Help with Hokkien baby name

Discussions on the Hokkien (Minnan) language.
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wee_1288
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jul 07, 2009 9:06 am

Help with Hokkien baby name

Post by wee_1288 »

Hi, I need urgent help with translation for my baby name. His name is 宇智 . Can anyone kindly help with the Hokkien translation. Thank you.
SimL
Posts: 1407
Joined: Mon Jun 26, 2006 8:33 am
Location: Amsterdam

Re: Help with Hokkien baby name

Post by SimL »

Hi there wee,

I don't read Chinese characters myself, and my knowledge of Hokkien is quite limited, but here's my input, FWIW. Hopefully, other Forum members will be able to speak authoritatively from their own experience, but if they don't, then you at least have something here to go by.

According to the Chinese Etyomology page http://www.internationalscientific.org (which I have always found to be quite accurate, in the areas where I *do* know what I'm talking about), 宇 is pronounced u2 and 智 is pronounced ti3. These are POJ (Peh-oe-ji) tone numbers. If using Mandarin tones which sound *approximately* the same, and spelling the name in pinyin, then it would sound something like wu4 di3 (except that the Hokkien tone-3 doesn't have a curve upwards at the end, unlike the citation form of the Mandarin tone-3, and the w- is absolutely silent).

However, bear in mind that u2 and ti3 are the citation forms of saying these characters; i.e. how one pronounces them when they are said as single characters, or when they occur at the end of a phrase. When they occur in a combination, then all the syllables except the last (usually) change tone (one of the most interesting features of Hokkien). This applies to personal names as well. So, the combination form of 宇智 would be pronounced u1-ti3 (Hokkien), which would sound like wu1-di3 in Mandarin (again, with silent w-).

Hope this helps.

Hopefully the more knowledgeable Forum members will point out any mistakes I may have made.

SimL
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