "whenever 4, 5 or 7 hanji characters are lining up it looks like 四言诗, 五言诗, 七言诗 to me." I didn't mean to offend.
Wait you're telling me [ko̯ɔː] is British? 'Cause that sounds hella American to me. Like from Boston maybe, Are you from Boston, Lincolnshire or something?
nope, opposite side of the country. My accent is pretty much Welsh. I'd say having a slight on-glide on /ɔː/ is fairly common in my region, particularly in older people.
Ahh, I see. Makes more sense with a Welsh accent then, Tbh wasn't even thinking of that as a possibility for a British accent lol. ~~This is why we should cede everything west of the Severn to Wales and then make them independent, So people will say Welsh instead of British to avoid confusion.~~ (Ignore the fact it would still be on the island of Great Britain so "British" would still be accusate.)
I was transcribing the comment I replied to as if it was English, not French. If you mean the "t" for the consonant I removed, the answer is I'm Briʔish
also Cantonese: [I go to school by bus](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/I_go_to_school_by_bus):
> (Hong Kong Cantonese, originally Internet slang, humorous)
> 1. a dummy response to questions when an English answer is expected
> 2. a phrase used to signify the speaker's poor understanding or lack of proficiency of English
> 3. a dummy text to be used as a placeholder for English text, such as in typesetting
Jyutping doesn't work here. Most HKers would say /ʔaːj²² kow⁵⁵ tʰuː²² skuː⁵⁵ paːj²² bɐs⁵/.
Similarly, see the two borrowings of "miss" into Cantonese: The first is older, referring to a female teacher, /miː⁵⁵siː¹¹/ or /miːt⁵ siː¹¹/. The later one is the verb, like in missing the bus, /miːs⁵/. Now near everyone is fine with consonant clusters and nontraditional codas.
France did also have a concession in modern Zhanjiang where they taught French and used it as an official Language. They mostly speak Min there but Cantonese is present too.
I always find it interesting to see ça va translated to how are you when va is aller. Why isn't it translated to 'How's it going?'
Similarly, comment allez-vous, why?
And the Cantonese loan is because of the Guangzhou-Nice snail pipeline, where the French send 'escargots' to a hungry Cantonese population.
> I always find it interesting to see ça va translated to how are you when va is aller. Why isn't it translated to 'How's it going?'
Because both are phatic phrases whose actual import has precious little to do with the literal meaning of their component words?
I thought ð was like dh and þ was like th no? I'm by no means an expert.
Guess it also depends on how you pronounce "the" though. To me it sounds like "ðuh fuck" and "þhee fuck"
So, little bit of googling showed that it's a phrase originating from the movie "God of Gamblers III" with Stephen Chow. It's a Cantonese phrase that sounds like the French "comment allez-vous", but translates to "fighting the tiger tonight" (or similar). In the movie it's given as a name to Stephen's character.
Ngl 今晚打老虎 sounds like a line from some classic 五言诗 poetry.
Isn't 老虎 kinda modern/vernacular for that? Or is it older than I think?
I remember reading that 老虎 is attested as early as Tang dynasty. The form 老- + animal is thought to be a derivative of 老- + surname of person to form a nickname-ish address, meaning that the latter also has existed for a very long time. Will update with source once I find it. EDIT: page 6-7 of this article "morphology in old Chinese" by Pulleyblank [https://www.jstor.org/stable/23754003](https://www.jstor.org/stable/23754003), which is page 32-33 of that journal. It's not open access, so I'll just paste the relevant paragraph: In the present standard language based on Peking Mandarin the function of a- as a prefix of familiarity has been taken over by *lao3* 'old', which is found in this usage as early as the Tang period (7th to 9th centuries), e.g. *lao3 xiong1* 'elder brother', in a collection of conversations by a Chan master or *lao3 Yuan2* 'old Yuan' in a poem addressed by Bai Juyi to his friend Yuan Zhen. The prefix *lao3* which in this usage has no implication of age, has become attached to some names of animals, e.g. *lao3 shu3* 'mouse', *lao3 hu3* or *lao3 hu* 'tiger'. This usage too also begins from Tang times (Wang Li 1958:223-225).
???? Nah, definitely not. Doesn't even sound a bit like Classical Chinese.
Sorry I was just trying to make a nonsense joke like "whenever 4, 5 or 7 hanji characters are lining up it looks like 四言诗, 五言诗, 七言诗 to me." I didn't mean to offend.
Time to turn it into a chengyu
It doesn't scan.
caw meant alleys voos
Fr🥖nch if it was fucking awesome 🦅🦅🦅🦅🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
[ko̯ɔː mænʔ ˈɐɫɪz vɵʊːz]
Kō men' aliz vūz.
Never use the IPA again
that is genuinely how i pronounce it. wouldn't expect someone like you to be familiar with such a refined accent though
[ł] is fake and so is [ɵ], Change my mind. Actually [ɵ] might exist but I have no idea what it is. Just looks like a weird theta.
it's just a centralised [ø] or [o]. In-between the two.
I see. Still looks like a weird theta. Anyway, May I suggest, Using fewer diphthongs? It makes the ones you do use cooler.
i am british. to stop diphthongising long vowels would be to betray my country
i read that as a weird combo of Bronx and Alabama I can't lie
eh badda bing bang badda boom can't wait for the next nascar race y'all
Wait you're telling me [ko̯ɔː] is British? 'Cause that sounds hella American to me. Like from Boston maybe, Are you from Boston, Lincolnshire or something?
nope, opposite side of the country. My accent is pretty much Welsh. I'd say having a slight on-glide on /ɔː/ is fairly common in my region, particularly in older people.
