Generally speaking, the English names of many places in China are directly in Pinyin, but there are some exceptions. For example: Shanghai, the magic capital, is not “shanghai” in English, and the English name of “Tibet” is not “Xizang”, so how do you say their English names?
What does shanghai mean?
Looking up the Oxford dictionary, the definition of shanghai is: to trick or force somebody into doing something that they do not really want to do.
The origin of the word is that in the early years, people came to Shanghai from Europe to do business. Sailors were generally reluctant to travel across the ocean like this. Just say We are shanghaied. (We are cheated!)
Example:
I got a wedding to shanghai.
It probably refers to “I want to grab the marriage”, which is to induce or force a certain bride not to marry the groom.
What is “Shanghai” in English?
The English of Shanghai is actually Shanghai
Are the English expressions of “Shanxi” and “Shaanxi” the same?
The English name of Shanxi Province is: Shanxi
The English of Shaanxi Province is: Shaanxi, which is one more a than Shanxi.
Why is Shaanxi double-written a, not double-written n?
This involves the concept of “Mandarin Romaji”, which is a set of Latinization schemes for Chinese characters, which used to be the phonetic system of the “Republic of China”.
In modern Chinese Pinyin, “tone symbols” are used to represent four tones, namely: Yinping (ˉ), Yangping (ˊ), Shangsheng (ˇ), Qusheng (ˋ), and can also be called the first and second tones. , third and fourth tones.
Mandarin Roman characters do not use symbols to mark tones, but letters. For example, ā, á, ǎ, à in “Hanyu Pinyin” are marked as: a, ar, aa, ah in Mandarin Roman characters.
i.e. ā = a; ǎ = aa
Therefore “Shanxi” (shān xī) is written in English as shanxi
The English spelling of “Shaanxi” (shǎn xī) is shaanxi
English expressions in other regions
There are still several regions in China whose English is not expressed in Chinese Pinyin
①Hong Kong: Hong Kong /ˌhɒŋˈkɒŋ/
The English name of Hong Kong is Hong Kong. Because of more than 150 years of British colonial rule, Hong Kong has become a customary English name.
②Macao: Macau /məˈkaʊ/
The English name of Macau is Macao. Because Macau was once a Portuguese colony, it is written as Macau in Portuguese and Macao in English. The name is also a convention.
③Inner Mongolia: Inner Mongolia/ˌɪnəˌmɒŋˈgəʊliə/
“Inner Mongolia” in English is Inner Mongolia. inner means “internal”, and Mongolia is the name for “Mongolia” in English.
However, Nei Mongol is used in the passports of Inner Mongolians. Nei comes from the pinyin “nei”, and Mongol is an English word that means “Mongols”.
④Xiamen: Amoy
Xiamen, some overseas media wrote it as Amoy, because it was a word invented by foreigners based on the local dialect, but the English name officially recognized by China is still based on pinyin Xiamen.
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Post time: May-11-2022