Chinese Touhou names

[game2011]

Fixed Sunny Milk and Luna Child's Chinese names.

[Ibaraki Ibuki]

The fourth tone tends to give me trouble since I rarely get angry and the fourth tone sounds really harsh to the ears. (Though I think it's really more biting than angry.)

[AAAAAAAAAAAAA]

So will these eventually be edited to Pinyin?

Man, even though I'm a native speaker, I don't really like the language that much. A lot of the pronunciation sounds like people are mad at each other, the writing system is inefficient and tedious, and it's hard as fuck to learn as a second language.

SOMEONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, AT LAST

also qing ching jing zing ugggghhh.

[Kinoko]

Well, in China people are pretty much perpetually furious at each other, so...

[Momiji]

also qing ching jing zing ugggghhh.

I found the differences to be pretty easy to grasp in my Mandarin class, also "shi"/"er"/"ge".  But maybe that's just me.  =<

Knowing English and some German pronunciation does help, especially for speakers of certain western Germanic languages.  At least in comparison to Japanese speakers, who'll definitely have problems with some of the sounds.

[LukAMRA]

Chinese is such an awkward second language; there are a bunch of conventions unique to it, the gender pronouns are all pronounced the same, and a bunch of other crap.

I always found it funny that Yamame is p much just Mountain Lady, regardless of language.

[ApharmdB]

The solution is obviously to provide the IPA transcript together with the Hanyu Pinyin version. A pinyin "e" is usually (always?) gives the sound indicated by the schwa in IPA which sounds like a short effortless "uh" in English

Nice compilation, although a lot of the girls tend to go by funny nicknames in the Chinese community, e.g. Tewi = Black Rabbit (hei1 tu4 zi3), Reisen = Big Rabbit (da4 tu4 zi3), Satori = Little 5 (xiao2 wu3)... Pfft fanon.

[Kinoko]

The names sound ugly in Chinese and the nicknames are slightly better, even if they don't necessarily make much sense.

[Transugano Sora]

The names sound ugly in Chinese and the nicknames are slightly better, even if they don't necessarily make much sense.

I have a blast with writing them, though!

Chinese is such an awkward second language; there are a bunch of conventions unique to it, the gender pronouns are all pronounced the same, and a bunch of other crap.

The gender pronouns are all written practically the same too barring one radical.

Nice compilation, although a lot of the girls tend to go by funny nicknames in the Chinese community, e.g. Tewi = Black Rabbit (hei1 tu4 zi3), Reisen = Big Rabbit (da4 tu4 zi3), Satori = Little 5 (xiao2 wu3)... Pfft fanon.

I still haven't memorized all the Chinese nicknames yet, which made translating the DotS changelogs before you joined a major pain in the ass.

[_cf]

Just to add another point to the sounding debate: I'm brazilian, and when hearing the google translate pronounce 橙, I hear "chan". The a sound is pretty much the same I hear on the english word "gun".

Also, the original list commited a serious mistake. The line for the Scartet Devil Mansion's gatekeeper should read: Kurenai Mizuzu - Hong Mei-Ling

[Transugano Sora]

Also, the original list commited a serious mistake. The line for the Scartet Devil Mansion's gatekeeper should read: Kurenai Mizuzu - Hong Mei-Ling

Is that sarcasm or is that a serious correction, because Hong Meiling is the actual reading for her name, Kurenai Misuzu is a joke reading...

[AAAAAAAAAAAAA]

Also, the original list commited a serious mistake. The line for the Scartet Devil Mansion's gatekeeper should read: Kurenai Mizuzu - Hong Mei-Ling

Actually, no, ZUN pronounces it as Hong Meiling, as she is of Chinese descent.

[_cf]

I was about to point that Kurenai Mizuzu can't be a joke reading because google translate confirms it, but their AI seems to be getting better. At http://thwiki.info/ (the japanese touhou wiki) her name can be:

1) translated correctly as Hong Meiling
2) translated as Kurenai Mizuzu
3) translated as Red Mizuzu, which I find even more hilarious.

Also, what about the names that are an example of engrish? Rumia is Lumia (from lumen, light), hers being an ironic name, while Cirno is the non-ironic Chillno (that I parse as a joke based on the same japanese naming rule that gives us Yukino). There's a fanfic somewhere that has Cirno called "Chilly" which I find an excellent english name for her. A chinese name could follow the intent, instead the sounding.

[Momiji]

1) translated correctly as Hong Meiling
2) translated as Kurenai Mizuzu
3) translated as Red Mizuzu, which I find even more hilarious.

Her name is actually Hong Meiling, transliterated into Japanese as "ホンメイリン" (Hon Meirin), which is how ZUN refers to her.  Translated into Japanese, two kun readings for 紅 (hong) are "akai" and "kurenai", both meaning red.  Flipping between on and kun readings of characters and their double meanings, along with multilayered transliteration, is just one of the things Japanese Touhou fans do, intentionally ('for the double meaning lulz') or unintentionally (lack of foreign language literacy).

By the way, 紅 can also be read as "momi", and is used in 紅葉 "momiji" (fall colors, or the Japanese maple).

[Transugano Sora]

I was about to point that Kurenai Mizuzu can't be a joke reading because google translate confirms it, but their AI seems to be getting better.

It's a joke reading because it's canonically incorrect?

From a semantic standpoint it's "legitimate" because Kurenai Misuzu is a proper Japanese reading for it but it's also the wrong reading for it. See Momiji otherwise.

[Power level.999]

I know kanako's name it's 팔판 신내자 yasaka kanako and put 할매 or 아줌마
 
and hijiri's name is nice  it's 성 백련 byakuren hijiri HIJIRI IS YOUKAI JEJUSThe funny thing is marisa's name is 무우 마리사 kirisame marisa... it's same with japan or china

[巫女パン Trade Shrine]

Oh god text formatting. And the non-Korean speakers can use some romanisation, so have the below:

팔판 신내자 - Palpan Sinnaeja
성 백련 - Seong Baek-Ryeon
무우 마리사 - Mu-u Marisa

할매 - Halmae ('grandmother' - derogatory form, IIRC)
아줌마 - Ajumma (more polite term to refer to older women)

팔판 신내자 ... and put 할매 or 아줌마

[game2011]

On the subject of Kurenai Misuzu/Hong Meiling...  I can understand why ZUN didn't call Seiga by her Chinese name, like with Meiling.  The former's Chinese name simply doesn't sound as... pleasing to the ears...

Also, I noticed that some people refer to Meiling simply as Hong.  In China/Taiwan, simply referring to someone by his/her last name sounds weird.  The correct way should be adding a title to the front of it, so she should be called Ms. Hong.  I'm also under the assumption that some people aren't aware of the fact that Hong is her last name, not first name...