| Transcription | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Front cover ofNames of the World's Peoples: A Comprehensive Dictionary of Names in Roman-Chinese, the official transcription guide of mainland China. | |||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 音譯 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 音译 | ||||||
| Literal meaning | sound translation | ||||||
| |||||||
| Transcription | |||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 譯名 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 译名 | ||||||
| Literal meaning | translated name | ||||||
| |||||||
| Transliteration of Chinese |
|---|
| Mandarin |
| Wu |
| Yue |
| Min |
| Gan |
| Hakka |
| Xiang |
| Polylectal |
| See also |
Transcription into Chinese characters is the use oftraditional orsimplifiedChinese characters tophoneticallytranscribe the sound of terms and names of foreign words to theChinese language. Transcription is distinct fromtranslation into Chinese whereby themeaning of a foreign word is communicated in Chinese. SinceEnglish classes are nowstandard in most secondary schools, it is increasingly common to see foreign names and terms left in their original form in Chinese texts.[citation needed] However, for mass media and marketing within China and for non-European languages, particularly those of theChinese minorities, transcription into characters remains very common.
Except for a handful of traditional exceptions, most modern transcription in mainland China uses the standardized Mandarin pronunciations exclusively.
ModernHan Chinese consists of about 412syllables[1] in 5 tones, sohomophones abound and most non-Han words have multiple possible transcriptions. This is particularly true since Chinese is written as monosyllabiclogograms, andconsonant clusters foreign to Chinese must be broken into their constituent sounds (or omitted), despite being thought of as a single unit in their original language. Since there are so many characters to choose from when transcribing a word, a translator can manipulate the transcription to add additional meaning. As an example, for the syllablejī, there is a choice of some 120 characters that have this as a Hanyu Pinyin reading.
In thePeople's Republic of China, the process has been standardized by the Proper Names and Translation Service of the state-runXinhua News Agency. Xinhua publishes an official reference guide, theNames of the World's Peoples: a Comprehensive Dictionary of Names in Roman-Chinese (世界人名翻译大辞典Shìjiè Rénmíng Fānyì Dà Cídiǎn), which controls most transcription for official media and publication in mainland China. As the name implies, the work consists of a dictionary of common names. It also includes transcription tables for names and terms which are not included. The English table is reproducedbelow; those for a number of other languages are availableon the Chinese Wikipedia.
The Basic Laws of theHong Kong (article) andMacau (article)Special Administrative Regions provide that "Chinese" will be the official languages of those territories, in addition to English and Portuguese, respectively, leaving ambiguous the relative preference forCantonese andMandarin. In practice, transcriptions based on both Cantonese and Mandarin pronunciations have been used.[citation needed]
InSingapore, transcription standards are established by the Translation Standardisation Committee for the Chinese Media and in 2014 was moved to National Translation Committee (NTC) of the Ministry of Communication and Information. InMalaysia, transcription/translation standards are established byChinese Language Standardisation Council of Malaysia.
