Period Chinese Names
Background Information
Rev. 0, © 2004 Valerie L. Putman (known in the SCA as Yin Mei Li)
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Acknowledgement
Chinese Written Characters and Language
Romanization
Pronunciation
Translations
Conventions Used in these Articles
Endnotes
Acknowledgement
This author gratefully thanks Brian M. Scott, Josh Mittleman, and Ursula A. Witcher, respectively known in the Society as Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, and Ursula Georges. These gracious members of the Academy of St Gabriel reviewed this paper to improve its understandability, usefulness and accuracy. Many thanks are especially due to Talan for rewriting one of this author's first attempts to provide background information about Chinese languages and writing. Much of that rewrite, which first appeared in the Academy's Report 2342, is reproduced here with additional information.[1]
This author also thanks her mundane, Chinese-American colleagues, who asked to remain anonymous, for graciously checking translations and help in classifying names. Further, many thanks are due to members of Whitethorne Manor who patiently reviewed these articles for clarity and usability.
However, any errors in these articles are the fault of the author.
Chinese Written Characters and Language
The Chinese writing system is different from the alphabetic systems most Westerners use. Even today, each Chinese character represents a syllable, and each syllable is meaningful. These characters are traditionally written in columns from top to bottom, one character per line, with columns written from right to left. There was no punctuation to identify sentences, phrases, or polysyllabic words. Even today literate Chinese think of characters, rather than words, as their basic language unit.
However, the Chinese language has many homophones (words that sound alike, but have different definitions, such as the English words sea and see). Each syllable is, therefore, the pronunciation of several, or even many, written characters. Sound is not always enough to understand which written character is intended. Even Chinese sometimes need to see written characters to understand spoken words.
In addition, a written character does not completely indicate the pronunciation of a syllable because the same writing system is used for many dialects, and as a basis for other written Asian languages. Further, a few Chinese written characters have two or three different pronunciations, associated with particular definitions, in the same dialect.
Romanization
When something in Chinese is written for a Western audience, the Chinese characters are usually translated and/or Romanized (represented with Roman characters). If one currently wishes to register a Chinese name in the SCA, one must Romanize Chinese characters, using either a period or modern standard system.[2] Romanization is also important is this series of articles because this author does not expect most of her readers to have a Chinese character font.
Unfortunately, Romanization systems do not perfectly represent Chinese characters. First, such systems are typically based on phonetics. They therefore make it difficult to distinguish between homophones, which, in turn, make it difficult to identify the particular Chinese character and syllable intended by a particular Romanized syllable.
Second, there are many incompatible Romanization systems for Chinese languages. Most are incompatible because they each use different Roman letter combinations to represent the same Chinese sound. (For example, for the Mandarin dialect, the syllable sound Romanized as hsiao with the Wade-Giles system is Romanized as xiao with the Pinyin system.) Some Romanization systems are incompatible because they represent different Chinese dialects, which vary as much or more than English dialects.
Romanization systems in use today are fairly modern. Undoubtedly Chinese characters were Romanized by the late 16th century, if not earlier. (For example, Romanized by Christian missionaries in China who occasionally sent reports to their superiors in Europe.) However, Romanizations that period Westerners used are not readily available today.
Three Romanization systems seem to be used most commonly today. They represent two dialects. The first two used in these articles are Wade-Giles and Hanyu Pinyin Romanizations, which represent the modern Mandarin dialect. Both have been used to register Chinese names in the SCA. Older books in English typically use Wade-Giles Romanizations. However, more recently written matter typically uses Pinyin.
Yale Romanization represents the modern Cantonese dialect. Many Chinese who settled in America from the late 19th through the mid-20th centuries spoke Cantonese. Therefore, an SCA member who requests help with a Chinese persona from a Chinese American will probably hear Cantonese. As of this writing, a Chinese name has not been registered in the SCA using the Yale system. However, one may conclude such use is acceptable from recent rulings.[2,3]
Several books and many webpages provide tables to convert between Romanization systems. These tables are useful for most syllables, but please be careful in using them. In some cases, syllables are omitted because the conversion is not always straightforward. In other cases, data are presented for the most common conversion, without mention of less common cases. (For example, in most of these tables, one will find the Romanized syllable lin is the same in Wade-Giles, Pinyin, and Yale systems, which is true for almost all Chinese characters that, in the Mandarin dialect, are so Romanized. However, there are at least two characters that are exceptions, and both appear in Chinese surnames. These exceptions are Romanized as lam and leun with the Yale system.) It is usually a good idea to confirm conversions, but such confirmations often require using the actual Chinese character, which a source in English might not provide.
