San Francisco Chinatown signage
Here are some photos I took a couple of years ago in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
As should be clear from the Mandarin and Cantonese pronunciations I’ve provided for the Chinese characters, the Sinitic names for streets in Chinatown certainly don’t come from Mandarin, which isn’t surprising given how the Chinese diaspora was not predominantly Mandarin speaking until recently. My guess would be Taishanese Cantonese.
Beckett: 白話轉街 (Mandarin: Báihuàzhuǎn Jiē; Cantonese: baahk- wa/ jyun/ )
I like this unofficial sign even better.
Jackson: 昃臣街 (Mandarin: Zèchén Jiē; Cantonese: jak\ sahn\)
The first Chinese character, 昃, is a surprising choice since it is quite rare and would not be known by most people. Some far more common characters that perhaps could have been used instead include 則 (Cantonese: jak\), 責 (Cantonese: jaak-), 澤 (Cantonese: jaahk-), and 擇 (Cantonese: jaahk-) — all of which are pronounced zé in Mandarin.
Clay: 企李街 (Mandarin: Qǐlǐ Jiē; Cantonese: keih/ leih/)
Commercial: 襟美慎街 (Mandarin: Jīnměishèn Jiē; Cantonese: kam\ meih/ sahn-)
I would have expected a semantic translation for this street name. But Kam-meih-sahn appears to be another phonetic approximation.
Grant: 都板街 (Mandarin: Dōubǎn Jiē; Cantonese: dou\ baan/ gaai\)
This is another interesting one. Note that Doubaan and Grant sound nothing like each other. And this isn’t a semantic translation of Grant either. So why is this street labelled 都板街? The answer is that the Sinitic name preserves an old name of the street: Dupont.
And for lagniappe, here’s a photo taken in the nearby Italian district, where Columbus Street is also identified in Italian as Corso Cristòforo Colombo.
further reading:
- Chinatown Devises Its Own Street Names, by William J. Hoy, California Folklore Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Apr., 1943), pp. 71-75
- Early San Francisco History from Street Names, by Henry C. Carlisle, August 1954
- Chinatown streets
- Chinatown alleys
- Chinatown: San Francisco, Part 3, Panda Gator, September 4, 2007
Joseph Dart said,
January 5, 2009 @ 11:29 pm
What about Polk Street? heheh …
Dominic said,
January 6, 2009 @ 1:33 am
昃 for the first syllable of “Jackson” is actually not surprising for a Cantonese transliteration. 仄 zak1, while rare in Mandarin (in linguistics it’s used to refer to tones, meaning ‘not 平’, i.e., 上, 去, and 入), is a very common word in Cantonese meaning ‘misaligned, oblique’. I think most Cantonese readers would be able to read this character. In fact, I’ve seen the character 仄 used to transliterate “check” (as in, I’ve sent you a check, did you cash it yet?).
In the case of Jackson, you just take this not-uncommon character and add a radical to it to make it look more name-like.
Dominic said,
January 6, 2009 @ 1:53 am
Another note, this time about Beckett Street. The article you referred to by William J. Hoy actually has the answer to this one: it has nothing to do with “Beckett”, but instead means “Plain Language John”, named after some interpreter dude named “John”. In Toisanese, 轉 is read “tson⁵⁵”.
jidanni said,
January 6, 2009 @ 2:31 am
Lots of companies don’t plan ahead, not surveying the phonology of all Chinese character using regions and countries, when choosing their transliterations.
Case in point: the retailer Watson’s: 屈臣氏. Matches great in Cantonese [Wat-sahn-sih], but many kilometers away from the intended sound when read in Mandarin [Qūchénshì].
P> Jackson: 昃臣街 (Mandarin: Zèchén Jiē; Cantonese: jak\ sahn\)
P> The first Chinese character, 昃, is a surprising choice since it is
P> quite rare and would not be known by most people.
P> Some far more common characters that perhaps could have
P> been used instead include 則 (Cantonese: jak\), 責(Cantonese:
P> jaak-), 澤 (Cantonese: jaahk-), and 擇 (Cantonese: jaahk-) —
P> all of which are pronounced zé in Mandarin.
Being the owner of the same syllable, the Jac- of my name, Dan Jacobson, Back in 1982 I wisely surveyed all the aforementioned Chinese character areas and countries, and picked a name that is the best compromise phonetic match for them all, whilst not possessing any inauspicious properties.
Furthermore I did not just pick some used surname out of a dumpster. No, I took the once in a dynasty opportunity to establish a brand new surname, 積！
Which is now proudly emblazoned on all my savings bonds, stock certificates, and credit cards, not to mention my VIP platinum class
national ID card. Only one in the phone book too.
