Talk:Tetraphobia

Windows

Did not Microsoft avoid the number 4 when they developed Windows 95? The previous version was Windows 3.1.1. But pre-release reviews of W95 in computer magazines did for a while refer to it as Windows 4.0. We now have Windows 7 and 10 ... Whatever happened to Windows 5, 6, 8 and 9? Perhaps someone who knows the details could include this in the content.

old talk

A lot of the things in the article seem to be based on tetraphobia in Chinese cultures. That's fine, but making blanket statements that lead readers to believe that they apply equally to Japanese and Korean attitudes is not. For example, the article had a statement that 13 is actually a lucky number for the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans. As a Korean, I've never heard of such a thing applying to Koreans. I have read before that 13 is considered lucky by the Chinese, but in a Korean article about Chinese culture where the implicit assertion is that it's a custom that's considered foreign by Koreans. In any case, the homophony reasoning for why 13 is considered lucky does not carry over into Korean.

So I deleted Koreans from that trio and proceeded to clear some things up about Korean tetraphobia, but I cannot comment on the Japanese. Could anyone check the statements in the article for accuracy regarding Japanese culture? --Iceager 06:53, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

Definitively i have seen a scene in a japanese etiquette guide: not to place four business cards together. User:YBO 00:09, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

I've added one reference to book, although it is more science-popular, than university textbook style. Should we removed /unreferenced/ tag though? silpol 13:34, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

Nokia

Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia's 1xxx-9xxx series of mobile phones does not include any model numbers beginning with a 4. Is this because tetraphobia? --Smooth O (talk) 13:09, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Nokia does this as a sign of respect for their Asian customers, since they make up most of their user base. I also wondered about it before, too. They did release the Series 40 platform as-is, though, despite their tradition. Blake Gripling (talk) 06:12, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

This sentence is consciously or unconsciously self-referential/funny: "This was done "as a polite gesture to Asian customers".[4][dead link]" — Preceding unsigned comment added by 114.112.44.3 (talk) 06:18, 17 October 2011 (UTC)

What exactly does this mean?

"leading many who are not aware of tetraphobia to believe that **some floors are missing**" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.122.137.181 (talk) 01:28, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

If there is no fourth floor listed on the elevator, maybe someone would think that the fourth floor is unreachable or somehow missing, is my guess Rifter0x0000 (talk) 04:01, 8 December 2010 (UTC)

Origin

I'm curious as to how this happened in the evolution of the language. Not being able to use something as common and essential as the number 4 seems counter-productive, so you'd think they wouldn't have used the same vocally pronounced word for it as "death". Anyone able to explain? Jr78 (talk) 15:32, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

I'm a bit late, but 四/4 and 死/death are both Chinese words, that were later introduced into Korean and Japanese. The native Japanese words for 1-2-3-4 is "hito(tsu), futa(tsu), mito(tsu), yo(ttsu)", whilst the same Sino-Japanese numbers are "ichi, ni, san, shi", originating from the Chinese readings. Similarly, the native Korean numbers from 1 to 4 are "hana, dul, set, net", and the Sino-Korean ones are "il, i, sam, sa". See Japanese numerals and Korean numerals for more information. Following the introduction of the Chinese writing system and Chinese characters, Chinese numerals were introduced into the Japanese and Korean languages. However, Chinese is a tonal language, whilst Japanese and Korean are not. In Chinese, si3 and si4 can be distinguished by the ear, but there is no distinction in Japanese and Korean, hence the homophones. Though, even though the two sound different in Chinese, it still forms a superstitial taboo due to the similarity between four and death. This might be a rather new and contemporary phenomenon, however; Old Chinese and Middle Chinese had different pronounciations compared to Modern Standard Chinese, and it might have been the case that the two characters were once dissimilar, and eventually became similar. -- 李博杰  | —Talk contribs email 09:51, 28 October 2011 (UTC)

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Trade between countries that fear and don't fear the number 4

During the cold war, the United States wished Japan to purchase its fighter planes. The Lockheed F-104 was small and capable over short ranges. The Japanese had to overcome the public's fear of the number four by calling the plane "Yon-Maru", meaning four (in the old Japanese pronunciation rather than the Chinese one)-"go 'round", the suffix for Japanese-owned merchant ships that are expected to come home. The plane was bought.

But the next time the Japanese wanted to buy fighter planes, the best American one was the McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom. And "phantom" means "ghost". It too was bought... 173.162.253.101 (talk) 19:37, 3 June 2016 (UTC)

4th vs designation 4

The floor at the 4th position (which migh be designated 5) and the floor designation 4 are not the same thing. The article is stating that the 4th floor position could be missing but obviously that would be stupid. It is possible the 4th floor is labelled 5. This article needs correction so it doesn't imply we have missing numbers in the way we count.

ZhuLien — Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.178.211.91 (talk) 06:44, 3 November 2018 (UTC)