Ancient Chinese Names in Ancient Indian Languages

[Radhakrishna Warrier]

How were the names of Xuan Chang and other Chinese Buddhist monks who came to India in the ancient times transcribed in Sanskrit, Pali, any of the Prakrits, the different Apabhramśas or in any other ancient Indian language, if at all these names were written in ancient Indian languages?  Like the name of the Greek Buddhist king Menander (Μένανδρος Menandros in ancient Greek) which became Milinda in the Indian languages. 

Regards,

Radhakrishna Warrier

[Narayan Prasad]

Since Chinese does not have any alphabet, the proper nouns (names of persons and places) cannot be expressed properly in Chinese.

For this purpose, all they can do is to use the approximate syllables in Chinese (e.g. A, wang, chang, bie, ling, jio, jing, cao, shang, hai, thai, yuan etc).

Take for example my name - NARAYAN PRASAD.

When I was at Oxford in 1988, I asked one student from Beijing, how to write my name in Chinese. He asked me how I write it in Roman. When I told him, he suggested the following:

NA-LA-YAN PO-LO-SA-DE

Another technique is to break the proper noun into parts and if they are such that they can be translated into Chinese, they express it in translation.

Take, for example, OXFORD. Break it as: OX-FORD. Both parts make sense. They translate OX and FORD into Chinese for this name.

Two pages from the book "On Yuan Chwang's Travel in India" are attached for an idea how proper nouns were translated in those days.

Regards

Narayan Prasad

[Radhakrishna Warrier]

I had a similar experience.  Here is the story:  https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10200173357164376&set=a.4250527589161

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From: bvpar...@googlegroups.com <bvpar...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Narayan Prasad <hin...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 6, 2022 4:17 PM
To: भारतीयविद्वत्परिषत् <bvpar...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: {भारतीयविद्वत्परिषत्} Re: Ancient Chinese Names in Ancient Indian Languages

 

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[Narayan Prasad]

I suggest the following -

Please refer to the Table of the Speech Sounds of the Beijing Dialect.

Break your name in the following manner.

LA-DA-GUI-RI-SHE-NA

In Chinese, there is no direct "R" sound. So, convert it to "L". Although "R" is used, it is pronounced sth like "ZH" (ഴ) in Malayalam.

The "G" in Chinese is pronounced as Indian "K", e.g. "GUO" is pronounced as क्वो.

"SHE" is pronounced as श.

Alternatively, you may select from the table any other combinations and I will tell you how to write your name in Chinese.

"LA-DA" in Chinese is pronounced as ला-ता.

Regards

Narayan Prasad

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