Calling People Names - In Different Languages

When I first learnt how to say "What is your name?" in Mandarin, I was misled.

"你 叫 什么？" ("nǐ jiào shénme?") and "你 叫 什么 名字？" ("nǐ jiào shénme míngzì?") are both rendered by Google Translate as "What's your name?", but that's not strictly correct.

你 叫 什么？ nǐ jiào shénme? actually means "What are you called?", literally "You (are) called what?"

And 你 叫 什么 名字？ nǐ jiào shénme míngzì? means "What name are you called?", literally "You (are) called what name?"

Neither of them is literally "What is your name?"

That would be 你 的 名字 是 什么？nǐ de míngzì shì shénme? (Literally, "you's name is what?")

This doesn't seem to be a commonly used form, although Google Translate helpfully renders this too as "What's your name?". I realise now that loose translations don't help when one is trying to understand a language closely.

[叫 jiào means "call". And that's why you can say 叫我 以实玛利 jiào wǒ yǐ shí mǎ lì ("Call me Ishmael").]

This made me think. I know a few languages where this question is literally posed as "What is your name?", and a few others where the standard form is "What are you called?"

The words marked in blue mean "name".

English: What is your name?

Hindi: तुम्हारा नाम क्या है ? tumhaara naam kya hai ? (literally "Your name what is?")

Tamil: உன் பெயர் என்ன? un peyar enna? (literally "Your name what?")

Kannada: ನಿನ್ನ ಹೆಸರು ಏನು ? ninna hesaru Enu? (literally "Your name what?")

Japanese: 名前 は なん です か? namae wa nan' desu ka? (literally "Name what is (question particle)")

[Notice that the ideographs for "name" are similar in Chinese (名字 míngzì) and Japanese (名前 namae), even though the pronunciations are vastly different.

In fact, on examining the Japanese ideograph more closely, it corresponds to 名前 míngqián in Mandarin, and literally means "name before", probably "forename". Of course, that particular word combination doesn't seem to translate to anything meaningful in Chinese, but it's interesting.]

And in these, the words marked in red mean "called":

Mandarin: 你 叫 什么？ nǐ jiào shénme? (literally "You (are) called what?")

German: Wie heißt du? (literally "How called you?")

French: Comment t'appelles tu? (literally "How called you?")

Russian: как тебя зовут? kak tebya zovut? (literally "How you called?")

This is fascinating. It seems possible to classify languages into two groups depending on how a simple introductory question is phrased. Is this a "name" language or a "called" language?

[It reminds me of the way languages are grouped depending on their word for "tea". Does their word begin with the "t" sound or the "ch" sound? Those countries or regions that use the "t" sound for tea first got their tea by the sea route. Those that use the "ch" sound for tea first got it by the land route. English, French, German, and Tamil all use the "t" sound for tea. Russian, Arabic and Hindi use the "ch" sound.]

Un Mot "De" La Chine (A Word From China)

One of the aspects of Mandarin that struck me as curious was the use of the word 的 ("de") as a possessive.

In French too, the word "de" is used to denote the possessive - but in the opposite direction!

In French, the word "de" means "of".

e.g., L'histoire de France = "the history of France"

In Chinese, the word 的 has exactly the same pronunciation ("de"), but means 's (apostrophe s).

e.g., 毛泽东 的 红皮书 Máo Zédōng de hóngpíshū ("Mao Zedong's Red Book")

An interesting tidbit that doesn't quite qualify as the pièce de résistance but could perhaps elicit a "好的!" Hǎo de! ("All right!")

The Simplicity Of Chinese Grammar - 4 (How To Say Yes When You Want To Say Yes)

One of the first things that struck me about Chinese is that, unlike most other languages, there doesn't seem to a simple word for "yes" or "no".

How does one answer yes/no questions, then?

Before we get into that, I want to talk about a few related tidbits.

1. English has a "yes" and a "no", but no clear way to rebut negative questions.

Let me illustrate.

Q. Do you speak English?
A. Yes, I speak English.

Q. Do you speak English?
A. No, I don't speak English.

That's fairly straightforward. But how would one answer a negative question?

Q. Don't you speak English?

If you did speak English, what would you say? And if you didn't, how would you agree? How would you use "yes" and "no" in this situation?

