Help!

[athersgeo]

Does anyone on my friends list speak/write Chinese? I'm looking for the Chinese word for grandmother, written out in the roman alphabet. Can anyone help me out on this?

Comments

I am leaving the tones

[the-reda.livejournal.com]

.. if you want them, tell me
btw there are several names for grand-mother. Here a selection:
mother's mother: wai-po
or father's mother: zu-mu or nai-nai

Re: I am leaving the tones

[athersgeo.livejournal.com]

Actually, as they are is great - thank you :)

I'm really looking for a sort of more informal word that an older person might tell a young child to use, though I think father's mother would probably work if there isn't a direct word for it.

Thanks again :)

Re: I am leaving the tones

[the-reda.livejournal.com]

that depends on the context.
Are they related?
If not, any older person is respectfully called (shufu) uncle or aunt ( ayi).

[athersgeo.livejournal.com]

No, they're not related, so in that case it would be Ayi. Thank you :) *hugs and genuflects*

welcome

[the-reda.livejournal.com]

.. btw the persons name is said first e.g.

reda ayi NOT ayi reda

Re: welcome

[athersgeo.livejournal.com]

Ahh! Thank you :)

[cmar-wingnut.livejournal.com]

If you run into this again, I have a friend who speaks Mandarin and Cantonese (I think she speaks both).

[athersgeo.livejournal.com]

As you can probably work out who I want to know this for, I think it's probably a safe bet that at some stage I may want more info *grins* For now, though, I think what the_reda has supplied me with is probably OK. (Of course, if not, there's always editing... ;))

Thank you :)