Talk:Go (game)/Archive 1

message: Talking about intelligent property, I am sick to death coming across English vocabularies that borrowed from the so-called "Japanese terms" which are Chinese originated. 
Why Chinese isn’t getting the credit? This is disturbing. 
Go is from “Wei-Qi”.
Bonsai is from “Pen-Zai”.  
Zen is from “Ch’an”.
Gyoza is from “Jiao-Zi”.
Tofu is a direct copycat from the Chinese “Dou-Fu”. 
Kanji literally means Han Chinese characters. Culturally deprived Westerners are too lazy to know that.    
Only to name a few…
It’s true that in general the Japanese had developed some of the Chinese cultures it “borrowed” in the past 2 thousand years into a minimal degree of variation or uniqueness, yet I really think it is time the authorities of the English linguistic professionals start doing the decent thing by going back to the roots to honor the origins, when choosing a new English vocabulary from foreign cultures to describe a general cultural item.
For instance, in the case of this particular Chinese board game, use the original Chinese term “Wei-Qi” instead. 
Another example is Tofu. The Spanish have their own version of pizza, but in all English dictionaries it is still called P-I-Z-Z-A – which is an Italian word! Pizza is of course Italian. Therefore Dou-Fu should be the one included in the English language.
:I understand the point being made; and in fact have written a conference paper on the translation of go terms. However it would be against Wikipedia policy to make changes from the technical terms that are in everyday use in English. Charles Matthews 21:05, 13 Jun 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: To the anonymous complainer: Unfortunately no languages is politically correct in the sense you as asking, and cannot be.  For instance "pizza" seems related to the Greek "pita", I won't be surprised if it came from that; so everybody who call it "pizza" may well end up in hell for having denied the Greek their due credit.  Think of the many Chinese words for imported concepts -- would you be willing to convince the Chinese to say "electricity" instead of "dian4"? (BTW, just curious - what is the Chinese word for "pizza"?)All the best, Jorge Stolfi 04:56, 16 Jun 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: Woah, settle down whatever your name is (please sign your posts using 4 tildes (~), ok?).  I know all about pen-zai (also called pen-jing if I'm not mistaken) and bonzai, etc.  My point, if you had troubled to try to grasp it, was that the English words we use to refer to these things come from the Japanese words, not the Chinese words.  Thus, it's perfectly acceptable and correct to say "bonsai, from the Japanese word 盆栽 (bonsai), meaning ...".  And you can drop the attitude.  Exploding Boy 13:01, Jun 20, 2004 (UTC)
Guys - we can use Wikipedia to combat ignorance, and stay within the usual terminology. The Nihon Ki-in has been working for 50 years to spread go in the West; it's no surprise that some Japanese terms are used (and that some of us feel some basic respect towards our teachers). Those who have studied go more deeply understand more about the complete history.  Charles Matthews 16:11, 20 Jun 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Please reward credit accordingly.