Transliteration into Chinese characters

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When considering the transliteration of non-Chinese words into Chinese characters, one has to know the following facts:

Chinese is written with monosyllabbic logograms. Therefore, a word of three syllables is transliterated into three Chinese characters, i.e., three meaningful verbal units.
Homophones abound in Chinese, if tones are disregarded. Therefore, there are plenty of characters to choose from when transliterating a word. In other words, one can manipulate the transliteration to suit one's purpose.

A transliteration into Chinese characters is sometimes intended to reflect the meaning as well as the sound of the transliterated. For example, the common ending -ва in a Russian female name is usually transliterated as 娃 (pinyin:wā; "baby", "girl"), and the -в in a male name as 夫 (pinyin:fū; "man"); Utopia is famously transliterated by Yan Fu as 烏托邦 (Simplified Chinese: }}}; pinyin: ; "[a] fabricated country"); and the name of the good Pantagruel is transliterated as 龐大固埃 (Simplified Chinese: }}}; pinyin: ), as 龐大 means "gigantic" and 固 "solid".

Fidelity to the sound of the original is often sacrificed in a non-technical context. In transliterating the names of people, companies, shops and brands, phonetic fidelity is not the overriding factor: anything goes, as long as the Chinese name is memorable, dignified or auspicious. In some cases the naming process can hardly be termed "transliteration". A common example is the Chinese names non-Chinese people adopt for themselves, which are not truly transliterated, but rather "adapted" from or "inspired" by the original. (See, for instance, the Chinese names of the Hong Kong governors at [zh].)

Given that a word may be transliterated in accordance with meaning as well as sound, an "innocent" transliteration may be unwittingly interpreted as reflecting the meaning of the original. During the Qing Dynasty, some Chinese scholars were unhappy to find that China was located on a continent called 亞細亞 (Simplified Chinese: }}}; pinyin: ), i.e. Asia, as 亞 means "secondary" and 細 "small", believing that the Europeans were deliberately belittling the East by such a naming. ^[#endnote_1]

History

Transliteration appeared early in ancient Chinese texts as China interacted with foreign peoples, such as the Xiongnu, with whom China fought wars.

The classics of Buddhism began to be translated into Chinese during the late Han Dynasty. Many of the Sanskrit terms were then transliterated and became part of the Chinese language. Indeed, the famous monk and translator Xuanzang suggested that Sanskrit terms should be transliterated instead of being translated when they are:

arcane, such as incantations
polysemous
not found in China
traditionally transliterated, not translated
lofty and subtle, which a translation might devalue and obscure

During the late 19th century, when Western ideas and products flooded into China, transliterations mushroomed. Most of them proved fads, though.

In Japanese, foreign terms are usually transliterated into katakana. Some terms are rendered into kanji, though, a famous example being 俱楽部 (club, lit. "together happy department"). These were directly and literally adopted into Chinese in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Official Guide

The current official guide for the transliteration of people's names is the Names of the world's peoples: a comprehensive dictionary of names in Roman-Chinese (《世界人名翻譯大辭典》), compiled by the Proper Names and Translation Service, the Xinhua News Agency. Most of the characters used in official transliterations are more or less "neutural".

The official transliterations are based on Mandarin. These renditions can sound not close to, even far away from, the original when they are said by people speaking Chinese dialects other than the Beijing one.

Samples

Transliterations with unusual connotations

India was called 身毒 (lit. "body poison") in ancient China, transliterated from Sindhu.
Africa is rendered 非洲 (lit. 'Not Continent'), from the full transliteration 阿非利加洲.
Mozambique as 莫三鼻給 (莫三鼻给), with 莫给 meaning "do not give", and 三鼻 meaning "three noses". Note that today the country is more often transliterated as 莫桑比克.
Aberdeen, a common name for place and people, as 鴨巴甸, with 鴨 (鸭) meaning duck. A place in Hong Kong having the same name, Aberdeen Harbour, was originally called 香港仔, meaning Hong Kong minor. It is now the official name of that place, but 鴨巴甸 is still used in a colloquial way.
A street in Macau is called Avenida do Conselheiro Ferreira de Almeida, named after the official Ferreira de Almeida. Ferreira was transliterated as 肥利喇, as shown on the name of the street, with 肥 meaning "fat (adj.)".
Russia is known as 俄國 (lit. "suddenly country").

Transliterations with positive connotations

Firenze as 翡冷翠 (by the poet Xu Zhimo 徐志摩 (1897-1931)), 翡翠 meaning "jadeite" and 冷 "cold". Note that today the city is usually transliterated as 佛羅倫斯 (佛罗伦萨), a transliteraion based on the English Florence, not the original Italian.
Athens as 雅典, literally "elegant" and "classical"
Ithaca as 綺色佳, literally "gorgeous color wonderful"
Coca-cola as 可口可樂 (可口可乐), 可口 meaing "delicious" and 可樂 "pleasing, satisfactory"
Yosemite as 優山美地 (优山美地), meaing "elegant mountain (and) beautiful land"
Fontainebleau as 楓丹白露 (枫丹白露), meaning "red maple (and) white dew"
Champs-Élysées as 香榭麗舍 (香榭丽舍), meaning "fragrant pavilion (and) beautiful house"
World-wide-web as 万维网，meaning "ten-thousand dimensional net (or web)"; here the character for "10 thousand" is not used in the literal sense. It is used figuratively indicating a large number; much like how Americans say "a million years."

Notes

↑ For more examples of this kind, see Qian Zhongshu, Guan Zhui Pian (《管錐篇》), vol.4, pp. 1458-1462.

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