Increasingly, other countries are setting their own official standards for Chinese transcription[citation needed] and do not necessarily follow Xinhua's versions, just as Xinhua's version differs from Wade–Giles and other international standards.[citation needed][clarification needed] For example, theUnited States embassy in China recommends rendering "Obama" as欧巴马Ōubāmǎ, while Xinhua uses奥巴马Àobāmǎ.[2]
Transcription of foreign terms may date to the earliest surviving written records in China, theShangoracle bones. As theHuaxia spread from their initial settlements near the confluence of theWei andYellowrivers, they were surrounded on all sides byother peoples. The Chinese characters developed to describe them may have originally transcribed local names, such as the proposed connection between the original "Eastern Yi" people (東夷) and anAustroasiatic word for "sea".[3] However, the tendency within China was to fit new groups into the existing structure, so that, for example, "Yi" eventually became a word forany "barbarian" and the name "Yue" (戉 &越), originally applied to a people northwest of the Shang,[4] was later applied to apeople south of the Yangtze and then tomany cultures as far south asVietnam. Interaction with the states ofChu,Wu, andYue during theSpring and Autumn andWarring States periods of the laterZhou brings the first certain evidence of transcription: most famously, the wordjiāng (江), originallykrong,[5] derives from theAustroasiatic word for "river".[6]
Besides proper names, a small number ofloanwords also found their way into Chinese during theHan dynasty afterZhang Qian's exploration of theWestern Regions.[7] TheWestern Han also sawLiu Xiang's transcription and translation of the "Song of the Yue Boatman" in hisGarden of Stories. Some scholars have tried to use it to reconstruct an original version of the otherwise unrecorded language of the Yangtze's Yue people before their incorporation into theHan.[8]
The expansion ofBuddhism within China during thelater Han andThree Kingdoms period required the transcription of a great manySanskrit andPali terms. According to theSong-era scholarZhou Dunyi,[9] the monk and translatorXuanzang (ofJourney to the West fame) handed down guidelines of "Five Kinds of Words Not to Translate" (simplified Chinese:五种不翻; traditional Chinese:五種不翻). He directed that transcription should be used instead of translation when the words are:
These ancient transcription into Chinese characters provide clues to the reconstruction ofMiddle Chinese. Inhistorical Chinese phonology, this information is calledduìyīn (simplified Chinese:对音; traditional Chinese:對音;lit. 'corresponding sounds'); in WesternSinology,Baron Alexander von Staël-Holstein was the first to emphasize its importance in reconstructing the sounds of Middle Chinese. The transcriptions made during theTang dynasty are particularly valuable, as the then-popularTantra sect required itsmantras to be rendered very carefully into Chinese characters, since they were thought to lose their efficacy if their exact sounds were not properly uttered.
TheHistory of Liao contains a list ofKhitan words phonetically transcribed with Chinese characters. TheHistory of Jin contains a list ofJurchen words phonetically transcribed with Chinese characters.[10][11] In theHistory of Yuan, Mongol names were phonetically transcribed in Chinese characters.
In theMing dynasty, theChinese government's Bureau of Translators (四夷馆Sìyí Guǎn) and the Bureau of Interpreters (会同馆Huìtóng Guǎn) published bilingual dictionaries/vocabularies of foreign languages like the Bureau of Translators' multilingual dictionary (华夷译语Huá-Yí yìyǔ, 'Sino-Barbarian Dictionary'), using Chinese characters to phonetically transcribe the words of the foreign languages such asJurchen,Korean,Japanese,Ryukyuan,Mongolian,Old Uyghur,Vietnamese,Cham,Dai,Thai,Burmese,Khmer,Persian,[12][13]Tibetan,Malay,Javanese,Acehnese, andSanskrit.
