Thursday, April 23, 2020

Paiwan Every Day 47: zangal // namasanpazangal

Interesting! Today I heard a conversation about using kanji (漢字かんじ). When naming a child with kanji, the woman thought it is better to keep the original characters, so people will not forget how to read these words, while the man preferred to change the characters, so people can better remember how to read them.

For example, 正人is read as “まさと”(ma-sa-to). The correlation between character and sound is weak, so you literally need to learn and memorize the pronunciation. If using 魔裟斗 (also read as ma-sa-to), it becomes easier to remember because the three characters give away their sound. Therefore, the man will choose魔裟斗instead of 正人as the name for his child.

Now in Taiwan indigenous peoples are allowed to give traditional indigenous names to their children, although kanji (Chinese characters) must be used since the official language of Taiwan is Chinese. In this case, transliteration becomes a playground where we fight to be the most creative with Chinese. Many unfamiliar or too-familiar kanji are chosen; they immediately strike an impression and bring people to laugh:
Namoh (an Amis name) is 那麼好, which means ‘so good’ in Chinese. 
* Landuun (a Bunun name) becomes 倫敦, which is London in Chinese.

I have not yet found the kanji for my Yedda Palemeq, but some friends jokingly call me 阿達, which is like moron in Chinese. 本当にひどいね. Haha. 

namasanpazangal aravac a kakudan nua papungadan. 

In English:
Naming is a custom of significance. 

Glossary: 
  1. na-masan-pazangal: to make imprtant or significant. The root is zangal 'value, significance'. 
  2. aravac: very, quite
  3. a: subject case marker
  4. ka-kuda-(a)n:custom, culture, way of life. The root is kuda 'rule, what'. 
  5. nua: of, genitive (GEN) case marker
  6. pa-pu-ngadan: to name. The root is ngadan 'name'. 
Reading:

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