Questions tagged [transliteration]
For questions about representing the letters or glyphs of one script in those of another. The emphasis is on avoiding ambiguity rather than matching sounds for which there are tags [pronunciation] and [tones]. For representing meaning across languages there is the tag [translation].
65 questions
1
vote
2
answers
48
views
Is there a standard transliteration for (some) western names?
Are there "standard" transliterations for common western given names?
From looking up famous people, it seemsthat "Henry" is consistently 亨利 but "Alvin" could be 阿爾文, 艾爾文,...
1
vote
1
answer
125
views
What is the translation of these two seal stamps? (Characters identified: 希慕森・西木森)
I found these when cleaning out my parents' house. I know my father was in China after WWII. I'd appreciate it if someone could translate these two stamps. They are made from glass rods and the round ...
1
vote
0
answers
75
views
Examples of Cross-Dialectal Compatible Translation/Transliteration?
In his paper Research Frontiers in Sino-Islamic Linguistics, from 1976, Paul Wexler briefly explores the idea of translating and/or transliterating with the goal of cross-dialectal comprehension in ...
0
votes
1
answer
135
views
What is a good Chinese encyclopedia about the life and work of mathematicians?
Nowadays, one would usually look up informations as referenced in the title in the Chinese version of Wikipedia. But still, as a professional reference for such information and as a supplement to the ...
0
votes
3
answers
278
views
How to format a specific address in Chinese?
How to format this address? I want to sent package and not sure what is street, what is town…
zhang yan 18790555906 China Guangdong Province Dongguan Shatian Town
shan bian lu bin hai ming zhu ...
5
votes
6
answers
6k
views
Why do Chinese people complicate the matter in choosing the words for translation
Bob is translated as 鲍勃, Biden 拜登, Trump 特鲁姆普, John 约翰, Tim 蒂姆, Roy 罗伊, Paul 保罗, Bean 憨豆, Bingley 彬格莱, etc.
All of these Chinese words or characters, as you can see, are of too many strokes making the ...
0
votes
2
answers
122
views
Opinion on Li Quingzhao poem calligraphy effort
I tried to write two lines of Li Quingzhao's poem in semi-cursive, I searched for the hanzis in other calligraphies and that's the first result.
Is it readable? Do the hanzis make sense or I used too ...
1
vote
3
answers
2k
views
Why is Chick-fil-A called 達 堡 可 福?
This is the sign on Chick fil-A in Chinatown in Washington, DC.
My guess for 可 福 (ke fu) is just that it's approximately phonetic to two sounds in "Chik-Fil-A" and has a pleasant meaning (&...
0
votes
0
answers
100
views
About a chapter title from Adolf Wölfli's 简历
In the short 简历 (Lebensbeschreibung) of Adolf Wölfli (I don't know how the name of this artist is officially transliterated in Chinese publications - if you can help with this with a reference, it's a ...
1
vote
3
answers
211
views
Can somebody please help me to parse the phrase, '挑起满满的一担...'?
Google translates, '挑起满满的一担粮食' [tiǎoqǐ mǎnmǎn de yī dān liángshi] as, '...pick up a full load of...', but when I attempt to translate this phrase manually, using the pinyin given in the source ...
1
vote
1
answer
194
views
How common is non-meaning-based (i.e. purely phonetic) transliteration of foreign words into Chinese?
I am working on a fantasy language and taking inspiration languages such as Chinese, specifically in regard to how it imports foreign words into its language. After reading Transcription into Chinese ...
5
votes
3
answers
963
views
What are the Cantonese to English transliterations for 俊傑, 俊熙, 俊健, and 俊文? I found zeon3 for 俊. That does not sound right
What are the Cantonese to English transliterations for 俊傑, 俊熙, 俊健, and 俊文? I found zeon3 for 俊. That does not sound right.
2
votes
1
answer
111
views
Could 佛州 mean Vermont, or does it always mean Florida?
The Chinese translation of Vermont (佛蒙特) and Florida (佛羅里達) both start with "佛". When people say "佛州", do they exclusively mean Florida? Or could Vermont also be called "佛州&...
0
votes
2
answers
203
views
柯西 as a character name: can it potentially transliterate as Xi (as in the greek letter)?
I'm trying to figure out how to correctly translate the name of a character which is written as 柯西. I've used a few translation resources, and all of them output Cauchy, however, the pronunciation (...
2
votes
1
answer
539
views
Is this statement about the challenges of tracking down the Chinese equivalent of a name in Pinyin basically correct?
In the Space Exploration SE question Is the Ceres-1 the first Chinese rocket that was given an official English name? I wrote the following as background.
Transliteration from Chinese Pinyin to ...