# 安英氣



## Dreamcaster

Could *please* anyone help me translating this?

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/212/videocallsnapshot2zi6.png

Thanks


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## Ovidius

Sorry,I only recognized the first two words,is it a name?


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## akimura

The Kanji characters read 安美気.  However, the last character in the picture is not exactly how Japanese write, that is 気.  As Ovidius is wondering, it does not make much sense as a Japanese word(s).  I would assume it comes from somewhere other than Japan, probably from China or Taiwan, or old China?  So, I am afraid I could not be of further help.  Someone else in the forum still could.


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## Dreamcaster

Thanks guys.
So the first two words are in *Kanji* alphabet, right?
And what do they read?
Maybe the last word has just a bad handwriting?
Or could it be *hiragana* or *katakana*?

Please help me. It's kinda important to me.


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## Dreamcaster

Ovidius said:


> Sorry,I only recognized the first two words,is it a name?



I really don't know.
May it be a western name? "Daniela", maybe?
I could provide better quality pictures, if needed.


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## akimura

Dreamcaster said:


> Thanks guys.
> So the first two words are in *Kanji* alphabet, right?
> And what do they read?
> Maybe the last word has just a bad handwriting?
> Or could it be *hiragana* or *katakana*?



Hi, no, the last character IS a Chinese character, but it is NOT EXACTLY how Japanese spell it or stroke it at least in this modern age.  So, the three characters, as a whole, is not a modern Japanese expression.  The first possibility you might like to do is to ask someone from China, Taiwan, or Korea to see if these word make some sense to them.



Dreamcaster said:


> And what do they read?



But, just like western languages have same word origins in common and thus you could make some guess on other languages, Japanese could give some guess to the three characters.  If it's okay, I'd give it a try.  And it goes:

安, pronounced AN in Japanese,
meaning calmness or peacefulness

美, pronounced BI (as in bit) in Japanese,
meaning beauty

気, pronounced KI (as in kit) in Japanese,
meaning air, the energy of life, or an abstract, spiritual object that makes people live

The three characters does not make much sense as a single word in Japanese.  If we treat them as a form of art and as three separate kanji characters, then the above three concepts are something we get out of the art.


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## Ovidius

Dreamcaster said:


> I really don't know.
> May it be a western name? "Daniela", maybe?
> I could provide better quality pictures, if needed.


 
I totally agree with akimura.

Maybe this helps,Dreamcaster (From Wiki):

Korean Hanja

気
Sound (hangeul):기 (revised: gi, McCune-Reischauer: ki, Yale: ki) Name (hangeul): 기운

Mandarin Hanzi

気 (pinyin qi4), Wade-Giles ch'i4)


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## Dreamcaster

Thank you so much Akimura.
Your explanation was pretty good.
I think that those characters and their meaning could really fit for the girl who got 'em tatooed on her leg.
Before asking her whether your interpretation is wrong or right I will ask three friends fo mine from Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong to help me out with that.
I will definitely let you know what they think of it.


Thanks again (also to you, Ovidius)


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## Dreamcaster

Ovidius said:


> Maybe this helps,Dreamcaster (From Wiki):
> 
> Korean Hanja
> 
> 気
> Sound (hangeul):기 (revised: gi, McCune-Reischauer: ki, Yale: ki) Name (hangeul): 기운
> 
> Mandarin Hanzi
> 
> 気 (pinyin qi4), Wade-Giles ch'i4)



The two characters you wrote look exactly the same...at least on my PC. (i have winXP with asian languages font installed)
What is the meaning of the Korean one? 気
And the Mandarin one? 気

Korean *Hanja*, Mandarin *Hanzi*, Japanse *Kanji*. Correct?


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## RagnarsLodbrokar

I think it's Chinese, someone's name, and goes "peace talent breath/air". The reading of "bi" or "mei" (beauty) for the second character is not correct.


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## Dreamcaster

RagnarsLodbrokar said:


> I think it's Chinese, someone's name, and goes "peace talent breath/air". The reading of "bi" or "mei" (beauty) for the second character is not correct.



