AdeTjan Posted December 8, 2009 at 06:38 AM Report Share Posted December 8, 2009 at 06:38 AM I need help converting Chinese characters on my gran grandpa's tomb(attachment). My purpose is to know which character is my surname which should be the same with my grandpa's. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imron Posted December 8, 2009 at 07:14 AM Report Share Posted December 8, 2009 at 07:14 AM By my reckoning, your grandfather's surname was 曾 which is pronounced Zēng in standard Mandarin. You might want to wait for a native speaker to weigh in though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guoke Posted December 8, 2009 at 08:06 AM Report Share Posted December 8, 2009 at 08:06 AM 顯考諱錦耀曾府君之佳城 顯妣諱從娘韓孺人之壽域 顯顯 妣考 諱諱 從錦 娘耀 韓曾 孺府 人君 之之 壽佳 域城 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdeTjan Posted December 9, 2009 at 06:16 AM Author Report Share Posted December 9, 2009 at 06:16 AM Thank you for your help. I thought my surname was Tjan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imron Posted December 9, 2009 at 07:36 AM Report Share Posted December 9, 2009 at 07:36 AM Different accents/dialects of Chinese will pronounce the character 曾 in different ways, and even in places where the pronunciation is the same, there might be multiple different acceptable ways to represent that character with the English alphabet, or a person with that name might just have made up their own approximation of the spelling in English. The pronunciation I listed is romanised using pinyin, which is based on the pronuciation of standard Mandarin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdeTjan Posted December 9, 2009 at 08:20 AM Author Report Share Posted December 9, 2009 at 08:20 AM Correct me if I am wrong, I think that pinyin is based of pronunciation. However, I am looking for a way to "write" my surname, not to pronounce it. Can you give me the other romanized forms of 曾, and give me a recommendation which one I should "write" as my surname? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gato Posted December 9, 2009 at 08:26 AM Report Share Posted December 9, 2009 at 08:26 AM Thank you for your help. I thought my surname was Tjan. wikipedia has an entry on your name. hehe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeng Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdeTjan Posted December 9, 2009 at 08:29 AM Author Report Share Posted December 9, 2009 at 08:29 AM Wow, thanks it's very helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imron Posted December 9, 2009 at 08:55 AM Report Share Posted December 9, 2009 at 08:55 AM However, I am looking for a way to "write" my surname, not to pronounce it.That's easy. It is written 曾. If you mean to write it using English letters however, how else do you do it besides pronunciation? It's then a matter of choosing which pronunciation to base it on. The different variations provided on the Wikipedia page (Zeng, Tseng, Tsang, Chan, Tjan) are all the same in that they are just ways of "pronouncing" this character. You then need to decide which one is more appropriate for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and select your username and password later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.