[Ads-l] chau, tam-tam, wind and tiger gongs

[Benjamin Barrett]

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gong) says that the chau gong (or tam-tam gong) is the type of gong most familiar to Westerners, but doesn’t give the origin of the word “chau.”

According to the KlingMusic website (http://www.klingmusic.com.hk/rental.html), it is Chinese, 抄鑼, the first having In Mandarin the pronunciation of “chāo” according to Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/抄). 

The KlingMusic website also has 虎鑼 for tiger gong. 

It also has “Wing Gong” which appears to be an error for “Wind Gong” as the Chinese is 風鑼. Back to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gong), it says that the wind gong is also known as the feng/lion gong. As 風 is read fēng in Mandarin and fung1 in Cantonese (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/風) that would seem to be the origin of “feng.”

All of these Chinese words can be found in Google Images. The Oxford Dictionary site doesn’t have these types of gongs, but does have “gong” and “tam-tam."

As to “tam-tam,” Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tam-tam) denies it as a flat (i.e., without a knob) gong that is struck with a felt-covered hammer, and the Oxford Dictionary site (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/tam-tam) says it is “a large metal gong with indefinite pitch,” the word originating in the mid-nineteen century perhaps from the Hindi "ṭam-ṭam.”

Wiktionary (https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/tam-tam) says that “tam tam” means either gong or drum and that the word is onomatopoeic in origin. Le dictionnaire Littré (http://www.littre.org/definition/tam-tam) also says the word is onomatopoeic and has a citation from 1804 and I think says that it’s a Chinese instrument used as early as 1791.

Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA

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