Mandarin

Shamisen · Mar 22, 2009

Can anyone translate the following into Mandarin for me (using abc alphabet):

"I'm looking for my husband, his name is Ken Tsu."

Also, what regions/cities in China would be likely to speak Mandarin?

Thanks,

Gabs

Namatu · Mar 22, 2009

Shamisen said:
Can anyone translate the following into Mandarin for me (using abc alphabet):

"I'm looking for my husband, his name is Ken Tsu."

Also, what regions/cities in China would be likely to speak Mandarin?

"Wo kan wo zhangfu. Ta jiao Ken Tsu."

Northern and central China are your best bets for Mandarin. The south is more Cantonese. Cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Chengdu.

I'm not 100 percent on the "zhangfu" (husband). The term I learned was "airen" but that's literally translated as "lover." My dictionary and the online dictionary at zhongwen.com both gave "zhangfu."

Prawn · Mar 22, 2009

Wouldn't it be last name first in Chinese: Tsu Ken?

Noah Body · Mar 22, 2009

"Wo zai zhao wo de xiansheng, ta jiao Jianzai." That's in proper, formal Mandarin.

If you need the actual accent marks, I can provide them.

Tsu is not a Mandarin name, so it's gone through a provincial translation from what I presume is Cantonese. It's a hit or miss process; for instance, "Wu" in Mandarin is "Ng" in Cantonese, so it's a difficult one.

Namatu · Mar 22, 2009

Noah Body said:
"Wo zai zhao wo de xiansheng, ta jiao Jianzai." That's in proper, formal Mandarin.

If you need the actual accent marks, I can provide them.

That's it. Although isn't "xiansheng" more "Mr."? Double meaning, I guess. My Mandarin's very rusty.

Noah Body · Mar 22, 2009

Xiansheng is the formal reference for husband; laogong is the more casual reference. I presented my interpretation in the formal sense, as if the inquiry was being made to a boss, police officer, government official, etc. Seemed wisest without knowing the context in which the question was being asked.

Noah Body · Mar 23, 2009

Oh and by the way, Mandarin is the "official" dialect in China, so you'll always be able to find Mandarin speakers of varying skill. But as Namatu said, southern China is more the province of Cantonese (yue as it's called, as opposed to putonghua, which is what Mandarin is referred to by native speakers), so the farther south you go, the less frequent you'll hear Mandarin. It wasn't until after the handover in 1997 that Mandarin began to surface with more established regularity in Hong Kong, for instance. And even though Mandarin is used extensively in Chongqing, it's not the first language of most of the folks who live there.

dnic · Mar 25, 2009

Noah Body said:
"Wo zai zhao wo de xiansheng, ta jiao Jianzai." That's in proper, formal Mandarin.

If you need the actual accent marks, I can provide them.

That one's correct and probably more commonly used. If it helps, I'm a heritage/native speaker.

Noah Body · Mar 25, 2009

Thanks for the validation. Can you place the surname Tsu? I'm thinking it's either Canto or a Taiwanese variant of Zhu. It's not the proper hanyu-pinyin conversion of a mainlander's name.

dnic · Mar 26, 2009

I believe it's a Taiwanese variation of Zhu (I think Cantonese uses Zhu). But then again, might be because I'm more familiar with the Taiwanese dialect. Everything looks like it's a variation of Taiwanese to me...

Noah Body · Mar 26, 2009

Taiwanese dialect is Fujianese, if memory serves. At least it was the last time I was in Taipei.

dnic · Mar 26, 2009

It's very similar. But not exactly. There are bits of Japanese influence in there too.

Shamisen · Apr 20, 2009

Thanks everyone for all of your kind help and for opening my eyes quite a bit about different language and dialect rules. Spot the absolute novice!!! The character has now gone a little further and is no longer of Chinese origin (I was in the very early stages of a short story and felt that it didn't suit the character and, as ethnicity did not come into the story, I felt it was unnecesary to complicate it for myself. Apologies if that seems lazier than I mean it to - it just didn't feel like the character was Chinese after a while). But I really appreciate all the extreme kindness you have taken in helping me with this and I apologise for the tardiness of my reply - I have had big computer issues.

Gabby x

Mandarin

Shamisen

Mother of Pog!

Namatu

Lost in mental space.

Prawn

Writing is finite,revising infinite

Noah Body

Entertainment Ronin

Namatu

Lost in mental space.

Noah Body

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Noah Body

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dnic

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Noah Body

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dnic

Resident Lurker

Noah Body

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dnic

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Shamisen

Mother of Pog!