Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!udel!gatech!news.mathworks.com!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uchinews!kimbark!deb5
From: deb5@kimbark.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Acquisition of phonemes thfough foreign influences
X-Nntp-Posting-Host: midway.uchicago.edu
Message-ID: <DFMFs4.CM2@midway.uchicago.edu>
Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (News Administrator)
Reply-To: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: The University of Chicago
References: <43q7i7$93b@ixnews2.ix.netcom.com> <43rjad$79f@spool.cs.wisc.edu> <43shrv$med@clarknet.clark.net> <43sqig$ill@decaxp.harvard.edu>
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 15:16:51 GMT
Lines: 39

In article <43sqig$ill@decaxp.harvard.edu>,
Kevin Tsai  <stsai@husc.harvard.edu> wrote:
>
>What I'm wondering is whether or not you should pronounce, say,
>"Chang" (the last name) as most English speakers would pronounce it,
>or as Chinese Mandarin speakers would pronounce the last name. On one
>hand, Mr. Deng Xiaoping may fail to understand whom they're talking
>about when the English announcers use the anglicized pronounciation.
>On the other, if the announcers pronounce Mr. Deng's name as in
>Chinese, the English-speaking audience may think that China just
>acquired a new dictator. A friend of a friend named Wang used to be
>"Wang" before he decided to pronounce it "Wong." Or my last name under
>pinyin romanization is "Cai," which tends to be pronounced "ky." And
>may people have serious trouble with "ts" in the WG spelling of the
>same name, "Tsai." "What? 'Tie'? OK, I remember now. Just like the tie
>I'm wearing." So what is one to do?

	As far as pronunciation goes:  know your audience.  If you
think they have some knowledge of correct Chinese pronunciation, go for
it, otherwise warp it before they have a chance to.  (I have the same
problem with *all* foreign names; if I say ['ha:mbURX] for Hamburg and
['by:Xna] for "B"uchner", even my friends with some knowledge of German
often stare at me for several seconds before they succeed in parsing
these).

	As far as romanisation, you might want to follow the examples
of the Cantonese, who had no linguists to guide them when they romanised
their surnames.  "Choy" is still miles from "Cai", but it's a lot closer
than [tai], [sai], [tei], etc.  Just be careful not to imitate those 
Koreans who transliterate their names without knowing the connotations of
certain English words and end up with combinations like Dick-on and Yick-Ew
[surnames left off to protect the innocent].



-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
