Cantonese

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Who decided that "ch" should be transribed as "ts" and why would they do that? As in the surnames "tse", "tso", "tsang", "tseung", or the place in HK "tsing yi" (self.cantonese)

submitted 1 year ago by Pat12 to c/cantonese

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[–] Decoy321 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

... Because they're actually different sounds? Even though they might sound the same when casually spoken in words, they're different phonetically. Try saying the phonemes slowly while paying attention to your mouth. The "ts" phonemes comes mostly from the tip of the tongue, while "ch" originates further back.

It's the difference between coats and coach.

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[–] Pat12 1 points 1 year ago

would you pronounce tsing yi like the ts in coats or the ch in coach?

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