美 this is BI or MEI?
How would you read the second character, then?
What's the character for "talent"?


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## notnotchris

I see it as 英　which is pronounced 'ei' (the same ei as in eigo = English)

In Japanese it would be pronounced あんえいき (an'eiki) and in Chinese it would be 'an ying qi'. The last character is wirtten in traditional kanji, which means it's most likely a Chinese rather than Japanese tattoo (though Japan used traditional kanji before WWII)

It sounds like someone's name to me.


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## akimura

美 is *BI* or in some very rare cases *MI* (as in mit) *in Japanese*.  It is no way MEI in Japanese.  It may be MEI in other Asian languages.

BUT, I am sorry, I took a closer look that picture, and I found it was not 美 but 英.  Big, big appologies..

英, pronounced EI (as in an alphabet A) in Japanese,
meaning excellency.

In any case, 安英気 is not Japanese.  I would agree with multiple replies above, it sounds like someone's name.  But it is by 99% chance non-Japanese.  Non-Japanese kanji users who identify these characters as their language should have the best answer.


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## Ovidius

Dreamcaster said:


> The two characters you wrote look exactly the same...at least on my PC. (i have winXP with asian languages font installed)
> What is the meaning of the Korean one? 気
> And the Mandarin one? 気
> 
> Korean *Hanja*, Mandarin *Hanzi*, Japanse *Kanji*. Correct?


 
Yes,correct,I don't know which one is the answer.In Korean there are some characters which look the same as Mandarin,but pronounced in a different way. 

安英氣 ,AN the first character could rather be a surname than other meanings.氣(not Japanese) looks like Traditional Chinese.英氣 could be a short phrase which describes brilliant qualities of a person.

英氣:yīngqì heroic spirit


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## lammn

Hi, Dreamcaster-san. I am a Hong Kong Chinese and so I am pretty familiar with traditional Chinese. 安英氣 is _not_ a Chinese word.

My guess is that either the girl put some auspicious characters *randomly* together or it is just a *name*. Each of the character has the following meanings in Chinese:

安: calm; safe; healthy; install; etc
英: heroic; flower; English; surname; etc.
氣: air; breathe; smell; energy; spirit; angry; etc.

If combine them together:
安英: × (makes no sense in Chinese)
英氣: heroic spirit; fearless courage; brilliance
安英氣: × (makes no sense in Chinese)

Hope that helps.


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## Zulis

lammn said:


> ...
> 
> 安: calm; safe; healthy; install; etc
> 英: heroic; flower; English; surname; etc.
> 氣: air; breathe; smell; energy; spirit; angry; etc.
> 
> If combine them together:
> 安英: × (makes no sense in Chinese)
> 英氣: heroic spirit; fearless courage; brilliance
> 安英氣: × (makes no sense in Chinese)



Quoted for truth.

安英氣 could be a transliteration of a name, or possibly the tatoo bearer doesnt know/ care about the meaning at all, he just likes the shape of it. 

If it's Chinese, it just doesnt make any sense.


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## Dreamcaster

First of all, I would like to thank you all pals! 
I really, really appreciate your efforts to help me out with this translation.
Reading all your answers is making me realize and understand the whole thing.
I never knew far-east languages have so much in common each other!
It's fascinnating and it makes me feel like learning more and more about it!
Anyone has a book's title or online-course I could start with? Of course, i'm a totally beginner! 

Here's what one of my friends wrote to me about the tattoo (she's from Singapore and she can both speak and write Mandarin):



> (...) Sorry for the late reply.  Well your friends in the forum had given you the meaning to the words.  It's read as An Ying Qi in mandarin.  However, chinese pple don't use this kind of names.  It sounds like a japanese type of name written in chinese words or what they called Kanji.
> 
> The last character is an olden way of writing or a comics way of writing it, I think.  Coz the traditional chinese word for Qi has many more strokes, and the simplified chinese does not have the X in the word


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## Dreamcaster

lammn said:


> My guess is that either *the girl* put some auspicious characters randomly together or it is just a name.
> 
> (...)
> 
> Hope that helps.




