idnits 2.17.1 draft-deng-chinese-names-06.txt: Checking boilerplate required by RFC 5378 and the IETF Trust (see https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info): ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- No issues found here. Checking nits according to https://www.ietf.org/id-info/1id-guidelines.txt: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- No issues found here. Checking nits according to https://www.ietf.org/id-info/checklist : ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- No issues found here. Miscellaneous warnings: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- == The copyright year in the IETF Trust and authors Copyright Line does not match the current year -- The document date (September 17, 2020) is 1314 days in the past. Is this intentional? Checking references for intended status: Informational ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- No issues found here. Summary: 0 errors (**), 0 flaws (~~), 1 warning (==), 1 comment (--). Run idnits with the --verbose option for more detailed information about the items above. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 Network Working Group H. Deng 3 Internet-Draft Z. Cao 4 Intended status: Informational Huawei 5 Expires: March 21, 2021 September 17, 2020 7 Pronouncing and Using Chinese Personal Names 8 draft-deng-chinese-names-06 10 Abstract 12 This document gives general rules for how to pronounce Mandarin 13 Chinese names in conversation, and how to determine which name is 14 someone's surname. It also covers some other related topics about 15 Chinese names. The intent is to allow IETF participants who are not 16 familiar with Chinese to communicate better with Chinese 17 participants. 19 Status of This Memo 21 This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the 22 provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. 24 Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering 25 Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute 26 working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet- 27 Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/. 29 Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months 30 and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any 31 time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference 32 material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." 34 This Internet-Draft will expire on March 21, 2021. 36 Copyright Notice 38 Copyright (c) 2020 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the 39 document authors. All rights reserved. 41 This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal 42 Provisions Relating to IETF Documents 43 (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of 44 publication of this document. Please review these documents 45 carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect 46 to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must 47 include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of 48 the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as 49 described in the Simplified BSD License. 51 Table of Contents 53 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 54 2. Pronouncing Chinese Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 55 2.1. Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 56 2.2. Introduction to the Pinyin System . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 57 2.3. Pronouncing Pinyin Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 58 2.3.1. Pronouncing the Initial Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 59 2.3.2. Pronouncing the Final Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 60 2.3.3. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 61 3. Using Chinese Personal Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 62 4. Difference Between Written and Spoken Order . . . . . . . . . 8 63 5. Women's Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 64 6. Inferring Gender from Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 65 7. Use of English Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 66 8. Writing the Four Tones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 67 9. Using Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 68 10. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 69 11. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 70 12. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 71 13. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 72 Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 74 1. Introduction 76 In typical conversations in the IETF, people's names are used 77 heavily. In face-to-face meetings, people will speak about other 78 participants by name both formally and informally ("Mr. Smith 79 says..." or "Bob says..."), and the same is true about how people 80 sometimes refer to each other on working group mailing lists. Most 81 times, people want to use other people's names correctly, to be both 82 more precise and more polite. 84 The number of Chinese participants in the IETF, both in face-to-face 85 meetings and on mailing lists, has greatly increased in recent years. 86 Many non-Chinese participants have a difficult time knowing how to 87 pronounce a Chinese name that they encounter on a mailing list, RFC, 88 or name badge. In fact, many people don't know how to tell which of 89 the two names in a printed Chinese name is the surname and which is 90 the personal name. And yet most people want to be able to use each 91 others' names correctly. 93 This document covers general rules for Mandarin Chinese names. The 94 rules are widely applicable, especially to those whose names are 95 based on the pinyin romanization. The rules do not necessarily 96 apply, however, to Cantonese, Hakka, or the dialects native to Taiwan 97 or Shanghai. They also do not apply to non-Han ethnic groups, even 98 where those ethnicities use romanizations based on pinyin. 100 There are many other documents that cover similar material, such as 101 [ChineseNames]. Also, this document mostly discusses Chinese 102 personal names, but the pronunciation section applies to Chinese 103 company names as well. It is hoped that this document makes typical 104 communications between non-Chinese and Chinese in the IETF easier and 105 more natural. 