Shortened Words

In a previous blogs I spoke of how Chinese words can be shorten but still convey the same information.

http://tainanchineseclass.blogspot.com/2010/02/chinese-tlas.html

http://mikeess-trip.blogspot.com/2011/02/shorten-english.html

I think it is just impatience than make use of shortened words prevalent. Taiwanese are very impatient and so there are shortened words everywhere. Unless you know their underlying story you can't get the meaning.

I use to think that in Taiwan the signs in English are just sometimes misspelt, but then I thought maybe they are missplet on purpose to create an effect. Now I think some are just shorten because the full name is just too long. Here are some examples.

Here is a sign for a coffee shop where they use the marvelous bean.

Here is a hamburger joint that does not serve bugs.

Here is a boutique that sells women's fashions but they are not just "modern" they are "modish". It's a great word.

I use to think this store was a competitor to 7/11 as the 3 characters in front translates as "9 times 9". Actually "9 times 9" is a shorten name for "multiplication tables". And this store is a stationary store with lots of school supplies.

And even though 7/11 has a very short name, here in Tainan we cut it down even further and just call it '7'. As in the sentence, "I'm going to get the newspaper at '7' ."