Google’s Chinese logo has made some interesting choices. The first character, pronounced "Goo" with the 3rd tone, means grains or cereal. The second, "Ge1", means songs or to sing. Together, it doesn’t make sense at all. Yes, this is meant to be a phonetic translation, but the syllable /gl/ is much closer to "gou3" than "ge1". This seemingly odd choice for /gle/ was probably becase Gou3 sounds like "dog", which is pretty much a bad word when used on things other than dogs.
But, a big but (pun unintended, if you know the Chinese Gou3Pi4 Tu4tong1), the internet age has brought a new attitude toward the word dog (/gou3/). Hot, chick Chinese websites are not shamed to get gou3 into their names. Check out Kool Gou, http://www.kugou.com, and sogo (I tiink).
This looks and sounds like a work of a really under-experienced, at least uninspiring, translator plus a non-native speaking boss who should have taken some Chinese. At least he could has consulted some literate Chinese speakers.
June 20th, 2006 at 4:25 pm e
i think it’s rather poetic actually. song grains . . . pieces of the song . . . your search results . . .