(no subject)
I love dissecting Chinese (Cantonese) words. Excuse any poor phonetical and literal translations.
From my interpretation of the Chinese language(ages)... where as in English (as well as Korean and any other language with an alphabet), each letter in a word (w, o, r and d) are merely sounds to create a concept. The Chinese languages however... the characters have a sound, but it's more about what each character represents. And even then, each character can be broken down into further concepts. That's why "Coca Cola", when originally translated into Chinese, wasn't done properly, and even though it SOUNDED like "co ka co la", it really meant "bite the wax tadpole". Obviously now the new "Coca Cola" name in Chinese means something more refreshing.
To put it into familiar terms... take the English word "dog". To us as we know it, it's merely "daahhg". But if broken down like Chinese characters/words are... The combination of the characters "d", "o" and "g" create the concept of "a furry mammal sometimes kept as a pet". But then suppose "d" isn't "dee" but instead represents the concept of "furry", and "o" isn't "ohh" but "mammal", and "g" isn't "gee" but "pet" or "companion". And then even on top of that, the character "d" can be broken down to "c" and "l", where "c" is "fur, hair" and "l" is "all over", "o" can become "(" meaning "milk" and ")" meaning "giver", while the character "g" can become "a" (or well, the version of a that is just an "o" with a straighter right side) and "j", where "a" is "aide" and "j" is "lower". And when who knows how much further those characters can be broken up even further....
It seems as if Chinese words are merely a combination of the most basic concepts combined to form larger ones. Of course the larger concepts do take on a life of its own; even though the "dog" example above is made up of the characters "furry", "mammal" and "companion", "d"+"o"+"g" is still "daahhg", much like in English "dog" isn't "dee", "ohh" and "gee" to us but "dog".
You'll see what I mean if the dog example didn't make sense. Hopefully though the dog example was also basically how it works.
Anyways...
United States of America - 美利堅合眾國 - Meiligin Hapjunggwok
美 - Mei: beautiful, pleasing (American)
利 - Li: profit, gains (American)
堅 - Gin: strong, resolute (American)
合 - Hap: unite, join (United)
眾 - Jung: masses, crowd (States)
國 - Gwok: nation, country (...)
Thus: United peoples of the desirable, profitable and strong land
Abraham Lincoln - 亚伯拉罕·林肯 - Abalaaihon Lahmken
亚 - a/ya: Asia(?), second (Abraham)
伯 - ba: father's older brother, sire (Abraham)
拉 - laai: pull, lengthen (Abraham)
罕 - hon: rare, scarce (Abraham)
林 - lahm: forest (Lincoln)
肯 - ken: willing, permit (Lincoln)
Thus: God, hell if I can work something out with this. I'm sure "Abraham" has something to do with the Biblical Abraham (second to the father, "father" being God, and Abraham himself is a rare and treasured person in religon), while Forest might have something to do with Abe's "log cabin" heritage?
Wikipedia - 维基百科 - Waigeibaafo
维 - wai: safeguard, preserve, maintain
基 - gei: foundation, base
百 - baa: many, numerous
科 - fo: science
Thus: Well, waigei is obviously "wiki". However "baafo" is the Chinese half of "-pedia", as seen in the Chinese word for encyclopedia ("百科全书").
English (language) - 英语 - Yingyu
英 - ying: Britian(!), brave, hero
语 - yu: language, words/sayings
Thus: Very obviously "language of the British". Though I'm sure they chose the character 英/ying to represent the British/English, partly because of the "brave/hero" connotations as well as its close sounding to "Eng".
Coca Cola - 可口可乐 - Kako Kale
可 - ka: may, can, possible
口 - ko: mouth
乐 - le: happy, enjoyable
Thus: Have happy enjoyment with mouth. Or something along those lines.
