Is Wang's name supposed to be pronounced "Wong"?
April 16, 2008 5:36 PM Subscribe
Can anyone familiar with Taiwanese culture or Mandarin tell me if the Yankees' PR people changed the pronunciation of Chien Ming Wang's surname to "Wong" to prevent penis jokes? Or is it really some fluke of transliteration?
Best answer: Wang (王) is really a common Chinese surname. It is pronounced like English "wong" -- Mandarin doesn't have the English "wang"/"cat" sound.
posted by Utilitaritron at 5:57 PM on April 16, 2008
posted by Utilitaritron at 5:57 PM on April 16, 2008
^ is a really common
posted by Utilitaritron at 5:58 PM on April 16, 2008
posted by Utilitaritron at 5:58 PM on April 16, 2008
Best answer: It should sound sort of like Wong. It has to do with the use of Pinyin for pronunciation. See Wang at Wikipedia for other surnames romanized to Wong. Saying "Wang" to rhyme with "Fang" is like using Peking instead of Beijing, I believe.
posted by acoutu at 6:15 PM on April 16, 2008
posted by acoutu at 6:15 PM on April 16, 2008
It has nothing to do with penis jokes whatsoever, its just Pinyin. The letter e makes a u sound, it's mind blowing.
GO NATS!!!
posted by BobbyDigital at 6:26 PM on April 16, 2008
GO NATS!!!
posted by BobbyDigital at 6:26 PM on April 16, 2008
As far as I know, the English transliterations Wang, Wong, Hwang, Huang, etc. all refer to the same Chinese name Wang.
posted by exphysicist345 at 6:33 PM on April 16, 2008
posted by exphysicist345 at 6:33 PM on April 16, 2008
Best answer: As far as I know, the English transliterations Wang, Wong, Hwang, Huang, etc. all refer to the same Chinese name Wang.
Not quite. Wang and Wong are equivalent, but are being written in different standards of pinyin. Same case with Hwang and Huang.
Saying "the Chinese name Wang" is misleading because Wang is simply pinyin for any number of actual Chinese characters having that actual sound.
posted by roomwithaview at 6:43 PM on April 16, 2008
Not quite. Wang and Wong are equivalent, but are being written in different standards of pinyin. Same case with Hwang and Huang.
Saying "the Chinese name Wang" is misleading because Wang is simply pinyin for any number of actual Chinese characters having that actual sound.
posted by roomwithaview at 6:43 PM on April 16, 2008
Response by poster: Not the result I was hoping for, but I learned something!
(My apologies to anyone who thought the question sounded ignorant. I was a linguistics major, but my concentration was IE and outside of Indo-Iranian, I get progressively more ignorant the further east I look.)
posted by Mayor Curley at 6:52 PM on April 16, 2008
(My apologies to anyone who thought the question sounded ignorant. I was a linguistics major, but my concentration was IE and outside of Indo-Iranian, I get progressively more ignorant the further east I look.)
posted by Mayor Curley at 6:52 PM on April 16, 2008
Actually, Wong is usually transliterated from Cantonese and Wang/Huang/Hwang are from Mandarin. The Cantonese and Mandarin words are the same in writing/meaning but pronounced differently. Remember that "Chinese" is a group of languages, not a single language.
posted by randomstriker at 7:15 PM on April 16, 2008
posted by randomstriker at 7:15 PM on April 16, 2008
It may also be that he's Taiwanese. Taiwan uses a different romanization system from the mainland (I think they don't want to adopt pinyin for ideological reasons or something), so Taiwanese names are often romanized differently. E.g., Mao Tse-tsung (taiwanese) vs. Mao Zedong (pinyin)
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 7:32 PM on April 16, 2008
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 7:32 PM on April 16, 2008
I'm a Mandarin speaker from Taiwan, my last name is Wang, and I understand the nuances of Mandarin-English transliteration - this question was made for me and I was too slow :(
posted by junesix at 11:04 PM on April 16, 2008 [4 favorites]
posted by junesix at 11:04 PM on April 16, 2008 [4 favorites]
I have a coworker whose last name is Huang, pronounced "wahn". It's funnier to say wang though.
posted by electroboy at 7:09 AM on April 17, 2008
posted by electroboy at 7:09 AM on April 17, 2008
It may also be that he's Taiwanese.
He is from Taiwan (T'ai-nan specifically), if that adds to the discussion at all..
posted by jalexei at 8:20 AM on April 17, 2008
He is from Taiwan (T'ai-nan specifically), if that adds to the discussion at all..
posted by jalexei at 8:20 AM on April 17, 2008
The actor who played Harry Kim on Star Trek: Voyager is Garrett Wang, pronounced "Wong."
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:52 AM on April 17, 2008
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:52 AM on April 17, 2008
just nthing that wang is pronounced like wong in english. just in case you're wondering, other confusing possibilities are names like jiang (pronounced jong), xue (pronounced like shoe), liu (Lou), chiang (chong), cheung (chung), hou (hoe)
posted by Soulbee at 12:38 PM on April 17, 2008
posted by Soulbee at 12:38 PM on April 17, 2008
Correcting some inaccuracies:
It is pronounced like English "wong"--
Not really. The "a" sound is pronounced "ah", as in "father". AIFF file.
Saying "Wang" to rhyme with "Fang" is like using Peking instead of Beijing--
One's a mispronunciation, the other's a difference between romanization systems (Wade-Giles vs. pinyin).
Wang and Wong are equivalent, but are being written in different standards of pinyin. Same case with Hwang and Huang.
One's a difference between pronunciations of the same Chinese word in different dialects (Wang is the pronunciation in Mandarin, Wong is the pronunciation in Cantonese). The other's a difference between romanizations (Hwang is Wade-Giles, Huang is pinyin), both Mandarin.
posted by russilwvong at 9:33 PM on April 17, 2008
It is pronounced like English "wong"--
Not really. The "a" sound is pronounced "ah", as in "father". AIFF file.
Saying "Wang" to rhyme with "Fang" is like using Peking instead of Beijing--
One's a mispronunciation, the other's a difference between romanization systems (Wade-Giles vs. pinyin).
Wang and Wong are equivalent, but are being written in different standards of pinyin. Same case with Hwang and Huang.
One's a difference between pronunciations of the same Chinese word in different dialects (Wang is the pronunciation in Mandarin, Wong is the pronunciation in Cantonese). The other's a difference between romanizations (Hwang is Wade-Giles, Huang is pinyin), both Mandarin.
posted by russilwvong at 9:33 PM on April 17, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by adiabat at 5:54 PM on April 16, 2008