Pronunciation of "Cui"

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Francoise Rosset wrote:

> On Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:51:39 -0400
>  Klawa Thresher <kthresher at RANDOLPHCOLLEGE.EDU> wrote:
> 
>> Dear Colleagues,
>>
>> A musician has asked me how to pronounce this composer's name - and
>> specifically if the "C" is soft or hard.  He says that in Chinese the
>> name is pronounced as "Sway."   
> 
> But that doesn't make much sense if his Russian name is Kjui
> K-JU-I, sort of like Q-E as in QE II in English.
> If that name is French, as I've heard it, then it might pronounced
> à la française, which I can't begin to transliterate -- but such names
> acquire an Russian pronunciation anyway.

The usual Russian spelling of this syllable (Pinyin cui = Wade-Giles 
ts'ui) is цуй, indicating that the consonant is hard and voiceless and 
the vowel is not fronted. The corresponding soft syllable would be 
Pinyin qu = Wade-Giles ch'ü = Russian цюй.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrillization_of_Chinese_from_Pinyin>

There are no syllables containing кю- in this system.

The equation cui = цуй is confirmed here:
<http://www.cinemasia.ru/persons/_82/_7/827.html>

> Or is the Russian name really something else??

Assuming it's the very common Chinese name 崔, you can hear a native 
Chinese woman pronounce it here:
<http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/rsc/audio/voice_pinyin_cl/cui1.mp3>

Others more expert in Chinese can say whether "tsway" would be a 
regional dialectal pronunciation (e.g., Cantonese); I cannot.

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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