Cantonese

(Newser) - IKEA stores in Hong Kong have completely sold out of the latest must-have item: A toy wolf whose name in Chinese sounds like what the South China Morning Post terms "an obscene three-word phrase in Cantonese associated with the female genitalia." Chronically unpopular chief executive CY Leung is...

(Newser) - A Toronto suburb that has long catered to the superstitious by skipping 13 when giving out new addresses has decided to do away with the number four as well. Four is considered unlucky by speakers of Cantonese and Mandarin because it sounds like the word "death," and while...

(Newser) - Goodbye "Leih Hou Ma," hello "Ni Hao Ma." The language most often heard in New York's Chinatown and in Chinese communities across America is quickly changing from Cantonese to Mandarin as new immigrants from mainland China outnumber those from Hong Kong. Even Cantonese-speaking parents are pushing...

(Newser) - New technology has kids in China generating their own modern lingo, I.D. Magazine reports. The millennia-old Mandarin language lacks terms for things like cell phones (which go as shou ji, or "hand machine") and USB (which goes as yo pan, a word created partly phonetically), forcing users...