Difference between revisions of "Talk:Emerald Glass"

Latest revision as of 17:10, 5 September 2013

Chinese name[edit]

This is going to be the same type of semi-wild speculation as Talk:Scarlet Flower, based on the premise of looking for a single-word "back-translation" suitable for inserting into the middle of a three-part dragon name. All transliterations are in Pinyin except for 龍 as "Lung", which is canon Wade-Giles as discussed in Chinese Names#Translation/transliteration issues.

In Mandarin Chinese, even plain glass seems to be described with two-word compounds: 琉璃 (liúlí, archaic term), 玻璃 (bōlí, modern term), and possibly biliu (can't find a tonal/Sinographic cite).

The 璃 lí element common to the first two may've once meant "lapis lazuli" as well as "glass". The same is true of 琉 liú, which might be in the third compound as well as the first. By way of comparison, the word 青 (qing) historically underwent a shift from referring to blue/black colors to green/blue colors.

If we postulate that in the Novikverse, 璃 and/or 琉 underwent a similar shift in meaning from "deep blue stone/glass" to "deep green stone/glass"-- and I have no solid reason to believe that this actually happened in RL-- then either one could provide a good single-word name for this breed.

"Lí-lung" (璃龍) could create confusion wrt Almaron's hypothesis that the small purple dragons belong to the 李 Lǐ-lung "plum" breed of Lung Li Po. "Liú-lung" (琉龍) would therefore be a more straightforward choice.

Blah blah blah :b -- Wombat1138 17:38, 14 August 2010 (PDT)

Other colours?[edit]

I was reading through Throne of Jade again, and I noticed a mention of a dragon that was "deep green with blue streaks" that accompanies Temeraire's group at one point. It could be a whole new breed, or it could be a variation of the Emerald Glass breed (possibly a cross-breed with Shen-Lung?). Should we add to this page the possibility that the breed comes in different colours, or that a cross-breed has been noted? If the dragon is Emerald Glass, that would certainly fit User:Wombat1138's translation work very well. Almaron 01:38, 16 August 2010 (PDT)

Zhao[edit]

Based on attempting to backtrace from the syllable "Zhao", I have to assume that "Emerald Glass" is an extremely figurative translation of a much simpler object that could be construed as a green reflective surface, such as an ornamental pond (沼: zhǎo, "pond/pool") or an archaic bronze mirror (照: zhào, "mirror"-- although that seems to be a verb (reflect/shine/duplicate) rather than a noun). On a more literal note, I've encountered various handmade glass beads that are emerald green with bright red streaks, presumably from differences in chromium oxidation state due to flame conditions. Wombat1138 11:10, 5 September 2013 (MDT)