You Knew It Was Comming: War Stories Translations
POSTED BY: LivingImpaired
UPDATED: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 14:25
VIEWED: 20546
PAGE 3 of 4
Yoshi:
Actually I don't speak Cantonese :-)
I'm a Mandarin speaker and only picked up a little Cantonese here and there through friends.
The link you posted is to a website that translate into Simplified Chinese script, or Jiantizi.
A little history background here to clearn up confusion :-)
Historically, the Chinese language has seven major dialects, Mandarin being the only one in the north (north of the Yangtze river) and the six other in the south. However, the writing system for all Chinese dialects are the same, that's why they are refered to as "dialects" and not "languages" even though the pronounciation is as different as Spanish is to Italian. It wasn't until the 1950's that the Communists decided to develope the Jiantizi, a simplified form of Hanzi, or Chinese characters, as opposed to the traditional Fantizi. However, not ALL the characters were "simplified", only the more complicated ones, therefore, one who's accustomed to Fantizi can pretty much guess on Jiantizi base on context.
Anyway, so no matter what dialect you speak, you write the same way. Jiantizi is used on mainland China and Singapore. Fantizi is used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and most oversea Chinese. However, both Fantizi and Jiantizi are taught in many universities around the world.
Oh, by the way, "ni hao" is the standard Chinese greeting, kind of like "hello" and it literally means "you well". "wo shi" means I am, and Luchanan is just my nickname :-)
Ni hao, wo shi Lucha Nan.
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Quote:
Originally posted by FFfan:
6) Book: Huh choo-sheng tza-jiao duh tzang-huo!
The short translation, I think, is "Mongrel scum!"
Here's the breakdown:
Huh = ?
choo-sheng = beast (In Mandarin, this is like saying 'vermin' in English)
tza-jiao duh = cross-bred (read: mongrel)
tzang-huo = cheap goods (read: hussy)
What's the context again?
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It's the insult Book let's loose with when Zoe gives Simon Mal's severed ear.
In terms of pinyin, I found chùsheng , but I'm having a hard time with "mongrel" and "cheap goods" (I'm being scary fanfic author, and literally going through the entire x chapter, desperately looking for the hanyu pinyin for a translation for my fic...). Help?
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Quote:
Originally posted by LJC:
In terms of pinyin, I found chùsheng , but I'm having a hard time with "mongrel" and "cheap goods" (I'm being scary fanfic author, and literally going through the entire x chapter, desperately looking for the hanyu pinyin for a translation for my fic...). Help?
Sorry, I don't know hanyu pinyin. I learned my Chinese in Taiwan back in the '70s. ^_^;
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Just a point of order...
Or interest...
Isn't it in Cantonese or Mandarin, or one of those eastern languages, that the translation for 'Coca Cola' is
"Bite the wax tadpole"?
Because THAT is what I call humour.
Twelve spheres of unendurable brightness spalled the velvety blackness of space.
The silence on Lester Tourville's flag bridge was absolute
And then the spell was broken as Shannon Foraker looked up from her console from where she had just sent a seemingly innocent command to the main computers of State Security's finest Superdreadnoughts.
"Oops." She said.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Mark:
Just a point of order...
Or interest...
Isn't it in Cantonese or Mandarin, or one of those eastern languages, that the translation for 'Coca Cola' is
"Bite the wax tadpole"?
Because THAT is what I call humour.
This happened in China (as opposed to Hong Kong or Taiwan), so it was in Mandarin. I've never seen the translation they used, so I don't know if "Bite the wax tadpole" is correct.
I heard they've since changed the translation to the one used in HK and Taiwan: 可口可樂 (don't know if you can read this). This can be translated as "Delicious Cola," with 'cola' represented by characters that can mean "very happy."
Michael Liu
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Quote:
This happened in China (as opposed to Hong Kong or Taiwan), so it was in Mandarin. I've never seen the translation they used, so I don't know if "Bite the wax tadpole" is correct.
I heard they've since changed the translation to the one used in HK and Taiwan: 可口可樂 (don't know if you can read this). This can be translated as "Delicious Cola," with 'cola' represented by characters that can mean "very happy".
Given that it's called Coca Cola because, originally, it contained an extract of the Coca plant (A.K.A Cocaine!) I think 'Delicious Very Happy' is an interesting choice.
But 'Bite the Wax Tadpole' was funnier.
Twelve spheres of unendurable brightness spalled the velvety blackness of space.
The silence on Lester Tourville's flag bridge was absolute
And then the spell was broken as Shannon Foraker looked up from her console from where she had just sent a seemingly innocent command to the main computers of State Security's finest Superdreadnoughts.
"Oops." She said.
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You know what, I remember reading this in the news papers. It was an article on funny translations. Cocoa cola was "bite the wax tad pole" and in Africa, Gerber baby food read something like "Caucasian baby in a jar". Yummy.
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Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.
Albert Einstein
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Quote:
Originally posted by luchanan:
The link you posted is to a website that translate into Simplified Chinese script, or Jiantizi.
ni hao, luchanan - :)
so my question would be this: is this link adequate for those of us who only speak one language lousily to translate English into Chinese for purposes of writing? i mean i like making the fluent speakers giggle when i use a really awful accent to phonetically murder words, but it gets old after awhile. and if it isn't even close to adequate, would you happen to know of a link that is? if you don't it's all shiny because i'm always open to a book-shopping opportunity.
thanks for the history lesson.
"I'm still flyin'...that's enough." ~ Mal
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