2013 Hawaii University International Conferences
Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
January 6th to January 8th
Ala Moana Hotel, Honolulu, Hawaii
Chinese characters
as phonetic symbols
Tae Eun Kim
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Chinese characters as phonetic symbols
Tae Eun Kim
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Abstract
This study is about the function of Chinese characters as phonetic symbols. It is
based on the analyses of over 1000 Mandarin phonetic loans that originated from English. In
the process of adapting English words into Mandarin Chinese, many phonetic loans clearly
show Chinese characters functioning as phonetic symbols. The fact that English and Chinese
are completely different language systems plays a pivotal role in enhancing the symbolization
of Chinese characters. These characters mostly appear in the adaptation of English consonant
clusters in the word-initial or word-final positions since the Mandarin phonological system
does not allow consonant clusters. These characters are not ideographs but phonetic symbols
that transcribe the Latin letters in English words. The most important reasons some particular
Chinese characters are used as phonetic symbols are not only because faithful mapping
between English consonants and Mandarin consonants has the highest priority in Mandarin
loanword adaptation, but also because epenthetic vowels to adjust English consonant clusters
play an important role. Therefore, through both the analyses of consonantal faithful mapping
between the two languages and the analyses of Mandarin epenthetic vowels in Mandarin
loanwords, this study provides a reasonable answer for the question of why some characters
can function as phonetic symbols.
Key words: Chinese character, phonetic symbol, loanword, faithful mapping, epenthetic
vowel, minimal saliency, English nasal coda, orthography
1. Introduction
It is well-known that Chinese characters are ideographic in nature.1 Therefore, when
1
According to the definition of ideograph in Wikipedia, “An ideogram or ideograph is a graphic symbol that
represents an idea or concept. Some ideograms are comprehensible only by familiarity with prior convention;
others convey their meaning through pictorial resemblance to a physical object, and thus may also be referred
to as pictograms.”
1
people learn the Chinese language, 2 they must memorize each character and its
pronunciation.3 Moreover, Chinese is a monosyllabic language, and thus all the Chinese
morphemes are expressed by a single Chinese character, this concept in Chinese is known as
zì 字.4 One zì simultaneously functions as a writing symbol, a single morpheme, and a single
syllable (Chin 2008, p.8-9). Although it performs each of these functions and also provides
the word meaning, it does not provide any information about pronunciation. For example, the
Chinese character ‘斯’ means ‘this,’ but people cannot pronounce it if they do not memorize
its pronunciation (Pinyin sī [sɿ]).5
However, Chinese characters are changing in a variety of ways due to the rapidly
changing social atmosphere stemming from China’s economic opening. One interesting
change is that Chinese characters have started to function as phonetic symbols in addition to
their traditional role as ideographs. This change has taken place primarily due to the increase
of contact with western languages, especially English. This situation is reflected in the
adaptation of English-based Chinese phonetic loans,6 which are usually used to borrow the
names of countries, places, and people. In addition, brand names are imported only by the
way of phonetic loans (Yang 2007, p.78-81). For example, the character ‘斯,’ mentioned
previously, is used in Chinese Sī-tè-pǔ-ěr-sī 斯 特 普 尔 斯 [sɿ-tʰɤ-pʰu-əɹ-sɿ] (English
‘Staples’). In this word, the only function of character is to transcribe English [s] in the initial
consonant and the final consonant. It does not have the meaning of ‘this.’
This study investigates the function of Chinese characters as phonetic symbols. It is
based on the analyses of over 1000 English-based Chinese loanwords collected from three
types of data sources: dictionaries, Internet portal sites, and previous studies. In section 2, I
2
Chinese language usually refers to Mandarin Chinese, which is spoken by over 70% of Chinese people.
This situation is very different from English, since English is representative of a language which has an
orthography based on the Latin letters, and its writing system is naturally phonemic.
4
Mandarin Chinese typically has four tones which have different pitch values. The diacritics on the vowel in
Pinyin refer to one of the four tones: ‘ˉ’ is 1st tone, ‘ˊ’ is 2nd tone, ‘ˇ’ is 3rd tone and ‘ˋ’ is 4th tone. Tones in
Chinese language can distinguish the meaning of a word. Therefore, I marked the tone for Chinese words in
this paper.
5
In order to supplement the drawback of Chinese characters, Pinyin is generally used. Pinyin is a system which
spells sounds, but still does not show one-to-one correspondence between sounds and spelling. For example,
the letter ‘i’ in Pinyin represents three sounds such as [i], [ɿ], and [ʅ].