That's not straightforward, is it? (Come to think of it, how would you answer that negative question?)

2. German has a "ja" ("yes") and a "nein" ("no"), and also a third word "doch", which is explicitly used to rebut negative questions.

Q. Sprechen Sie Deutsch? ("Do you speak German?")
A. Ja, ich spreche Deutsch. ("Yes, I speak German.")

Q. Sprechen Sie Deutsch? ("Do you speak German?")
A. Nein, ich spreche nicht Deutsch. ("No, I don't speak German.")

Now watch.

Q. Sprechen Sie nicht Deutsch? ("Don't you speak German?")
A. Nein, ich spreche nicht Deutsch. ("No, I don't speak German.")

Q. Sprechen Sie nicht Deutsch? ("Don't you speak German?")
A. Doch, ich spreche Deutsch. ("Why no, I do speak German!")

3. It's pretty much the same in French. French has an "oui" ("yes") and a "non" ("no"), and also a third word "si", which is used to rebut negative questions.

Q. Parlez-vous Français? ("Do you speak French?")
A. Oui, je parle Français. (Yes, I speak French.")

Q. Parlez-vous Français? ("Do you speak French?")
A. Non, je ne parle pas Français. (No, I don't speak French.")

And watch again.

Q. Vous ne parlez pas Français? ("Don't you speak French?")
A. Non, je ne parle pas Français. (No, I don't speak French.")

Q. Vous ne parlez pas Français? ("Don't you speak French?")
A. Si, je parle Français. (Why no, I do speak French!")

Having a word like "doch" or "si" can be very handy, as we can see.

4. How does one answer such questions in Mandarin, given that there isn't even a "yes" or a "no"?

Check this out.

Q. 你 说 中文 吗？ Nǐ shuō zhōngwén ma? ("Do you speak Chinese?")
A. 说 shuō ("Yes, I speak Chinese", literally just "Speak.")

Q. 你 说 中文 吗？ Nǐ shuō zhōngwén ma? ("Do you speak Chinese?")
A. 不说 bù shuō ("No, I don't speak Chinese", literally just "Not speak.")

Simply repeating the verb is the affirmative answer. Prefixing the verb with 不 bù ("not") is the negative answer. [Remember that the verb 有 yǒu ("to have") is the exception which must be prefixed with the negative 没 méi instead of 不 bù.]

This style of answering a question then deals naturally with negative questions.

Q. 你 不说 中文 吗？ Nǐ bù shuō zhōngwén ma? ("Don't you speak Chinese?")
A. 说 shuō ("Yes, I speak Chinese", literally just "Speak.")

Q. 你 不说 中文 吗？ Nǐ bù shuō zhōngwén ma? ("Don't you speak Chinese?")
A. 不说 bù shuō ("No, I don't speak Chinese", literally just "Not speak.")

5. I remember my father telling me about how questions are answered in Russian.

Q. Это книга? Eto kniga? ("Is this a book?")
A. да, книга. Da, kniga. (literally, "Yes, book.")

You would not answer as in English, "Yes, it is".

Q. Это книга? Eto kniga? ("Is this a book?")
A. да, это. Da, eto. "Yes, this (is).")

That would just be bad Russian.

6. The difference between Russian and Mandarin is the repetition of the verb rather than the noun in the case of Mandarin.

Q. 这 是 书 吗？ zhè shì shū ma? ("Is this a book?")
A. 是 shì ("Yes, it is", literally just "Is.")

Q. 这 是 书 吗？ zhè shì shū ma? ("Is this a book?")
A. 不是 bù shì ("No, it isn't", literally just "Not is.")

Q. 这 不是 书 吗？ zhè bù shì shū ma? ("Isn't this a book?")
A. 是 shì ("Yes, it is", literally just "Is.")

Q. 这 不是 书 吗？ zhè bù shì shū ma? ("Isn't this a book?")
A. 不是 bù shì ("No, it isn't", literally just "Not is.")

So that's a unique and probably unambiguous way to answer a yes/no question, regardless of whether it's posed as an affirmative question or a negative question. The answer is always of the same form - just repeat the verb to affirm, or repeat it prefixed with a negative particle to negate.