Why do chinese names begin with Q?

[captainjack]

grrrr....

[JohnKleeb]

1. Lee Hong's name doesnt begin with Q

[captainjack]

2. The Q is silent!

grrr.

[JohnKleeb]

3. Quing

[nine30]

4. or 'X' ? (nt)

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. Lots of them don't

But the reason they do, when they are written in roman alphabets, is to distinguish from different "k" sounds/characters in the original language.

So, you might see Quan and Kuan, and if so, it's likely because even though the sound might be pretty much the same, the characters used might be quite different.

it's also a problem of which translation/transliteration, from which missionary, from which country, first wrote down the word/sound in roman alphabet and/or which one became more popular. Remember, lots of missionaries and businessmen were hanging out in China (and elsewhere) trying to learn the languages and write them down and etc. for other westerners, all at the same time. Over time, those lexigraphical systems, from Germans, French, Italians, British, etc. melded into the mishmash we have today.

Hebrew, written in roman letters, also uses both "k" and "q", because it has two different letters for the "k" sound. In other languages, we also might use the "X", the "C", the "CH", and the "KH" to designate different variations on the same basic sound.

(and by all this, I assume your real question is "Why do some names in Chinese, when transliterated into the roman alphabet, use 'q' while others use 'k'?")

[kixot]

6. They are trying to represent a sound we don't have in english.

Somewhere between a "Q" and an "X".

It's the same reason you may see "J" and "R" interchangibly in romanized words and also the source of the "flied lice" jokes that are, oh, so funny. :eyes: It's just about how the western listener's ear transliterated the sound the first time they heard it. There are two or three popular romanization systems out there, and it gets more complicated when you start talking about more than just mandarin.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. Stop, you're all wrong!

When the Chinese government made up an official Roman alphabet for their standard language (commonly referred to as "Mandarin"), they decided to throw out Western ideas of phonetics and make up spelling conventions that accurately portray the sounds of Chinese--only not in the way Westerners instinctively would.

The "Q" represents one of the two "ch" sounds in Mandarin. One of them, spelled "ch," represents "ch" pronounced with the tongue curled back, almost like "tr." The other, represented by "q," represents "ch" pronounced with the tongue between the teeth. Thus "chun" is pronounced almost like "troon" and "qun" is pronounced almost like an English person saying "tune" ("tyoon"). The name "Qi" is pronounced "Chee," and the name Quan is pronounced not Kwan but "Chyuan" with an "an" like "Ann." (I'm not going to get into all the weird things that can happen to the vowels. For example, the name "Chi" is pronounced "chr"--but only in mainland Chinese spelling. In the older style of spelling, "chr" is spelled "Ch'ih.")

The "x" represents one of the two "sh" sounds. "Sh" is pronounced with the tongue curled back and is pretty close to the English sound. "X" is "sh" with the tongue between the teeth and a slight "y" sound, and some spelling systems spell it "hs," as in Hsu. So you have two names, Xu ("shyoo") and Shu ("shoo"). The city with the terra cotta warriors is Xi'an (pronounced "Shee-ahn").

There's a similar pair with "j" and "zh." "Zh" is --you guessed it--"j" with the tongue curled back. "J" is "j" with the tongue between the teeth. So "Zhun" is "Joon" and "Jun" is "Jyoon."

Okay, I said I wasn't going to do it, but I'll give you a rundown on what happens to the rest of the alphabet.

"c" is pronounced "ts."

"z" is pronounced "dz"

"i" is pronounced "ee" by itself or after any consonant except zh, ch, sh, s, z, r, or c.
After zh, ch, sh, it's pronounced "r." (chi=chr, shi=shr, zhi=zhr)
After s, z, c, or r, it's pronounced like a short i in English (the "i" in "tin"), so si=sih, zi=dzih, ci=tsih, and ri=rih

a is usually "ah," but after "i" or "y" or after "ju," "xu," or "ju," "an" becomes "ann."

"en" is pronounced "un" as in "unreal." "Eng" is "ung" as in "sung."

"e" is "uh" as in "duh," except after "y" or "i," when it is pronounced "eh."

"ui" is pronounced "way." The town in southern China with all the funny looking mountains is Guilin (Gway-lin).

"ou" is pronounced "oh."

"er" is prounced "ar."

"ei" is "ay."

"iu" is pronounced "yo."

Here are some handy Chinese phrases to practice on!

Cesuo zai nar? (Tsuh-swo dzy nar?) "Where's the bathroom?"

Duo shao qian? (Dwo shaoh chyann?") "How much is it?"

"Tai gui!" (Ty gway!) "Too expensive."

Hen hao! (Hun how) "Very good."

Xie-xie (Shyeh-shyeh) "Thank you."

Qing wen (Ching wun) "I'd like to to ask you."

Ni chi fan le ma? (Nee chr fahn luh ma) "Have you eaten?"

Wo hen xihuan he pijiu (Wo hun shee-hwahn huh pee-jyoh) "I like to drink beer."

Wo shi Meiguo ren. (Wo shr May-gwo run) "I'm an American."

Zai jian! (Dzy jyann) "Good-bye!"



Believe it or not, once you get the hang of this system of spelling and learn a little Chinese, it makes perfect sense.

On edit:

The system that is still official in Taiwan, and which was once the most common one in the West is called the Wade-Giles system. In it, the phrases I have given you would look like this:

Ts'e-suo zai nar?
Duo shao ch'ien?
T'ai kwei
Hen hao (same)
Hsieh-hsieh
Ch'ing wen
Ni ch'ih fan le ma?
Wo hen hsihuan he p'ichiu
Wo shih Meikuo jen
Zai chien!