英文問題，算深奧，專家請進

Hi,
It is me again!
:)
Yes, you are so right about the " dai" sound in Chan TAI Man, but
don't you rule out the facts that
English is a crazy language in a way! Do you know words like
" colonel", " isle" and "psycho"?
If you do, you should know the correct pronunciation of " colonel" is pretty bizarre.
If you don't, you may say it is " co lo nel" or something like that.
How about " isle" and psycho"?
There is no "s" sound in " isle". " p" is a silent sound in " psycho".
If they call them SILENT sounds, then why did they put them into the words? Does that mean we may spell " psycho" like
"ppppppppppppppppppppppppsycho"? " p" is a silent sound there anyway. ^_^
I am clueless! Perhaps we may have to ask those who invented these words.(I doubt If they are still alive tho)
Your doubts about these name translations are of the same.
It is because the sounds in the Chinese language are very hard to be translated into English accurately.
Perhaps those who translated our names are Chinese. They just care less. Come on! They are Chinese names anyway.Who cares if their Chinese names have been translated into English perfectly.
:)
It is proven that they are not so right since you are asking people around about it.
That's enough for now.
Thanks for bringing up this great topic.
Until next time, see you around, pal.

http://hk.knowledge.yahoo.com/question/article?qid=6908081500923

2008-11-21 15:07:33 補充：
http://hk.knowledge.yahoo.com/question/article?qid=6908111900590

你說的是香港式羅馬拼音, 用來拼寫 / 拼讀粵語. 這套方案香港人已很習慣. 但它確實有拼音不準確 / 不能完全反映粵語讀音的流弊:
1. 送氣和不送氣不分, 如 "埔 / 普"都是P, "大 / 太" 都是T, "張 / 長" 都是 "CH"
2. 同一種粵語音有不同併法, 如 "清" 有時用TS, 有時用CH; "張" 有時寫 "CHEONG", 有時寫 "CHEUNG", 等
為甚麼會這樣呢? 因為這套拼法只是以前英國治港當局和本地華人交流之下, 為方便用英文發音讀粵語而出現的產物, 以方便英語人士閱讀和發音為前提, 不是經過中英文 / 粵英語的學者細心研究兩語的特點而製成, 所以粗疏; 也缺乏規範性, 民間以至政府內各辦事人員都可以為政, 各自創製拼法, 所以混亂.
看看大陸的普通話拼法, 在精密 (盡可能照顧個別漢語發音的特點) 和規範 (普及採用單一嚴格標準) 兩方面, 就可以對比港式羅馬音的缺點.
近年有學者發展出一些比較精密的粵語拼法, 但未見在社會流行.

2008-11-21 10:29:17 補充：
然而, 大陸普通話拼法雖然盡可能精細地反映漢語的不同讀音, 但對於只懂英語 / 對漢語完全沒有基礎認識的人士來說, 又有點困難.

如普通話精細地用 "H" 來分辨齒聲母和翹舌聲母, "倉" 是CANG, "長" 是 "CHANG", 英語人士如完全未受過普通話拼音訓練, 不會明白兩者有分別, 而且還會把CANG按英文發音的習慣讀成KANG

2008-11-21 10:32:27 補充：
在這一點上, 港式羅馬拼音是以英語人士的習慣為基礎, 所以英語人士掌握 / 唸讀就容易很多, 是它的優點

由此可見, 不同語言之間的讀音互換 (音譯) 是一件不容易的事. 用任何一種語言都很難完全反映另一種語言的讀音, 在創制互換方案時, 要平衡準確性和實用性, 也是很大的學問

因為呢個係中式既譯法.