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HOW to pronounce Beijing correctly

D

djmimi

Guest
I am getting sick and tired of hearing the name of this city mispronounced...it's mispronounced on ADS, it's mispronounced on the NEWS.

Get it straight guys!!

BEIJING

Sounds like BAY (as in rockin the BAY) and JING (not zhing nor zing, Jing as in JINGO) - get it? bay - jing (like jingle bells) Stop with the french pronunciation of jing already...

My dad was born and raised in Beijing, so I know what I am talking about!!
 
An Inland Empire station I worked at in the 80s was a stickler about correct pronunciations when we did the news at the top of the hour. The PD gave all new announcers a list of correct pronunciations of people and cities.

Two that still stick in my mind are Moscow (the memo insisted it be pronounced Moss-co, not Moss-cow), and Rialto (memo said REE-alto, not RYE-alto).

As a result of getting into that habit, I still pronounce those places like the memo said.

Mimi, Bay-jing it is.
 
In my short 60+ years I've heard that city referred to by several names including:

Peiping
Peking
Beijing

I'm not sure if the Chinese themselves know what its name is.

Down hear in the Southwest USA we have a lot of Spanish and Indian names. It would be really nice if the newbie on-air folks, particularly TV, would learn how to pronounce them before making fools of themselves on-air. But hey, we get so little entertainment. The worst assassinations? Probably:

Saguaro (pronounced sa-WAR-oh) ...and
Gila (pronounced (HEE-la)
 
I did a Classical Music stint many years ago and far away and so I had a lot of practice with foreign names. I'll take mimi's word on Bay Jing, because that never came up. I've heard a lot of interesting takes on city and town names around here by local news people, I can forgive the out of towners.

Is my memory fogged or did not the old teletype (clackity clack clack) news copy give a phonetic key for uncommon and foreign words and names back in the AP and UPI wire days?
 
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcb_china/20080611/wl_mcb_china/howtopronouncebeijing

here click on the above link...just to show I'm not crazy. I think the confusion with the news people (esp CNN which is really driving me nuts with the incorrect pronunciation) is that they see the romanized version of beijing spelled Bei Zhing, so they think, ah so, this is the way to pronounce it. Pin Yin (spelling Chinese characters using English letters) is not pronounced the way it looks.

So guys, thanks, if you happen to know any of those guys on CNN or other news outlets, please spread the word. Chinese people are too polite to correct Americans, thinking it's just part of the American accent.
 
djmimi said:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcb_china/20080611/wl_mcb_china/howtopronouncebeijing

here click on the above link...just to show I'm not crazy. I think the confusion with the news people (esp CNN which is really driving me nuts with the incorrect pronunciation) is that they see the romanized version of beijing spelled Bei Zhing, so they think, ah so, this is the way to pronounce it. Pin Yin (spelling Chinese characters using English letters) is not pronounced the way it looks.

So guys, thanks, if you happen to know any of those guys on CNN or other news outlets, please spread the word. Chinese people are too polite to correct Americans, thinking it's just part of the American accent.
Click to expand...

I got it, but to my ear I can see how some might be hearing BEH ZHING. In my days announcing the masters there were a lot of pretentious people would over pronounce the names leading to some weird takes on Richard Wagner and Dimitri Shostakovitch. It is the same thing with the extra zjuh in Beijing.

Thanks for the lesson and rock on.
 
I like it how the media gets these opportunities to seemingly compete with each other on correct pronunciations. Remember back just a few years, it was Al Qaeda? Competing networks were the "authority" on whether it was said Al Kay Dah or Al Kye Dah. I still don't know what the correct one was! Louis Ville, Louie Ville, Low-voll...
 
On the local level, here in central Massachusetts, we have the city of Worcester which newbies always want to pronounce as Wor-chester but it's pronounced as "Wooster". There is no H in it either and people always want to put an H into it.

There is also the city of Leominster (north of Worcester), pronounced "Leminster", that gets pronounced as "Lee-o-minster" and Woburn (correctly: Wooburn) that people pronounce with a long "OH" as "Wo-burn".
 
In my younger days, I spent 10 years at a small NPR classical station.

When I first started, our Fine Arts/Music Director went over all the composers I would be announcing on my first shift. I looked at the list &, being the young, brash person I was, methodically mispronounced every one in front of him. "CHAHP-ihn", for example. He screwed up his face so bad at me, I wondered what would happen first...His face fall off or me kicked out the door. Once on the air, needless to say, I pronounced them all flawlessly.

I also did my share of newscasts, & I remember the daily AP pronouncers list. Working in, & being born & reaised in Wisconsin, I couldn't understand how people could mispronounce these town names. Mazomanie (may-zoh-MAY-nee) & Muscoda (MUSK-eh-day). I knew Muscoda because my dad was born there.
 
A year or two ago, my jaw nearly dropped to the floor when KCOP/13 anchor Lauren Sanchez, an alleged Hispanic, pronounced the Northern California town of San Leandro as "San LEEN-dro". Said correctly, it's "San Lee-Ann-dro". But unless you're an anchor for News Corp., you know that already.
 
RicoGregg said:
A year or two ago, my jaw nearly dropped to the floor when KCOP/13 anchor Lauren Sanchez, an alleged Hispanic, pronounced the Northern California town of San Leandro as "San LEEN-dro". Said correctly, it's "San Lee-Ann-dro". But unless you're an anchor for News Corp., you know that already.
Click to expand...

