----- Original Message -----

From: Dennis Poulter

To: phoNet@egroups.com

Sent: Friday, May 19, 2000 11:17 AM

Subject: Re: [phoNet] Digest Number 22 - Crack Cow

Dennis wrote:

 

Just for your info, neither the name nor the pronunciation of  Beijing has changed. All that has changed is the transliteration system used. The old system (Wade-something-or-other) rendered it as Peking, which led to it being pronounced like "peeking".

 

But I mean English, not Chinese. In English, Peking is pronounced "pee-king" and Beijing is pronounced "bay-jing". The Pinyin spelling of Chinese is regarded as more or less obligatory by Sinologists (being also the UN and ISO standard), but what's that to do with the traditional Anglicised rendering of Chinese placenames? It's just like using Moskva for Moscow. BTW, Peking is NOT a Wade-Giles spelling (which would be Pei-ching)!

 

Piotr