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Writing Names In Chinese | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| timinstl Triglot Groupie United States timsviajes.com Joined 7115 days ago 88 posts - 92 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Italian, Mandarin | Message 9 of 19 12 August 2005 at 6:47pm | IP Logged |
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Okay, I understand. Is their a good source for learning these standardized ways of writing names?
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| victor Tetraglot Moderator United States Joined 7316 days ago 1098 posts - 1056 votes 6 sounds Speaks: Cantonese*, English, FrenchC1, Mandarin Studies: Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 10 of 19 12 August 2005 at 6:48pm | IP Logged |
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What do you mean by "standardized"? Do you mean foreign names?
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| timinstl Triglot Groupie United States timsviajes.com Joined 7115 days ago 88 posts - 92 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Italian, Mandarin | Message 11 of 19 13 August 2005 at 12:03pm | IP Logged |
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No, I mean where do I find the standard way to write names, Chinese or foreign.
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| victor Tetraglot Moderator United States Joined 7316 days ago 1098 posts - 1056 votes 6 sounds Speaks: Cantonese*, English, FrenchC1, Mandarin Studies: Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 12 of 19 14 August 2005 at 9:33pm | IP Logged |
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I am still a bit unclear about what you mean by standard. For Chinese names, there are over a thousand surnames and many of them have the same sound, but the common ones are usually pronounced differently. As for given names, there is no standard in this. The characters the parents intended are the right ones - nothing standard about them.
As for foreign names, for common ones, there are already existing transliterations that people follow. As Cthulhu mentioned, David turns into DaWei. But let's say it's something like your last name, Turner, then the writer would perhaps choose to transliterate the name on his/her own. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| timinstl Triglot Groupie United States timsviajes.com Joined 7115 days ago 88 posts - 92 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Italian, Mandarin | Message 13 of 19 14 August 2005 at 11:01pm | IP Logged |
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Okay, I see what you mean. How confusing for the foreigner trying to learn. I thought that there may be standards for writing certain Chinese names, but you're saying that it's up to the parents and how they decide it should be spelled, or rather, written.
By this standard, I could ask multiple Mandarin-speakers to translate my name and I may incur different translations several times, right? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| victor Tetraglot Moderator United States Joined 7316 days ago 1098 posts - 1056 votes 6 sounds Speaks: Cantonese*, English, FrenchC1, Mandarin Studies: Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 14 of 19 14 August 2005 at 11:02pm | IP Logged |
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It's quite possible, yes.
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| vincenthychow Tetraglot Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 7102 days ago 136 posts - 145 votes Speaks: Cantonese, English, GermanB1, Japanese Studies: French | Message 15 of 19 20 August 2005 at 10:34am | IP Logged |
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A very intersting question. Since each Chinese charactera has an independent meaning, so it is very important to have a translation which is not only appropriate in the sense of pronounciation, but also makes sense literally, or at least it should not mean something odd.
Of course, in some cases, we are going to make funny translation. That is, we intentionally use some words which have special or even unfriendly meaning. Edited by vincenthychow on 20 August 2005 at 10:36am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Guanche Hexaglot Senior Member Spain danielmarin.blogspot Joined 7044 days ago 168 posts - 178 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2, GermanC1, RussianB1, French, Japanese Studies: Greek, Mandarin, Arabic (Written) | Message 16 of 19 21 August 2005 at 11:16am | IP Logged |
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If you want to write your name in Chinese, you have three options:
1- Phonetically: this is the most popular choice. This means you have to choose several characters that together sound more or less like your name in your native language. Of course, you have to bear in mind that each Chinese character has a meaning associated to it, so you have to be careful in order to choose pleasant ones. Moreover, people try to choose popular characters that everybody knows in order to avoid mispronunciations. To make things worse, remember that there are traditional and simplified characters. Also, there are no official conventions regarding foreign names in China, although most popular English names are always written in the same way (you can find lots of such lists on the internet). Anyway, always remember there are no formal conventions, so you have several options for a given name and therefore your name in Beijing may be written in a different way in Taiwan or in Hong Kong. 2- According to the meaning: if you know your name's meaning (i.e. Peter="stone"), you can choose the characters associated with it. It sounds better to Chinese ears, but it's a bit confusing and I don't think it's a great idea for practical purposes. 3- Choose a Chinese name: a radical option, but everybody will pronounce your name correctly!!. Of course, it is only recommended for those living in China or with strong interests in the country. Not a good choice if you're not familiar with the country and its culture. Chinese people themselves usually choose English names when they speak to foreigners. I know some chinese that want to be called "Brad Pitt" or "Rambo"...it sounds stupid, but it's becoming quite common in China 1 person has voted this message useful |
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