During theQing dynasty some bilingual Chinese-Manchu dictionaries had theManchu words phonetically transcribed with Chinese characters. The book御製增訂清文鑑 ("Imperially-Published Revised and Enlarged mirror of Qing") in Manchu and Chinese, used both Manchu script to transcribe Chinese words and Chinese characters to transcribe Manchu words withfanqie.[14]
As part of the promotion ofKaozheng studies in thephilological field, Qianlong decided that the Chinese character transcriptions of names and words of theKhitan language in theHistory of Liao, theJurchen language in theHistory of Jin, and theMongolian language in theHistory of Yuan were not phonetically accurate and true to the original pronunciation. The histories were in fact hastily compiled and suffered from inaccurate and inconsistent phonetic transcriptions of the same names. He ordered the "Imperial Liao Jin Yuan Three Histories National Language Explanation" (欽定遼金元三史國語解Qīndìng Liáo Jīn Yuán sān shǐ guóyǔjiě[15][16][17]) project to "correct" the Chinese character transcriptions by referring to the contemporaneous descendants of those languages. Qianlong identified theSolon language with the Khitan, theManchu language with the Jurchen, and the Mongolian language with the Mongolian.[18] Solon, Mongolian, and Manchu speakers were consulted with on the "correct" pronunciations of the names and words and their Chinese transcriptions were accordingly changed. However the Khitan language has now been found by modern linguists to be a Mongolic language and is unrelated to the Solon language. The project was part of the Siku Quanshu. Qianlong also promulgated a theory that theDaur people were descended from a Khitan clan, changing the Khitan clan name大賀Dàhè, found in the History of Liao, to達呼爾Dáhū'ěr. The Chinese transcription of the Manchu clan name Niohuru鈕祜祿 (Niǔhùlù) was edited and inserted in place of the Jurchen clan name女奚烈 (Nǚxīliè).[19]
"2. A learned committee, consisting of Chinese, Manchus, Mongols, western Mohammedans, etc. was appointed by the emperor K'ien-lung to revise the Yüan shi, and especially the foreign names of men, places etc. occurring so frequently in that book. These savants in their reformatory zeal, proceeded on the idea, that all the proper names had been incorrectly rendered in the official documents of the Mongols, and had to be changed. They pronounced the same verdict with respect to the histories of the Liao and the Kin. Thus in the new editions of the histories of the Liao, Kin and Yüan, all the original proper names without exception disappeared, and were replaced by names of a new invention, which generally have little resemblance to the original. For further particulars, compare my Notes on Chinese Mediaeval Travellers, p. 58, note 1. By this way of corrupting the names of the original historios, which have generally rendered foreign sounds as correctly as the Chinese language permits, the K'ien-lung editions of these works have become completely unserviceable for historical and geographical investigations. K'ien-lung was very proud of the happy idea of metamorphosing the ancient proper names, and issued an edict, that in future no Chinese scholar should dare to use the ancient names.
After the three histories had been corrupted, K'ien-lung ordered the same committee to explain the meanings of the new names; and this gave rise to a new work entitled:遼金元史語解 Liao kin yüan shi yü kai, or "Explanation of words (proper names) found in the histories of the Liao, Kin and Yüan." In this vocabulary, all the names of men, countries, places, mountains, rivers etc.—of the three histories have been systematically arranged, but according to the new spelling. The original spelling of the name however is always given, and the chapters are indicated where the name occurs. This renders the vocabulary very useful for reference, and we may lay aside the fact, that the principal object in view of the learned committee, was the absurd explanation of the meaning of the newly-invented names. I may give a few examples of the sagacity these savants displayed in their etymological commentaries. The city of Derbend (the name means "gate" in Persian), situated on the western shore of the Caspian sea, is mentioned in the Yuan shi, as a city of Persia, and the name is written打耳班 Da-r-ban. The committee changed the name into都爾本 Du-r-ben, and explain that durben in Mongol means, "four." The name of Bardaa, a city of Armenia, is rendered in the original Yuan shi by巴耳打阿 Ba-r-da-a. The committee will have the name to be巴勒塔哈 Ba-le-t'a-ha, and comment that this name in Manchu means "the neck part of a sable skin." By别失八里 Bie-shi-ba-li in theuncorrupted Yuan shi, Bishbalik is to be understood. The meaning of this name in Turkish, is " Five cities," and the term五城 Wu-ch'eng, meaning also "Five cities," occurs repeatedly in the Yuan shi, as a synonym of Bie-shi-ba-li. The committee however transformed the name into巴實伯里 Ba-shi-bo-li, and state that Ba-shi in the language of the Mohammedans means "head" and bo-li "kidneys."
