A query on translation

[pynchonoid]

> I Ching is pronounced 'yee jing.'

Not necessarily.  It depends on the regional dialect
used by a particular Chinese speaker. Literate Chinese
read the same language, but pronunciation varies
according to dialect (there are several major dialect
groups, including "Mandarin", Cantonese, Sichuan,
etc.; regional differences in the oral language are
often significant). Things get even more confusing
when Chinese is romanized because several different
systems have been used to represent Chinese characters
with the Latin alphabet. 

Pynchon's pun doesn't require any specialized
knowledge of Chinese, building as it does on the
romanized spelling and American pronunciation of the
word. 

-Doug

__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo
http://search.yahoo.com