Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2023 December 17

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December 17[edit]

Cantonese transliteration[edit]

How would 陳仁昌 and 陳仁傑 be transliterated in Cantonese today? KAVEBEAR (talk) 05:14, 17 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Assuming those are personal names...
But you wouldn't see those transliterations used for Cantonese personal names: based on my understanding of Hong Kong names, maybe Chan Yan-chong and Chan Yan-chieh, respectively? It may be different in Guangdong or abroad. Remsense 07:50, 17 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Names on -yatt[edit]

There exist A. S. Byatt, Lieutenant Fyatt, USS Gyatt, Hyatt hotels, the high ground of Lyatt and Furzy Sleight, Alan Myatt, Nyatt train station, Brad Pyatt, Labour councillor U. Ryatt, co-radio host Dick Syatt, Lucy R. Wyatt and film character Zyatt Dean. Is this accumulation of names on -yatt a remarkable outlier or is it more or less what one should expect?  --Lambiam 14:57, 17 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

According to A Dictionary of Surnames (Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges; Oxford 1988): Byatt is "by gate"; Hyatt is from a Hebrew/Yiddish word for "tailor"; Myatt is an English diminutive of Michael; Wyatt (with variant Gyatt) from an OE personal name Wigheard, and/or diminutive of Norman Guy or William. Others not listed. I imagine there was some convergence of spelling. —Tamfang (talk) 20:13, 17 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]
According to A Dictionary of Surnames (Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges; Oxford 1988): Hyatt is a variant spelling of Highet, a Scots habitation name, probably from Highgate in Ayrshire. DuncanHill (talk) 12:53, 18 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]
yeah well mine is listed first —Tamfang (talk) 21:59, 22 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]