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hikerjer 
Group: Members
Posts: 9129
Joined: Apr. 2002
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Posted on: Nov. 15 2012, 12:55 am |
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I don't know if this shold be on the PA or elsewhere, but I'd thought I'd give it a shot here.
Can anyone tell me how to pronouce, Xi Jinping, the new leader of China. I'm sure it's not pronounced anything like it looks like. I thought I should at least be able to correctly say the name of the world's most populous nation's leader.
Thanks.
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"Too often I have met men who speak only of how many miles they've traveled and not of what they've seen." - Louis L'Amour
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| Post Number: 2
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hbfa
Group: Members
Posts: 7073
Joined: Feb. 2002
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Posted on: Nov. 15 2012, 1:20 am |
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Pronounced: Eleven Jumping
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Gabby
Group: Members
Posts: 5492
Joined: Jun. 2006
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Posted on: Nov. 15 2012, 3:01 am |
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Well, at one time (and I must emphasize that) I spoke a bit of Chinese. But no longer - the remnants of the language sometimes haunt my dreams, and I "hear" a few words when watching the subtitled versions of some movies, like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" - but most of it is gone.
On top of that, I learned very few characters long, long ago, and the romanization system used in the 60s (to represent the sound of the language in something you and I can read - assuming we don't read Chinese symbols, called "hanzi") was different. Some time ago, the Chinese adopted the Pinyin romanization system, which is what you used in your post.
So, being effectively ignorant of the language now, I simply Googled:
"pronounce Xi Jinping"
 and found that the pronunciation is:
SHEE chin-PING (without tones), and the "ch" is not really "ch", but a sound between "ch" and "j"
The difficulties in transcription of the sounds is why there are so many romanization systems. Each uses a different system in an attempt to approximate the sound that is being made in a more-or-less similar sounding construction in the English language.
Read the article here (at East Asia Student):
Pronunciation of Xi Jinping / 习近平
The codec for those characters after the slash live on my computer, but what you get may very well be something else altogether - that looks like gibberish.
The article above has some humor, so you should drop down to the section titled "He's called SHE?", where they talk about the problems English-speaking leaders may have with the surname (which, contrary to our culture, appears first instead of last):
“Angela Merkel met with the Chinese president last Thursday. She said that the talks were successful, but Xi’s not that easy to gauge.”
Unintended gender-bending gone wild!
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"I wouldn't even know how to begin to find the 'peyote lady', even if I thought it was possible in this incarnation...I'm completely tripped out on everyday life."
"By the way: where am I?"
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| Post Number: 4
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hikerjer
Group: Members
Posts: 9129
Joined: Apr. 2002
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Posted on: Nov. 15 2012, 10:35 am |
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Thanks Gabby. I triedg oogleing it bu tdidn't come up with anything. I wonder how many Americans even care about getting his name right. Not many I fear, which is a sad comment on Ameican society. But maybe I'm wrong. Then again, it may become a household word in the future. Who knows?
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"Too often I have met men who speak only of how many miles they've traveled and not of what they've seen." - Louis L'Amour
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WalksWithBlackflies
Resident Eco-Freak Bootlicker
Group: Members
Posts: 8742
Joined: Jun. 2004
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Posted on: Nov. 15 2012, 10:41 am |
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My guess was exactly what Gabby posted. He will also respond kindly to "Grand Overlord of the Americas".
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When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. - Lao Tzu
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hbfa
Group: Members
Posts: 7073
Joined: Feb. 2002
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Posted on: Nov. 15 2012, 10:55 am |
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The punishment for oogleing can be quite harsh in China I've heard.
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