03.06.10: Language : : Writing Chinese in Devanagari
It has been six weeks in Hangzhou, China. This has given me enough time to decipher the Mandarin language. Mainland China uses Simplified Chinese. Chinese cannot be transliterated but only transcribed. What makes Chinese so different are the following facts:
- There is no concept of vowels (a,e,i,o,u) or consontants. It's all about initials, finals and tones.
- The same character can correspond to two (or more) different sounds. For example, 言 can be transcribed as yán or yín or yàn
- The same sound can correspond to two (or more) different characters. For example, tā can be written as 他 or 她 or 踏
Here, I have come up with a scheme to pronounce Chinese as closely as possible by the Indian tongue. It's easy because Indian languages (say Hindi or Kannada) are "phonetic" -- we pronounce the way we write. One letter, one sound.
The rest of the article assumes that you have some knowledge of Pinyin, Devanagari, International Phonetic Alphabet, Vedic Accent, Sanskrit phonology and Mandarin phonology. Read on full article here !
Here is an example of how I decipher it:
Chinese version:
汉学的名称对中国有一点不尊敬的意味。我们听说有印度学、埃及学、汉学，而没有听说有希腊学、罗马学，更没有听说有英国学、美国学。汉学这个名称完全表示欧美学者对那些已经沉沦的古老国家的文化的一种轻看的态度。
Pinyin version:
"Hànxué" de míngchēng duì Zhōngguó yǒu yìdiǎn bùzūnjìng de yìwèi. Wǒmen tīngshuō yǒu "Yìndùxué," "Āijíxué," "Hànxué," ér méiyǒu tīngshuō yǒu "Xīlàxué," "Luómǎxué," gèng méiyǒu tīngshuō yǒu "Yīngguóxué," "Měiguóxué." "Hànxué" zhèige míngchēng wánquán biǎoshì Ōu-Měi xuézhě duì nàxiē yǐjing chénlún de gǔlǎo-guójiā de wénhuà de yìzhǒng qīngkàn de tàidù.
Devanagari version (no tones):
हन्श्यॊऍ त मिङ्थ्षङ् तुय् त्षुङ् क्वॉ यो यित्यॆन् पुत्स्यॅचिङ् त यी वे । वॉम॰न् तिङ्ष्वा योव् यिन्तूश्यॊऍ ऐचीश्यॊऍ हन्श्यॊऍ ॰र् मेयो तिङ्ष्वा यो शीलाश्यॊऍ ल्वॉमाश्यॊऍ गङ् मेयो तिङ्ष्वा यो यिङ्ग्वॉश्यॊऍ मेग्वॉश्यॊऍ । हन्श्यॊऍ त्षेक मिङ्थ्षङ् वन्छ्वुअन् ब्याव्षी ओमे श्यॊऍत्ष तुय् नाश्यिए यीचिङ् थ्षन् ल्यॅन् त कूलाव् क्वॉच्या त वँೱवा त यीत्षुङ् छिङ्खन् त थैतु ।
Translation:
The term "Sinology" carries a slight overtone of disrespect towards China. One hears of "Indology," "Egyptology" and "Sinology," but never "Graecology" or "Romology"—let alone "Anglology" or "Americology." The term "Sinology" epitomizes European and American scholars' patronizing attitude towards the culture of those ruined ancient empires.
Conversion to Pinyin is accomplished by Google Translate (Be sure to click the "Show Romanization" button). I have created the initial PDF version of the document here. Click to download . When I find time, I will convert it to HTML.
I use Vedic accent marks to denote Chinese tones, combining ligatures to denote sounds not present in Sanskrit. The concept was inspired by Bopomofo, from which I borrowed the idea.
Posted by: bdsatish Category: Languages
