The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1946-01-13
Interpreting
The News
BY JAMES D. WHITE
Associated Press Staff VIII.

Associated Press Staff v,u.
SAN FRANCISCO. Jan. a..
Are Chinese names hard :. ~
nounce? " p'a
No. They just look hard h..
OF the way We try to spell t "a.
in English. eN Aen
Why, then, don't the Chimes.
a sy t e m of spelling wb us
wouldn't look so confusinng, winch
question is getting warm. '@'
Warm, because eve ~ finn. 49,.
Smith pronounces CHAM ~ su
shek's family name I'd rhvn. IA, Nal
"clang'' he is making the ,s WIN
mistake a Chinese would n,. Sai'le
he called Bill 'Beel ,smeet,S sAs
Warm, because this week .~,
nese general named Chsng c si'
unwittingly caused editorial .o.
fusion in this country when so rU,'
one almost identified him y.
Changchun, the capital Of M.
churia. '@
Different Meanings
Chang Chun ant Cbanoc,r-
have vastly different meanins a
and are pronounced Jahns.I1"s,
and Chahng-Choon, respectivelv 'D
The trouble is, we are tryins :,
spell out-in the En- lish alphsbs.
words from a language which
wasn't designed to he spelled AN.
in any alphabet. TIE troubl. !.
three-fold:
/. Many different Chinese di,,
lects, which mean tlat there ar.
many ways Of saying a man,
name (such as Chang Kai.sheN
in various parts OF China.
2. The Chinese language use,
some sounds Frequently which
English doesn't use very often,
and has a few SCUM is of its own
which English doesn't have.
3. The system of spelling 10,
trying to spelD Chinese word In
English letter.
This system was devised lonr
ago by an Englishmin named Sir
Thomas Wade. He VI as not anti.
Chinese or trying to make thing,
difficult. He actually was trying 10
bring order out of the chaos Of
many different systtms then in
use. He came up witt a phonetic,
system all his own.
Here are some of the main way,
it differs from the English alpha.
bet which may help YOU to over.
come such hurdles in the news as
Chou en-lai'' and thihchiachu.
ang."
A sounds like al. Wang (rnean.
ing king) is pronounced wahng.
E sounds like uh. Fen (cent) /,
pronounced fun.
I sounds like ee. Il (plum, /.
pronounced lee.
o sounds like GA, Wo q. ms)
Is pronounced woa.
U sounds like 90. WI (.ive) Is
pronounced WOO.
Gu sounds like o. chou "a sur.
nance is pronounced 10.
Ow is the same as ,u.
III sounds like hr. Siih (scholar)
is pronounced shirh.
Sir Thomas thus lie, the vowel,
ride much as he found them in
Italian, but when he got to the
consonants he let himself 90. He
threw out bodily the etters e, d,
b and j as too hard FIR refined
language like Chinese and substi.
tuted k, t, p and CHI, respectively.
Thus, kan in Chinse is pro.
nounced gain; ii i, pronounced
Gee; pu Is pronounced boo; and
Chi (believe 1t or loD is pro.
nounced ice.
This overworked tn. letters k,
t, p and oh (they hat their own
job to dog so here Sir Thoma.
employed the apostrorhe. It was
to have been a key j,b, but the
apostrophe has been lafing ever
since. Anyway, in Chin,se, kan is
pronounced kahn; ii is pro.
nounced tee; p'u is pronounced
poo; and chi is pronounced chez.
That's confusing, ane the con.
fusion is compounded y typeset
ters, map-makers and tie Chimes.
themselves, who all forget at
times to put in that aroostrophe
How do you know whel they for
get it? You don't, bub, Unless you
know something about the Chinese
language and even then you walk
n darkness. Chungking for in
stance, ought to be spelled Chung.
Ching.
mats in the standard language,
When you stay away
rom that you find entirly differ
mt sets Of phonetics in power.
Jet from the grocery some small