6
There are four types of Chinese loanwords depending on the borrowing types: phonetic loans, semantic loans,
graphic loans, and hybrids. See Kim (2012), p.39-47. Even though an English word is adopted into Chinese,
several Chinese words can be created. For example, the Chinese words for English SARS are as follows: the
phonetic loan, ‘Shā-sī 莎斯,’ the semantic loan, ‘Yán-zhòng-jí-xìng-hū-xīng-zōng-hé-zhēng 严重急性呼吸综
合症,’ and the native word, ‘fēi-diǎn-xíng-fèi-yán 非典型肺炎.’ Also, English SARS itself can be used. The
examples are adopted from Zhou (2009), p.48.
3
2
will compare English syllable structure and Chinese syllable structure, and introduce Chinese
characters used as phonetic symbols. In section 3 and 4, I will discuss the reasons why those
characters are preferred in the transcription of English sounds. In section 5, I will argue that
English orthography plays a specific role in the transcription of English syllables that have
nasal cods (i.e. /n/ or /ŋ/).
2. Comparison between English syllable structures and Chinese syllable
structures and examples for Chinese characters as phonetic symbols
Chinese characters that are used as phonetic symbols are easily found in Englishbased phonetic loans. Especially, when English words have consonant clusters or codas, some
particular Chinese characters are preferred to transcribe certain English sounds. The primary
reason for this phenomenon is the great difference between the syllable structures of the two
languages. In this section, I will discuss these differences and show examples of Chinese
phonetic loans originating from English that have characters that function as phonetic
symbols.
Compared to relatively simple Chinese syllable structures, English has very
complicated and various syllable structures. English can form 18 types of syllable structures
maximally, and a single syllable has up to eight phonemes. On the contrary, Chinese does not
allow consonant clusters in any syllable position, and only /n/ and /ŋ/ can appear in the coda
position. Thus, most Mandarin syllables are open syllables, while in English many consonant
clusters are used and most of the syllables are closed. The following table shows the
comparison between English and Chinese syllable structures.
Table 1. Syllable structures in English and Chinese.7
Types of
syllable
structures
V(V)
CV(V)
V(V)C
CVC
V(V)CC
VCCC
7
Possibility
of
combination
+
+
+
+
-
Chinese
Example
ā (阿), ài(爱)
tì(替), mài(卖)
ān(安), wán(完)
tōng (通)
English
Possibility
Examples
of
combination
+
ah , I
+
tea, my
+
an, oil
+
tongue
+
east, old
+
asks
Table 1 was adopted from He (2002), p.28.
3
CVCC
CVCCC
CCV(V)
CCVC
CCVCC
CCVCCC
CCVCCCC
CCCV(V)
CCCVC
CCCVCC
CCCVCCC
CCCVCCCC
-
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
meets
next
free, play
fresh
threads
prompt
glimpsed
straw
screen
strict
strenghths
scrambles
As seen above, since English words can have much more various syllable structures,
the English syllable structures which are not allowed in the Chinese phonology must be
modified to conform to the Chinese syllable structure when English words are adapted into
Chinese loanwords. In this process, some Chinese characters often appear as phonetic
symbols. For example, English ‘FOX’ is adapted as Chinese Fú-kè-sī 福克斯 [fu-kʰɤ-sɿ].
English x ([ks]) is adapted by inserting Chinese vowels [ɤ] and [ɿ] respectively because Chinese does
not allow consonant coda clusters. Therefore, a single syllable English word becomes a three-syllable
Chinese loanword, and the Chinese characters Fú 福 [fu] (good fortune), kè 克 [kʰɤ] (subdue) and
sī 斯 [sɿ] (this) are used to transcribe English consonants [f], [k] and [s] respectively. In this word,
they do not mean anything, and thus are used not as ideographs but as phonetic symbols. List 1 shows
some Chinese phonetic loans in which Chinese characters are used as phonetic symbols.8
List 1. Examples of Chinese characters as phonetic symbols
8
English word
Chinese characters
Pinyin
IPA
Adidas
阿迪达斯
Ā-dí-dá-sī
[a-ti-ta-sɿ]
Azkaban
阿兹卡班
Ā-zī-kǎ-bān
[a-tsɿ-kʰa-pan]
angel
安琪儿
ān-qí-ér
[an-ʨʰi-əɹ]
ball
波尔
bō-ěr
[pwo-əɹ]
bikini
比基尼
bǐ-jī-ní
[pi-ʨi-ni]
caffeine
咖啡因
kā-fēi-yīn
[kʰa-fei-jin]
Cadillac
卡迪拉克
Kǎ-dí-lā-kè
[kʰa-ti-la-kʰɤ]
The list of examples in this paper do not represent comprehensive lists but rather select samplings of the 1218
words in my data.
