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Norm Matthews

Norm Matthews

1 hour ago, liuzhou said:

 

No one changed the pronunciation. They changed the transliteration from something invented by a half-deaf Cambridge don and his student into something much more sensible. The capital was never, ever pronounced "pee-king" in Chinese. It was always more like "bay-jing".

Similarly, things like kung-po chicken are meaningless to the vast majority of Chinese speakers. It has always been "gong bao (pronounced bow as in what you do when you meet the queen) " Ask for wontons in 99% of Chinese restaurants in China and they'll be baffled.

Anyway, probably enough Chinese language for one day. I have to put up with it every day!

Dinner tonight was a couple of home-made hamburgers and chips (fries). No pic.

 

 

I was not very clear in what I said. Not wanting to belabor the point but the reason I said "English pronunciation" was because I realize the Chinese pronunciations of their own words had not changed but rather the English understanding of the way they were actually pronounced is what was clarified. 

Norm Matthews

Norm Matthews

1 hour ago, liuzhou said:

 

No one changed the pronunciation. They changed the transliteration from something invented by a half-deaf Cambridge don and his student into something much more sensible. The capital was never, ever pronounced "pee-king" in Chinese. It was always more like "bay-jing".

Similarly, things like kung-po chicken are meaningless to the vast majority of Chinese speakers. It has always been "gong bao (pronounced bow as in what you do when you meet the queen) " Ask for wontons in 99% of Chinese restaurants in China and they'll be baffled.

Anyway, probably enough Chinese language for one day. I have to put up with it every day!

Dinner tonight was a couple of home-made hamburgers and chips (fries). No pic.

 

 

I was not very clear in what I said. Not meaning to belabor the point but the reason I said "English pronunciation" was because I realize the Chinese pronunciations of their own words had not changed but rather the English understanding of the way they were actually pronounced is what was clarified. 

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