The most recent edition of the Yüan shi (also with corrupted proper names) is dated 1824, but Archimandrite Palladius has noticed that it was only finished about twenty years later. This edition is not difficult of purchase, and I fancy it is the only edition of the Yuan shi found in European libraries. The numerous translations from the "Mongol history," found in Pauthier's M. Polo, have all been made from this corrupted text. At the time Klaproth and Rémusat wrote, the Yuan shi was unknown in Europe, and it seems, that even the old Catholic missionaries in Peking had not seen it. The old sinologues knew only an extract of the great "Mongol History"." -E. Bretschneider,Notices of the Mediæval Geography and History of Central and Western Asia, pp. 5-6.[20][21][22]
Marshall Broomhall commented thatThough a great soldier and a great litterateur, K'ien-lung did not escape some serious errors. At one time he appointed a learned committee of Chinese, Manchus, Mongols, and Western Mohammedans to revise the foreign names of men and places which occur in the Yüan Records. So unscientific was this work that the K'ien-lung editions of the Liao, Kin, and Yüan histories are practically useless. The title Kalif rendered Ha-li-fu was changed by the Committee into Farkha and is explained as being "a village in Manchuria."[23]
Transcriptions of English in Chinese characters were used in a book to learn English dating to 1860 in the reign of the Xianfeng Emperor.[24] During the late 19th century, when Western ideas and products flooded China, transcriptions mushroomed. They include not only transcriptions of proper nouns but also those of common nouns for new products.[25][26] The influence was particularly marked in dialects near the major ports, likeShanghainese. Many of these phonemic loans proved to be fads, however, and popular usage and linguistic reformers subsequently favoredcalques orneologisms in their place.
A transcription into Chinese characters can sometimes be aphono-semantic matching, i.e. it reflects both the sound and the meaning of the transcribed word. For example,Modern Standard Chinese声纳shēngnà "sonar", uses the characters声shēng "sound" and纳nà "receive, accept".声shēng is a phonetically imperfect rendering of the English initial syllable. Chinese has a large number of homo/heterotonal homophonous morphemes, which would have been much better phonetically (but not nearly as good semantically) – consider the syllablesong (cf.送sòng 'deliver, carry, give (as a present)',松sōng 'pine; loose, slack',耸sǒng 'tower; alarm, attract' etc.),sou (cf.搜sōu 'search',叟sǒu 'old man',馊sōu 'sour, spoiled' and many others) orshou (cf.收shōu 'receive, accept',受shòu 'receive, accept',手shǒu 'hand',首shǒu 'head',兽shòu 'beast',瘦shòu 'thin' and so forth)."[27]
Belarus (lit. "White Russia") is transcribed in Chinese as白俄罗斯Bái'éluósī, with白bái ("white") and俄罗斯Éluósī ("Russia") preserving the meaning of the original name. Similarly, the common ending-va inRussian female surnames is usually transcribed as娃wā, meaning "baby" or "girl", and the corresponding masculine suffix-[o]v is rendered as夫fū, meaning "man". In literary translations,Utopia was famously transcribed byYan Fu as烏托邦/乌托邦Wūtuōbāng ("unfounded country") andPantagruel was written as龐大固埃/庞大固埃Pángdàgù'āi, from龐大/庞大 ("gigantic") and固 ("solid", "hefty"). More recently, one translation ofWorld Wide Web is萬維網/万维网Wànwéi Wǎng, meaning "myriad-dimensional net". Sometimes the transcription reflectschengyu or other Chinese sayings and idioms. For example, theBeatles are known in mainland China as披頭士/披头士Pītóushì, "the mop-headed", and in Taiwan and Hong Kong,披頭四/披头四Pītóusì, "the mop-head four", reflecting thechengyu披頭散髮/披头散发pītóu sànfǎ concerning disheveled hair. They can also reflect subjective opinions or advertising.Esperanto, now known as "the international language" or literally "language of the world" (世界語/世界语Shìjièyǔ), was first introduced to China as愛斯不難讀/爱斯不难读Àisībùnándú, meaning "[We] love this [because it's] not difficult to read".
