Transliteration into Chinese characters

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While it is not uncommon to see foreign names left as they are in their original forms (for example, in Latin alphabet) in a Chinese text, it is a common practice to transliterate foreign proper nouns into Chinese characters.

When considering the transliteration of non-Chinese words into Chinese characters, one has to know the following facts:

Chinese is written with monosyllabic logograms. Therefore, a word of three syllables is transliterated into three Chinese characters, i.e., three meaningful verbal units.
Homophones abound in Chinese, when tones are disregarded. Therefore, there are plenty of characters to choose from when transliterating a word. In other words, one can manipulate the transliteration to suit one's purpose.

A transliteration into Chinese characters is sometimes intended to reflect the meaning as well as the sound of the transliterated word. For example, the common ending -ва in a Russian female name is usually transliterated as 娃 (pinyin:wā; "baby", "girl"), and the -в in a male name as 夫 (pinyin:fū; "man"); Utopia is famously transliterated by Yan Fu as 烏托邦 (Simplified Chinese: 乌托邦; pinyin: wūtuōbāng; "[a] fabricated country"); the name of the good Pantagruel is transliterated as 龐大固埃 (Simplified Chinese: 庞大固埃; pinyin: pángdàgù'āi), as 龐大 means "gigantic" and 固 "solid"; and the Beatles is known in China as 披頭四 (Simplified Chinese: 披头四; pinyin: pītóusì), literally "mop-head four" - the first two characters probably come from the four-character idiom 披頭散髮 (Simplified Chinese: 披头散发; pinyin: pītóu sànfǎ), to describe the long and "moptop" style of the members of the band.

Fidelity to the sound of the original is often sacrificed in a non-technical context. In transliterating the names of people, companies, shops and brands, phonetic fidelity is not the overriding factor: anything goes, as long as the Chinese name is memorable, dignified or auspicious. In some cases the naming process can hardly be termed "transliteration". A common example is the Chinese names non-Chinese people adopt for themselves, which are not truly transliterated, but rather "adapted" from or "inspired" by the original. (See, for instance, the Chinese names of the Hong Kong governors at zh:香港总督.)

Given that a word may be transliterated in accordance with meaning as well as sound, an "innocent" transliteration may be unwittingly interpreted as reflecting the meaning of the original. During the Qing Dynasty, some Chinese scholars were unhappy to find that China was located on a continent called 亞細亞 (Simplified Chinese: 亚细亚; pinyin: yàxìyà), i.e. Asia, as 亞 means "secondary" and 細 "small", believing that the Europeans were deliberately belittling the East by such a naming. <ref>For more examples of this kind, see Qian Zhongshu, Guan Zhui Pian (《管錐編》), vol.4, pp. 1458-1462.</ref>

[edit] History

Transliteration appeared early in ancient Chinese texts as China interacted with foreign peoples, such as the Xiongnu, with whom China fought wars.

The classics of Buddhism began to be translated into Chinese during the late Han Dynasty. Many of the Sanskrit terms were then transliterated and became part of the Chinese language. Indeed, the famous monk and translator Xuanzang suggested that Sanskrit terms should be transliterated instead of being translated when they are:

arcane, such as incantations
polysemous
not found in China
traditionally transliterated, not translated
lofty and subtle, which a translation might devalue and obscure

These ancient transliteration into Chinese characters provide clues to the reconstruction of Middle Chinese. This kind of information is called duiyin (對音/对音 lit. "corresponding sounds") in historical Chinese phonology.

During the late 19th century, when Western ideas and products flooded into China, transliterations mushroomed. They include not only transliterations of proper nouns, but also those of common nouns, i.e. phonemic loans.<ref>C.f. Federico Masini, The Formation of Modern Chinese Lexicon and its Evolution Toward a National Language: The Period from 1840 to 1898, Berkeley: Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series No. 6, 1993, Chp. 2.2.2</ref> Most of them proved fads, though. After that period of time, people tend to favor loan translations. A survivor is 幽默 (yōumò), from English "humor". 幽默, however, means "silent" in classical Chinese.

In Japanese, foreign terms are usually transliterated into katakana. Some terms are rendered into kanji, though, a famous example being 俱楽部 (club, lit. "together happy department"). These were literally adopted into Chinese in the late 19th and early 20th century, although the resulting pronunciation was often different from the original. 俱楽部, for example, is pronounced jùlèbù in Mandarin. For more about the use of Chinese characters to represent Japanese native words and foreign words, see ateji.

[edit] Official Guide

In People's Republic of China, the current official guide for the transliteration of people's names is the Names of the world's peoples: a comprehensive dictionary of names in Roman-Chinese (《世界人名翻译大辞典》), compiled by the Proper Names and Translation Service, the Xinhua News Agency. Most of the characters used in official transliterations are more or less "neutral".

The official transliterations are based on Mandarin. These renditions can sound not close to, even far away from, the original when they are said by people speaking Chinese dialects other than the Beijing one. Cantonese media use a different (and loose) transliteration system based on Cantonese.

In Singapore, the Translation Standardisation Committee for the Chinese Media is responsible for the transliteration standard.

[edit] Samples

Owing to cultural difference and personal preference, whether a Chinese character has a negative meaning, thus is inappropiate to be used for transliteration, is often subjective. The following phrases contain characters usually not used in today’s transliterations:

India was called 身毒 (shēn dú) in ancient China, transliterated from Sindhu, 毒 meaning "poison" or "poisonous" (note that 毒 can mean "to breed" in Old Chinese, however).
Mozambique as 莫三鼻給 (莫三鼻给, mò sān bí gěi), with 鼻 meaning "nose" and 三鼻 "three noses". Today the country is more often transliterated as 莫桑比克 (mò sāng bǐ kè).
Aberdeen, a common name for places and people, as 鴨巴甸 (yā bā diàn), with 鴨 (鸭) meaning duck. A place in Hong Kong having the same name, Aberdeen Harbour, was originally called 香港仔 (xiāng gǎng zǐ), meaning "Hong Kong minor". It is now the official name of that place, but 鴨巴甸 is still used in a colloquial way.
A street in Macau is called Avenida do Conselheiro Ferreira de Almeida, named after the official Ferreira de Almeida. Ferreira was transliterated as 肥利喇 (féi lì lǎ), as shown on the name of the street, with 肥 meaning "fat (adj.)".

The following transliterations are meant to, or happen to, have positive connotations:

America is abbreviated as 美國 (美国, měi gúo) from 亞美利堅合眾國, meaning "beautiful country"
Athens as 雅典, literally "elegant" and "classical"
Champs-Élysées as 香榭麗舍 (香榭丽舍), meaning "fragrant pavilion (and) beautiful house"
Coca-cola as 可口可樂 (可口可乐), 可口 meaning "delicious" and 可樂 "pleasing, satisfactory"
Firenze as 翡冷翠 (by the poet Xu Zhimo), 翡翠 meaning "jadeite" and 冷 "cold". Note that today the city is usually transliterated as 佛羅倫斯 (佛罗伦萨), a transliteration based on the English Florence, not the original Italian.
Fontainebleau as 楓丹白露 (枫丹白露), meaning "red maple (and) white dew"
Ithaca as 綺色佳, literally "gorgeous color wonderful"
Revlon as 露華濃, literally as "revealing bright spring dew", excerpted from Li Bai's A Song of Pure Happiness (清平調)
World-wide-web as 万维网，meaning "ten-thousand dimensional net (or web)"; here the character for "10 thousand" is not used in the literal sense. It is used figuratively indicating a large number; much like how Americans say "a million years."
Yosemite as 優勝美地, meaning "elegant mountain (and) beautiful land"