}{C O P Y)
Minute by Mr. C. Clementi.
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3548166
RECS
REGS 26 SEF 06.
These so-called transliterations like all trans-
literations of Chinese which I have ever seen (except one
inwonted by the Chinese themselves in which they publish
a newspaper in the North) are a somplete failure.
The con-
demnation of them all is this, that given a man who knows
Chinese well (given oven a Chinese who has also a thorough knowledge of European languages), mring plased in his
bands
of a locality with which he is not familiar,
(the range on hm ung boing in those transliterations), he
will not be able to pronounce the names of the villages or
tomme er nok his wợ to them. These transliterations are to
all intents and purposes the same as Chinese characters:
when you hare learned how to pronounce then, well and good;
but the primary characters give ne slue to their pronuncia-
$$om.
idro is the further objection that the dialeet
chosen is Pekingess, and that into some resemblance of
Pekingson sounds all plase momos in the Highteen Provinces
to be transliterated. The result is a discrepancy fully
as great se hetmoon Cologne and Köln: or in extreme cases
Maemo and ( Mum. For instance, the village near the tunnel
locally pronounced Kùng Kou will be written Ching K'ou, and another village salled loanlly Pak Shair X'im will be writt-
sm Pai Shih Dh'ino.
The only monna of unking those mps useful to a
trave?lor would be to print in all cases the Chinese sha- rusters as well as the transliteration. Otherwise an inter- preter (komever good) attempting from the mng to obtain inforamtion as te routes from local villagers, ste. will find his task extremely difficulty.
difficulty. I have again and again suffered from ouch difficulty when travelling both in North and South China: and have chiefly for that reason given up