Thursday, October 8, 2009

Learn Chinese - Planet Names

I was recently given a copy of the Chinese-English Visual Bilingual Dictionary.

Flipping through it, I came to a page on the planets. Obviously, learning the names of the planets would not be high on anyone's list of useful Chinese to learn, but as happens when you're learning Chinese, I noticed several associations with things I've already learnt.

First, here are the names of the planets (and as a special bonus, the sun and the moon as well):

EnglishPinyinChinese Characters
MercuryShuǐxīng水星
VenusJīnxīng金星
EarthDìqiú地球
MarsHuǒxīng火星
JupiterMùxīng木星
SaturnTǔxīng土星
UranisTiānwángxīng天王星
NeptuneHǎiwángxīng海王星
PlutoMíngwángxīng冥王星
SunTàiyáng太阳
MoonYuèqiú月球

So where to start with the associations?

First, I long ago learnt that Xīng 星 means star. I used to live in a city which had a tourist attraction called the Seven Star Crags (Qixing Yan Gongyuan 七星岩). Most of the planets are named with the pattern <something>xīng - so they are literally named something star.

Mercury seems to be called the water star (Shuǐ 水 meaning water). Why that's the case is anyone's guess! As far as I know there's no water on Mercury. (Edit: Actually it turns out that there is water on Mercury, but it was only discovered last year).

Venus is called the gold star (Jīn 金meaning gold). The picture of Venus in the book does look to be a goldish colour, as do some of the images you find in a Google Image Search.

Mars is the fire star (Huǒ 火 meaning fire). I guess that's no surprise - after all it's known as the red planet in English and red is the colour of fire.

I'm not familiar with Mù 木for Jupiter, but it seems to mean stick. Just why Jupiter would be the stick star is a bit of a puzzle.

Saturn is the earth (or land) star - Tǔ being the start of earth / land Tǔdì 土地 - or perhaps the potato tǔdòu 土豆star :)

Uranis, Neptune and Pluto share the wáng 王 character as the second character, which seems to translate as king.

Uranis is the sky king star (Tiān 天being sky) and Neptune is the sea king star (Hǎi 海meaning sea). I'm not so sure about Pluto - perhaps the dark king star? Anyone out there have a translation for Míng 冥?

Neptune is an interesting one for me. Neptune was the king of the sea in Olympian mythology, so perhaps Hǎiwángxīng (sea king star) is just a direct translation of the English name for the planet.

Also, in my post on the points of the compass, I used the city of Hǎinán海南 to illustrate the use of Nán (south) in place names. Now we can see that Hǎi means sea, so Hǎinán is literally Sea South, appropriate for a city on the sea in the south of China.

For the earth and the moon, qiú 球 means sphere. Dì 地 means land, so the earth is land sphere.

For the moon, the familiar Yuè 月 character is used. This will be familiar to most Chinese learners as it's one of the first characters you learn to recognise, meaning month and appearing in dates etc.

As I said, lots of associations here. I don't think learning the planet names is particularly useful in every day Chinese, but those connections help strengthen what you already do know.

As an aside, the Chinese-English Visual Bilingual Dictionary is great. It won't help you learn grammar or even phrases, but it will expand your vocabulary immensely.

Keywords: Shuixing, Jinxing, Diqiu, Huoxing, Muxing, Tuxing, Tianwangxing, Haiwangxing, Mingwangxing, Taiyang, Yueqiu, Xing, Yue, Shui, Jin, Huo, Mu, Tu, Tian, Hai, Wang.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Anyone out there have a translation for Míng 冥?

My source says "netherworld".

admin said...

Hi, I found the webiste for Learn Chinese Writing System: Write Chinese Symbols, Characters, Alphabet, Words, Letters
It's full free, take a look http://www.learn-chinese-mandarin.com

Anonymous said...

i think learning Chinese is fun. :D

Anonymous said...

This is awesome! I've been wanting to learn the planets for ever in Chinese. Thank you!

Anonymous said...

The first 5 planets in the sky (excluding Earth) are named after the ancient
5 Chinese 'elements'
木 火 土 金 水
mù huǒ tǔ jīn shuǐ
Not sure, but the next three seem to be western (?) ; Uranus was the Greek-Roman creator-god, neptune the sea-god and pluto the god of the underworld (冥).

santa said...

The understanding of the Chinese language in the West began with some misunderstandings. Since the earliest appearance of Chinese characters in the West, the belief that written Chinese was ideographic prevailed. Thanks.
Regards,
Learn mandarin online

Learn Chinese language on hanbridgemandarin said...

Hanbridge has adopted a structured and interactive educational approach to enable you to learn Mandarin effectively and reach your targeted proficiency level. Clear pronunciation, the proper use of tones, real-life topics, and bilingual instruction all combine to ensure you will be able to communicate effectively.



More Chinese learning tags : Learn Chinese language

jade said...

Though this is not the only way to learn out to pronounce Chinese characters, learn mandarin online

ukahsah15 said...

thank you for your interesting infomation.
mandarin lessons singapore

IvaIndia said...

thanks for the blog.
institute of vedic astrology reviews
institute of vedic astrology reviews
institute of vedic astrology reviews
institute of vedic astrology reviews
institute of vedic astrology Indore reviews
institute of vedic astrology reviews
institute of vedic astrology reviews
institute of vedic astrology reviews

Sadhguru sai Astrologer said...

Thanks for sharing this informative blog..Keep posting.
Visit Best Astrologer in Malleswaram

Abhiram Guruji said...

Thanks for sharing a nice information.
For all kind of astrological services contact Best Indian Astrologer in Brooks.

Unknown said...

Really its a wonderful article.
Bridal Jewellery for Rent in Indiranagar. Contact us.

Master Lakki said...

This is an awesome post. Really very informative and creative contents.

Black Magic Astrologer in Sydney

Unknown said...

Thank You Very Much For Sharing.
Visit Best Astrologer in JP Nagar.

Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing your information...It's very useful for many users...I will be waiting for your next post.
For Upvc Windows in Chikmagalur. Contact us.

Shrinath said...

Its very amazing blog!Keep update your blog & share more information.
For potato chips manufacturers in Kerala. Contact us.

Siddharth Acharya said...

Great blog, Thanks for sharing this information.
Best Palmist In Bangalore resolves all problems and gives permanent solutions.

Neurologist said...

This post is really nice and informative.
For best neurology specialist hospital in bangalore. Contact us.

Post a Comment