I need a tranlation for Uncle (non literal) in Chinese.

POSTED BY: RTByers
UPDATED: Thursday, May 5, 2005 00:42
VIEWED: 11192
PAGE 1 of 2

1 2 NEXT PAGE

RTBYERS

Friday, September 17, 2004 3:33 PM

If anyone knows it, please help.

Don't give up on your
Dreams. Unless you really suck and
No one likes you.

STILLSHINY

Friday, September 17, 2004 7:00 PM

Not sure if they'll have it but I use this site for Chinese symbols

http://www.formosa-translation.com/chinese/u/uu.html

Check out my shop!
http://www.zazzle.com/contributors/products/gallery/browse_results.asp
?cid=238187680745956238

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the road less traveled by and they CANCELLED MY FRIKKIN' SHOW. I totally shoulda took the road that had all those people on it. Damn." --Joss

AILIAN

Saturday, September 18, 2004 12:50 PM

It depends:
Father's elder brother: bofu
Father's younger brother: shufu
Father's sister's husband: gufu
Mother's brother: jiufu
Mother's sister's husband: yifu

GYPSYCASTER

Wednesday, October 6, 2004 1:05 PM

When I took Kung Fu, we called our teachers Sihing
(brother non-related)
and the master (in school) Sifu
(most respected uncle, non-related)
Ain't Chinese fun?

RANDOMLING

Tuesday, November 30, 2004 9:26 PM

On a similar note, I'd like to know the following - both related and unrelated, if you've got 'em. (I know we have at least one native speaker around.)

big sister
big brother
little brother

What is the difference between "mei mei" and "xiao mei mei"?

GYPSYCASTER

Wednesday, December 1, 2004 4:12 PM

in class it wes always: Si jet =big sister (elder)
Si hing = big brother (elder)
and I don't remember the others

It's me!! It's me!!
Gypsy

GYPSYCASTER

Wednesday, December 1, 2004 4:13 PM

oops...both are unrelated, honorific.

It's me!! It's me!!
Gypsy

IZCHAN

Monday, December 6, 2004 4:56 AM

big sister - Ta Jie
Big Brother - Ta Ke
Little Brother - Di Di

----
as for sister - it is - Mei Mei

the "xiao" in the front means young sister but not in the same context as english, it is purely just an pronoun to make the phrase so better.

Sometimes we add it to actually mean "little" as in younger sister, or sometimes to mock the person you are addressing as too young.

These are all pronounce in Mandarin.
There are a lot of dialects in china and mandarin is what we call the common.

The other popular dialect is cantonese, which is used commonly in Hong Kong Movies.

---
When you address your seniors in your class, you call them
Si Xiong (Mandarin)
Xi Hing (Cantonese)

Si or Xi comes from the word "Teacher" but it does not mean that the person being addressed is a teacher, rather it means that they are under the same guidance of the same school or master.

"Xiong" or "Hing" means Older Brother.
"Di" means younger brother
"Zie" means Elder Sister
"Mei" means Younger Sister

I hope I cleared up some of your questions.

RANDOMLING

Monday, December 6, 2004 8:31 PM

It did - thank you Izchan, and Gypysycaster too!

More questions: Does Mandarin make a distinction between related and unrelated terms - between talking to somebody who is (say) your blood sister, or somebody who is so close a friend you consider them a sister, for instance - or are these terms okay for both related and unrelated people? And are these terms all right as terms of endearment (as "mei mei" seems to be), or are they merely descriptive?

IZCHAN

Tuesday, December 7, 2004 5:18 AM

actually, the terms are used loosely, but depends on the kind of relationship you have with the person you are talking to.

it more or less the same when we speak in english, you don't call everyone sister, do you?

in formal usage of the language, you will need to determine the "rank" you are in and used the proper terms to address your seniors and juniors.
miscalling a person's "rank" is rather serious.

yet in the modern times, tranditions are loosely kept, so you might still get away with addressing people with inaccurate "rank" ... :)

1 2 NEXT PAGE