Please resist any temptation to mix Romanization systems to achieve a particular spelling for a particular name. As previously stated, the systems are incompatible, unlike the Chinese characters these systems represent. Spelling differences between these systems have a different significance than period spelling variations for a word or name in a specific European country. For various reasons, the SCA College of Arms does not currently register names that mix Romanization systems.[3]
Pronunciation
Even with different Romanization systems for different dialects, many Westerners might have difficulty identifying appropriate pronunciations. Some Chinese sounds are very different from sounds in Western languages. Each Romanization system therefore includes letter combinations that are pronounced differently from what typical Western readers would expect. Please consider this difference when selecting names from the lists in these articles.
Most Chinese syllables also have a spoken tone that is often too subtle for many Westerners to hear. Marks that indicate tones are often dropped in material that is written for a Western audience, especially if the material does not need to include many Romanized words. However, tones are very important in Chinese language. For example, if one neglects spoken tones, three Chinese characters that respectively mean eye, toes, and tree sound alike and are all Romanized as mu with both the Wade-Giles and Pinyin systems. A person who neglects Chinese spoken tones must rely on context and written characters much more than a person who hears these tones.[4]
Romanization systems use one of two standard methods to indicate tones, when tones are included. Until fairly recently, and perhaps still, the most commonly used indicators have been superscripted numerals after a Romanized Chinese syllable. The other system uses diacritical marks over a letter in the Romanized syllable. However, the sound associated with a diacritical mark sometimes differs between languages. As with Romanized letter combinations, a diacritical mark in a Romanized syllable might not represent the sound a Westerner might expect.
There are four commonly marked tones for the Mandarin dialect, six for the Cantonese dialect. For the Mandarin dialect, at its simplest,
| Tone 1 is high level. Its diacritical mark is a macron (horizontal line).[5,6] | |
| Tone 2 is high rising. Its diacritical mark is an acute accent. | |
| Tone 3 is low dipping. Its diacritical mark is a caron or hachek (inverted carot). | |
| Tone 4 is high falling. Its diacritical mark is a grave accent. | |
| Tone 0 or 5 is neutral. This tone is usually not marked with numerals, and it apparently does not have a diacritical mark. |
Various websites provide more information about Chinese characters, tones, and pronunciations, including "On-line Chinese Tools," at http://www.mandarintools.com/, and Harvard University's "Chinese Pronunciation Guide," at http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~pinyin/.
Translations
As described in "Basic Naming Practices," personal names were selected for their meaning in period China. Name translations are, therefore, provided when known.
In many cases, one can identify the meaning of a monosyllabic name (or word) with a modern dictionary. In these cases, the relevant syllable definitions have not changed too greatly since our period. There are several on-line dictionaries that can be useful in this respect, including "The MDBG free online chinese english dictionary," at http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php.
The meanings of polysyllabic names are not always as easy to identify. Some polysyllabic names form words that have meanings different than the meanings of their individual syllables. For example, ch'ing p'i literally translates as green skin, but it actually means rogue. This author cannot translate many polysyllabic names because she does not yet read Chinese.[7] However, many disyllabic names are phrases formed of two words rather than one word formed of two syllables. She can, therefore, provide translations for some disyllabic names.
Conventions Used in these Articles
In writing these articles, it was necessary to use some standard method for representing information consistently. This information includes Chinese written characters, three Romanizations for a name, tonal-indicators, and translations. However, there does not seem to be an accepted standard for including all of this information concisely.
Therefore, the author developed her own standard, which readers probably will not see elsewhere. The intent is to simplify reading without losing information and without being too inconvenient for the author.
Traditional Chinese written characters are listed first when included. Traditional characters are used because they seem more consistent with SCA recreation. (Simplified fonts are fairly modern.) Chinese characters are written left to right on a horizontal line because they are sometimes included within an English text sentence. This convention is also used in tables, but, where practical, the Chinese characters are listed in a single, one-character-wide column to make them appear in their traditional format. The Chinese font is PMingLiu, which is an Unicode and MS Unicode font. Unicode is also used for some special letters and character for which the author does not have or know html equivalents. Such characters will probably appear as rectangular boxes if a reader does not have an appropriate Unicode font set.
