Since all of us here would understand that Michelle Yeoh’s surname is of the Min-Nan (a dialect mainly representing the Fujian and Xiamen areas) spelling convention (in Mandarin her real name, Yeoh Choo Kheng, is translated as: yang2 zi3 qiong2), I would like to know how difficult it is to see certain Chinese place names rendered in Min-Nan vs. Cantonese. Cantonese is one way to spell out names, but Fujian Min-Nan is the other.
What would the Y a n g t z e K i a n g (yang2 zi3 jiang1), also “Changjiang” (chang2 jiang1), be rendered as in Fujian Minnan? I know “yang2” becomes “yeoh,” but would “zi3” in this occasion become “chee” and “jiang1” become “kang.” You know, “Yeoh Chee Kang”?
Geographical names are always tricky, as you never quite know whether the 讀音 or the 白話音 should be used. iong-chi-kang is my best guess for 揚子江, or iong-chu-kang
[quote=“Changjiang750”]Since all of us here would understand that Michelle Yeoh’s surname is of the Min-Nan (a dialect mainly representing the Fujian and Xiamen areas) spelling convention (in Mandarin her real name, Yeoh Choo Kheng, is translated as: yang2 zi3 qiong2), I would like to know how difficult it is to see certain Chinese place names rendered in Min-Nan vs. Cantonese. Cantonese is one way to spell out names, but Fujian Min-Nan is the other.
What would the Y a n g t z e K i a n g (yang2 zi3 jiang1), also “Changjiang” (chang2 jiang1), be rendered as in Fujian Minnan? I know “yang2” becomes “yeoh,” but would “zi3” in this occasion become “chee” and “jiang1” become “kang.” You know, “Yeoh Chee Kang”?[/quote]
Despite varying ways that Hokkien names are romanized in Southeast Asia, the most common standardized way of romanizing Minnan is known as Peh-oe-ji (POJ), also known as Church Romanization. Michelle Yeo’s name would be (I believe) Iu
n
Chu Kheng. (The little n should be a superscript. And there are 2 pronunciations for 楊, 6 for 子 and 3 for 瓊!)