网友吵疯：青岛译名到底是Qingdao还是Tsingtao？

来源：本站原创时间：2018-06-12 17:59:04

6月上旬，上海合作组织成员国元首理事会（以下简称上合峰会 ）第十八次会议将在我们大青岛召开。由此却引发了网友的争议：青岛译名到底是Qingdao还是Tsingtao？

提起青岛，很多人自然会想到这座城市的名片之一：青岛啤酒。如果你喝过青岛啤酒，并且是个足够细心的人，就会发现啤酒瓶体上英文字样“Tsingtao”。等等……青岛的英文名不应该是“Qingdao”么？所以问题来了，这些英文名与我们日常使用的汉语拼音有什么联系？青岛的标准英文名究竟是哪一个呢？来看看今天的日常英语资讯！

一、青岛的英文名引起网友争论

6月9日到10日，上海合作组织（the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, SCO）成员国元首理事会第18次会议在山东青岛举行。不得不说，这会议地址选得真是妙极了。想到这座红瓦绿树、碧海蓝天的海滨城市，谁不心生向往呢？

The 18th Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit was held in “青岛”, Shandong province on June 9-10. It must be said that “青岛” is a wonderful choice for this summit, since everyone yearns for this coastal city with red tiling, green trees, blue sea and clear sky.

提起青岛，即使是再不熟悉青岛的人也会很自然地想起它的名片之一：青岛啤酒。如果你是个有心人，你应该早就发现了青岛啤酒的酒瓶上印着Tsingtao的字样。等等，青岛的英文名不应该是Qingdao吗？怎么变成了Tsingtao？难道是厂家搞错了？

Talking about “青岛”, even those who are not familiar with it will naturally recall one of its name cards——Tsingtao Beer. If you’re careful enough, you must have found the word “Tsingtao” printed on the bottle. Wait a minute, Shouldn’t the English name of “青岛”be Qingdao? How did it become Tsingtao? Did the manufacturer get it wrong? 

前几天，《人民日报》也机智地发现了青岛英文名存在的争议，适时地在官博发起了“青岛的英文名究竟是Qingdao还是Tsingtao”的讨论。网友们（特别是青岛的朋友们）这下闲不住了，大家你一句我一句的，都快吵翻天了。

A few days ago, People's Daily also discovered the dispute in the English name of “青岛”, and it launched a discussion on its official microblog “Should the English name of ‘青岛’ be Qingdao or Tsingtao”, which sparked a heated debate among netizens, especially those from “青岛”.

有坚决站在Qingdao这一边的：

当然也有果断支持Tsingtao，还说得有理有据的：

另外还有看热闹不嫌事儿大的：

二、从历史角度谈谈青岛的真正英文名

争论了半天也没得出个结论，到底青岛的英文名是用Qingdao还是Tsingtao呢？关于这两个名称的由来，可就说来话长了，得追溯到17世纪早期到20世纪中期的汉语拼音发展史。

It didn’t come to any conclusion after the debate. Should “青岛” be translated into Qingdao or Tsingtao in the end? It’s a long story about the origin of these two names, which can be traced back to the development of Chinese phonetic alphabet from the early 17th century to the middle of the 20th century. 

我们知道汉字是一种表意文字，单从汉字并不能看出它的发音，所以老外学起汉语来格外吃力。为了能更快地学好汉语，老外们也是想尽了办法啊，居然想到用他们的外语来拼写汉字。历史上汉语拼音的演变有名的有这么几次：

As Chinese characters are kind of ideographic writing, we can’t pronuance them just according to those characters themselves. So it’s not easy for foreigners to learn Chinese. In order to learn it quickly, they tried everything they can, and they even spelled Chinese with their native languages. 

1.1605年，意大利传教士利玛窦最早用罗马字给汉字注音，还用这种方法发表了文章。

In 1605, Matteo Ricci, a missionary from Italy, first used Roman characters to pronounce Chinese characters, and published articles in this way.

2.1867年，英国外交官威妥玛用拉丁字母拼写中国人名、地名，史称“威妥玛式拼音”。

In 1867, Thomas Wade, a British diplomat, used Latin letters to spell Chinese names of persons and places. The method he used is called Wade-Giles spelling system.

3.1906年，晚清邮政部门依据地方方言和古代发音，对威妥玛式拼音进行了修改，形成了“邮政式拼音”。

In 1906, according to local dialects and ancient pronunciation, the Postal Department of the late Qing Dynasty revised Wade-Giles spelling system and made it Postal Spelling System.

4.1958年，第一届全国人民代表大会第五次会议正式批准了《汉语拼音方案》，这才有了我们如今使用的汉语拼音。

In 1958, the fifth session of the first National People's Congress formally approved the Scheme of Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, which is the Pinyin we use now.

这么一说，Qingdao和Tsingtao的由来也就清楚了，前者是我们现在通行的汉语拼音的写法，后者是“邮政式拼音”的写法。所以青岛真正规范的拼写还应该是：Qingdao，毕竟“邮政式拼音”什么的早就过时了。

In this case, the origins of Qingdao and Tsingtao are clear. The former is written in current Pinyin, and the latter is written in Postal Spelling System. So the real spelling of “青岛” should be Qingdao, since the Postal Spelling System is out of date.

可是既然《汉语拼音方案》已经成为中国地名的拼写规范，“邮政式拼音”等拼写方法也早就退出了历史舞台，为什么老外还是要称“青岛”为Tsingtao呢？老外们哭着说：这事儿真的不赖我们……

But since the Chinese phonetic alphabet has become the spelling standard of names of places and Postal Spelling System has been out of date, why do foreigners still call “青岛” Tsingtao? Foreigners explain it’s not their fault.

原来在上世纪，西方国家在拼写中国地名的时候常用邮政式，久而久之，这些用邮政式拼写出来的词已经融为英语外来词的一部分，Tsingtao就是一个典型的例子。

It turned out that in the last century, people in western countries preferred Postal Spelling System when spelling Chinese names of places. These words written in Postal Spelling System gradually became part of English loanwords, and Tsingtao is a typical example.

所以“老外”们表示：不是我们不想改用汉语拼音，而是真的改不过来了。这些“老式拼音”的英文单词我们已经用了上百年了。

Foreigners also said: "We still use those outdated words not because we don’t want to change them into Pinyin, but because it’s too difficult for us to do so. We have used them for hundreds of years.”

另外，一些享誉国内外的商标为了保持自己的知名度和产品的销量，也是会延续以前的注音方法的，比如茅台Moutai和青岛啤酒Tsingtao beer。所以青岛啤酒是不会把Tsingtao改为Qingdao的，大家还是不要妄想啦。

In addition, to maintain popularity and sales volume, trademarks which enjoy fame at home and abroad will continue their previous phonetic notation, such as Moutai and Tsingtao Beer. So it is impossible for the manufacturer to change Tsingtao Beer into Qingdao Beer.

三、和青岛一样有争议的地点译名还有哪些

其实像Qingdao和Tsingtao这样有争议的地点译名还有很多，下面再给大家举几个例子（左为拼音，右为英文）：

In fact, there are many controversial translated names of places like Qingdao and Tsingtao. Here are a few more examples (Pinyin on the left and English on the right).

1.广州：Guangzhou  VS  Canton

2.厦门：Xiamen  VS  Amoy

3.天津：Tianjin  VS   Tientsin

4.北京：Beijing  VS  Peking

5.清华：Qinghua  VS  Tsinghua

……

如此说来，这两种拼写都有一定道理，也不能说谁对谁错。你还知道哪些比较独特的人物、地点的英文名吗？你觉得这些人名、地名的拼写应该统一吗？欢迎留言。