It's done.
29 Oct 2007 03:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaigouIf you see this name showing up on your list, eh, it's just me.
ETA: ahem, the good (and bad, if you're a student) of Mandarin is the tonal element, and if you don't know the tones (and don't have the characters) then pinyin could mean any of a huge number of things. In this case, gou is third tone: 狗 (dog). Although if I said first tone instead, it could mean "bamboo frame for drying clothes" -- 篝. But third tone could just as well be "basket for trapping fish" -- 笱.
Kai is third tone. So depending on mood, it could be 凯 (triumphant), 剀 (careful), 慨 (generous), 恺 (joyful), or the one I actually intended, which is 锴 (iron, of the kind used in armor & swords). Although if I said it's fourth tone, it'd be 忾, which means angry.
It's not Japanese, however, as I'm not a student of that language, though it is nice to hear that it has a positive meaning in that language -- "change of era" is apt. My original idea, actually, also had a meaning in Japanese, of "dissolution" (as in debt). But then I decided that fourth-tone shou --狩 (imperial hunting dog) -- wasn't common enough in usage compared to gou, and although in third tone it could be 守 (guarding), I didn't want it confused with 兽 (wild beast), even if the pun of 寿 (life, longevity) would've been nice. Besides, I don't like the sound of 'sh' nearly as much as the middle-ground tone of a hard 'g', on the ears.
ETA: ahem, the good (and bad, if you're a student) of Mandarin is the tonal element, and if you don't know the tones (and don't have the characters) then pinyin could mean any of a huge number of things. In this case, gou is third tone: 狗 (dog). Although if I said first tone instead, it could mean "bamboo frame for drying clothes" -- 篝. But third tone could just as well be "basket for trapping fish" -- 笱.
Kai is third tone. So depending on mood, it could be 凯 (triumphant), 剀 (careful), 慨 (generous), 恺 (joyful), or the one I actually intended, which is 锴 (iron, of the kind used in armor & swords). Although if I said it's fourth tone, it'd be 忾, which means angry.
It's not Japanese, however, as I'm not a student of that language, though it is nice to hear that it has a positive meaning in that language -- "change of era" is apt. My original idea, actually, also had a meaning in Japanese, of "dissolution" (as in debt). But then I decided that fourth-tone shou --狩 (imperial hunting dog) -- wasn't common enough in usage compared to gou, and although in third tone it could be 守 (guarding), I didn't want it confused with 兽 (wild beast), even if the pun of 寿 (life, longevity) would've been nice. Besides, I don't like the sound of 'sh' nearly as much as the middle-ground tone of a hard 'g', on the ears.
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no subject
Date: 29 Oct 2007 02:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 29 Oct 2007 06:41 pm (UTC)*cough*
I just totally revealed what generation I am (as though the use of gou doesn't, in and of itself, though maybe I'll get lucky and people will think I'm twelve years younger than I really am.
I've been meaning to write you back, btw -- life just keeps carrying me along (though I suspect it's same for you, these days) -- but still, very very happy to know you've achieved spawnage. I need to get a real job, so I have some security before I can sally forth and continue the quest, myself. Sigh.
no subject
Date: 29 Oct 2007 11:24 pm (UTC)