Who told you the tattoo is on a girl??? 
Am I that predictable?

Your post greatly helped me, as well as other users' posts. Thank you so much.


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## lammn

Dreamcaster said:


> Who told you the tattoo is on a girl???
> Am I that predictable?


 
You have already told everbody in the forum in your previous post that she is a girl: 


> I think that those characters and their meaning could really fit for the girl who got 'em tatooed on her leg.


 
Glad to be of help.


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## kareno999

Zulis said:


> Quoted for truth.
> 
> 安英氣 could be a transliteration of a name, or possibly the tatoo bearer doesnt know/ care about the meaning at all, he just likes the shape of it.
> 
> If it's Chinese, it just doesnt make any sense.


It sounds like a Korean name to me.
I don't think it could be a Japanese but possibly a Chinese one.


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## Zulis

kareno999 said:


> It sounds like a Korean name to me.
> I don't think it could be a Japanese but possibly a Chinese one.


I think it sounds more like Japanese though. There is always something that ends with "氣" in Japanese mangas, hehe~


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## lammn

Zulis said:


> I think it sounds more like Japanese though. There is always something that ends with "氣" in Japanese mangas, hehe~


Native Japanese (akimura-san) has already said that 安英氣 is *not* Japanese.

And that's why this thread has been moved from the Japanese forum to the Chinese forum by the moderator.

While I am still a Japanese-learner, I can also tell you that 安英氣 is *not* a Japanese word.


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## kareno999

lammn said:


> Native Japanese (akimura-san) has already said that 安英氣 is *not* Japanese.
> 
> And that's why this thread has been moved from the Japanese forum to the Chinese forum by the moderator.
> 
> While I am still a Japanese-learner, I can also tell you that 安英氣 is *not* a Japanese word.


This could be written in Hangul as 안영기.
And 氣 is only used in Korean, HongKong and Taiwan. In Mainland China and Japan, it's simplified to different forms.


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## Zulis

lammn said:


> Native Japanese (akimura-san) has already said that 安英氣 is *not* Japanese.
> 
> And that's why this thread has been moved from the Japanese forum to the Chinese forum by the moderator.
> 
> While I am still a Japanese-learner, I can also tell you that 安英氣 is *not* a Japanese word.


 
No need to bash me on this, I am totally aware of that, and me I have also said that it could mean nothing but just the tatoo bearer only likes the shape of the words.

and notice the "気" is written like that, as far as I know this one with a "X" is used in Japanese only, so The only possible choice for me to identify this tatoo is Japanese. Since it doesn't mean anything in Japanese, the tatoo just doesn't mean anything. 

Let's keep this forum friendly.


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## Flaminius

I cannot see anyone bashing anyone else and I don't want anyone to bash me, but perhaps I am the one who introduced the confusion.   It's me who changed the title to "安英氣" after seeing the picture.  I've just now magnified the picture and it still looks more like a  氣 than a 気.

Whichever form is intended, perhaps the character shape is not the best clue to determine which language the tattoo is styled after.  As many posters have mentioned that it is not Chinese or Japanese, I have started to wonder if it is not a real or fictitious person's name, where 安 is the surname, and 英氣 or 英気 (literally "vigour") the given name.  I seem to understand that the name belongs to a man.

I look forward to other's opinions.


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## samanthalee

Frankly speaking, I had a hard time making up my mind what the last character is, the photo is a little small and the strokes are many. 

It look like there are more strokes than メ under the 气。It could be any of the collection of 氦氧氨氮。But I must say 英氣 sounds more plausible than all the other possible combinations.

It doesn't sound Chinese and it doesn't sound Japanese. And I haven't seen a native Korean write his/her name in Hanja for years, so I don't think it's Korean either.


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## kareno999

samanthalee said:


> And I haven't seen a native Korean write his/her name in Hanja for years.


True, but I heard names are printed in hanja on ID cards in S Korean. 
Not every korean read hanja but I guess everyone can write their own hanja names.


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