Given that a Chinese neologism can be a phono-semantic matching (i.e. in accordance with both the meaning and the sound of the foreign lexical item), an "innocent" transcription may be unwittingly interpreted as reflecting the meaning of the original. During theQing dynasty, some Chinese scholars were unhappy to find China was located on a continent called亞細亞/亚细亚Yàxìyà, i.e.Asia, as亞/亚 means "secondary" and細/细 "small", believing that the Europeans were deliberately belittling the East.[28] The ancient Japanese, or theWa people were upset by their name being represented by the character倭wō ("small, short, servile") by the Chinese, and replaced it with和hé ("peace, harmony").[29] Modern Africans have accused the Chinese of racism, as "Africa" is written as非洲Fēizhōu ("negative, wrong continent") in Chinese.[30] Whether these accusations were justified is controversial.
Cultural differences and personal preference about negative meaning is subjective. However, some translations are generally held to be inappropriate and are usually not used in today's transcriptions:
According toGhil'ad Zuckermann, phono-semantic matching in Chinese is common in four semantic domains: brand names, computerjargon, technological terms andtoponyms.[31]
Some transcriptions are meant to have, or happen to have, positive connotations:
Foreign companies are able to choose representations of their names which serve advertising purposes:
Mainland China, Singapore and Malaysia usesimplified characters in its transcriptions, while Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau typically usetraditional characters. In addition, transcriptions used in Chinese speaking regions sometimes differ from official transcriptions. For example "Hawaii" (哈瓦伊Hāwǎyī) is rendered as夏威夷Xiàwēiyí in most Chinese-language media[clarification needed] while New Zealand (新西兰Xīnxīlán) is transcribed by Taiwan media as紐西蘭Niǔxīlán.
In general, mainland China tends to preserve the pronunciation of names deriving from their language of origin while Taiwan often transcribes them according to the English pronunciation. For example, the Russian PresidentVladimir Putin is known as普京Pǔjīng in mainland sources after the nativeRussian pronunciation[ˈputʲɪn], whereas the name is rendered as普丁Pǔdīng in Taiwan. Meanwhile, Hong Kong and Macau transcribe names using Cantonese pronunciations, although this has become less common following their handovers.
Cantonese transcriptions are now frequently cribbed from the mainland, even if the transcription's local pronunciation does not match up with the original language.[34] For example, sources in Hong Kong and Macau follow the mainland transcription普京 forPutin, even though its Cantonese pronunciation beingPóugīng.
In 2016, a controversy arose in Hong Kong when protestors petitioned Nintendo to reverse its decision of converting the Hong Kong names of over 100Pokémon into the mainland Chinese equivalents of their names, including its most famous characterPikachu. In the first half of 2016, Nintendo announced that it would change Pikachu's name from its original Cantonese name,Béikāchīu比卡超, toPèihkāyāu in favor of fitting the Mandarin pronunciation,Píkǎqiū皮卡丘, in the most recent series of Pokémon games,Pokémon Sun and Moon,[35] in order to standardize marketing in theGreater China region.[36]
| Regional transcriptions into Chinese | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Mainland China, Singapore and Malaysia | Hong Kong and Macau | Taiwan | |
| Hitler | 希特勒 | 希特拉 | 希特勒 |
| Clinton | 克林顿 | 克林頓 | 柯林頓 |
| Bush | 布什 | 布殊 | 布希 |
| Obama | 奥巴马 | 奧巴馬 | 歐巴馬 |
| Sydney | 悉尼 | 悉尼 | 雪梨 |
| Donald Trump | 唐纳德·特朗普 | 當勞·特朗普 | 唐納·川普 |
Even though Malaysia had their official transliteration names for ministers and currency unit (Malaysian Ringgit), China did not accept those transliterations and proceed to use their own transliterations. For Malay names, transliterations usually uses their pronunciation to transliterate into Chinese characters instead of their appeared romanization (e.g. Xinhua's translation usually transliterate letter by letter instead of following their pronunciation).