4
9
disco
迪斯科
dí-sī-kē
[ti-sɿ-kʰɤ]
Disney
迪斯尼
Dí-sī-ní
[ti-sɿ-ni]
dyne
达因
dá-yīn
[ta-jin]
Edison
爱迪生
Ài-dí-shēng
[ai-ti-ʂəŋ]
email
伊妹儿
yī-mèi-ér
[ji-mei-əɹ]
Forbes
福布斯
Fú-bù-sī
[fu-pu-sɿ]
formalin
福尔马林
fú-ěr-mǎ-lín
[fu-əɹ-ma-lin]
gene
基因
jī-yīn
[ʨi-jin]
golf
高尔夫
gāo-ěr-fū
[kɑu-əɹ-fu]
Halifax
哈里法克斯
Hā-lǐ-fǎ-kè-sī
[ha-li-fa-kʰɤ-sɿ]
heroin
海洛因
hǎi-luò-yīn
[xai-lwo-jin]
Inter(net)9
因特(网)
yīn-tè-(wǎng)
[jin-tʰɤ-wɑŋ]
Italy
意大利
Yì-dà-lì
[ji-ta-li]
jeep
吉普
jí-pǔ
[ʨi-pʰu]
khaki
咔叽
kǎ-jī
[kʰa-ʨi]
koala
考拉
kǎo-lā
[kɑu-la]
lace
蕾丝
lěi-sī
[lei-sɿ]
logic
逻辑
luó-jí
[lwo-ʨi]
mandolin
曼德琳
màn-dé-lín
[man-tɤ-lin]
massage
马杀鸡
mǎ-shā-jī
[ma-ʂa-ʨi]
nicotine
尼古丁
ní-gǔ-dīng
[ni-ku-tjəŋ]
Nobel
诺贝尔
Nuò-bèi-ěr
[nwo-pei-əɹ]
Obama
奥巴马
Ào-bā-mǎ
[au-pa-ma]
Olympic
奥林匹克
Ào-lín-pǐ-kè
[au-lin-pi-kʰɤ]
poker
扑克
pū-kè
[pʰu-kʰɤ]
punk
朋克
péng-kè
[pʰəŋ-kʰɤ]
rally
拉力
lā-lì
[la-li]
yīn-tè-(wǎng) 因特网 is a hybrid which is composed of a phonetic loan and a semantic loan. The parentheses
mark the part that is a semantic loan.
5
romantic
罗曼蒂克
luó-màn-dì-kè [lwo-man-ti-kʰɤ]
sauna
桑拿
sāng-ná
[sɑŋ-na]
Sears
西尔斯
Xī-ěr-sī
[ɕi-əɹ-sɿ]
Titanic
泰坦尼克
Tài-tǎn-ní-kè
[tʰai-tʰan-ni-kʰɤ]
Tyson
泰森
Tài-sēn
[tʰai-sən]
Venus
维纳斯
Wéi-nà-sī
[wei-na-sɿ]
Walgreen
沃尔格林
Wò-ěr-gé-lín
[wo-əɹ-kɤ-lin]
Yahoo
雅虎
Yǎ-hǔ
[ja-xu]
As seen above, Chinese phonetic loans have close relationship with English sounds.
A more detailed discussion of this phenomenon will be made in section 3. List 2 shows
some Chinese characters that are used to transcribe certain English consonants which are
placed in consonant clusters or codas. That is, the English syllable structures do not conform
to the native Chinese phonology.
List 2. Chinese characters to transcribe certain English sounds in consonant clusters or codas
English word
Chinese characters
Pinyin
IPA
Ashland
阿什兰
Ā-shí-lán
[a-ʂʅ-lan]
blues
布鲁斯
bù-lù-sī
[pu-lu-sɿ]
break (dance) 布莱克 (舞)
bù-léi-kè (wǔ) [pu-lei-kʰɤ-wu]
Chrysler
克莱斯勒
Kè-lái-sī-lè
[kʰɤ-lai-sɿ-lɤ]
Clinton
克林顿
Kè-lín-dùn
[kʰɤ-lin-twən]
Costco
克斯特克
Kè-sī-tè-kè
[kʰɤ-sɿ-tʰɤ-kʰɤ]
Comcast
康卡斯特
Kāng-kǎ-sī-tè
[kʰɑŋ-kʰa-sɿ-tʰɤ]
Edwin
爱德文
Ài-dé-wén
[ai-tɤ-wən]
Foster
福斯特
Fú-sī-tè
[fu-sɿ-tɤ]
Grammy
格莱美
Gé-lái-měi
[kɤ-lai-mei]
Greenburg
格林伯格
Gé-lín-bó-gé
[kɤ-lin-pwo-kɤ]
Hanks
汉克斯
Hàn-kè-sī
[xan-kʰɤ-sɿ]
Handler
汉德勒
Hàn-dé-lè
[xan-tɤ-lɤ]
6
LUX
勒克斯
Lè-kè-sī
[lɤ-kʰɤ-sɿ]
Mifflin
米夫林
Mǐ-fū-lín
[mi-fu-lin]
Nasdaq
纳斯达克
Nà-sī-dá-kè
[na-sɿ-ta-kʰɤ]
Northrop
诺斯洛普
Nuò-sī-luò-pǔ
[nwo-sɿ-lwo-pʰu]
Oscar
奥斯卡
Ào-sī-kǎ
[au-sɿ-kʰa]
Parkside
帕克赛德
Pà-kè-sài-dé
[pʰa-kʰɤ-sai-tɤ]
Princeton
普林斯顿
Pǔ-lín-sī-dùn
[pʰu-lin-sɿ-twən]
Starwood
斯塔伍德
Sī-tǎ-wǔ-dé
[sɿ-tʰa-wu-tɤ]
sparkling
斯帕克林
sī-pà-kè-lín
[sɿ-pʰa-kʰɤ-lin]
Staples
斯特普尔斯
Sī-tè-pǔ-ěr-sī
[sɿ-tʰɤ-pʰu-əɹ-sī]
Scott
斯科特
Sī-kē-tè
[sɿ-kʰɤ-tʰɤ]
Tricon
特里康
Tè-lǐ-kāng
[tʰɤ-li-kʰɑŋ]
Troy
特洛伊
Tè-luò-yī
[tʰɤ-lwo-ji]
Some Chinese Characters in List 2 are bolded in order to mark Chinese characters that only
transcribe a single English consonant, while others are related with the following English
vowels when they transcribe English words.
3. Faithful mapping between English consonants and Chinese consonants
