Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!news.mathworks.com!uhog.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!boyle
From: boyle@netcom.com (Joseph Boyle)
Subject: Re: Anglicizing non-English Name?
Message-ID: <boyleD5q0v5.4AL@netcom.com>
Organization: Boyle, Boyle, toil and trouble
References: <troyer-130395113125@tcrmac.mitre.org> <3k20me$fng@panix2.panix.com> <3k26h5$a31@agate.berkeley.edu> <3k27qf$p02@panix2.panix.com> <3k56l4$s5k@news.halcyon.com>
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 1995 04:09:05 GMT
Lines: 13
Sender: boyle@netcom2.netcom.com

Bruce McMenomy <mcmenomy@halcyon.com> writes:

>  I think it is worth pointing out that the way place-names enter the
>language of another country tends to be extremely idiosyncratic, and
>depends on just how a critical number of people first heard of 
>some place or other.  Then there are partial reforms that come
>through and change things (note the change in the last thirty years
>from Peking to Beijing, etc.)  I think any attempt to discover a

Most American newscasters seem to pronounce the Chinese capital's name 
"Bay Zhing", using a French j when the Chinese j is actually much like 
the English j! How did this come about? Was it one person's mistake which 
caught on? 