107 2. Pronouncing Chinese Names 109 2.1. Background 111 Nearly all Chinese people normally spell their names with Han 112 characters, which are non-phonetic ideographic characters. However, 113 many Chinese people also spell their names using Latin characters. 114 Converting Han characters to Latin character equivalents is called 115 romanization [Romanize]. 117 Non-Chinese speakers seeing the romanized spelling of Chinese names 118 often have a difficult time pronouncing them correctly. The 119 essential problem is that there have been two major standards for 120 romanization from Chinese. An older system, "Wade-Giles", was widely 121 used until the "pinyin" system was adopted in the mid-1960s, but 122 pinyin is now much more common. This document focuses on pinyin 123 spellings [Pinyin]. 125 2.2. Introduction to the Pinyin System 127 Pinyin is the official phonetic system for transcribing the sound of 128 Chinese characters into Latin script in China. It is often used to 129 teach Standard Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign 130 publications and may be used as an input method to enter Chinese 131 characters (Hanzi) into computers. "Pinyin" literally means 132 "spelled-out sounds." 134 Pinyin was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised 135 several times. The International Organization for Standardization 136 adopted pinyin as the international standard in 1982. 138 Note that there are many ways to learn to pronounce Chinese words. 139 Some methods are tailored for English speakers, many others are 140 tailored for other languages. There are numerous resources online 141 for those who want to explore beyond what is given here. 143 2.3. Pronouncing Pinyin Words 145 This section describes a simple way to pronounce a syllable in 146 pinyin. The basic steps are to divide the pinyin syllable into an 147 initial sound and a final sound, and combine the two sounds together. 149 The examples of the sounds are all from spoken American English. Of 150 course, there are variations in that, but it is maybe the most 151 recognizable to readers of this document. Also, there are many 152 regional variations in China on pronunciation of some of the sounds, 153 so these tables cannot be considered definitive. 155 Spoken Chinese also has tones (shifts in pitch) within a syllable. 156 The four main tones of Chinese are first tone (even), second tone 157 (rising), third tone (down then up), and fourth tone (falling). 158 These four tones are used to clarify the meanings of words. Since 159 many characters have the same sound, tones are used to differentiate 160 words from each other. The tones are sometimes difficult to learn, 161 just as it is often difficult for non-native speakers of many 162 languages to learn intonations and pitches. Many non-Chinese 163 speakers just pronounce all syllables with the first tone (even). 165 2.3.1. Pronouncing the Initial Sound 167 The following table lists the initial sounds. 169 Pinyin | English approximation 170 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 171 b | unaspirated "p", as in "spit" 172 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 173 p | strongly aspirated "p", as in "pit" 174 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 175 m | as in English "mummy" 176 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 177 f | as in English "fun" 178 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 179 d | unaspirated "t", as in "stop" 180 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 181 t | strongly aspirated "t", as in "top" 182 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 183 n | as in "nit" 184 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 185 l | as in "love" 186 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 187 g | unaspirated "k", as in "skill" 188 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 189 k | strongly aspirated "k", as in "kill" 190 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 191 h | as in "hay" 192 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 193 j | no equivalent in English; like "ge" in garage 194 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 195 q | no equivalent in English; like "pun*ch y*ourself" 196 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 197 x | no equivalent in English; like "wi*sh y*ou" 198 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 199 zh | like "ch" (a sound between "*ch*oke" and "*dr*ew", but 200 | with the tip of the tongue curled more upwards 201 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 202 ch | as in "chin", but with the tongue curled upwards; similar 203 | to "nur*tu*re" in English, but more strongly aspirated 204 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 205 sh | as in "shoe", but with the tongue curled upwards; similar 206 | to "marsh" in American English 207 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 208 r | similar to the "z" in "azure" and the "r" in "reduce" 209 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 210 z | similar to something between "su*ds*" and "ca*ts*" 211 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 212 c | like the "ts" in "cats" 213 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 214 s | as in "sun" 215 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 216 w | as in "water" 217 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 218 y | as in "yes" 219 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 221 Figure 1: Pronouncing Pinyin Initials 223 2.3.2. Pronouncing the Final Sound 225 Final sounds are generally more difficult to pronounce than initial 226 sounds. But unlike English where there are often many ways to 227 pronounce a final (such as the "ough" sound in "cough" and "rough" 228 and "though" "through"), final sounds in Chinese are more regular. 