The objective of this paper is to find the reason why some characters are preferred to
be used as phonetic symbols. In other words, in order to transcribe English words in Chinese
phonetic loans, Chinese characters must meet some requirements. Faithful mapping between
English consonants and Chinese consonants is the most prioritized requirement. Faithful
mapping refers to English phonemes that are replaced by the Chinese phonemes of the same
phonological categories. Also, regardless of the phonological categories, mappings that are
perceived as the most similar will be treated as faithful mappings, when English phonemes
are not found in the Chinese phonological inventory. However, the faithful mapping in the
English vowel adaptation in Chinese loanwords, in fact, is often ignored for the sake of the
faithful mapping of consonants, but not vice versa.10 This is because consonants are more
10
See Kim (2012), p.176-182.
7
easily perceived than vowels, which are qualified only by a subtle change of the vocal tract.
To be more similar perceptually between English words and Chinese phonetic loans, the
change of consonantal quality must be minimally made. Therefore, the faithful mapping of
consonants plays the most significant role in the adaptations. The following tables show the
inventories of English consonants and Chinese consonants.
Table 2. The inventory of English consonants
Labial
Plosive
Nasal
Fricative
Affricate
Liquid
/p/ /b/
/m/
Glide
/w/
Labio
dental
Dental
Alveolar
/t/
/f/
/v/
/ɵ/ /ð/
/s/
Palato
alveolar
/d/
/n/
/z/
Velar
/k/
/ʃ/ /ʒ/
/ʧ/ /ʤ/
Glottal
/g/
/ŋ/
/h/
/ɹ/
/l/
/j/
Table 3. The inventory of Chinese consonants
Bilabial
Plosive
Nasal
Fricative
Affricate
Approximant
Lateral
approximant
Labiodental
Dentoalveolar
/p/ /pʰ/
/m/
Alveolar
Retroflex
Palatal
/t/ /tʰ/
/n/
/f/
/s/
/ts/ /tsʰ/
/ʂ/
/tʂ/ /tʂʰ/
/ɻ/
/ɕ/
/ʨ/ /ʨʰ/
Velar
/k/ /kʰ/
/ŋ/
/x/
/l/
Based on the comparison of consonants in both languages, the faithful mappings of
consonants between English and Chinese can be hypothesized as in Table 4. Perceptual
similarity among consonants of both languages is considered in the faithful mappings in
Table 4. Therefore, some English consonants, especially non-Chinese consonants, have
several corresponding Chinese consonants, while some have only a single correspondence.11
The feature [±voiced] is distinctive in English, but not in Chinese. Therefore, the feature
11
As for English glides, Chinese has very similar sounds with the English glides /j/ and /w/ (i.e. Chinese [j] and
[w]). In fact, their phonological positions are different, since Chinese [j] and [w] are only allophones of Chinese
vowels /i/ and /u/, which only appear when the vowels are placed in the syllable-initial position. However, this is
not a problem in the discussion of this paper. As Chinese has the similar sounds of English glides, if English
glides are mapped into the similar Chinese sounds, they will be treated as faithful mappings.
8
[±voiced] of consonants can be disregarded in the faithful mappings. 12 Also, English
consonants /ð/ and /ʒ/ are not listed, since they are not found in my data.