When known, spoken tones are indicated with superscripted numerals at the end of Romanized syllables to help readers better pronounce the listed names. This method is used for several reasons. Numerals avoid confusion with diacritical marks that sometimes indicate different sounds in other languages. Numerals are easier to use with on-line translation dictionaries that accommodate tone indicators. Numerals look strange enough that one who reads name lists will probably not try to register the numerals with his or her name. And numerals are the most commonly used method in the author's sources, most of which are older books. If a reader has some need to use diacritical marks, he or she may convert them. Several websites can complete conversions, including, "The MDBG free online chinese english dictionary," at http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php. However, as of this writing, SCA precedent does not allow tone indicators to be registered with Chinese names for several reasons.[8]
Romanized syllables are written as separate words to better represent period writing with Chinese characters. Wade-Giles, Pinyin, and Yale Romanization systems are used, when practical, to identify a name in a list. Wade-Giles Romanizations are listed first, and used for alphabetically sorting lists, simply because Wade-Giles is the system used in most of the author's sources. Pinyin Romanizations, which also represent the Mandarin dialect, are listed second although Pinyin is probably the most commonly used system today. Yale Romanizations, which represent the Cantonese dialect, are listed third because this author sometimes does not have enough information to convert from a Romanized Mandarin syllable to the Cantonese syllable.
Name translations, as opposed to character translations, are also included when known. By default, translations are used to sort names for which the author does not have Romanized syllables. Readers who need character translations to identify specific Chinese characters are encouraged to contact the author.
English text is usually difficult to read if it includes Chinese characters, three Romanized versions of the characters, tone indicators, and translations for each name or Chinese word. Therefore, only some of the information is included in article texts and table notes. Typically, Wade-Giles Romanizations are used throughout the text. Pinyin Romanizations are also usually included in brackets ([]) with first use of a name or word, but omitted thereafter. Tonal indicators are similarly included. If inclusion seems useful, Chinese characters precede Wade-Giles Romanizations in the text upon first use, and are also sometimes used in headings. Yale Romanizations, however, are generally not used in the text.
In most cases, links to open an off-site web page open that page in a separate window. Also in most cases, off-site URLs are explicitly shown for the benefit of readers who prefer to access the sites later, after closing on-site web pages. To the best of this author's knowledge, linked off-site pages provide accurate information. However, this author does not guarantee or in any way affect that content.
Links to open another on-site page (within this Chinese-name site) default to opening that page in the same window unless the information is very short. When the information is short, the on-site default is a small pop-up window that will, however, not pop-up until one clicks on the link.
Endnotes
1. Academy of St. Gabriel Report 2342, September 19, 2001, http://www.s-gabriel.org/2342. [Return to text.]
2. For example, see: François la Flamme, et. al., October 2003 Letter of Acceptances and Returns – Acceptances – Atlantia - Avraham Harofeh, http://sca.org/heraldry/loar/2003/10/03-10lar.html. [Return to text.]
3. For example, see: François la Flamme, et. al., September 2003 Letter of Acceptances and Returns – Returns – Outlands - Lin Shiao Mei, http://sca.org/heraldry/loar/2003/09/03-09lar.html. [Return to text.]
4. Spoken tones reduce, but do not eliminate, the number of homophones in a Chinese dialect. Almost any Chinese syllable is a homophone for several written characters. For example, one common translation dictionary that uses Pinyin Romanizations lists 16 characters Romanized as mu, of which one is spoken with the second tone, four are spoken with the third tone, and 11 are spoken with the fourth tone. [Return to text.]
5. Diacritical marks that are used for tone indicators always appear over a vowel. With the exception of "y" at the first of a syllable, the mark appears over the next-to-the-last vowel. [Return to text.]
6. Please do not confuse diacritical marks that indicate syllable tones with other diacritical marks that also appear over vowels. These other marks (the dieresis [or umlaut], carot, and breve) distinguish between Roman letters. For example, the letters u, ü, and ŭ are distinctly different letters in Chinese Romanizations. The letters e and ê are also different letters in Wade-Giles Romanizations. Omitting the umlaut can cause significant confusion between some syllables and is generally discouraged, although omissions occur in some texts. On the other hand, omitting the breve or carot is common in many texts, apparently because there are no syllables that could be confused with each other due to the omission. [Return to text.]
7. This inability explains why primary sources are not used as the direct basis for the information in these articles. [Return to text.]
8. François la Flamme, et. al., June 2003 Letter of Acceptances and Returns – Acceptances – Middle Kingdom - Lan Ying, http://sca.org/heraldry/loar/2003/06/03-06lar.html. [Return to text.]
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This page last updated September 26, 2004. Prepared by Yin Mei Li, who is also Octofoil Herald, and signed with her chop |