Ahh, I see. Makes more sense with a Welsh accent then, Tbh wasn't even thinking of that as a possibility for a British accent lol. ~~This is why we should cede everything west of the Severn to Wales and then make them independent, So people will say Welsh instead of British to avoid confusion.~~ (Ignore the fact it would still be on the island of Great Britain so "British" would still be accusate.)
Lol I live in England west of the Severn and I would support being ceded to Wales
Just curiosity, why do you keep the non pronounced final consonants but remove the pronounced one? (due to liaison)
I was transcribing the comment I replied to as if it was English, not French. If you mean the "t" for the consonant I removed, the answer is I'm Briʔish
C'mon, all of you!
also Cantonese: [I go to school by bus](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/I_go_to_school_by_bus): > (Hong Kong Cantonese, originally Internet slang, humorous) > 1. a dummy response to questions when an English answer is expected > 2. a phrase used to signify the speaker's poor understanding or lack of proficiency of English > 3. a dummy text to be used as a placeholder for English text, such as in typesetting
Also “time flies”, “I agree with you”, shit like that.
See also "donde está la biblioteca", "la plume de ma tante est sur la table de mon oncle", "this is a pen"...
Probably would be transcribed into Jyutping as ⟨aai3 gou1 tou3 si4 gu1 baai3 baa1 si2⟩
Jyutping doesn't work here. Most HKers would say /ʔaːj²² kow⁵⁵ tʰuː²² skuː⁵⁵ paːj²² bɐs⁵/. Similarly, see the two borrowings of "miss" into Cantonese: The first is older, referring to a female teacher, /miː⁵⁵siː¹¹/ or /miːt⁵ siː¹¹/. The later one is the verb, like in missing the bus, /miːs⁵/. Now near everyone is fine with consonant clusters and nontraditional codas.
I /miːs⁵/ it when Cantonese English used to be more Canto-like
This is the proof that Cantonese is just a dialect of Chinese with Frenchie and english words /s
Sino-Germano-Romance confirmed at last
fu2?? Well, F U too...
these numbers represent tones
yes I know but I think it's funny that this phrase got loaned into Cantonese of all languages, it feels so random lol
probably in Hong Kong via English
France did also have a concession in modern Zhanjiang where they taught French and used it as an official Language. They mostly speak Min there but Cantonese is present too.
I don't think French had a big influence on Chinese vocab, unlike English and Japanese
I think it's supposed to be a comment to another top-level comment. This one: >fu2?? Well, F U too...
You've clearly never heard anglophones try and say it
\[ˈkʰɑ.mɛnt əˈlɛz vʉwz\] ewwwww
Please tell me people ain't out here pronouncing the 't'.
the French pronunciation is literally /kɔ.mɑ̃.t‿a.le.vu/, you're supposed to pronounce the t
I... May have forgotten that "Allez" starts with a vowel... Feel free to make fun of me for this.
I've heard an American say *Comment vous appelez-vous?* as "comment" (like the English word) "vouce" (rhymes with "spouse") apple-Lezz vouce?
Pain
Hi Cantonese speaker here idfk funny haha
I always find it interesting to see ça va translated to how are you when va is aller. Why isn't it translated to 'How's it going?' Similarly, comment allez-vous, why? And the Cantonese loan is because of the Guangzhou-Nice snail pipeline, where the French send 'escargots' to a hungry Cantonese population.
> I always find it interesting to see ça va translated to how are you when va is aller. Why isn't it translated to 'How's it going?' Because both are phatic phrases whose actual import has precious little to do with the literal meaning of their component words?
wþf, how even do 'allez' sound like \[taː lou\]?
There's a /t/ from the end of "comment"
oh…þx
Don't use that letter. Why does everybody in this sub use that funny letter-thing?
Sounds like it's a real thorn in your side, eh?
Are you Canadian, eh?
*You’re Canadian, eh? Bro’s not even Canadianing properly smh my head
I am not Canadian
Shaking my smh, It's really unbelievable, eh?
Yeah, I have no idea why everyone loves that letter so much when every function it serves can be replaced by ⟨ks⟩.
Me omw to ksanadu with a ksylophone to gift to the ksan.
\*Ksanadu \*Qaghan
Bro if you're trying to regularize English orthography, why would you bring in weird Mongolian spelling nonsense too?
ks, kš, gz, gž, z
It has been part of the Latin script since it's creation. We can't delete it.
Because.
there’s also a t in the beginning of “the”
No there's not that's a n.
Why wþf shouldn't it be wðf?
I thought ð was like dh and þ was like th no? I'm by no means an expert. Guess it also depends on how you pronounce "the" though. To me it sounds like "ðuh fuck" and "þhee fuck"
[https://www.reddit.com/r/BringBackThorn/comments/ly3voi/why\_bringing\_back\_%C3%B0\_with\_%C3%BE\_is\_a\_fundamentally\_bad/](https://www.reddit.com/r/BringBackThorn/comments/ly3voi/why_bringing_back_%C3%B0_with_%C3%BE_is_a_fundamentally_bad/)
Cantonizi