That's actually not so bad. Many residents of the East Bay slur the name of the town to sound like "Sally-andro." Which is about 35 miles northeast of "Sanazay" (San Jose).

Growing up in LA, the one that used to drive me crazy was La Puente mis-pronounced "La Poo-eny" or even worse, "La Pew-eny.". Even Anglos in Southern California ought to be able to say "La Pwen-tay."

The worst of all was probably LA Mayor Sam Yorty in the 60s and early 70s who pronounced Los Angeles with a hard G, as in the word angle.
 
Remember, there are no cows in Moscow. Of course, there is a town next to Palmdale pronounced "Lan-Caster". However, the one in Kentucky is pronounced "Lank-a-Ster".
 
If you really want mess of visually confusing place names to pronounce, try Washington State/Idaho.

Puyallup (pronounced "PEW-AL-UP")
Pend Oreille (pronounced "POND-ER-AY")
Tukwila (pronounced "TUCK-WILLA", NOT "TUCK-WYLA")
Sequim (pronounced "SKWIM")
Coeur d'Alene (pronounced "CORE-DA-LANE")
Orofino (pronounced "ORO-FEENO")
Cheney (pronounced "CHEE-NEE" NOT "CHAY-NEE")
Winthrop (pronounced "WIN-THRUP" NOT "WIN-THROP or "WINE-THROP")
Tulalip (pronounced "TWO-LAY-LIP")
Mukilteo (pronounced "MUCK-IL-TEE-O")
Naches (pronounced "NACH-EEZ")
Sedro-Woolley (pronounced "SEE-DRO WOOLY")
Latah (pronouced "LAY-TAH"
 
Lkeller said:
The worst of all was probably LA Mayor Sam Yorty in the 60s and early 70s who pronounced Los Angeles with a hard G, as in the word angle.
Click to expand...

Listen to any old radio show or movie from the 30's and 40's and that was how most people pronounced it then.

A real howler was hearing Mel Blanc do the "railroad station" announcement for El A and various foothill cities.
 
landtuna said:
Lkeller said:
The worst of all was probably LA Mayor Sam Yorty in the 60s and early 70s who pronounced Los Angeles with a hard G, as in the word angle.
Click to expand...

Listen to any old radio show or movie from the 30's and 40's and that was how most people pronounced it then.

A real howler was hearing Mel Blanc do the "railroad station" announcement for El A and various foothill cities.
Click to expand...

"Train leaving on Track 9 for Anaheim, Azusa, and Kooook....amunga."
 
radiorob2.0 said:
Remember, there are no cows in Moscow. Of course, there is a town next to Palmdale pronounced "Lan-Caster". However, the one in Kentucky is pronounced "Lank-a-Ster".
Click to expand...

As is the one in Ohio, though more a bit like LANK ASstir, anyone from Pennsylvania for that one?
 
dxer720 said:
Muscoda (MUSK-eh-day). I knew Muscoda because my dad was born there.
Click to expand...

What really confuzzles some people are the regional differences. In Birmingham, that would be pronounced mus-KO-dah.

There's another another section of the B'ham metro, Inverness (INVER-ness), but here in Mississippi the town is in-VER-ness.

Alabama has the community of Lafayette (lah-fay-ET) but the county here is emphasised different: la-FAY-et. We have the towns of Pontotoc (pon-uh-tock, not pon-too-tock), Belzoni (BEL-zon-ah, not bel-ZONE-ee) and the counties of Issaquena (iss-ah-KEY-nah, not iss-ah-KWEE-nah) and Oktibbeha (ok-TIBBE-hah, not ok-tee-BEE-hah). That last one still throws me for a loop.

Last but not least I'll never forget Dan Rather mispronouncing Sylacauga. He said sill-ah-COO-ga instead of sill-ah-CAW-ga. I still chuckle at that.

I've always heard that you're not ready for LA traffic until you correctly say "Sepulveda". What are some other LA names that confuse newbies?
 
In the US we use an Anglecized pronunciation of Chinese words, so how they pronounce Beijing in China is almost irrelevant. We don't call Paris, France, "Par-ee," we don't call Moscow "Mos-ku-va," we don't call Mexico City "Me-hi-co City" (or "Ci-you-dad Me-hi-co").

In regards to what I still think of as Peking, http://www.logoi.com/notes/peking-beijing.html reminds us that neither Peking nor Beijing are the real thing:

"Both the old and new spelling are approximations of the Chinese sound, pronounced something like "pay-cheeng." The same pseudo-change is seen in the name of Nanking which is now written as Nanjing. Or remember the movie Chunking Express? Chunking in mainland China (where it is located anyway) is written as Chongqing -- it is the same thing under different spellings. "

When it comes to pronunciations: when in Rome do as the Romans do.

Or should it be: "When in Roma do as the Romans do?"
 
I really hate to bring this up, but I couldnt stand when Vin Scully used to pronounce former Dodger, Ismael Valdes, as ISH-mael Val-dez! Where the hell did the H come from? Rick Chambers used to pronounce Agua Dulce (Ah-gwah Dool-seh) ... Ah-gwah Dool-che! That one really bugged me. How would you pronounce the steet up in the SF valley, Devonshire...Devon-shy-er or Devon-shir?
 
What is funny is when you look at the word Beijing, instinctively, you SHOULD pronounce it properly.
But some people think it should sound more 'foreign' I think.

The other problem is that it was 'romanized' in PinYin as Bei-zhing. People who are newscasters would look it up on the interenet and say it that way. However, if you know PinYin, the zh sound is pronounced as a j.

sigh...
 
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