Discussion Chinese novel name pronunciation

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by Hegao, Feb 17, 2021.

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  1. Hegao

    Hegao Well-Known Member

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    Today I was watching random video where youtuber pronounced Qin as chin etc. I have just realized I have been pronunciation Chinese names wrong. I have been pronouncing them in what they look like. I was wondering if you guys know about it and but just pronounce the word as it looks like.
     
  2. Walter vi Britannia

    Walter vi Britannia Well-Known Member

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    Yea, I know what they are supposed to sound like but I still pronounce them how they look to more easily remember them. Since I read so many novels most of my experience with Chinese names are gonna be through written text. Makes it easier to remember the characters' names when seeing them written out. Specially if I've not been away from a novel for like a year or two...and with how long Chinese novels tend to be, I do that a lot.
     
  3. protagplotarmor

    protagplotarmor Well-Known Member

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    I learned some basic Chinese and how people assume they're pronounced is definitely different. For example: Chen is more like Chuhn (as in Hun), Liu is more like Liou (ou as in throw), etc.
    If you want to know how they're really pronounced, you should look up basic pinyin on youtube. Pinyin is roughly equivalent to, say, romaji for Japanese.
     
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  4. engineer001

    engineer001 New Member

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    Out of curiosity, how do you pronounce Qin?

    To be honest, however you've been pronouncing it to yourself is fine as it is, otherwise it'll be too hard to remember over time.
     
  5. 222222

    222222 12121212121212121212121212121212121212121212121212

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    There are dozens of Chinese dialects. You pronounced it wrong in some dialect, and right in others. No wrong way to pronounce it.

    Mostly every native Chinese has two different pronunciation for the same word. Local dialect as well as Beijing dialect.
     
  6. Amaruna Myu

    Amaruna Myu ugly squid dokja (●´∀`●)

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    qn is chin without too much of the h sound
    the tongue touches the tip of your front tooth
    chen would sound like churn without the r sound, and liu is pronounced the same as lieu from holiday in lieu
    of course, the pitch is also another thing but thats harder to learn/teach without practical application
     
  7. protagplotarmor

    protagplotarmor Well-Known Member

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    Yes this ^
    There are tons of Chinese dialects and accents, but the standard is the Beijing one. Also, the tone is also very important when pronouncing words ( means horse, while means mother), but it's usually ignored when anglicized.

    I think for your purposes, this cheat sheet is enough.
     
  8. Dwarkin

    Dwarkin Well-Known Member

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    I usually pronounce Chinese words like northerners do, sometimes I check the tones from the RAWs, though. Its also fun to guess Chinese version of western names like Roland - Luolan, Jack - Jieke, Christopher - Kelisiduofu, etc.
     
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