A message from an uncle to his niece

[aldanait8252]

Hi. I'm trying to translate this message that a friend got from her uncle but my Japanese is still so basic. Can you please help me translate it and include whatever explanation it you can give me related to either it's origin or it's cultural influence? Here is the message:

外甥女美丽
美しい姪

[Kat]

Hi there aldanait8252,

Thanks for posting!

外甥女美丽
美しい姪

The first line of your message seems to be in Chinese. A good clue to this is when all the kanji are bunched together like that with none of the Japanese kana symbols in between.

The second line means "beautiful niece" (utsukushii mei).

Hope this helps a bit.

[ericf]

I'm fairly sure the first line is also "beautiful niece" but, as you say, in Chinese.
外甥女 = Wàishēngnǚ = niece
美丽 = měilì = beautiful

丽 doesn't seem to be a modern Japanese character, though according to PopJisyo.com it does have on & kun readings. It does appear in Chinese names, e.g. 宋丽丽 sòng lìlì.

[karmitthefrog6725]

ericf-san, komento arigato gozaimasu!

I also looked up at the dictionary and could not find 丽 .
That character would not common kanji although it looks like a simplified letter, used in Mandarin.

aldanait8252-san,
how does it goes?
Hope our comments help you.