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Does the word Tintin mean anything in your language?

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Megustavida
Member
#31 · Posted: 8 Aug 2013 04:44
I'm Sri Lankan and when I was little, my mother said that "Tintin" was the sound that common squirrels made.
perepe
Member
#32 · Posted: 3 Jan 2015 13:01
igagli:
Tintin means "boy's penis" in Japanese.
So, he was renamed Tantan. It has no meaning.

I am learning Japanese and was I also surprised to discover this.
But then I realized that he was not really renamed, since in French (the original language), Tintin is pronounced Tantan, and using the Japanese alphabet, which is different, they translate things as they sound, so really there is no problem in principle (but it is funny though...). XD
Moderator Note: You might want to see Pilote's answer back up the thread... :-)
carmella
Member
#33 · Posted: 4 Jan 2015 02:07
Tintin can't be written out in Chinese characters; it has to be translated differently.

The best-known one is Ding Ding, which appears in characters in the Blue Lotus. Chinese people believe this translation was proposed by Herge's Chinese friend. Ding Ding is also a popular unisex nickname which resembles the sound of a bell; three of my friends have this name and one of them is named after Tintin.

Other translations are "Dan Dan"; it can mean eggs or the color red depends on the characters used and "Tian Tian" (mostly used by the Cantonese) which means everyday.
marsbar
Moderator
#34 · Posted: 4 Jan 2015 09:39
carmella:
Tintin can't be written out in Chinese characters; it has to be translated differently.

The official Chinese-language albums show Tintin's name as "丁丁", pronounced "dīng dīng" in Mandarin and in Cantonese--it is the closest Mandarin phonetic transcription (not transliteration) of the English pronunciation of "Tintin".

carmella:
Tian Tian" (mostly used by the Cantonese) which means everyday

You mean "天天" ("tīn tīn" in Cantonese;"tiān tiān" in Mandarin)? Considering Tintin is uniformly "丁丁" in all the official Chinese-language albums (i.e., Hong Kong edition, Taiwan edition, and China edition), I very much doubt the Cantonese readers would use "天天" to refer to Tintin.
carmella
Member
#35 · Posted: 5 Jan 2015 02:12
marsbar
Are you Chinese, too? If not, your knowledge of Chinese characters is amazing!

You are right; nowadays all the Chinese people, including me, will recognize this Belgian reporter as 丁丁 (Ding Ding) at the first glance. The name 天天 (Tian Tian) only appeared in the first edition and was soon substituted by 丁丁. Only old people know this alternative Chinese name of Tintin. 丹丹 (Dan Dan, meaning red) and 蛋蛋 (Dan Dan, meaning egg) are used by Chinese students who study French. They prefer 丹丹 since it sounds similar to the French pronunciation and it is also a commonly used Chinese nickname. But when they are tired of their French study, they will simply go with 蛋蛋 as a way of having fun. You will see 蛋蛋 and 丹丹 in Chinese Tintin fan pages quite a lot.

Hope this clears the confusion :)

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