It’s Chinese To Me! · 2018-10-07 · It’s Chinese To Me! Michael Ho November 18, 2017 Basic...
Transcript of It’s Chinese To Me! · 2018-10-07 · It’s Chinese To Me! Michael Ho November 18, 2017 Basic...
It’s Chinese To Me!
Michael Ho
November 18, 2017
Basic Chinese for Researching Family History
Chinese Family History Group of Southern California
It’s Chinese To Me!
• Overview of the Chinese language
• Names
• Numbers & dates
• Place names
• Genealogical examples
“It’s Greek to me!”
Latin phrase: "Graecum est; non legitur” =
"it is Greek, [therefore] it cannot be read”
English – line from Shakespeare’s Julius
Caesar: “it was Greek to me”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_to_me
“It’s Chinese to me!”
Professor Arnold L. Rosenberg wrote a a
paper published in a linguistics journal
that argued that there was a popular
"consensus" that Chinese was the
"hardest" language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_to_me
“It’s Chinese to me!”
Cantonese: 呢啲係雞腸呀
These are chicken intestines.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_to_me
About 20 of 50 languages sampled had
a phrase similar to “it’s Chinese to me”
Mandarin: 火星文 Huǒxīng wén
Martian language
Brief History of
the Chinese Language
• Oracle bones ~1250 BC Shang Dynasty
• Bronze inscriptions - Western Zhou
period (1046–771 BCE)
• 221 BC, First Emperor, Qin Shi Huang
unified China and standardized a single
written language (small seal script)
• Clerical script and other forms followed
Oracle Bones
• Animal bone was carved with questions
• Heat was applied at points
• Resulting cracks in bone were
interpreted as answers
Oracle Bone
National Palace Museum
Taipei, Taiwan
Bronze Inscriptions
http://hua.umf.maine.edu/China/SMcalligraphy/images/10003wl.jpg
Seal Script
Clerical Script
Regular or “Standard” Script
Running (Semi-Cursive) Script
Cursive Script
Character Origins
1. Chinese characters that are pictures
2. Chinese characters that are "symbols”
3. Sound-loans and sound-meaning
compounds characters
4. Meaning-meaning compounds
characters.
http://www.taiwan-travel-experience.com/chinese-symbols-for-words.html
Character Origins
1. Chinese characters that are pictures
http://www.taiwan-travel-experience.com/chinese-symbols-for-words.html
Character Origins
2. Chinese characters that are "symbols”
http://www.taiwan-travel-experience.com/chinese-symbols-for-words.html
Character Origins
3. Sound-loans and sound-meaning
compounds characters
http://www.taiwan-travel-experience.com/chinese-symbols-for-words.html
Character Origins
4. Meaning-meaning compounds
characters.
http://www.taiwan-travel-experience.com/chinese-symbols-for-words.html
http://aircampgames.com/oracle-bones-to-modern-script/
http://www.i-china.org/news.asp?type=10&id=183
Simplified Chinese Characters
• People’s Republic of China promoted in
1950s-1960s to increase literacy
• Used in China & Singapore today
• Not used by most Overseas Chinese,
Taiwan or Hong Kong (use Traditional)
Simplified Chinese Characters
http://nyzusa.com/traditional-and-simplified-chinese/
Simplified Chinese Characters
http://nyzusa.com/traditional-and-simplified-chinese/
How many Chinese
characters are there?
• >50,000 characters, <20,000 in use
• educated Chinese person knows
~8,000 characters
• 2,000-3,000 to read a newspaper
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/chinese/real_chinese/mini_guides/characters/characters_howmany.shtml
There’s a word for that…
http://humorist.net/aieeyaaa/aieeyaaa-intro.htm
https://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/character-stroke-order.php?word=%E9%BD%89
Read Without Reading?
• Memorize
• Match
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahjong_solitaire
Dialects
• Over 200 dialects throughout China
• 5-10 major dialect groups
• Mandarin is largest spoken, official
language in China since 1930s
• Yue dialect group includes Cantonese,
the official dialect in Hong Kong
Romanization Systems
• Systems to express Chinese words with
Roman characters (ABCs)
• Mandarin Pinyin – People’s Republic of
China since 1979
• Wades-Giles (1859/1892), Yale (1940s)
– Mandarin system used
• Hong Kong Cantonese – changed
through HK history
Mandarin Romanization
Examples
• Wades-Giles – Mao Tse-tung, Chou
Enlai, Peking
• Pinyin – Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai,
Beijing
Surnames
• Over 450 family names used in Beijing,
according to 1987 study
• Lao bai xing 老百姓 literally translates
as “old hundred surnames” but means
“ordinary people.”
• Surnames vary geographically
陳 陈
Traditional Simplified
Example
Other dialects
Chin/Chinn, Ching, Chun, Dan/Tan
Mandarin
Chen
Cantonese
Chan 陳
Pronunciations
Sounds The Same
Mandarin
Wu
Cantonese
Ng
Eng
Ing
Ung 吳
伍
Surname
What’s the correct
Chinese surname?
