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InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)BN
bendan [none/use name] @ bendan @hexbear.net
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1
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15
Joined
2 yr. ago

memes @hexbear.net

Yes

  • Everyone's learning Mandarin lol. I've been on and off for a few years but should get back into it, 亡羊补牢!

    I've tried to learn the Arabic alphabet a few times but I just can't keep track of the dots. Are there other ways to group the letters that help learning?

  • 1st tone ā - a high flat tone, like singing

    2nd tone á - rising, from the middle to the top, like a question

    3rd tone ǎ - low tone, as low as you can, it often becomes vocal fry. (also rises a bit at the end of sentences or in isolation)

    4th tone à - falling, from the top to the bottom, sounds angry

    there's also a secret "neutral tone" that happens to the second syllable of many two-syllable words, or for grammatical particles. it changes tone height based on where the previous tone ended, so basically if the previous tone ends low, the neutral tone is high and vice versa. these syllables are also shorter in duration and some diphthongs are flattened.

  • It's not really slang, and it translates pretty cleanly as "[you] could hardly be saying that ... ?", but I still want to give an honorable mention to Chinese 难道 nándào which explicitly indicates a rhetorical question, and it's basically the default way of asking rhetorical questions.