230 Pinyin | English approximation 231 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 232 a | as "a" in "father" 233 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 234 i | as "ee" in "see" 235 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 236 e | as "er" in "her" 237 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 238 ai | similar to "eye", but a bit lighter 239 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 240 ei | as "ey" in "hey" 241 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 242 ao | approximately as "ow" in "cow"; the "a" is much more 243 | audible than the "o" 244 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 245 ou | as in "so" 246 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 247 an | as "on" in "con" 248 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 249 en | as "en" in "taken" 250 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 251 ang | as "ong" in "monger" 252 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 253 eng | like in "en" above with "g" added 254 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 255 er | similar to the sound of "ar" in "bar" 256 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 257 ia | as "ya" in "yard" but with a brighter beginning 258 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 259 ie | as "ye" in the slang "yep" but with a brighter beginning 260 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 261 iao | similar to the slang "yow" but with a brighter beginning 262 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 263 iu | similar to the slang "yo" but with a brighter beginning 264 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 265 ian | similar to "yen" but with a brighter beginning 266 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 267 iang | like "ian" above with a "g" added 268 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 269 in | as "een" in "seen" 270 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 271 ing | as in "sing" 272 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 273 u | as "oo" in "soon" 274 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 275 v | Like the vowel in French "tu" or German "suess", 276 | produced by placing the tongue as for the "i" vowel 277 | while rounding the lips as for the "u" vowel. 278 | More commonly displayed as "ü" 279 | Since 2012, appears in Chinese passports as "yu" 280 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 281 ua | as "wa" as in "water" but with the "w" lighter 282 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 283 uo | as in "woe", but with the "w" lighter and the "o" shorter 284 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 285 uai | as in "why" but with the "w" lighter 286 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 287 ui | as in "way" but with the "w" lighter 288 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 289 uan | as in "wan" but with the "w" lighter 290 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 291 un | as in "won" but with the "w" lighter 292 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 293 uang | as in "wrong" without the "r" and the "w" lighter 294 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 295 ong | starts with the vowel sound in "book" and ends with the 296 | nasal sound in "sing" 297 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 299 Figure 2: Pronouncing Pinyin Finals 301 2.3.3. Examples 303 One of the authors of this document has the first name "Zhen" and the 304 last name "Cao". For the first name, divide "Zhen" into initial "zh" 305 and final "en", looking them up in Figure 1 and Figure 2, 306 respectively. From the tables, "zh" pronounces like "ch", and "en" 307 follows its pronunciation in "taken". "Cao" is broken into "c" and 308 "ao". Another of the authors has the first name "Hui" and the last 309 name "Deng". "Hui" can be divided into "h" (initial) and "ui" 310 (final), while "Deng" is divided into "d" and "eng". (The third 311 author's name is not in pinyin, of course.) 313 3. Using Chinese Personal Names 315 In China, when giving somebody's full name, usually his or her family 316 name is put first, and the given (personal) name last. One of the 317 Chinese authors of this document has the given name "Hui" and the 318 family name "Deng", and the other Chinese author has the given name 319 "Zhen" and the family name "Cao"; when one speaks of them in China, 320 they say "Deng Hui" and "Cao Zhen". 322 Almost all family names have only one Chinese character, with only a 323 few having two characters. For given names, however, both one- 324 character names and two-character names are common. 326 Thus, most Chinese people's names have two to three Chinese 327 characters (although a few people's names have four characters). 328 When saying the name of someone whose name has two characters, it is 329 normal to say both names, with the family name first. However, when 330 saying the name of someone whose name has three or more characters in 331 informal conversation, it is normal to only say the given name. 333 For example, "Hui Deng" has two characters, and in China is normally 334 called "Deng Hui". Another example would be a name such as "Xiaodong 335 Duan". This is a name of three characters ("Xiaodong" is the given 336 name and has two characters, and "Duan" is the family name and has 337 one character). In this case, Chinese people speaking his name in 338 informal conversation would normally omit family name, and just call 339 him by using his given name, Xiaodong. 341 If people are not familiar with each other, or are introducing each 342 other for the first time, it is common to use the full name, 343 regardless of the number of syllables. 345 As a side note, the discussion above points out a problem with IETF 346 protocols that only have one field for a person's name, instead of 347 multiple fields for given name, family name, and so on. A Chinese 348 person has to decide which order to put their name in the single 349 field: the order they would normally put them in China, or an order 350 they hope will help non-Chinese correctly identify the given and 351 family names. Future revisions of these protocols might allow for 352 better distinctions in the names of people who do not follow the 353 European customs of "given name comes first". 