On Thu, 11 Dec 2003 20:42:09 -0000, "joe" wrote:

In Cantonese 'Chow' with the 2nd PinYin intonation means fry for eg. chow
meen(fried noodles) or chow farn(fried riced)
In Mandarin ....
snip

From a Chinese person's perspective, it's easy for a Chinaman to read a
written Chinese character or word like Fry as in "Chow or Chao" but to
understand each other's spoken dialect is not easy when it is pronounced
differently, sometimes with vast pronouciation differences depending on
where you're from.
[...]

Anyway.... i'm getting off track here & it's on
hell of a history lesson.

With a language that also relies on tonal distinctions, it's a wonder
*anyone* can be understood when he has a cold! The 'chop' of chop
suey, upon brief research, seems to be similarly ambiguous. Chop as
food; chop-chop as quickly. Chop as what English-speakers would call
stri-fry prep. Gerald Durrell uses 'chop' as pidgin for 'food' or even
'food ingredient' in East Africa. Ain't humans fun?