Hopefully Terrik or mr_thehun or someone similarly knowledgeable will chime in. Would Long Feiting be an acceptable English translation for Dragon Skyboat?
#2
Terrik
I might go with long feichuan
龙飞船
#3
drifter
Excellent. Thanks guys!
#4
bhamv3
Actually, it sounds like he's using 龍飛艇, 艇 being another term for a boat or a ship. 艇 is generally considered higher register than 船, and it's more commonly used in formal names or terminology. For example, a submarine in Chinese is 潛艇 rather than 潛船. Depending on what you need the term for, it may be better to use the more formal and high register version of long fei ting rather than long fei chuan.
If you guys have any naming suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Long Feiting is just the best I could come up with using Google Translate.
#6
bhamv3
Whoa... I haven't seen that thing before. That's totally AWESOME!!
Now, generally speaking, Chinese names for things tend to come in four one-syllable characters. The reason for this is that Chinese sounds most elegant and natural when it's spoken in two syllable phrases. (There's a similar phenomenon in English, iambic pentameter being one notable example) Two pairs of two syllables makes four syllables, with a rhythm of "ba-dum ba-dum," is the most common pattern for formal names.
Therefore, I would suggest adding one more character to the name of your creation, to make 神龍飛艇 (Shen Long Fei Ting). Literally translated, it means "Divine Dragon Flying Ship." The character 神 can be used as both a noun and an adjective (and, in some modern usages, even a verb); as a noun it means "God" or "Gods," while as a adjective it means "Godly" or "Divine." Its adjective form can also be used to mean "Amazing" or "Powerful," for example the phrases 神奇 and 神通, which mean "Amazing" and "Powerful" respectively.
#7
Terrik
Oooh..I like Bhamv's name better.
#8
Terrik
And I'm allergic to cats, so we just narrowed our options right there.
#9
drifter
Sweet. I'll make a small shrine in the hidden garden in your honor, bhamv
#10
drifter
Done
#11
bhamv3
This... this is the first time anyone's made any kind of shrine to me...
