HOW to pronounce Beijing correctly

[djmimi]

"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. "

where did you get THAT? That's ALL wrong. I speak Chinese, remember? The B sound in Beijing is the same B sound in English.
They changed all the spellings because they were all wrong. There are several different systems of romanizations for the Chinese Characters. Wade Giles vs. Pin Yin systems are both inexact anyways.

 

[LKellerIII]

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...

I've noticed that pronunciations of foreign cities and countries tend to follow fashion, and change frequently...especially among news reporters. When the nation of Qatar started getting high visibility in the news a decade or so ago, they always pronounced in "Ka-TAR" (emphasis on last syllable). Then, a few years ago, it flipped to "KA-ter," (emphasis on first syllable, as in 'Welcome Back, Kotter.'

I heard an interview once with the Emir of Qatar (the King, more or less), and he pronounced it with equal emphasis on both syllables. But in English (and most European languages), we're used to putting emphasis on just one syllable.

 

[nmoore6676]

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...

Now you have it, it is the attempt of somewhat officious people wanting to make it sound more exotic. Sort of the you say toe MAY toe, I say toe MAH toe controversy as it was said in the old song.

Also it is the attempt to make the 26 letters of the roman alphabet represent all of the sounds made in human speech. As for seeing it and instinctively knowing how to say it nobody is taught that way, as I was in school. A lot of how we speak is based on how we hear things which accounts for a lot of the regional variations. Some of that comes from where our great grandparents came from. Finally there was the relative isolation of the 18th and 19th centuries where in this country people would settle in groups in areas where they might not hear any outside people talking. Thus a lot of the idiosyncrasies intensified.

I would assume that from your last name you should have a bit more sensitivity to the Asian languages. In any event I caught part of your shift yesterday morning and however you want to pronounce words you'll still sound great on the air.

 

[djmimi]

I would assume that from your last name you should have a bit more sensitivity to the Asian languages. In any event I caught part of your shift yesterday morning and however you want to pronounce words you'll still sound great on the air.

That is a nice thing to say!
I actually have massacred the queen's english on more than one occasion, so I am no paragon of great pronunciation, lol.

 

[ListeningUP]

It's 'BAY-JING' - the way I hear/say it

 

[LKellerIII]

It's 'BAY-JING' - the way I hear/say it

Mimi is right though...most of the Olympics announcers are saying Bay-Zhing.

 

[JustPastBuffalo]

I landed on this thread after vacationing and visiting my brother and good friends last week in So-Cal. Sunny and 80 all week. Yeah, I know, it never rains in Southern California.

Nice thread, Mimi. Thanks for the heads-up on Bay-Jing. Also liked the contributions from posters from cities across the US.

While visiting L-A and driving the PCH, 5 and 405 (like a "local," I might add) and coming to realize that thew group America totally convoluted Freeway in the song "Ventura Highway," I spent time listening people speak to each other personally. Not surprised that I heard lots of accents from all over the world. The woman in front of us at the check out line at Ralph's down the street from Pepperdine was from Lake Geneva, Switzerland. Two people back of us, was a guy from Oklahoma City. The check out guy was Hispanic and the bagger was African American. Everybody was friendly and yeah, I'll admit, I was surprised. Guess they didn't hold my "tourista" look against me.

I mentioned that I planned to vicit the Getty Villa. The lady from Lake Geneva said, "You'll love the Get-TEE, it's so byute-ef-full." The guy from Oklahoma City overheard the conversation and chimed in, "Ah tuhk the FAM-lee to the Geyet-ee last week and it was fantasstick... never seen anything liyik it, even in Teck-suss."

Then there were the two 20-something women walking in front of us at the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. In what could be described as total California-speak, one says to the other, "I mean, like, I know I'm beautiful, but I'm not model beautiful."
Randy Newman and Frank Zapa would have rolled their eyes.

Dialects in the United States tend to provincially flavor even English words, so it's easy to understand how complex foreign words like Bay-Jing get warped into Bay-Zhing. Don't even think about Mandarin or Cantonese dialects.

Even the media mavens get into the act because let's face it, they're from all over and they're not perfect (although we expect them to be.) Let's not even flash back to the days of Mao Tse-Tung (Mow Zay Dung, Mao Zay Dong, Mow Say-Tongue?)

If you ever come to Buffalo (don't laugh, despite So-Cal theories to the contrary, it doesn't snow in July and it's a pretty cool city... you could eat and drink for a week for what it costs you for one night in L-A) you might want to call it "BUFF-low." Though that's not correct, the folks in the First Ward, the cabbies at the airport and the hotel in Cheektowaga will appreciate it. BTW, that's Cheek-toe-WAH-gah (neighborhood variation: CHICK-toe-wah-gah.) After you master those names, try Scajaquada (Skah-JACK-wid-ah) and Tonawanda (Tahn-ah-WAHN-dah.) And try to flat your "A's" so the word "car" sounds like "care."

America truly is a meltic pot of cultures and regional dialects. It's what makes the language interesting, if occasionally incorrect. Thanks for the pronunciation guide.

JPB

 

[djmimi]

RESULTS!!

I have been furiously emailing everyone I know for the past two days. Yesterday, I realized that I knew one of the news producers at NBC, so I emailed him.
Jack Popejoy at KFWB just emailed me this:

"FLASH! Brian Williams opened NBC Nightly News from "Bay-zhing", and 14
minutes into the half hour he came out of a commercial break saying
"Bay-Jing". And stayed with that."

YAAAAY!!!! the internet is so cool...

And yeah, I know there's much bigger things to stress about, but since I can't fix the oil crisis or pollution, aside from trying not to drive too much or recycling everything, well...sometimes trying to fix something little can be satisfying.

 

[LKellerIII]

RESULTS!!...And yeah, I know there's much bigger things to stress about, but since I can't fix the oil crisis or pollution, aside from trying not to drive too much or recycling everything, well...sometimes trying to fix something little can be satisfying.

I disagree, Mimi. The bar has been raised, you're a major market star now. We're expecting you to come up with solutions for the oil crisis and pollution. We'll give you two more weeks.

 

[nmoore6676]

RESULTS!!...And yeah, I know there's much bigger things to stress about, but since I can't fix the oil crisis or pollution, aside from trying not to drive too much or recycling everything, well...sometimes trying to fix something little can be satisfying.

I disagree, Mimi. The bar has been raised, you're a major market star now. We're expecting you to come up with solutions for the oil crisis and pollution. We'll give you two more weeks.

And your own campaign video, cmmon! If Paris can, you surely can, you have talent. ;D

 

[djmimi]

LOL
clowns