355 4. Difference Between Written and Spoken Order 357 Because both Chinese and English speakers might try to conform with 358 other cultures, Chinese people will typically write their given name 359 first and their family name second, like the use of "Hui Deng" and 360 "Zhen Cao" in this document. Non-Chinese speakers will then say the 361 names in the order they read them in the written document, but that 362 will be the reverse of the way that Chinese people would say them. 364 A useful and growing convention is to write the family name in all 365 capitals. Thus, you might see "Hui DENG" or "DENG Hui" instead of 366 "Hui Deng". 368 Another useful tips: if one only has been given a Pinyin email 369 address, it is more likely to be in the Chinese order if the domain 370 is a Chinese company or Chinese hosting service. 372 5. Women's Names 374 Few Chinese women change their family names to their husband's family 375 name when they marry; normally, they just keep their family name. 376 Today, some Chinese children have both their father's and mother's 377 family name, then given name. 379 6. Inferring Gender from Names 381 Technically you can't tell a Chinese person's genders only by their 382 names in Pinyin. 384 Several facts shape the above statement. First of all, every Chinese 385 character can be used in names. Secondly, some characters have been 386 used more frequently in boys' names, and some characters have more 387 frequent presence in girls' names. But generally they are mixed. 388 Third, when the characters are translated into Pinyin, it's hard to 389 tell the original Chinese characters which represent their meanings. 391 7. Use of English Names 393 Some Chinese people have informally adopted English given names for 394 use in business. The name might be one that sounds like the Chinese 395 name (such as "Sheldon" for "XiaoDong" or "Lisa" for "Lixia") or 396 might be a name whose meaning is similar to the Chinese meaning (such 397 as "Lilly" for a Chinese woman's name that means a type of flower). 398 These names are rarely the legal name of the person, and Chinese 399 people usually don't use the English name when speaking to other 400 Chinese people. 402 8. Writing the Four Tones 404 The four tones introduced in Section 2.3 are sometimes indicated in 405 Chinese names as the numbers 1 though 4. Even is 1, rising is 2, 406 down then up is 3, and falling is 4. Thus, a name such as "Deng" 407 might be written as "Deng2" to indicate a rising tone. 409 The four tones are also sometimes indicated with Latin punctuation 410 that is meant to show the movement of the sound. Even is with a 411 macron (a horizontal bar), rising is with an acute accent, down then 412 up is with a caron (like a small raised "v"), and falling is with a 413 grave accent. (Because RFCs still cannot contain non-ASCII 414 characters, these characters cannot be shown here.) 416 The use of digits and punctuation to show tones is not very common, 417 but it is seen in some academic journals and sometimes on business 418 cards. 420 9. Using Titles 422 Most Chinese people are called by different names according to the 423 relationship between them and the person addressing them. For 424 example, parents call their child by one name, but his or her friends 425 may use a different name, and work colleagues might use yet a 426 different name. These different names include titles (terms of 427 respect), nicknames, and so on. In Chinese culture, it is extremely 428 common to show respect to someone by using a proper title according 429 to their occupation or status in society. 431 These days, there are many commonly used titles. Two generic titles 432 that have similar meanings to "Mr." and "Ms./Mrs." are "Xiansheng" 433 and "Nvshi" (pronounced as "Xian1sheng1" and "Nv3shi4"). These two 434 titles are widely used either between people who are unfamiliar with 435 each other, or during the formal situations like a conference. 437 Another two commonly used titles are "Jiaoshou" and "Laoshi" 438 (pronounced as "Jiao4shou4" and "Lao3shi1") which indicate that 439 someone is a professor or instructor. For example, if the surname of 440 that person is "Zhang", then you could call him or her "Zhang 441 Jiaoshou" or "Zhang Laoshi". Other titles which also have been 442 widely used include "Laoban" (pronounced "Lao3ban3") for a high-level 443 manager in a company, "Zhuxi" (pronounced "Zhu3xi2") for the 444 chairman, and "Zong" for the president. In most cases, the title 445 comes after just the surname, but occasionally, the title comes after 446 both the given name and surname. 448 10. Acknowledgements 450 Paul Hoffman contributed content to the early version of this 451 document, and help polished the text. He was on the authors list of 452 the previous versions. Thank you so much, Paul. 454 Many people contributed to this document by offering initial 455 encouragement and ideas of what should be covered. The two Chinese 456 authors were also encouraged by some non-Chinese people who made an 457 effort to pronounce their names correctly before this document was 458 even published. Some of the people who contributed include: Aaron 459 Ding, Bob Briscoe, Cameron Byrne, Dave Thaler, Fred Baker, Haibin 460 Song, Ida Leung, Jari Arkko, John Klensin, Margaret Wasserman, 461 Melinda Shore, Mikael Abrahamsson, Noel Chiappa, Nori Demizu, Randy 462 Bush, Randy Presuhn, S. Moonesamy, Simon Perreault, Sri Gundave, 463 Stephen Sprunk, Ted Hardie, Ted Lemon, Vero Zheng, Wes George, Will 464 Liu, Yu Juan, and Yuanchen Ma. We apologize for others whose names 465 we may miss or have misplaced. 467 11. IANA Considerations 469 None. 471 12. Security Considerations 473 None. 475 13. Informative References 477 [ChineseNames] 478 Wikipedia, "Chinese Names", August 2013, 479 . 481 [Pinyin] U. S. Library of Congress, "Chinese Rules of Application", 482 August 2013, 483 . 485 [Romanize] 486 Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, 487 "Basic rules of the Chinese phonetic alphabet 488 orthography", June 2012, 489 . 492 Authors' Addresses 494 Hui Deng 495 Huawei 497 Email: denghui02@gmail.com 499 Zhen Cao 500 Huawei 502 Email: zhencao.ietf@gmail.com