New York Times using Tongyong

See nytimes.com/2004/09/09/inter … aiwan.html

That’s not a very useful link if you have to sign up.

[color=blue]**********
漢語拼音最通用
**********
[/color]

Come on Juba, it’s not that bad. I signed up. Took me all of 20 seconds. You don’t even need to give a valid email address – click submit and you go straight to the page.
I wonder how their marketing department will deal with a 15-year-old Afghani clergywoman who earns in excess of $150,000 per annum?

Am I getting a link to the wrong story?

I didn’t get anything abouy NY Times policy on romanisation. I just got a story about CKS and his son’s burial problems. Now his son’s name, which in Pinyin is Jiang Jingguo would be Jiang Jing-guo in Tongyong. The NY Times report used the conventional (Wade Giles, I guess) Chiang Ching-kuo. Likewise with the ‘grandson of CKS and nephew of CCk Gregory Chiang’ which leads me off topic to wonder, who is thios guy? Spawn of Wei-go?

Brian

I expect Feiren was referring to the spelling of “Dasi.”

I should think the New York Times will use whatever kind of spelling it is fed by the Central News Service or whatever other source it may use. They wouldn’t know the difference between one kind of spelling and another.

[color=orange]**********
漢語拼音最通用
**********
[/color]

:blush: I didn’t read close enough to spot that. Still, more NY Times is using a mixmatch of different romanisations than NY Times is using Tongyong.

Brian

If the NYT has a policy on the spelling, it would probably be to follow the official system, which would be Tongyong (thus the “Dasi” in the dateline). But more often than not people don’t know what the system is and might just go by what’s on a sign.

Perhaps more interesting is the map accompanying the article. Notice the use of “Quemoy” for Jinmen/Kinmen.

So that gives us Penghu, Matsu, and Taipei in bastardized Wade-Giles; Dasi in Tongyong Pinyin; and Quemoy in the old postal system. And then there’s Fuzhou in Hanyu Pinyin. So many different systems – you’d think you were looking at street signs at a Taipei intersection circa 2000. :wink:

Sorry guys. Just yanking your chain.

[quote=“cranky laowai”]Notice the use of “Quemoy” for Jinmen/Kinmen.
[/quote]

Does anyone want to take a stab at how you pronounce Quemoy. And how the hell do you pronounce Koxinga? I always says Kinmen and Cheng Cheng-gong simply 'cos I have noidea how to say the other words without sounding ridiculous.

Just out of curiosity - do you pronounce the first and second "cheng"s differently?

In case anyone wants to read the NYT without going through the hassel of registration. There is a pre-registered public account that is free to use

the name and password are simply randomnames/randomname

Just out of curiosity - do you pronounce the first and second "cheng"s differently?[/quote]

It would be Zheng Chenggong in Hanyu Pinyin, or Cheng Ch’eng-kung in proper Wade Giles (I think).

[quote=“Lol”]

Does anyone want to take a stab at how you pronounce Quemoy. And how the hell do you pronounce Koxinga? I always says Kinmen (Jinmen) and Cheng Cheng-gong simply 'cos I have noidea how to say the other words without sounding ridiculous.[/quote]

key-moy. this approximates a minnan dialect pronunciation. that’s similar to how it would be said in Ilan.

gok-shing-ah. also minnan.

Just out of curiosity - do you pronounce the first and second "cheng"s differently?[/quote]
It would be Zheng Chenggong in Hanyu Pinyin, or Cheng Ch’eng-kung in proper Wade Giles (I think).[/quote]
Right, but the pronunciation should be the same whether using Tongyong, Wade-Giles, Hanyu pinyin or any other pinyin system. Most people do not know how to deal with the pronunciation of bastardized Wade-Giles, though - another good reason for sticking to Hanyu pinyin.

Just out of curiosity - do you pronounce the first and second "cheng"s differently?[/quote]
It would be Zheng Chenggong in Hanyu Pinyin, or Cheng Ch’eng-kung in proper Wade Giles (I think).[/quote]
Right, but the pronunciation should be the same whether using Tongyong, Wade-Giles, Hanyu pinyin or any other pinyin system. Most people do not know how to deal with the pronunciation of bastardized Wade-Giles, though - another good reason for sticking to Hanyu pinyin.[/quote]

That’s not answering my question. How do you pronounce Koxinga? “Cock-singer?”

Tough question. It comes from the Chinese 國姓爺 .

So if you were saying Mandarin, that would be Guo1 Xin1 Ye2.

But, the spelling ‘Koxinga’ is derived from the Minnan of the name, which would be something like (excuse my Taiwanese pinyin) ‘Gok Sei Ya’.

I always say it in what I take to be the ‘English’ pronounciation Ko (like the coa in coat) Xing (liek the mandarin, Hanyu Pinyin) A like a (the indefinite article. That may not be standard.

Brian

I’ve always pronounced it Ko (rhymes with so) xin (Like Xinhua News Agency) ga.