Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2016 July 25

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July 25

"Ah" surnames

Where do the surnames in use in Hawaii beginning with Ah (Ah Choi, Ahnee, Ah Quin, etc.) come from? Cilantrohead (talk) 00:54, 25 July 2016 (UTC)

see Chinese in Samoa#Names. As that section mentions, it also applies to Chinese-Hawaiian names.--William Thweatt ^TalkContribs 01:03, 25 July 2016 (UTC)

(edit conflict)

Wiktionary's listing of Hawaiian given names describes Ah as a "Cantonese informal prefix", presumably borrowed into Hawaiian usage as a result of Chinese immigration. But I don't know what "Cantonese informal prefix" means. Shock Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 01:09, 25 July 2016 (UTC)

It's used across different varieties of Chinese, not just Cantonese. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 14:58, 25 July 2016 (UTC)

"Ah" is often used as a prefix in informal situations when addressing or possibly referring to someone indicating familiarity or closeness. Normally in front of the given name or sometimes the kinship term. If the person has a generation name, ah is used in front of the personal part and not the generation part AFAIK. I think it's the same if the person has a double character given name even if the first part is not a generation name, it's normally the final character. It's not generally used in front of the surname, probably because there's a contradiction in referring to the person by the surname and the use of the prefix. There's some discussion here [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] here which includes discussion how it was used in various Westernised contexts. Nil Einne (talk) 04:29, 25 July 2016 (UTC)

"Ah so!" --2606:A000:4C0C:E200:58E2:3708:C2A3:B874 (talk) 18:08, 25 July 2016 (UTC)

Hey, thanks, everyone! Cilantrohead (talk) 04:52, 27 July 2016 (UTC)