E-C Transliterations Of Initial "A" And Its Combinations Of Common English Names

As early as1916, Chen Duxiu discussed the inconsistent E-C transliterations of the same common English names. He wrote that people gave different transliterations to the same proper names and common names when they translated books in foreign languages. In the following100years, there have been a number of articles that discuss the inconsistent E-C transliterations of common English names, and some discuss the principles of E-C transliterations of common English names, however, few studies from the perspective of English letters and letter combinations.This study, based on the four editions of A New English and Chinese Dictionary (1975,1985,2000,2009), tries to describe and analyze the characteristics of E-C transliterations of initial "A" and its combinations of common English names. This thesis specifically centers on two questions:(1) What are the characteristics of E-C transliterations of initial "A" and its combinations of common English names in the fourth edition of A New English and Chinese Dictionary?(2) What are the changes of E-C transliterations of initial "A" and its combinations of common English names in the four editions of A New English and Chinese Dictionary?There are140common English names initiated with "A" in A New English and Chinese Dictionary (4th edition). According to Tamara (2009), six combinations can be found in the140names:ai, al, all, an, ar and au. Of the140names, there are three "ai" combinations, twenty "al" combinations, four "all" combinations, seventeen "ar" combinations, twenty-four "an" combinations, nine "au" combinations and sixty-three initial "A"s. Data analysis yielded the following findings:(1) As for initial "A" and its six combinations, five combinations are correspondent with one Chinese transliteration respectively. These five combinations are ai, all, an, ar and au. When followed by a consonant, combination "ai" is transliterated into“艾”,"all" into“艾”,"an" into“安”,"an" into“阿”and "au" into“奥”The initial "A" and combination "al" are correspondent with five Chinese transliterations respectively. The five transliterations of initial "A" are“阿”(63.5%),“亚”(12.7%),“艾”(9.5%),“埃”(9.5%)and“安”(4.8%)When followed by b, d, g, c. p, r, s or t,63.5percent of initial "A" are transliterated into“阿”. When followed by b, d, or l,12.7%of initial "A" are transliterated into“亚”When followed by d, l or ch,9.5percent of initial "A" are transliterated into“艾”.When followed by b, d, v or m,9.5percent of initial "A" are transliterated into“埃”.When followed by m or n,4.8percent of initial "A" are transliterated into“安”.The five Chinese transliterations of combination "al" are“阿尔”(40%),“奥尔”(30%),“艾尔”(10%),“阿”(10%)and“艾”(10%).When followed by b, c, g, m, t or v,40percent of "al" combinations are transliterated into“阿尔”When followed by c, d or t,30percent of "al" combinations are transliterated into“奥尔”When followed by for s,10percent of "al" combinations are transliterated into“艾尔”When followed by for ph,10percent of "al" combinations are transliterated into“阿”When followed by b,10percent of "al" combinations are transliterated into“艾”.The patterns are shown as follows:1) ai+a consonant:ai�'“艾”(100%)2) all+a consonant:all�'“艾”(100%)3) an+a consonant:an�'“安”(100%)4) ar+a consonant:ar�'“阿”(100%)5) au+a consonant:au�'“奥”(100%)6) a+b, d, g, c, r or t�'a�'“阿”(63.5%)a+b, dorl�'a�'“亚”(12.7%)a+d, l or ch�'a�'“艾”(9.5%)a+b, d, v or m�'a�'“埃”(9.5%)a+m or n�'a�'“安”(4.8%)7) al+b, c, g, m, t or v�'al�'“阿尔”(40%)al+c,d or t�'al�'“奥尔”(30%)al+fors�'al�'“艾尔”(10%)al+forph�'al�'“阿”(10%)al+b�'al�'“艾”(10%)(2) In view of the four editions of A New English and Chinese Dictionary, the transliterations of initial "A" and its combinations of the140common English names remain the same in the first three editions and change in the fourth edition. The changes lay on three aspects. The first aspect is verification of the Chinese characters. Nine transliterations of initial "A" are substituted:six change from“艾”to“埃”，two from“艾” to“阿”and one from“亚”to“阿”One transliteration of combination "all" changes from“阿”to“艾”The second aspect is simplification of the transliterations by omitting the optional versions to only one version. In26names, transliterations of18initial "A" are clipped:thirteen of them change from“艾,阿”to“阿”,five from“阿,艾”to“艾”；in26names, transliterations of4"al" combinations are clipped:one of them is clipped from“阿,艾,亚”to“艾”, one from“阿,艾”to“艾”,one from“阿尔,艾尔”to“艾尔”and one from“奥尔,艾尔”to“艾尔”；in26names, transliterations of three "all" combinations are clipped from“阿,艾”to“艾”；in26names, transliterations of one "ar" combination are clipped from“阿,亚”to“阿”The third aspect is omission of transliteration“尔”of the retroflex/r/in close combination "ar". Transliterations of two "ar" combinations change from“阿尔”to“阿”.