| Transliteration Into Chinese Characters |
Article Index for Transliteration |
Website Links For Into |
Information AboutTransliteration Into Chinese Characters |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT TRANSLITERATION INTO CHINESE CHARACTERS | |
| chinese language | |
| transliteration | |
|
The Transliteration of non-Chinese words into ''' Chinese Characters ''' is an intriguing phenomenon. Consider the following facts:
Some people regard as desirable a transliteration that reflects the meaning as well as the sound of the transliterated. For example, the common ending ''-ва'' in a is transliterated by some as 龐大固埃 (simp. 庞大固埃; pinyin:pángdàgù'āi), as 龐大 means "gigantic" and 固 "solid". Fidelity to the sound of the original can often be sacrificed in a non-technical context. In transliterating the names of people, companies, shops and brands, phonetic fidelity is not the overriding factor: anything goes, as long as the Chinese name is memorable, dignified or auspicious. In fact in some cases the naming process can hardly be termed "transliteration" at all. A common example is the Chinese names non-Chinese people adopt for themselves, which are not truly transliterated, but rather "adapted" from or "inspired" by the original. (See, for instance, the Chinese names of the Hong Kong governors at .) Given that a word may be transliterated in accordance with meaning as well as sound, an "innocent" transliteration may be unwittingly interpreted as reflecting the meaning of the original. During the , as 亞 means "secondary" and 細 "small", believing that the Europeans were deliberately belittling the East by such a naming. HISTORY Transliteration appeared early in ancient Chinese texts as China interacted with foreign peoples, such as the Xiongnu , with whom China fought wars. The classics of Buddhism began to be translated into Chinese during the late Han Dynasty . Many of the Sanskrit terms were then transliterated and became part of the Chinese language. Indeed, the famous monk and translator Xuanzang suggested that Sanskrit terms should be transliterated instead of being translated when they are:
During the late 19th century, when Western ideas and products flooded into China, transliterations mushroomed. Most of them proved fads, though. In Japanese , foreign termns are usually transliterated into Katakana . Some terms are rendered into Kanji , though, a famous example being 俱楽部 ( Club , ''lit.'' "together happy department"). OFFICIAL GUIDE The current official guide for the transliteration of people's names is the ''Names of the world's peoples: a comprehensive dictionary of names in Roman-Chinese'' (《世界人名翻譯大辭典》), compiled by the Proper Names and Translation Service, the Xinhua News Agency . Most of the characters used in official transliterations are more or less "natural". There are grounds for argument, of course, for example, the sound {Link without Title} is officially transliterated as 奴 ( Slave ). The official transliterations are, of course, based on Mandarin . These renditions can sound not close to, even far away from, the original when they are said by people speaking Chinese dialects other than the Beijing one. SAMPLES Unfriendly or grotesque transliterations
Transliterations with positive semantic connotations
Transliterations involving political or religious correctness
NOTES |
|
|