list of transliterations

[Lonster]

I'll throw this out there to see if anyone has any good leads.

I am running into problems when reading Chinese and hitting words that have been transliterated rather than translated....for example for place names or some peoples names (Barcelona becomes ba si lou na or something like that - of course using characters). I would like to find a list of characters that are used for the transliteration, because I believe there are certain charaters that are usually used. For example 尔 for er, and 克 for ke sounds.

I realize that you can often tell if the word is a noun from the context of the sentence, but it would also be nice to be able to recognize a "transliterated word" by seeing a grouping of transliteration characters.

Thanks for any leads or help,

Lonnie

 

[goulniky]

Another question on this subject is whether the Chinese will continue transliterating foreign place/people's names or eventually resort to keeping the original.
You do see a lot of this happening for technical words (mp3, CD, DVD etc.) or simply to be fashionable, and since they don't have the kana option the Japanese have...
Anyway, it certainly is a major stumbling block when reading newspaper articles.
There are quite a few computational linguistics papers on the subject but I doubt they would be of much practical help. Still you can check Identification and Classification of Proper Nouns in Chinese Texts and The Pitfalls and Complexities of Chinese to Chinese Conversion, chapter 2.3.3 addresses some differences between simplified and traditional characters in regards to transliteration of proper nouns.

 

[David]

From the chinese segmenter at http://www.mandarintools.com

# Foreign name transliteration characters
阿克拉加内亚斯贝巴尔姆爱兰尤利西詹乔伊费杰罗纳布可夫福赫勒柯特";
劳伦坦史芬尼根登都伯林伍泰胥黎俄科索沃金森奥霍瓦茨普蒂塞维大利";
格莱德冈萨雷墨哥弗库澳马哈多兹戈乌奇切诺戴里诸塞吉基延科达塔博";
卡雅来莫波艾哈迈蓬安卢什比摩曼乃休合赖米那迪凯莱温帕桑佩蒙博托";
谢格泽洛及希卜鲁匹齐兹印古埃努烈达累法贾图喀土穆腓基冉休盖耶沙";

#Chinese surnames
艾安敖白班包宝保鲍贝毕边卞柏卜蔡曹岑柴昌常陈成程迟池褚楚";
储淳崔戴刀邓狄刁丁董窦杜端段樊范方房斐费丰封冯凤伏福傅盖甘";
高戈耿龚宫勾苟辜谷古顾官关管桂郭韩杭郝禾何贺赫衡洪侯胡花";
华黄霍稽姬吉纪季贾简翦姜江蒋焦晋金靳荆居康柯空孔匡邝况赖蓝";
郎朗劳乐雷冷黎李理厉利励连廉练良梁廖林凌刘柳隆龙楼娄卢吕鲁";
陆路伦罗洛骆麻马麦满茅毛梅孟米苗缪闵明莫牟穆倪聂牛钮农潘庞";
裴彭皮朴平蒲溥浦戚祁齐钱强乔秦丘邱仇裘屈瞿权冉饶任荣容阮";
瑞芮萨赛沙单商邵佘申沈盛石史寿舒斯宋苏孙邰谭谈汤唐陶滕";
田佟仝屠涂万汪王危韦魏卫蔚温闻翁巫邬伍武吴奚习夏鲜冼";
项萧解谢辛邢幸熊徐许宣薛荀颜阎言严彦晏燕杨阳姚叶蚁易殷银尹";
应英游尤於鱼虞俞余禹喻郁尉元袁岳云臧曾查翟詹湛张章招赵甄";
郑钟周诸朱竺祝庄卓宗邹祖左";
uncommonsurname = "车和全时水同文席于";