That’s an interesting and perceptive observation in an innovative attempt to disambiguate the dual readings saang1 and sang1 by way of their meanings.
But nearly all dictionaries (including 廣州話正音字典, 廣州音字典 as well as CantoDict) are disambiguating the two readings by way of literary/colloquial usage. The CUHK site distinguishes the readings by standard (saang1) and variant (sang1) usage while the Education Bureau site recognises only the literary reading (sang1).
生 has many meanings and most of them can be disambiguated by way of literary/colloquial usage:
Birth - saang1 (colloguial): 土生, 生仔, 好後生 | sang1 (literary): 生肖, 誕生, 土生土長
Grow – saang1 (colloquial): 生虫, 搞生意, 生長得快 | sang1 (literary): 產生, 生長過程, 生財工具
Life – saang1 (colloquial): 翻生, 殺生, 好生性 | sang1 (literary): 人生, 生平, 生存
Person – saang1 (colloquial) 先生, 陳生, 佢係大學生 | sang1 (literary): 男生, 考生, 招生
Alive – saang1 (colloquial): 生猛, 生鬼, 生招牌 | sang1 (literary): 生物, 生氣勃勃, 栩栩如生
Unfamiliar – saang1 (colloquial): 生字, 生面人, 有啲生疏 | sang1 (literary): 陌生, 人地生疏
Raw – saang1 (colloquial) 魚生, 生吞, 監生食 | sang1 (literary): (no example)
Unskilled – saang1 (colloquial): 生手 | sang1 (literary): (no example)
I can't think of any example for the last two definitions probably because they are used only in Canto-only colloquial speech.
Anyway, this is merely the conventional way of disambiguating the two readings. The ‘semantic’ approach suggested in the previous post merits further study.
But nearly all dictionaries (including 廣州話正音字典, 廣州音字典 as well as CantoDict) are disambiguating the two readings by way of literary/colloquial usage. The CUHK site distinguishes the readings by standard (saang1) and variant (sang1) usage while the Education Bureau site recognises only the literary reading (sang1).
生 has many meanings and most of them can be disambiguated by way of literary/colloquial usage:
Birth - saang1 (colloguial): 土生, 生仔, 好後生 | sang1 (literary): 生肖, 誕生, 土生土長
Grow – saang1 (colloquial): 生虫, 搞生意, 生長得快 | sang1 (literary): 產生, 生長過程, 生財工具
Life – saang1 (colloquial): 翻生, 殺生, 好生性 | sang1 (literary): 人生, 生平, 生存
Person – saang1 (colloquial) 先生, 陳生, 佢係大學生 | sang1 (literary): 男生, 考生, 招生
Alive – saang1 (colloquial): 生猛, 生鬼, 生招牌 | sang1 (literary): 生物, 生氣勃勃, 栩栩如生
Unfamiliar – saang1 (colloquial): 生字, 生面人, 有啲生疏 | sang1 (literary): 陌生, 人地生疏
Raw – saang1 (colloquial) 魚生, 生吞, 監生食 | sang1 (literary): (no example)
Unskilled – saang1 (colloquial): 生手 | sang1 (literary): (no example)
I can't think of any example for the last two definitions probably because they are used only in Canto-only colloquial speech.
Anyway, this is merely the conventional way of disambiguating the two readings. The ‘semantic’ approach suggested in the previous post merits further study.