The table below is the English-into-Chinese transcription table fromXinhua'sNames of the World's Peoples. This table uses theInternational Phonetic Alphabet for English vowels (rows) and consonants (columns).
| – | b | p | d | t | ɡ | k | v | w | f | z,dz | ts | s,ð,θ | ʒ | ʃ | dʒ | tʃ | h | m | n | l | r | j | ɡʷ | kʷ | hʷ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| – | 布 | 普 | 德 | 特 | 格 | 克 | 夫(弗) | 夫(弗) | 夫(弗) | 兹 | 茨 | 斯(丝) | 日 | 什 | 奇 | 奇 | 赫 | 姆 | 恩 | 尔 | 尔 | 伊 | 古 | 库 | 胡 | |
| ɑː,æ,ʌ | 阿 | 巴 | 帕 | 达 | 塔 | 加 | 卡 | 瓦(娃) | 瓦(娃) | 法(娃) | 扎 | 察 | 萨(莎) | 扎 | 沙(莎) | 贾 | 查 | 哈 | 马(玛) | 纳(娜) | 拉 | 拉 | 亚(娅) | 瓜 | 夸 | 华 |
| ɛ,eɪ | 埃 | 贝 | 佩 | 德 | 特/泰 | 盖 | 凯 | 韦 | 韦 | 费 | 泽 | 策 | 塞 | 热 | 谢 | 杰 | 切 | 赫/黑 | 梅 | 内 | 莱 | 雷(蕾) | 耶 | 圭 | 奎 | 惠 |
| ɜ,ə | 厄 | 伯 | 珀 | 德 | 特 | 格 | 克 | 弗 | 沃 | 弗 | 泽 | 策 | 瑟 | 热 | 舍 | 哲 | 彻 | 赫 | 默 | 纳(娜) | 勒 | 勒 | 耶 | 果 | 阔 | 霍 |
| iː,ɪ | 伊 | 比 | 皮 | 迪 | 蒂 | 吉 | 基 | 维 | 威 | 菲 | 齐 | 齐 | 西 | 日 | 希 | 吉 | 奇 | 希 | 米 | 尼(妮) | 利(莉) | 里(丽) | 伊 | 圭 | 奎 | 惠 |
| ɒ,ɔː,oʊ | 奥 | 博 | 波 | 多 | 托 | 戈 | 科 | 沃 | 沃 | 福 | 佐 | 措 | 索 | 若 | 肖 | 乔 | 乔 | 霍 | 莫 | 诺 | 洛 | 罗(萝) | 约 | 果 | 阔 | 霍 |
| uː,ʊ | 乌 | 布 | 普 | 杜 | 图 | 古 | 库 | 武 | 伍 | 富 | 祖 | 楚 | 苏 | 茹 | 舒 | 朱 | 楚 | 胡 | 穆 | 努 | 卢 | 鲁 | 尤 | 库 | ||
| juː,jʊ | 尤 | 比尤 | 皮尤 | 迪尤 | 蒂尤 | 久 | 丘 | 维尤 | 威尤 | 菲尤 | 久 | 丘 | 休 | 休 | 久 | 丘 | 休 | 缪 | 纽 | 柳 | 留 | |||||
| aɪ | 艾 | 拜 | 派 | 代(黛) | 泰 | 盖 | 凯 | 韦 | 怀 | 法 | 宰 | 蔡 | 赛 | 夏 | 贾 | 柴 | 海 | 迈 | 奈 | 莱 | 赖 | 耶 | 瓜伊 | 夸 | 怀 | |
| aʊ | 奥 | 鲍 | 保 | 道 | 陶 | 高 | 考 | 沃 | 沃 | 福 | 藻 | 曹 | 绍 | 绍 | 焦 | 乔 | 豪 | 毛 | 瑙 | 劳 | 劳 | 尧 | 阔 | |||
| æn,ʌn,æŋ | 安 | 班 | 潘 | 丹 | 坦 | 甘 | 坎 | 万 | 万 | 凡 | 赞 | 灿 | 桑 | 尚 | 詹 | 钱 | 汉 | 曼 | 南 | 兰 | 兰 | 扬 | 关 | 宽 | 环 | |
| ɑn,aʊn,ʌŋ,ɔn,ɒn,ɒŋ | 昂 | 邦 | 庞 | 当 | 唐 | 冈 | 康 | 旺 | 旺 | 方 | 藏 | 仓 | 桑 | 让 | 尚 | 章 | 昌 | 杭 | 芒 | 南 | 朗 | 朗 | 扬 | 光 | 匡 | 黄 |
| ɛn,ɛŋ,ɜn,ən,əŋ | 恩 | 本 | 彭 | 登 | 滕 | 根 | 肯 | 文 | 文 | 芬 | 曾 | 岑 | 森 | 任 | 申 | 真 | 琴 | 亨 | 门 | 嫩 | 伦 | 伦 | 延 | 古恩 | 昆 | |
| ɪn,in,ɪən,jən | 因 | 宾 | 平 | 丁 | 廷 | 金 | 金 | 温 | 温 | 芬 | 津 | 欣 | 辛 | 欣 | 金 | 钦 | 欣 | 明 | 宁 | 林(琳) | 林(琳) | 因 | 古因 | 昆 | ||
| ɪŋ | 英 | 宾 | 平 | 丁 | 廷 | 京 | 金 | 温 | 温 | 芬 | 京 | 青 | 辛 | 兴 | 京 | 青 | 兴 | 明 | 宁 | 林(琳) | 林(琳) | 英 | 古英 | |||
| un,ʊn,oʊn | 温 | 本 | 蓬 | 敦 | 通 | 贡 | 昆 | 文 | 文 | 丰 | 尊 | 聪 | 孙 | 顺 | 准 | 春 | 洪 | 蒙 | 农 | 伦 | 伦 | 云 | ||||
| ʊŋ | 翁 | 邦 | 蓬 | 东 | 通 | 贡 | 孔 | 翁 | 翁 | 丰 | 宗 | 聪 | 松 | 容 | 雄 | 琼 | 琼 | 洪 | 蒙 | 农 | 隆 | 龙 | 永 | 洪 |