Table 4. The faithful mappings between English consonants (E) and Mandarin consonants (C)
E
/p/
/b/
/t/
/d/
/k/
/g/
/f/
/v/
/ɵ/
/s/
/z/
/ʃ/
/h/
/ʧ/
/ʤ/
/l/
/ɹ/
/j/
/w/
/m/
/n/
/ŋ/
/pʰ/
/p/
/tʰ/
/t/
/kʰ/
/k/
/f/
/u/
/s/
/s/
/s/
/ɕ/
/x/
/ʨʰ/
/ʨ/
/l/
/l/
[j]
[w]
/m/
/n/
/ŋ/
/ʂ/
/ʂ/
/ʂ/
/ʨ/
/ʨʰ/
/tʂʰ/
/tʂ/
/tʂ/
/tʂʰ/
[w]
C
/p/
/pʰ/
/t/
/t/ʰ
/k/
/kʰ/
/f/
/ɕ/
/ɻ/
In Table 4, the mapping between English /v/ and Chinese /u/ (w) shows the perceptual
similarity between the source language and the borrowing language. However, in terms of
phonology, English /v/ should faithfully map into Chinese /f/, since Chinese /f/ is different
only in [±voiced] and /v/ does not exist in the Chinese phoneme inventory. However, in
Chinese speakers’ real speech, [v] is spoken as a variation of /u/ ([w]) (Hu 1991, Zhao 2001).
Therefore, Chinese speakers tend to pronounce [v] instead of [w] when making an English /v/.
Based on my data, English /v/ is much more frequently mapped into Chinese /u/ ([w]) than /f/.
In addition, English /s/ is not different from Chinese /s/ (Chang 2009, p.24), but
English /s/ can be mapped into Chinese /ʂ/, which is a non-English phoneme. To pronounce
Chinese /ʂ/, the tip of the tongue should be lifted up close to the palate, while when /s/ is
pronounced, the tongue is placed behind the front teeth. Moreover, if the English input is /sɪ/
or /si/, the most faithful mapping is Chinese /ɕi/, since Chinese /s/ forms a syllable not with /i/
(*/si/) but with the apical vowel /ɿ/ (/sɿ/). Thus, Chinese /ɕi/ is perceptually more similar with
English /sɪ/ or /si/ than Chinese /sɿ/. As for English /z/, the voiced counterpart of English /s/,
it can be mapped into Chinese /s/ or /ʂ/ for the same reason as English /s/, since /z/ does not
exist in the Chinese phoneme inventory. However, English /z/ is sometimes adapted into
Chinese /ts/ (Pinyin z), and this mapping seems to be caused by the correspondence between
English orthography and Chinese Pinyin.
English /ʃ/ is usually mapped into Chinese /ɕ/, which is the most similar sound in that
they are voicelessly made between the hard palate and the blade of the tongue (Chang 2009,
12
In Chinese, [±aspirated] is distinctive, and thus some English consonants in Chinese loanword adaptation
show matching between [±voiced] in English and [±aspirated] in Chinese.
9
p.25).13 However, in some cases, English /ʃ/ is adapted into Chinese /ʂ/. This mapping can be
understood by considering that English /ʃ/ is a non-Chinese phoneme and Chinese /ʂ/ is
perceptually similar.14 Also, Chinese /ɕ/ only combines with the vowel /i/ or /y/ (e.g. */ɕa/,
*/ɕu/). Therefore, except for the cases where English /ʃ/ combines with the high front vowels
(i.e. /i/, /ɪ/), Chinese /ʂ/ is more faithfully mapped to English /ʃ/. In addition to English /ʃ/,
English /ʧ/ and /ʤ/ can be mapped into Chinese /ʨʰ/, /ʨ/, /tʂʰ/ and /tʂ/. Chinese /tʂʰ/ or /tʂ/ are
the more faithful mappings for English /ʧ/ or /ʤ/ in many cases (e.g. /ʧa/, /ʤa/, /ʧu/, /ʤu/),
since Chinese /ʨʰ/ and /ʨ/ form a syllable only with the high front vowels (i.e. /i/, /y/).
It is hard for Chinese speakers to distinguish English /l/ and /ɹ/ and they thus tend to
change English /ɹ/ to Chinese /l/.15 In addition, even though Chinese /ɻ/ is perceptually
similar with English /ɹ/,16 Chinese /ɻ/ can combine with only a few Chinese vowels, while
Chinese /l/ can combine with almost all the Chinese vowels. Therefore, it is natural that
Chinese /ɻ/ is more limited in its syllable placement than Chinese /l/ (e.g. /la/, /li/, */ɻa/, */ɻi/ ).
Therefore, in many cases, Chinese /l/ is the most faithful mapping for English /ɹ/.
