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

John xie wo xie:

>  > Now I lied and
>>  did not check the font-of-all-wisdom dictionary this weekend, but
>>  "sik", "sek", "siek", or "xik" (again, pinyin x) seem viable options.
>
>Okay, please do consult the FOAW when you get a chance.
The FOAW and other sources give "jioh8" as the most common baihua
reading for "stone", with "xia7" plunking in only in the word for
"pomegranate" (perhaps HS, the native, can verify). But, yes, in the
"God, I'm good" department, "sik8" is the literary reading, which, I
suppose, could be rendered "shek" in someone's weird romanization.
Cantonese offered "sek6" and Hakka (romanized in a French way) gave
us "chac" (which you and I might render as "shak"). As mentioned
before, "gai" works across those dialects for "jie", but "jiang" in
Minnan is "jiong", so now I'm totally dumb-founded. Perhaps CKS had a
warped sense of romanization humor (along the lines of "Hi, my name's
Anvil Chung."). This is as far as I can take it.

Kou

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