6月9日到10日，上海合作組織成員國元首理事會第18次會議將在山東青島舉行。不得不說，這會議地址選得真是妙極了。想到這座紅瓦綠樹、碧海藍天、啤酒飄香的海濱城市，誰不心生嚮往呢？
The 18th Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit was held in “青島”, Shandong province on June 9-10. It must be said that “青島” is a wonderful choice for this summit, since everyone yearns for this coastal city with red tiling, green trees, blue sea and clear sky.
提起青島，即使是再不熟悉青島的人也會很自然地想起它的名片之一：青島啤酒。如果你是個有心人，你應該早就發現了青島啤酒的酒瓶上印著Tsingtao的字樣。等等，青島的英文名不應該是Qingdao嗎？怎麼變成了Tsingtao？難道是廠家搞錯了？
Talking about “青島”, 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 “青島”be Qingdao? How did it become Tsingtao? Did the manufacturer get it wrong?
前兩天，《人民日報》也機智地發現了青島英文名存在的爭議，適時地在官博發起了“青島的英文名究竟是Qingdao還是Tsingtao”的討論。網友們（特別是青島的朋友們）這下閒不住了，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 “青島”, and it launched a discussion on its official microblog “Should the English name of ‘青島’ be Qingdao or Tsingtao”, which sparked a heated debate among netizens, especially those from “青島”.
有堅決站在Qingdao這一邊的：
當然也有果斷支持Tsingtao，還說得有理有據的：
另外還有看熱鬧不嫌事兒大的：
爭論了半天也沒得出個結論，到底青島的英文名是用Qingdao還是Tsingtao呢？關於這兩個名稱的由來，可就說來話長了，得追溯到漢語拼音的發展史。
It didn’t come to any conclusion after the debate. Should “青島” 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.
我們知道漢字是一種表意文字，單從漢字並不能看出它的發音，所以老外學起漢語來格外吃力。為了能更快地學好漢語，老外們也是想盡了辦法啊，居然想到用他們的外語來拼寫漢字。歷史上漢語拼音的演變有名的有這麼幾次：
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年意大利傳教士利瑪竇最早用羅馬字給漢字注音，還用這種方法發表了文章。In 1605, Matteo Ricci, a missionary from Italy, first used Roman characters to pronounce Chinese characters, and published articles in this way.
2.1867年英國外教官威妥瑪用拉丁字母拼寫中國人名、地名和事物名稱，史稱“威妥瑪式拼音”。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，晚清郵政部門依據地方方言和古代發音，對威妥瑪式拼音進行了修改，形成了“郵政式拼音”。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，第一屆全國人民代表大會第五次會議正式批准了《漢語拼音方案》，這才有了我們如今使用的漢語拼音。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.
這麼一說，Qingdao和Tsingtao的由來也就清楚了，前者是我們現在通行的漢語拼音的寫法，後者是“郵政式拼音”的寫法。所以青島真正規範的拼寫還應該是：Qingdao，畢竟“郵政式拼音”什麼的早就過時了。
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 “青島” should be Qingdao, since the Postal Spelling System is out of date.
可是既然《漢語拼音方案》已經成為中國地名的拼寫規範，“郵政式拼音”等拼寫方法也早就退出了歷史舞臺，為什麼老外還是要稱“青島”為Tsingtao呢？老外們哭著說：這事兒真的不賴我們……
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 “青島” Tsingtao? Foreigners explain it’s not their fault.
原來在上世紀，西方國家在拼寫中國地名的時候常用郵政式，久而久之，這些用郵政式拼寫出來的詞已經融為英語外來詞的一部分，Tsingtao就是一個典型的例子。
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”們表示：不是我們不想改用漢語拼音，而是真的改不過來了。這些“老式拼音”的英文單詞我們已經用了上百年了。
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，一些享譽國內外的商標為了保持自己的知名度和產品的銷量，也是會延續以前的注音方法的，比如茅臺Moutai和青島啤酒Tsingtao beer。所以青島啤酒是不會把Tsingtao改為Qingdao的，大家還是不要妄想啦。
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.
其實像Qingdao和Tsingtao這樣有爭議的地名還是很多的，下面再給大家舉幾個例子：
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.廣州：Guangzhou VS Canton
2.廈門：Xiamen VS Amoy
3.天津：Tianjin VS Tientsin
4.北京：Beijing VS Peking
5.清華：Qinghua VS Tsinghua
……
如此說來，這兩種拼寫都有一定道理，看來拼寫的絕對統一性也不是一兩天能實現的。你還知道哪些比較特殊的人物、地點的英文名？你對人名、地名的拼寫規範有什麼看法？歡迎留言。
我們建了一個英語學習交流群，群內定期會發送英語學習資料，以及老師在線答疑活動。掃下方二維碼，趕緊加入我們吧！
有一個超級大大大大的驚喜哦~
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