Off topic: Article in NY Times regarding the elimination of some Chinese characters Thread poster: Jeff Whittaker
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Jeff Whittaker 
United States
Local time: 18:56
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
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| Henry Zhang
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:56
English to Chinese
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As a Chinese, it confuses me when three horses (Mas) coming together..
| | | | Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 18:56
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Chinese names | Feb 12, 2010 |
According to the article, parents are trying to make their children stand out by using obscure Chinese characters to write their names. The problem is that now these characters are not recognized by computer software. According to the article, only 100 surnames represent 85% of the Chinese population and there are enough people named Zhang Wei, for example, to fill the city of Pittsburgh. Using an obscure character to represent their name allows people to stand out and differentiate themselves.<... See more According to the article, parents are trying to make their children stand out by using obscure Chinese characters to write their names. The problem is that now these characters are not recognized by computer software. According to the article, only 100 surnames represent 85% of the Chinese population and there are enough people named Zhang Wei, for example, to fill the city of Pittsburgh. Using an obscure character to represent their name allows people to stand out and differentiate themselves.
"“Ma,” a Chinese character for horse, is the 13th most common family name in China, shared by nearly 17 million people. That can cause no end of confusion when Mas get together, especially if those Mas also share the same given name, as many Chinese do.
Ma Cheng’s book-loving grandfather came up with an elegant solution to this common problem. Twenty-six years ago, when his granddaughter was born, he combed through his library of Chinese dictionaries and lighted upon a character pronounced “cheng.” Cheng, which means galloping steeds, looks just like the character for horse, except that it is condensed and written three times in a row. "
Henry Zhang wrote:
As a Chinese, it confuses me when three horses (Mas) coming together..
[Edited at 2010-02-12 01:16 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 18:56
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | "Cheng" character | Feb 12, 2010 |
Also: The original "cheng" character probably did not use the simplified version of the horse character...
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| What do you mean to say? | Feb 12, 2010 |
Jeff, what did you mean to say by this forum? Was this purely a linguistic information or did you mean to say something else?
| | | | jyuan_us
United States
Local time: 18:56
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
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| Those characters are not of any use in the modern Chinese language | Feb 12, 2010 |
It's weired for her grandfather to give her such a name that no one understands and is able to pronounce.
| | | | Krzysztof Kajetanowicz (X)
Poland
Local time: 00:56
English to Polish
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I can't but wonder how languages are born.
At the risk of sounding ignorant, which I can do little about, and shauvinistic, which I am anything but, may I suggest that 24 short characters combinable into millions of words may be a little more efficient than fifty thousand symbols so complicated that it's only practical to use one or two per name?
How may characters, in total, do the Chinese actually use?
[Edited at 2010-02-12 12:43 GMT]
| | | | Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 18:56
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
No, my interests are purely linguistic. I study Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Arabic and Navajo in my spare time.
Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote:
Jeff, what did you mean to say by this forum? Was this purely a linguistic information or did you mean to say something else?
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