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Re:Qian Xuesen: The missile genius America lost and China ga... by stavros on Thursday May 21, 2026 @04:33AM (#48219544)
This is a bit offtopic, but why were those Mandarin sounds transliterated to those letters? Why not "Chian Shuesen"? It's not like Q as CH is intuitive at all.
Re:Qian Xuesen: The missile genius America lost and China ga... by TwoFerMaggie on Thursday May 21, 2026 @07:09AM (#48220695)
What you proposed is very close to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wade%E2%80%93Giles

For an English speaker to be able to pronounce Chinese words, it would certainly be a better system. However, the main purpose of Pinyin is not that, but to indicate pronunciation for native Chinese speakers (most of whom had little exposure to English or other foreign languages when they learned pinyin, of course nowadays it might be different as kids start learning English at a much younger age) and to teach in schools. Using a Latin alphabet so that it's easier to integrate into international systems is a consideration, but never the main goal.

Besides, Chian Shuesen sounds closer but it's still not the same. Approximation has to happen somewhere, and there are already ch-/q- and sh-/x- distinction within pinyin.

Re:Qian Xuesen: The missile genius America lost and China ga... by jph00 on Thursday May 21, 2026 @05:50AM (#48220110)
q and ch both exist in pinyin, and have different sounds. The q sound requires placing the tip of the tongue on the teeth, and isn’t an initial consonant we have in English, so we don’t have a way to spell it.
Re:Qian Xuesen: The missile genius America lost and China ga... by stavros on Thursday May 21, 2026 @05:54AM (#48220145)
Ahh, I see, so it's not "Chian", it's "Tsian"?
Re:Qian Xuesen: The missile genius America lost and China ga... by BigTTYGothGF on Thursday May 21, 2026 @08:49AM (#48221813)
'q' is alveolar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alveolar_consonant. In Wade-Giles it would be "Ch'ian".
Re:Qian Xuesen: The missile genius America lost and China ga... by BigTTYGothGF on Thursday May 21, 2026 @08:43AM (#48221747)
> It's not like Q as CH is intuitive at all.

One gets used to pinyin really quickly.