Re: Chinese Dialect Question

JR wrote:
> on 9/30/03 5:20 PM, JS Bangs at jaspax@U.WASHINGTON.EDU wrote:
>
>
>>In the department I work at, we just got a new grad student from China
>>named "Quan Zhou". We naturally pronounced the first part of that as
>>/kwan/, more or less, until he arrived and said something more like
>>/tSwEn/. This is such a bizarre difference that I had to make a theory
>>about why. Either (1) "Quan" is just a truly awful Romanization, or (2)
>>"Quan" is a pretty decent Romanization for Mandarin, but /tSwEn/ is
>>speaking and pronouncing his name in a different dialect. Can the
>>Sinologists on the list confirm or deny either hypothesis?
>
>
> I'm not a sinologist, and I've even forgotten most of my Chinese, but I do
> know my pinyin (standard romanization for Mandarin) - Quan is the correct
> way to write the name. The 'q' is an alveo-palatal affricate /ts\/, and
> after one of those 'uan' is pronounced something like /yEn/ or maybe /HEn/.
>
> Hmm ... did I just use an ethical possessive up there?
Where? I don't think "my Chinese" or "my pinyin" counts...they're
referring to your own skills.

Reply