「邊間教會」
| Entry #1 | |
| Pronunciation： | bin1 gaan1 gaau3 wui2 |
| Individual Character Meaning： |
邊 side; which; margin; edge; rim; party; opposing groups; "which" or "what"; whom; when). 間 (measure); time or space; stripe 教 to teach; to instruct; to educate; to coach; religion 會 to meet; meeting; will; can; big city; to understand; club; society; organisation; conference; to catch up; a very short while; be going to, will; going to; modal verb 'will' |
| Variants： | Variants： 邊間敎會 |
| Part of Speech： | expression |
| Labels： | Recent Jargon |
| Explanation： |
Literally translating to 'which church do you go to', this expression is used to ridicule 'wrong-sounding' Cantonese lyrics, i.e. lyrics that pay no regard to the tones of the Cantonese language, a linguistic phenomenon which in normal cases necessitate careful matching of words to the rising and falling of the corresponding notes. Lyricists of early Chinese hymns were generally more concerned with the meaning and translation accuracy of their lyrics than the musicality of their pieces, giving rise to lyrics which, when sung aloud in Cantonese, may 'sound wrong' or even be distorted beyond recognition. These hymns gradually became the classic example of 'wrong-sounding' Cantonese lyrics. Although the lyrics of modern Christian hymns have improved significantly in terms of musicality, the expression remains in popular use to this day.
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