Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T06:25:24.785Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The T/Daos shall meet: The failure and success of English transliterations of Mandarin Chinese

English transliterations of Mandarin are often inconsistent, but is there even such a thing as a single Mandarin language?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2018

Sophie Zhou
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

When a Canadian exchange student returns home from a semester abroad in the capital city of China, she might tell her friends that she had Peking duck every day, but she would never, as a 21st-century liberal arts student, say that she stayed in Peking for a semester. Rather, she would say Beijing, as would most English speakers in the present day. But such discrepancies between English transliterations of Chinese words are far from uncommon. Is it the Nanking Massacre or the Nanjing Massacre? Who is the author of Tao Te Ching: Lao-Tzu or Laozi? What, then, is the Daodejing? This paper will focus on the English representation of Mandarin Chinese phonology, particularly the consonant sounds. The inconsistency of English transliteration of Mandarin is caused by historical exchanges and encounters between the British and the Chinese and a lack of a monolithic standardization of Mandarin. Paradoxically, while these transliterations attempt to unify and standardize themselves and the representation of Mandarin sounds, they simultaneously represent the concept of a diverse Mandarin.

Type
Research Article
Information
English Today , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , March 2019 , pp. 36 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Addiss, S. & Lombardo, S. (trans). 1993. Tao Te Ching. Boston: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.Google Scholar
Bahm, A. J. 1958. ‘About the author and his work.’ In Lao Tzu, Tao Teh King. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Chappell, H. 1980. ‘The romanization debate.’ The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, 4, 105–118.Google Scholar
Chen, P. 1999. Modern Chinese: Its History and Sociolinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dartmouth.edu. 2003a. ‘Map 3: Mandarin and Southern Chinese split.’ Online at <http://www.dartmouth.edu/~chinese/maps/map3.html> (Accessed November 15, 2015).+(Accessed+November+15,+2015).>Google Scholar
Dartmouth.edu. 2003b. ‘Map 4: Dialects of Mandarin and Southern Chinese.’ Online at <http://www.dartmouth.edu/~chinese/maps/map4.html> (Accessed November 15, 2015).+(Accessed+November+15,+2015).>Google Scholar
En.oxforddictionaries.com. n.d. ‘chi.’ Online at <https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/chi> (Accessed November 14, 2015).+(Accessed+November+14,+2015).>Google Scholar
En.oxforddictionaries.com. n.d. ‘tao.’ Online at <https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/tao> (Accessed November 14, 2015).+(Accessed+November+14,+2015).>Google Scholar
Gu, Y. 2006. ‘Chinese.’ In Brown, K. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics, 2nd edn. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 343–350.Google Scholar
Kaske, E. 2008. The Politics of Language in Chinese Education, 1895–1919. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Mair, V. H. 1991. ‘What Is a Chinese “dialect/topolect”? Reflections on some key Sino-English linguistic terms.’ Sino-Platonic Papers, 29, 1–31.Google Scholar
Merriam-Webster.com. 2015. ‘chi, n.’ Online at <https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/qi> (Accessed November 14, 2015).+(Accessed+November+14,+2015).>Google Scholar
Mundy, W. W. 1875. Canton and the Bogue: The Narrative of an Eventful Six Months in China. London: Samuel Tinsley.Google Scholar
Oxford English Dictionary. 2015. ‘qi, n.’ Online at <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/155609?rskey=TSbc1E&result=2&isAdvanced=false#eid> (Accessed November 14, 2015).+(Accessed+November+14,+2015).>Google Scholar
Oed.com. ‘tao, n.’ Online at <http://www.oed.com./view/Entry/197633?redirectedFrom=tao#eid> (Accessed November 14, 2015).+(Accessed+November+14,+2015).>Google Scholar
Tao, H. & Cole, C. 1991. ‘Wade-Giles or Pinyin: Practical issues in the transliteration of Chinese titles and proper names.’ Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 12(2), 105–124.Google Scholar
Wiedenhof, J. 2004. ‘Purpose and effect in the transcription of Mandarin.’ In Lee, J. (ed.), Proceedings of the International Conference on Chinese Studies. Touliu: National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, pp. 387–402.Google Scholar
Zhou, M. 2002. ‘The spread of Putonghua and language attitude changes in Shanghai and Guangzhou, China.’ Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, 11(2), 231–253.Google Scholar