Based on the discussion above, English consonants in List 1 and 2 are faithfully
mapped into Chinese consonants. The Chinese characters used as phonetic symbols must be
able to show the faithful mappings between English consonants and Chinese consonants in
transcribing English words. For example, English ‘koala’ is adapted into Chinese kǎo-lā 考
拉 [kɑu-la]. English /k/ and /l/ are respectively mapped into Chinese /kʰ/ and /l/ which are
faithful mappings. In addition, English ‘sauna’ is adapted into Chinese sāng-ná 桑拿 [sɑŋ-n
a] where English /s/ and /n/ are faithfully mapped into Chinese /s/ and /n/. English Venus also
shows the faithful consonantal mapping with Chinese Wéi-nà-sī 维纳斯 [wei-na-sɿ].
However, the adaptation of English /k/ in ‘bikini’ does not seem to be faithfully mapped into
Chinese /kʰ/ or /k/, since it is adapted to Chinese bǐ-jī-ní 比基尼 [pi-ʨi-ni]. However, this
should be considered as a faithful mapping which is caused by the native Chinese phonology
13
However, their parts of articulation are different. When /ɕ/ is pronounced, the front part of the blade of the
tongue moves closer to the front of the hard palate, and thus the friction is made closer to the front part than
when English /ʃ/ is pronounced. See He (2002), p.20.
14
English /ʃ/ is different from Chinese /ʂ/, in that the front part of the tongue moves a little toward the hard
palate when English /ʃ/ is pronounced, while the front part of the tongue is flat when Chinese /ʂ/ is pronounced
(Lin 2007, p.46). However, Miao (2005) thinks that the most faithful mapping of English /ʃ/ is Chinese /ʂ/. See
Miao (2005), p.58.
15
See Avery and Ehrlich (1992), p.116.
16
However, many native English speakers pronounce /ɹ/ as a rounded sound, but Chinese speakers, on the
contrary, do not round the lips when pronouncing /ɻ/, but do round the lips when [w] or [u] follows after /ɻ/.
See Lin (2007), p.45-46.
10
(i.e. Chinese palatalization: Velar obstruents → [-back, +high]/ _ [-back, +high] vocoids).17
The Chinese loanword for English ‘bikini’ should find a Chinese character that has a syllable
of /ʨi/ or /ʨʰi/, since there is no Chinese character that has a syllable of /ki/ or /kʰ/.18
Therefore, the adaptation of English ‘khaki’ to Chinese kǎ-jī 咔叽 [kʰa-ʨi] is also treated as
a faithful mapping. In fact, the Chinese characters in List 1 show faithful mappings in the
consonant adaptation; vowel adaptation can also be viewed as perceptually faithful mappings,
since loanword adaptation, in principle, preserves a source language as much as possible,
while simultaneously conforming to a borrowing language’s system. This principle is more
clearly applied to the Chinese characters in List 2, since they transcribe certain English
consonants which are placed in consonant clusters or codas that are not allowed by the
Chinese phonology. To solve the question of how the Chinese characters can most similarly
represent the English consonants, epenthetic vowels need to be discussed. The discussion is
directly related to the question of why some Chinese characters are preferred more than
others to be used as phonetic symbols.
4. Minimal saliency of epenthetic vowels and minimal modification of
source sounds
In the analysis of loanword adaptation, ‘epenthesis’ means that the vowel insertion
conforms to the syllable structure in order to fulfill the minimal qualification of a word.
According to Uffmann (2004), there are three methods to choose the inserted vowel in
loanword adaptation: insertion of a default or unmarked vowel, a copy vowel, or a vowel that
shares the place features of a neighboring consonant. Chinese speakers use the third
strategy,19 and thus the inserted vowel generally shares the place feature of the preceding
consonant. Based on the analyses of my data and as seen in List 2, the characteristics of
Mandarin epenthetic vowels are summarized as follows:
17
See Lin (2007), p.152.
All Chinese syllables must be expressed by Chinese characters and a possible syllable in Chinese cannot be
made if a sound does not have any Chinese character as a written form. In addition, the Chinese writing system
highly limits the possibility of syllable combination. Even though there is a possible segmental combination
which cannot be transcribed with Chinese characters, it should change to a different combination which can be
represented by a Chinese character. See Wu (2006), p.232 and p.245.
19
See Miao (2005), p.124-125.
18
11
List 3. Characteristics of epenthetic vowels in Chinese loanword adaptation
1. Chinese labials (/p, pʰ, f, v, m/) are mostly preserved by inserting the Mandarin
vowel /u/ (or /o/ in just a few cases).
2. Chinese alveolar and velar plosives are generally preserved by inserting the
Mandarin vowel /ɤ/.