HO
OWYANG
FONG
WONG
DIN
LEUNG / LEONG
何
歐陽
方
黃 王 汪 橫 弘 閎 宏
梁
DIN
馮 鄺
賀 候
Name Order
Western: Given Name(s) Surname
Chinese: Surname Given Name(s)
Examples
Yao Ming 姚明
Zhang Ziyi 章子怡
Chow Yun Fat 周潤發
Sun Yat-sen 孫逸仙
Married Women
Modern Chinese: Surname Given Name(s)
Chinese in West or sometimes Asia today:
Traditional: Wife’s
Surname Husband’s
Surname 氏 Shi/Shee
Wife’s
Surname
Husband’s
Surname Given name(s)
HO LUM SHEE
LUM KYAU MOI
LUM KYAU MOI HO
•Usually 1-2 characters
•Birth name 小名 or milk name 奶名
•School name 學名
•Marriage or Courtesy names 字 and
Pseudonyms 號
Given Names
One character of the given name is often
a generational name, which follows a
generation poem
Sun Wen 孫文
Sun Deming 孫德明
Sun Dixiang 孫帝象
Sun Zaizhi 孫載之
Sun Rixin 孫日新
Sun Yat-sen 孫逸仙
Sun Zhongshan 孫中山
Sun Yat-sen’s Names
Say “Ah”
A Chinese given name is sometimes
preceded by the prefix “A” or “Ah” as an
informal form of address
Ah Fong
Ah Sing
Ah Wah
Ai Auyong
歐 陽 雨
Au
Yong
Yee
亞 雨 Ah Yee
A`i (Hawai`i)
Ai Auyong in US Census
1900 Ah E
1910 Au Young, Yee
1920 Ai, Auyong
1930 Auyong, Ai
1940 Auyong, Ai
Name Changes
Au Yong Chan Wah Henry Owyoung
Ao Yong Dai Hoon Hoon Owyang
Sometimes people changed spellings
for ease of pronunciation or to conform
with others in the community
Lisa See’s Great-Grandfather
Mandarin
Kwong See Cantonese
Kuang Si
鄺泗
Local Dialect Fong See
Rita’s Father
Mandarin
Gong Foon
Chung/Jung Fun/Foon Cantonese
Zhong Fen
鐘芬
Create a Digital Chinese Seal!
http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/seal.html
https://www.purpleculture.net/chinese-seal-generator
https://www.chinesetools.eu/tools/chinese-seals
"Luo ye gui gen" 落葉歸根 is a Chinese proverb
that means "Falling leaves return to their roots.”
Numbers
Value Normal Financial
Traditional Simplified Traditional Simplified
0 零/〇 零
1 一 壹
2 二 貳 贰
3 三 參 叁
4 四 肆
5 五 伍
6 六 陸 陆
7 七 柒
8 八 捌
9 九 玖
10 十 拾
Numbers
Value Normal Financial
Traditional Simplified Traditional Simplified
100 百 佰
1,000 千 仟
10,000 萬 万 萬
Dates
Year 年, Month月, Day日(號)
2017年11月18日
November 18, 2017 is
二〇一七年十一月十八日
二零一七年十一月十八日
Dates
Year 年, Month月, Day日
Year can also be the year of an
emperor’s reign
光绪二年十一月十八日
Month and Day could be lunar date
2nd Year of Kuang Hsu / Guang Xu emperor (1877),
11th month, 18th day
Dates
Year 年, Month月, Day日
Year can also be the year of the
Chinese Republic (1912-)
民國一〇六年十一月十八日
Month and Day could be lunar date
November 18, 2017 is
Dates
Year 年, Month月, Day日
Year can also be the year of the Stem-
Branch Cycle
丁酉年十一月十八日
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagenary_cycle
1897 or 1957 or 2017, 11th month, 18th day
Place Names
• Order: Biggest to smallest place
• Country, Province, City, County, etc.
• Example: China, Guangdong,
Guangzhou
Place Names
Village
Database
Old Admin Traditional Simplified
County County 縣 县
Area District
Kee
Doo
區
都
区
都
Heung Heung =
subdistrict
郷 乡
Subheung
Village Village 村 村
You can translate (decode)!
Just A Receipt
何彩華
何彩华
竹頭園
竹头园
一九三一 年 八 六 號
Ho Choi Wah
(Joseph Wah Ho)
Jook Tau Yuen
(Zhu Tou Yuan)
village
August 6, 1931
English & Chinese Gravestone
with photo & details
Birthdate - dynasty year
Death date - Chinese
Republic year
Ancestral Village
台山 Taishan
上閣鄊 Seung Gok heung
曾邊 Dung/Tsang Bin
其樂村 Kay Lok village
Photo courtesy of
Christine DeVillier
Gravestone with Paper Name
Gim Lee AKA Kam Kee Lee
Real surname Fong/Kwong
Photo courtesy of
Lucky Owyang
The disadvantages of understanding and not understanding
a foreign language. (Cartoonist: Hua Junwu)