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Archiver > CHINA > 2005-07 > 1120315318


From: manaia alofa <>
Subject: Re: [CHINA] Name Patterns
Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 07:41:58 -0700 (PDT)
In-Reply-To: <42C69DFC.60209@fuzzo.com>


http://www.magma.ca/~mtooker/names/index.htm

Why is it so hard to translate a Chinese name?

You simply must have see a name written out in Chinese
characters to translate it with any confidence. There
are so many homophones in Chinese that one name
written as 2 or 3 pinyin syllables could have hundreds
of possible translations. There may be a "likely"
translation, but it isn't a good idea to automatically
decide it's the "obvious" choice - because when
choosing a Chinese name people often try to be less
"obvious" and choose characters which are more obscure
or archaic (to convey a subtle meaning or simply to be
different from everyone else).
__

Thank you, I'm beginning to understand and appreciate.


Regards,

--Manaia
__
==


--- "David M. Lawrence" <> wrote:

> You really need to learn the Chinese characters for
> the name, not
> phonetically spelled Indo-European version of it.
>
> Dave




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