3. Chinese non-labial fricatives and affricates are mostly preserved by inserting the
apical vowels (/ɿ, ʅ/), and Chinese palatals are preserved by inserting the Chinese
vowel /i/.
4. Chinese liquids are preserved by being transcribed as the retroflex vowel [ɚ] (/əɹ/).
List 3 can be applied to Chinese phonetic loans almost without exception. This is because the
degree of perceptual similarity will be decreased if the quality of the epenthetic vowel is
different from the quality of the preceding consonant. The only objective for inserting a
vowel is to save the English consonants in consonant clusters or codas. Thus, it needs to be
perceptually non-salient in order to increase the degree of perceptual similarity between the
English words and the Chinese loanwords. Also, it needs to minimally modify English sounds
for the perceptual similarity. For example, English ‘blues’ is adapted into Chinese bù-lù-sī 布
鲁斯 [pu-lu-sɿ]. To be specific, English /lu/ in ‘blues’ is adapted into Chinese lù 鲁 [lu] due
to the faithful mapping of the consonants and vowels. English /b/ and /s/ in ‘blues’ are
adapted respectively to Chinese bù 布 [pu] and sī 斯 [sɿ] in order to conform to the
Chinese syllable structures. The Chinese characters are chosen only to transcribe the English
consonants /b/ and /s/, since they have /u/ and /ɿ/ as the epenthetic vowels. The epenthetic
vowels /u/ and /ɿ/ share the place features of the preceding consonants (i.e. /p/ and /s/). By
doing so, the epenthetic vowels /u/ and /ɿ/ minimize their saliency and simultaneously make
the form of loanword conform to the Chinese syllable structures. The process of choosing
epenthetic vowels can be formulated by using the following constraint ranking.
List 4. The constraints for epenthetic vowels in Chinese loanword adaptation
1. OK-σ: It must satisfy the syllable structure of the borrowing language, including
phonotactic constraints (Yip 2003, Jacob and Guessenhoven 2000). For example, Chinese
syllable structure does not allow any coda consonant except /n/ and /ŋ/.
2. MAX-IO: Every input segment must have a correspondent in the output.
12
3. DEP-IO (V): Any vowel that is not in the input cannot appear in the output.
4. DEP-IO (Place): An epenthetic segment cannot have an independent place feature.20
Table 5. The formulation for epenthetic vowel in the adaptation of English ‘Gap’ to Chinese Gài-pǔ
盖普 [kai-pʰu]
Gap [gæp]
OK-σ
DEP-IO (Place)
MAX-IO
[kai]
DEP-IO (V)
*!
☞ [kai-pʰu]
*
[kai-pʰi]
*!
*
There are some Chinese characters that are preferred as phonetic symbols which fulfill the
requirements discussed in section 3 and 4, e.g., bù 布 [pu], sī 斯 [sɿ], kè 克 [kʰɤ], tè 特 [tʰɤ], dé
德 [tɤ], gé 格 [kɤ], pǔ 普 [pʰu], etc. I argue that they are actual phonetic symbols, since they are
used only to transcribe certain English consonants.
5. Effect of English orthography in the adaptation of English nasal codas
Chinese is a monosyllabic language and a consonant and a vowel cannot arbitrarily combine
to form a syllable or transcribe a certain sound. Either a consonant and a vowel or a consonant, a
vowel and a coda nasal (/n/ or /ŋ/) should behave as a set. In addition, as mentioned earlier, a Chinese
syllable must have a Chinese character. Due to this characteristic of Chinese, certain Chinese
characters are preferred to transcribe certain English syllables. This phenomenon can be found in the
English nasal coda adaptation in Chinese loanwords. Also, this is closely related to English
orthography. Examples are listed below.
List 5. Examples of English nasal coda adaptation in Mandarin loanwords21
20
21
English
Mandarin (Pinyin)
IPA
Character
romance
luó-màn-sī
[lwo-man-sɿ]
罗曼司
Eastman
Yī-sī-màn
[ji-sɿ-man]
伊斯曼
Hamilton
Hàn-mì-ěr-dùn
[xan-mi-əɹ-twən]
汉密尔顿
Lipton
Lì-dùn
[li-twən]
立顿
Tyson
Tài-sēn
[tʰai-sən]
泰森
Epson
Ài-pǔ-shēng
[ai-pʰu-ʂəŋ]
爱普生
Adopted from Miao (2005), p.133.
Examples come from Kim (2012), p.181.
