A query on translation

[bekalex]

At 11:18 AM -0700 4/16/03, s~Z wrote:
>  >>>American pronunciation of the word.<<<
>
>Humorous watching you go from saying there is no single Chinese
>pronunciation of the word to suggesting there is an 'American
>pronunciation.' On the Metrorail I hear Americans pronouncing it eye ching,
>eye jing, ee ching, ee jing, and yee jing, depending on many demographic
>factors.
>How is the pun captured in non-English translations?


A few years ago a group I belong to was enquiring as to how to 
translate some of our pamphlets, etc. into Chinese. I asked if we 
would have to have different versions for different dialects.

The reply was no, all Chinese writing uses the same characters to 
mean the same things. Different dialects just have different spoken 
words for the same symbol. They all read the same "Little Red 
Book."There are no versions of it. I suppose it's like people in the 
1920's from Alabama, Jersey, and Minnesota reading passages to each 
other. They would be looking at the same words, meaning the same 
thing using the same language (!) and not understand each other. (lol)

So the reason for the different American pronunciations is that the 
Chinese themselves have different pronunciations. (But, how can we be 
"authentic" in such a relative situation?) (g)

If we were to devise a universal, graphic, non-phonetic character for 
I Ching, we could all read it the way we wanted to and the Americans 
would also simply have their own "authentic" calling(s) on it.

Becky