Coca Cola - 蝌蝌啃蠟 - Keke kenla
Pepsi Cola - 百事可樂 - Baasi Kale
百 - baa: many, numerous
事 - si: incident, to serve, affair, business
可 - ka: may, can, possible
樂 - le: happy, enjoyable
Thus: Obviously there's a theme with "cola" in Chinese: it means "have happy enjoyment". Pepsi however is translated as possibly "variety", "many serve"...?
Dr. Pepper - 胡椒博士 - Wujiu Boksi
胡 - wu: wild, wildly
椒 - jiu: pepper, spice
博 - bok: gamble, rich, abundant
士 - si: scholar, soldier
Thus: Seems like it's a literal translation of "Doctor Pepper", but adding "wild" and "gamble"/"abundant" to it, possibly to increase it's awesomeness.
Jesus Christ - 耶稣 - Yehsou
耶 - yeh: (apparently created as only a transliteration sound).
The above character is made up of: 尸十弓中
尸 - si: corpse, to impersonate the dead, to preside
十 - sap: complete, perfect
弓 - gung: bow, arched
中 - jung: hit, center
稣 - sou: revive, to rise again
Thus: "Corpse/impersonate the dead", "perfect" and "revive/rise again" are all very obvious in reference to Jesus. But the other bits, "bow" and "hit/center"... Jesus is firing a bow and hit the center? Obviously it's an analogy, especially when attached to "perfect"... maybe Jesus is perfectly capable of affecting the center, the heart of human beings? Funny thing about "Yehsou"... it didn't surprise me when I learned that, because I remember the Korean prayers that my Mom taught me and Jesus Christ is "Yesu Kuristo". I can recite the Lord's Prayer in Korean by heart. :D
-----
It's obvious to me that when the Chinese tries to translate Western names and concepts over to their language (or when Westerners try to translate their names and concepts for Chinese consumption), they tend to focus more on trying to make it a more pleasurable and relevant concept versus striving for phonetic accuracy. If "A-me-ri-ca" in Chinese means "shitty talking gopher" versus "Me-li-jan" which means "beautiful, rich and strong", obviously "Me-li-jan" will be the better choice.
Fascinating shit!
From my interpretation of the Chinese language(ages)... where as in English (as well as Korean and any other language with an alphabet), each letter in a word (w, o, r and d) are merely sounds to create a concept. The Chinese languages however... the characters have a sound, but it's more about what each character represents. And even then, each character can be broken down into further concepts. That's why "Coca Cola", when originally translated into Chinese, wasn't done properly, and even though it SOUNDED like "co ka co la", it really meant "bite the wax tadpole". Obviously now the new "Coca Cola" name in Chinese means something more refreshing.
To put it into familiar terms... take the English word "dog". To us as we know it, it's merely "daahhg". But if broken down like Chinese characters/words are... The combination of the characters "d", "o" and "g" create the concept of "a furry mammal sometimes kept as a pet". But then suppose "d" isn't "dee" but instead represents the concept of "furry", and "o" isn't "ohh" but "mammal", and "g" isn't "gee" but "pet" or "companion". And then even on top of that, the character "d" can be broken down to "c" and "l", where "c" is "fur, hair" and "l" is "all over", "o" can become "(" meaning "milk" and ")" meaning "giver", while the character "g" can become "a" (or well, the version of a that is just an "o" with a straighter right side) and "j", where "a" is "aide" and "j" is "lower". And when who knows how much further those characters can be broken up even further....
It seems as if Chinese words are merely a combination of the most basic concepts combined to form larger ones. Of course the larger concepts do take on a life of its own; even though the "dog" example above is made up of the characters "furry", "mammal" and "companion", "d"+"o"+"g" is still "daahhg", much like in English "dog" isn't "dee", "ohh" and "gee" to us but "dog".
You'll see what I mean if the dog example didn't make sense. Hopefully though the dog example was also basically how it works.
Anyways...
