Re: USAGE: The name "Chiang Kai-shek"

Douglas Koller, Latin & French scripsit:

> Wu dialects are
> known for converting syllable-final consonants to glottal stops,
Not only that, but they don't have diphthongs.  I think Wu can be ruled out.

> I would've thought Cantonese would get
> you close on the "gaaisek" part, but "jiang" becomes, I believe,
> "jeung".
Cantonese doesn't have on-glides in any of its finals, so it too is out.

> Taiwanese (Minnan) is the most likely candidate since
> "jiang" remains "jiang", and "jie" is "gai". "Stone" in baihua
> Taiwanese is "jio", but I think the wenyanwen reading is along the
> lines of "si(e)k", so I'll need to check the dictionary over the
> weekend.
The trouble with Minnan, or at least Amoy Minnan, is that there are
no shibilants:  the "shek" would have to be "tsek".  It's hard to believe
that anyone would write "sh" for "ts".

> I trolled the web during some free peiods this morning and found bo
> diddly
Me too.

--
XQuery Blueberry DOM                            John Cowan
Entity parser dot-com                           jcowan@reutershealth.com
    Abstract schemata                           http://www.reutershealth.com
    XPointer errata                             http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
Infoset Unicode BOM                                 --Richard Tobin

Reply