However, every time I hitch a ride in my neighbor’s truck, for the
whole ride he just can’t get over it, “Hey, Mr. Chicken, haw haw haw!”
Karan Misra said,
January 6, 2009 @ 12:10 pm
I live close to San Francisco, so I go there often especially to visit Chinatown and at first when I only knew Mandarin, I could figure out neither head nor tail of any of the street signs. However, after I learned a bit of Cantonese, I realized that the rest of the names all made sense in Cantonese, such as 企李街 but I could just never figure 都板街 out. The mystery is now finally solved. :-)
jidanni said,
January 7, 2009 @ 11:57 pm
By the way there is a conference on Taiwan place names, to be held 2009.1.15 at Academia Sinica:
臺灣地區地名查詢系統成果發表暨學術研討會
http://gissrv3.sinica.edu.tw/conference08/
研討會日期：2009年1月15日（星期四） 上午九點至下午四點四十分
研討會地點：中央研究院人文社會科學館第一會議室
論文主題：
地名學研究
1.再談台灣的語言與地名 / 陳國章
2.清代淡水廳中港保街庄名的社會空間意涵–
試論慈裕宮五十三庄宗教組織的形成 / 林聖欽
3.北投地區地名類型的空間分析與地域發展 / 黃雯娟
地名標準化與資料庫整合
1.數值製圖之地名註記作業模式研究 / 林炳宏、曾正雄、王明志
2.以地名資料標準之觀點探討地名資料之流通共享 / 楊錦松
3.地名檢索與漢字的規範 / 趙建雄
鄉土教育、應用推廣與地理資訊系統
1.地名缺字呈現與檢索之研究 / 林農堯、廖泫銘
2.由Flickr標籤建立地名的語意 / 鄧東波
3.「地名」在東台灣人文GIS應用之現況與挑戰~以1909-1945年的花蓮港廳為例 /
郭俊麟
相關活動：地名成果展
（包含「臺灣地區地名查詢系統」、「線上地名譯寫系統」、「線上互動學習
區」展示及說明）
Weili said,
January 9, 2009 @ 4:25 am
It makes sense that English street names were translated into Cantonese in older Chinatowns. However, back in mid-1990′s, when the newer Houston Chinatown received Chinese street names, those too were translated into Cantonese instead of Mandarin. At that time, the majority of the Chinese population in Houston’s Chinatown were actually from Taiwan.
Prince Roy said,
January 9, 2009 @ 11:48 pm
I think for 都板街, the alternate reading ‘du’ is more accurate. (Dupont Street).
途人 said,
January 10, 2009 @ 11:24 am
我是土生土長的香港人，這個「昃」字見得多啦。因為香港也有一條昃臣道 Jackson Road，正正在中環立法會 (類似英國上議會) 旁邊。
至於 Commercial Street 被音譯成襟美慎街，我就覺得一點也不奇怪。當年由中國到舊金山工作的人沒有幾多個是讀書人，如果有讀過書就不用飄洋過海去做苦工吧。交通不便，一去就可能永遠也不會再返家，再也見不到自己的親人，如果不是環境困難至極又怎麼會走到這麼遠去找生活呢？？這些人莫要講英文不懂，就是中文字亦未必懂得太多。音譯了大家明白襟美慎街是哪條街便是啦。
我見你長篇大論的怨中文難學怪可憐的，其實你多讀多寫多講都終是會成功的。我現在在英國工作，我有些「鬼佬」同事並不在中國長大，但是能看得懂大清法律文獻和有關研究，更指導中國來的博士生寫有關大清法律論文。我想，你只要努力點就不會覺得中文太難學啦！要加油不要怨啦！
Passing By said,
February 25, 2009 @ 1:42 pm
@Prince Roy:
But does the “du” reading exist in Cantonese? It very well could, just not sure if you were referring to the Mandarin (wasn’t used) or the Cantonese.
Fantastic post! A lot of amazing history left in these names.
How do Chinese characters represent sounds? « The News From Wabu-eup said,
March 24, 2009 @ 12:20 am
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Best Chinese Learning Blogs | Dip To Go said,
April 18, 2009 @ 3:07 am
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HK Joshua said,
October 15, 2009 @ 2:43 am
But does the “du” reading exist in Cantonese? It very well could, just not sure if you were referring to the Mandarin (wasn’t used) or the Cantonese.
It does exist, but only in very vernacular style. The textbooks of Cantonese don’t mention such a sound. Traditional phonology would not allow such sounds but in people’s speech they are heard.
嘟嘟聲 is exactly [ du1 du1 seng1 ] (beeping sound when the door of MTR is closing)
肥嘟嘟 [feih4 dyut1 dyut1 ] This is even strange, but still a frequently used sound symbol, to describe chubbiness of body shape.