Postby Flaminius » Sun Apr 17, 2005 10:24 am
No, it's more like "chin kaN." (In my favourite simplified phonetic notation a capital N of course means a syllabic/moraic N, which is uvular nasal in coda positions.) Aggh, this doesn't make things look better. If I am to cite Asahi's "Chin Kan" transliteration (this is quite likely since this is the closest I could get usually), dignified Sinologists on the Agora would be spending futile hours to find out whom I am referring to.
As always Japanese will be continued to be plagued with scarecity of phonemes and syllables. We will be eternally confusing kan with kang and kang with kam. I saw several video clips from Chinese cities when the demonstrators showted, "愛国無罪! (when motivated by patriotic intent, misdemeanours should be taken light of; in itself a sinister contradiction)" It sounded to me exactly like it was uttered in Japanese (aikoku muzai) and, though awkward in its tersity, made perfect sense in Japanese language or a cultural background that provides a common ground for North East Asian countries.
I have been thinking of Henri's proposal in relation to Professor Shirakawa's (the kanji man, I've told you all) opinion that Kanji/Confucianism/North East Asian cultural commonwealth has been torn asunder since Imperial Japan, instead of moving to promote common prosperity, took advantage of less-Westernised neighbours. As a semi-deserter from linguistics camp, I would be most delighted if the region I live in would experience unification process assisted by kanji revival. If getting familiar with Chinese readings could correct my wrongdoings that led me to my 'desertation,' I can be quite handily redeemed. English will no doubt remain a key language there as with any other regions but Kanji or Chinese holding some local influence in the Global Village would be a nice thing to see.
Oh before I proceed to my meaningless blather any longer, some hard observations.
1. Asahi has been indicating original readings of Chinese personal names printed in their newspaper at least since the latter half of 2004 (As an avid Mainichi reader, my observation may not be that accurate).
2. Asahi, which is the only likely major newspaper to have the audacity to do this, does not implement their "foreign kanji" policies uniformly. On the website Henri kindly undertook to provide for us, I spotted several cases of 秦剛副局長 referred to without furigana (reading help provided on top of Japanese texts). I never came across a place name of China with furigana.
3. In the entertainment world Chinese actors (automatically including actresses), singers and so forth have long been mentioned by their Chinese pronunciations only. Finding their kanji names is rather becoming difficult these days. Sports players get more various treatment. I notice they are referred by the Japanese pronunciations of their names in occasions when national pride is at stake (like Olmplic games).
4. In the early 90s, when I was a highschool student, the history textbook my school used listed two readings for important people in modern Chinese history (e.g., 毛沢東, Moo Takutoo, Mao Zedung). I don't know if this is still the case for textbook censorship conducted with another embellished name by the Ministry of State Education and Science has undergone several reforms since then.
Before our neighours expressed their animosity rather fervently to our country this month, I was a bit worried if introducing Chinese readings to Japanese publications would debilitate the position of Kanji as they are used in our language system to link Ancient Chinese culture to ours. Such a change looked like arrogance similar to forcing every Italian to call Cologne Koln, every Englishman to call Bombay Mumbai, every Greek to call Alexandreia Iskandariyya and every Spaniard to call Carlo Charles.
A sober causation inquiry into the recent spiral of nationalisms between China and Japan has made it clear to me that the whole thing is based on negative reciprocity. The leader of one state struts as a bold character by frequenting a religious institution for unconstitutional reasons for four straight years. The leadership of the other
government decides it's time to give a lesson, partly motivated by 60-year-old vengeance. The gullible part of the two (or three, or four if you count in South and North Koreas) countries start to think it is patriotic to spit out hatred at each other on the 'Net, on the streets, etc. As a result, all the sides end up thinking they will not back down until the other side takes the initiative.
This is buck-passing. This is being right in a wrong place. This is Cold War mentality. This is kiss of death. The only solution is that we make the first move to open up. I now feel the same strategy viable in the linguistic arena. Japanese language should retain Chinese character of things Chinese as well as incorporating their readings as much as practical. Chinese may or may not reciprocate this. Either way, Japanese will get a fresh boost so as to continue on its way of corruption, development or simply escape from extinction.
Flam