The Palladium system is called the Chinese transcription system, adopted at the official level in the Russian language. When working with this system, it is worth remembering that it refers only to the standard pronunciation rate, the so-called "putonghua" - the most common and recognized form of the Chinese language.
History of the Palladium System
The founder of the first transcriptional Sino-Russian system was the famous Sinologist Iakinf (dating from 1839). Over time, it underwent a number of changes and became widely known thanks to its mention by archimadrite Palladius and Pavel Popov in one of the Sino-Russian dictionaries. This is where its name came from - "Palladium" (dating date - 1888, Beijing). Having reached our days, the system remained in its original form and received the status of generally accepted. This Sino-Russian transcription system was active long before pinyin was used.
It is worth saying that the system is not always able to correctly transmit one or another Chinese sound. The use of the Palladium system for the Russian text is strictly necessary.
Interesting Facts
Before conducting a deeper analysis of the system, we consider several features of the Palladium system:
1. The Chinese sound "yo" against the Russian "yu": the word "friend" is written as "pen-yu."
2. The Chinese sound โeโ (sounds like a more laryngeal โeโ) is transformed into a pure โeโ. Sounds "e" and "s" in this case are not allowed. Example: "Mao Dz-e-tung."
3. For the Chinese initials "z" and "j", a replacement appeared in the form of "zh", the use of the sound "dz" is not permissible.
4. The final "-n" and "-ng" in the Russian language acquired the form "-n" and "-n". This fact does not take into account the fact that in Chinese these sounds are not softened, and in the second case, with the sound "-ng" generally used larynx.
5. Between a syllable at the end of which stands a solid consonant, and a syllable that begins with a vowel, a solid sign is required. Example: Chan-anjie.
6. The suffix ~ er (ๅฟ), which is added at the very end, has two forms: the original "er" and simply "p". The letter "r" conveys this suffix immediately after the previous syllable: kun-r, jiao-r, jin-r, wei-r, vanyi-r, zige-r, hua-r. As for the change of the syllable to โer,โ geographical names play a role here - this is only possible with their transfer. An exception can only be when at the end of the previous syllable is ~ e: De-erbukanhe becomes De-rbukanhe.
7. The Chinese sound "hui" got a transcription in the form of "hui" or "hoy" (the latter is characteristic of Anhui province), which helps to avoid some kind of funnyness in Russian speech. Many linguists, when translating from Chinese, mistakenly use literal transliteration, which leads to the following: Anh-oi - An-hui, hue-yizu - hui-tzu, etc.
Hui can be used to record Chinese surnames, first names or part of them. It is also the name for the whole people and the Chinese dialect "Hoy" (ๅพฝ).
8. And, finally, the lack of breath, so characteristic of most Chinese consonants.
Palladium system and transcription of place names
The basis for the transcription of Chinese topomins is taken at the moment the place names officially accepted in China. The exceptions are: Beijing and Nanjing (other options for transcribing the Chinese language here would be Beijing and Nanjing), Manchu Harbin, Khingan, Qiqihar and many others (alternative - Haerbin, Xin'an, Qiqihair) and a number of toponyms that belong to the regions of national minorities.
Use the sounds "Fyn" and "Myn" (rather than "Feng" and "Men") when transcribing the toponyms Kai-feng (Kai-feng), Ao-myn (Ao-men) and Xia-myn (Xia-men) is permissible However, it is considered obsolete practice.
It is noteworthy that the particles in toponyms denoting the words "street" ("datsze", "lu", "tao" and others) cannot be translated from Chinese and remain in the whole word, and the particles denoting "area" are omitted.
Declination
Words that end with vowels ~ o, ~ e, ~ u, ~ y, ~ s and diphthongs ~ e, ~ u, ~ i, ~ ao, ~ yao, ~ oh, ~ ya, ~ yue, there is no declension .
Geographical names and personal names with ~ a and ~ I at the end, although characteristic of declension in cases, it is advisable not to use it, in order to avoid confusion with the change in the final syllables. For all cases, they should be used in the initial form, for example: Changsh-a instead of Changsh-e, Lyud-a instead of Lyud-e, Chen-Bod-a instead of Chen Bod-e, Sym-s instead of Sym-s etc.
Words ending in consonants are not amenable to declension at all. Russian endings in Chinese names are spelled together, and not stand out with an apostrophe or hyphen: Beijing, Shenzhen and others. For feminine names with the same endings, declination is not possible.
Provinces, plains and deserts are inclined as well as the Russian word "salt": in Huang-i, Yunnan-i, Sichuan-i and so on.
Stress problem
If you transcribe Chinese words and divide them into syllables, the following happens: vowels ~ y ~ o ~ u ~ e, which are adjacent to other vowels, are included in the non-syllable category.
Two-syllable names and toponyms always have the last ending syllable: Zeng Guof-en, Shanghai-ai, Guangzh-oy, etc.
When it comes to three-syllable words, the syllable in the first place usually stands out as the main emphasis, and the syllable in the third: daa-gu-nyan.
Question of dialects
Dialect forms can only be given if they are fixed on official papers (for example, cards), are displayed in pinyin documents or are stable in Russian literature. Consider the following examples:
1. The word "Hong Kong" (if we take the Beijing dialect as an example) turns into "Hong Kong".
2. The Beijing pronunciation changes the sound of the character ๅ
ญ (from the word ๅ
ญ ็ด) to "lu": Lu-chi.
3. Chinese words, which are geographical terms, "street", "fortress" and "settlement" change their pronunciation to "gai" and "pu" in the northeastern dialect: Siping-gai, Lenszy-au and so on.
4. Dialect forms apply to some proper names: for example, the name Sun Yixian changes to Sun Yat-sen, and Chen Lianbo changes to Chan Lim Bak.
Dialects for names and titles used outside the People's Republic of China use transcription systems, which are based on related Chinese topollects.
Dealing with established exceptions
At the end of our analysis of the system and its role in the transcription of the Chinese language, let's pay attention to established exceptions. The most prominent representatives of this category in place names are: Beijing, Nanjing and Harbin. The language from which transcription of national autonomies is transformed is not Chinese, but the language of national minorities.
Another exception was the names that entered the Russian language due to the intermediary language: Confucius - Kunfuzi.
Well, we got acquainted with the Palladium system. As we said earlier, it is used only in Russian. The English-speaking countries take as a basis another transcription system, the founders of which are Thomas Wade, its direct developer, and sinologist Wade Giles, who improved and created the dictionary.