United States of America - 美利堅合眾國 - Meiligin Hapjunggwok
美 - Mei: beautiful, pleasing (American)
利 - Li: profit, gains (American)
堅 - Gin: strong, resolute (American)
合 - Hap: unite, join (United)
眾 - Jung: masses, crowd (States)
國 - Gwok: nation, country (...)
Thus: United peoples of the desirable, profitable and strong land
Abraham Lincoln - 亚伯拉罕·林肯 - Abalaaihon Lahmken
亚 - a/ya: Asia(?), second (Abraham)
伯 - ba: father's older brother, sire (Abraham)
拉 - laai: pull, lengthen (Abraham)
罕 - hon: rare, scarce (Abraham)
林 - lahm: forest (Lincoln)
肯 - ken: willing, permit (Lincoln)
Thus: God, hell if I can work something out with this. I'm sure "Abraham" has something to do with the Biblical Abraham (second to the father, "father" being God, and Abraham himself is a rare and treasured person in religon), while Forest might have something to do with Abe's "log cabin" heritage?
Wikipedia - 维基百科 - Waigeibaafo
维 - wai: safeguard, preserve, maintain
基 - gei: foundation, base
百 - baa: many, numerous
科 - fo: science
Thus: Well, waigei is obviously "wiki". However "baafo" is the Chinese half of "-pedia", as seen in the Chinese word for encyclopedia ("百科全书").
English (language) - 英语 - Yingyu
英 - ying: Britian(!), brave, hero
语 - yu: language, words/sayings
Thus: Very obviously "language of the British". Though I'm sure they chose the character 英/ying to represent the British/English, partly because of the "brave/hero" connotations as well as its close sounding to "Eng".
Coca Cola - 可口可乐 - Kako Kale
可 - ka: may, can, possible
口 - ko: mouth
乐 - le: happy, enjoyable
Thus: Have happy enjoyment with mouth. Or something along those lines.
Coca Cola - 蝌蝌啃蠟 - Keke kenla
Pepsi Cola - 百事可樂 - Baasi Kale
百 - baa: many, numerous
事 - si: incident, to serve, affair, business
可 - ka: may, can, possible
樂 - le: happy, enjoyable
Thus: Obviously there's a theme with "cola" in Chinese: it means "have happy enjoyment". Pepsi however is translated as possibly "variety", "many serve"...?
Dr. Pepper - 胡椒博士 - Wujiu Boksi
胡 - wu: wild, wildly
椒 - jiu: pepper, spice
博 - bok: gamble, rich, abundant
士 - si: scholar, soldier
Thus: Seems like it's a literal translation of "Doctor Pepper", but adding "wild" and "gamble"/"abundant" to it, possibly to increase it's awesomeness.
Jesus Christ - 耶稣 - Yehsou
耶 - yeh: (apparently created as only a transliteration sound).
The above character is made up of: 尸十弓中
尸 - si: corpse, to impersonate the dead, to preside
十 - sap: complete, perfect
弓 - gung: bow, arched
中 - jung: hit, center
稣 - sou: revive, to rise again
Thus: "Corpse/impersonate the dead", "perfect" and "revive/rise again" are all very obvious in reference to Jesus. But the other bits, "bow" and "hit/center"... Jesus is firing a bow and hit the center? Obviously it's an analogy, especially when attached to "perfect"... maybe Jesus is perfectly capable of affecting the center, the heart of human beings? Funny thing about "Yehsou"... it didn't surprise me when I learned that, because I remember the Korean prayers that my Mom taught me and Jesus Christ is "Yesu Kuristo". I can recite the Lord's Prayer in Korean by heart. :D
-----
It's obvious to me that when the Chinese tries to translate Western names and concepts over to their language (or when Westerners try to translate their names and concepts for Chinese consumption), they tend to focus more on trying to make it a more pleasurable and relevant concept versus striving for phonetic accuracy. If "A-me-ri-ca" in Chinese means "shitty talking gopher" versus "Me-li-jan" which means "beautiful, rich and strong", obviously "Me-li-jan" will be the better choice.
Fascinating shit!