SEELANGS Digest - 25 Mar 1996 to 26 Mar 1996

[Loren Billings]

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>Sender:       "SEELangs: Slavic & E. European Languages & literatures list"
>              <SEELANGS at CUNYVM.BITNET>
>Poster:       "Franklin A. Sciacca" <fsciacca at itsmail1.hamilton.edu>
>Subject:      Re: SEELANGS Digest - 25 Mar 1996 to 26 Mar 1996
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>>This is interesting.  I (as a speaker of British English) have always
>>felt that the definite article with these country names was
>>obligatory, and its absence from any of them (including the Ukraine)
>>grates on the ear.
>
>Is it not rather easy to get used to a new norm?  Hopefully it will cease
>to grate.  Does anyone say Peking anymore?  We made those shifts (at the
>request of the Chinese Government, if I'm not mistaken) quite readily.
>Frank

I think the reference to Peking is useful, but is distinct from the _the_
issue as well.  Let me give a brief outline of the developments having to
do with the former:

The name of the city was pronounced _Beijing_ (literally:  'north(ern)
capital' --specifically, with an initial aspirated bilabial stop,
transliterated as _b_ in this system, and a medial aspirated affricate,
transliterated as _j_ (this romanization is itself a polital statement,
since this system, known as pinyin, is the one used by Mainland China; I
leave off the tones).  The spelling _Peking_ is apparently the
approximation based on the untrained ear of Englishmen (as this story was
told to me).  Thus, _Peking_ is a crude approximation of _Beijing_; the _p_
is not that far off, since voicing is not distinctive in Han Chinese (cf.
_Taipei_, the spelling used by Nationalists in Taiwan, and the
corresponding pinyin spelling _Taibei_).

As I understand it, when the Nationalists took over the country, the
capital was moved to _Nanjing_ (AKA _Nanking_) 'south capital'.  The
Nationalists did not want to continue to call _Beijing_ a "capital", so
they re-named it _Peping_ (pinyin _Beiping_) 'north(ern) *beauty*'.  If I'm
not mistaken, the Nationalists still refer to this city as _Peping_ (and
continue, for now, to consider _Nanking_ to be the capital of the Republic
of China--temporarily occupied by Communist renegades).

As a compramise, westerners seem to spell the the place names
pragmatically:  _Beijing_ and _Taipei_ (not _Peking_ and _Taibei).
Confused yet?  You should be.  The issue of articles in _(the) Ukraine_ is
quite different (and simpler).  Ukrainian does not have articles yet
English speakers are asked not to use them.  I, for one, agree that using
_the_ lends a meaning of less-than-nation status to this place name.
Still, it is odd that speakers of a language without articles are telling
speakers of article-rich languages how to use articles, isn't it?

Loren A. Billings
Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics
Florida State University
362 Diffenbaugh Building
Tallahassee, FL 32302-1020

Office Fax:    (904)644-0524
Office phone:  (904)644-8391
Home phone:    (904)224-5392

billings at mailer.fsu.edu