After looking over the site, there was alot of confusion. I've made this so that even the simplest of minds can understand this.
1) There is NO Chinese alphabet, there are radicals, composite characters that involve no phonetics.
2)There is no way to translate an English name directly into Chinese.For one ALL chinese Zhong-wen 中文 is logographic and mono-syllabic, not phonetic. (A phonetic language is spoken,written, and read exactly as seen, like english and other latin based languages.)
PLEASE remember this.
Phonetics and chinese--BIG NO NO!
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Willy Wang
Re: Phonetics and chinese--BIG NO NO!
I believe you're only halfway correct...
1.) There IS a set of "Chinese alphabet". As a matter of fact, there are two main sets. The first one is called Zhuyin Fuhao, invented in early 1900's after the Nationalists overthrown the Qing Dynasty and established the Republic of China. The second one is called Hanyu Pinyin, invented around 1950's by the Communists after taking over the mainland China in 1949. Zhuyin Fuhao and Hanyu Pinyin are both for Mandarin Chinese and essentially have the same sounds. However, Zhuyin Fuhao is made up of real simple Chinese characters (usually only two strokes) while Hanyu Pinyin is written with Roman letters.
2.) There are three ways a Western name can be translated into Chinese. First, you can translate phonetically for both first and last name. Second, you can get a typical "3 syllable" Chinese name by finding a Chinese last name that sounds closest to the first syllable of your last name then get a 2-syllable given name, for example, Erin can be "Ailin". Finally, you can ask a Chinese friend just to give you a Chinese name that has nothing to do with your English name.
1.) There IS a set of "Chinese alphabet". As a matter of fact, there are two main sets. The first one is called Zhuyin Fuhao, invented in early 1900's after the Nationalists overthrown the Qing Dynasty and established the Republic of China. The second one is called Hanyu Pinyin, invented around 1950's by the Communists after taking over the mainland China in 1949. Zhuyin Fuhao and Hanyu Pinyin are both for Mandarin Chinese and essentially have the same sounds. However, Zhuyin Fuhao is made up of real simple Chinese characters (usually only two strokes) while Hanyu Pinyin is written with Roman letters.
2.) There are three ways a Western name can be translated into Chinese. First, you can translate phonetically for both first and last name. Second, you can get a typical "3 syllable" Chinese name by finding a Chinese last name that sounds closest to the first syllable of your last name then get a 2-syllable given name, for example, Erin can be "Ailin". Finally, you can ask a Chinese friend just to give you a Chinese name that has nothing to do with your English name.