Altair Posted April 17, 2004 at 02:31 AM Report Share Posted April 17, 2004 at 02:31 AM In Cantonese speaking areas (or dialects in similar situations), are foreign names transliterated nowadays into Chinese characters according to Mandarin phonetics or local phonetics? Do educated Cantonese read and memorize such names as if they were written Cantonese, or Mandarin? I have a separate, but related question. Are Chinese names routinely “translated” into whatever dialect one is conversing in, or is an attempt made to retain the pronunciation of the original? In other words, when Yeung4 sin1sang1 is addressed in Mandarin, is he automatically called “Yang2 xian1sheng5”? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wix Posted April 17, 2004 at 08:01 AM Report Share Posted April 17, 2004 at 08:01 AM I know that in Taiwan it is considered acceptable to use Mandarin pronunciations of place names (when speaking Taiwanese). In fact many young people would be unfamiliar with the Taiwanese pronunciation of some place names. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lu Posted April 17, 2004 at 03:21 PM Report Share Posted April 17, 2004 at 03:21 PM Most Mandarin speakers don't know the pronounciation of someone's name in his/her own dialect, so they use the putonghua pronounciation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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