13
Ashland
Ā-shí-lán
[a-ʂʅ-lan]
阿什兰
flannel
fǎ-lán-róng
[fa-lan-ɻuŋ]
法兰绒
Handler
Hàn-dé-lè
[xan-tɤ-lɤ]
汉德勒
Buckingham
Bái-jīn-hàn
[pai-ʨin-xan]
白金汉
Cummings
Kāng-míng-sī
[kʰɑŋ-mjəŋ-sɿ]
康明斯
Fleming
Fú-lái-míng
[fu-lai-mjəŋ]
弗莱明
Browning
Bó-láng-níng
[pwo-lɑŋ-njəŋ]
勃朗宁
Corning
Kāng-níng
[kʰɑŋ-njəŋ]
康宁
Latin
Lā-dīng
[la-tjəŋ]
拉丁
karting
kǎ-dīng
[kʰa-tjəŋ]
卡丁
As seen above, some Chinese characters are used as symbols and only transcribe a particular English
syllable that includes a nasal coda /n/ or /ŋ/. The match between a Chinese character and an English
syllable is clearly based on English orthography. In other words, English syllable ‘-man-’ is usually
adapted into Chinese màn 曼 [man], English syllable ‘-ton-’ into Chinese dùn 顿 [twən], English
syllable ‘-son-’ into Chinese sēn 森 [sən] or shēng 生 [ʂəŋ], English syllable ‘-lan-’ or ‘-land’ into
Chinese lán 兰 [lan], English syllable ‘-han-’ or ‘-ham-’ into Chinese hàn 汉 [xan], English syllable
‘-ming-’ into Chinese míng 明 [mjəŋ], English syllable ‘-ning-’ into Chinese níng 宁 [njəŋ], English
syllable ‘-tin-’ or ‘-ting-’ into Chinese dīng 丁 [tjəŋ], Englisn syllable ‘-ken-’ into Chinese kěn 肯
[kʰən], English syllable ‘-lin-’ or ‘-ling-’ into Chinese lín 林 [lin], English syllable ‘-con-’ or ‘-com-’
into Chinese kāng 康 [kʰɑŋ], English syllable ‘-wen-’ or ‘-win-’ into Chinese wén 温 [wən], English
syllable ‘-kin-,’ ‘-kim-,’ or ‘-gin-’ into Chinese jīn 金 [ʨin], English syllable ‘-bin-’ into Chinese bīn
宾 [pin], English syllable ‘-ben-’ into Chinese běn [pən], etc.22
6. Summary
This study argues that many Chinese characters function as phonetic symbols, losing their
nature as ideographs. This phenomenon was caused by the increase of contact with western countries,
which use alphabetic writing system. Among the languages, English plays a significant role in
creating this phenomenon, since it occupies the predominant position as a source language for
Chinese loanwords. Some particular Chinese characters are used only to transcribe certain English
22
Sometimes, English nasal coda /m/ is also transcribed by a Chinese character which has /n/ or /ŋ/ in the coda,
since Chinese only allows /n/ and /ŋ/ as a coda consonant.
14
consonants or syllables. The most important requirement for a character to be used as a phonetic
symbol is the faithful mapping between English consonants and Chinese consonants. However, some
English consonants can be faithfully mapped into several Chinese consonants due to their perceptual
similarity in addition to the corresponding phonological relationships between English consonants and
Chinese consonants. Especially, non-Chinese English consonants show this tendency. On the other
hand, the faithful mapping of English vowels can be disregarded for the sake of consonantal mapping
in Chinese loanword adaptation, but not vice versa.
To transcribe English consonants in consonant clusters or codas that are not allowed in
Mandarin phonology, a Chinese vowel is inserted. For the perceptual similarity between English
words and Chinese loanwords, the epenthetic vowels should not be salient, since the only objective is
to save an English consonant. Therefore, a vowel which shares the place feature of the preceding
consonant is chosen. This is the best way to maximally decrease the saliency of epenthetic vowel and
simultaneously to minimally modify the English word. Therefore, some Chinese character that fulfill
the requirements discussed above such as bù 布 [pu], sī 斯 [sɿ], kè 克 [kʰɤ], tè 特 [tʰɤ], dé 德
[tɤ], gé 格 [kɤ], pǔ 普 [pʰu] are preferred to be used as phonetic symbols.
Sometimes, English orthography affects the symbolization of Chinese characters. The
adaptation of English nasal codas in Chinese loanwords clearly shows this phenomenon. It is caused
by the fact that Chinese is a monosyllabic language and a consonant and a vowel cannot arbitrarily
form a syllable. Therefore, in order to transcribe certain English syllables that have a nasal coda (i.e.
/n/ or /ŋ/), a consonant, a vowel, and a nasal coda should behave as a set. Also, every Chinese syllable
must be expressed in a Chinese character, and if there is no Chinese character that describes the
syllable, the syllable cannot be established. Due to this characteristic of Chinese, certain Chinese
characters, which are composed of a consonant, a vowel and either /n/ or /ŋ/, are always preferred to
be used for transcription of certain English syllables which have a nasal coda /n/ or /ŋ/.
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