Economy / economic / economical rice

Question

economy / economic / economical riceWhich one is correct?

Avangi · Accepted Answer

Vincent Teoeconomy / economic / economical rice

In this case, I'd describe rice as "economical."

(I assume you mean to suggest that rice is an inexpensive staple.)

Anonymous · Answer

This isn't related the cost of rice per-se, but a transliteration of the mandarin term jing ji fan (jing ji= thrifty, fan=rice) , which is a hawker food setup in asian countries such as singapore. wherein the consumer pays for a basic plate of rice, and then only pays ala carte for the sides (usually a fixed number of meat and vegetable options). this allows the consumer to pay only for what is ordered and therefore can potentially be very inexpensive (thus the name), although choosing more costly items can substantially increase the cost. this is similar to the plate lunches found in hawaii or steam table chinese takeaway food in the united states or europe.

Grammatically, economic or economical could be use as adjectives (although economical more closely connotates the meaning of thrifty). Economy is sometimes used because the mandarin term jing ji is used interchangeably to mean economy, economic, and economical (hence the confusion!).

interestingly, modern usage is now more commonly jin cai fan (jin=variety, cai=vegetables/dishes, rice=fan) perhaps to sound more upscale, though the english representation remains "economical rice".

the more general term shu shi (shu=cooked, shi=food) is also in used, and largely synonymous.

all these terms are clumsily translated (akin to translating sushi as longevity administration), so it is probably best to use the original mandarin terms.

jing ji fan is pronounced (tsing jee faan).

jin cai fan (gin tsai faan).

shu shi (shoe sher).

Avangi · Answer

Hi, Anon,

I'm a bit puzzled.

My understanding has always been that "transliteration" was a process whereby you use the script of one language to duplicate the sounds of another.

"Economy/economic/economical" in English sound nothing like "tsing jee faan," obviously.

I guess you're trying to say that Vincent Teo is asking the wrong question.

He seems to be asking which of the choices is the proper adjective.

Perhaps we're using different meanings of "transliteration."

Regards, - A.

Dave_anon · Answer

Dear Vincent

The three words are close in meaing; it is not easy to explain..

- Economical

= this means that you will save money

- He bought rice because it was economical

- Rice is the economical choice

= Rice is a good way to eat if you are being careful with your money

--

- Economic

= this usually means an idea or theory that you have about money

- Our economic policy depends upon people buying rice

- Rice is a staple food - the price will not go up unless there is a shortage: that's economic common sense

--

- Economy

= the political study of the prices of things and how money works

- A fall in the price of rice will damage our economy

However, shops do use "economy" to label goods which are cheap, and then it is an adjectival phrase..

- "Dad, this doesn't taste right - you've bought the economy rice!"

Not easy words, but I hope this helps, Dave

Anonymous · Answer

Hi Avangi,

We are indeed using different definitions of the word "transliteration".

What you are saying is the mapping of the word based on the sound of the word in its original language, in otherwords, jing ji fan (which is the standardized pinyin rendition of the original chinese characters). This is known as transcription.

What I am taking to mean transliteration is the one-on-one mapping of words from one language to another. in closely related languages such as the indo-european languages, you can, for instance, substitute the original cyrillic letter for its equivalent letter. when the languages are similar, transliteration (the swapping of words or letters from one language to the other) approximates transcription since the swapped letters may have similar sound. this becomes more complicated is disimilar languages. In this case, there is no similar character in the roman alphabet to represent the ? jing character.

so you can either map each word to its english equivalent (using translation) or to its sounds (using transcription). and both can and are done.

Economy / economic / economical rice

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