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The characters now employed in standardized transcription tend to have abstract or obscure meanings and have fallen out of use, so that their phonetic use is apparent. Therefore, in many cases, the Chinese names non-Chinese people adopt for themselves are not those that are phonetically equivalent but are instead "adapted" from or "inspired" by (i.e., translations of) the original. See, for instance, theChinese names of the Hong Kong governors.
Some place names are translated instead of using transcription. For example,Salt Lake City is referred as 鹽湖城 in Chinese, which is a direct translation.
Very rarely, characters are specially made for the transcribed terms. This was formerly more common: by adding the appropriate semanticradical, existing characters could be used to give a sense of the sound of the new word.江, for instance, was formed out of氵 (the water radical) +工, which at the time had the sound valuekhong,[5] to approximate theYue name*Krong. Similarly, the addition of艹 (the grass radical) produced茉莉mòlì to translate theSanskrit name forjasmine (malli) and衣 (clothes) was added to other characters to permit袈裟jiāshā, the Chinese version of Sanskritkasaya. Another such example is乒乓pīngpāng, the Chinese word forping pong, in which both characters are formed by removing a stroke from the similar sounding character兵bīng, and at the same time, the two characters look like a net and a paddle. The most general radical for transcription is the mouth radical, which is used to transcribe not only certain foreign terms (such as咖啡kāfēi, "coffee"), but also terms for which no Chinese characters exist in non-Mandarinvarieties of Chinese (such asin Cantonese). Suchphono-semantic compounds make up the majority of Chinese characters, but new ones coined to communicate foreign words only infrequently reach common use today. Notable exceptions are theChinese characters for chemical elements, which mostly consist of combining pre-existing characters with the appropriate radicals, such as气 for gases.
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This article incorporates text fromThe Chinese recorder and missionary journal, Volume 3, a publication from 1871, now in thepublic domain in the United States.
