The English words Daoism () and Taoism ( or ) are alternative spellings for the same-named
Chinese philosophy
Chinese philosophy originates in the Spring and Autumn period () and Warring States period (), during a period known as the " Hundred Schools of Thought", which was characterized by significant intellectual and cultural develop ...
and
religion
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatur ...
. The root for
Daoism or Taoism is the
Chinese word
道 ("road" or "way"), which was transcribed ''
tao'' or ''tau'' in the earliest systems for the
romanization of Chinese
Romanization of Chinese () is the use of the Latin alphabet to transliterate Chinese. Chinese uses a logographic script and its characters do not represent phonemes directly. There have been many systems using Roman characters to represent C ...
and ''
dao'' or ''dau'' in 20th century systems.
Phonology
In order to explain why English ''Taoism'' might be pronounced (), it is necessary to introduce some technical terminology from
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Ling ...
. A
phoneme
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...
is the smallest unit of
speech sound
In phonetics and linguistics, a phone is any distinct speech sound or gesture, regardless of whether the exact sound is critical to the meanings of words.
In contrast, a phoneme is a speech sound in a given language that, if swapped with another ...
s that a particular language distinguishes, and unrelated languages can have disparate
phonemic inventories.
As a result, phonemic gaps can affect borrowed words. English has and consonants and Chinese has but not , thus, Chinese uses /l-/ to transcribe both /l-/ and /r-/
English loanwords; for example, ''léishè''
雷射 "
laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The ...
" and ''léidá''
雷達 "
radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, Marine radar, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor v ...
". Conversely, Japanese has the /r-/ phoneme but not /l-/, with borrowings of ''rēza''
レーザ and ''rēdā''
レーダー.
In
phonetics
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...
, the consonant of Chinese ''tao'' or ''dào'' 道 is classified as an
unaspirated denti-alveolar stop.
Aspiration is
articulation that involves an audible puff of breath; for example, the /t/ in English ''tore'' is aspirated with a burst of air while the /t/ in ''store'' is unaspirated. The IPA symbol for aspiration is a superscript "h", (e.g., ), and the optional diacritic for unaspiration is a superscript equals sign "=", (e.g., ). A
stop consonant
In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases.
The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), li ...
or oral
occlusive
In phonetics, an occlusive, sometimes known as a stop, is a consonant sound produced by occluding (i.e. blocking) airflow in the vocal tract, but not necessarily in the nasal tract. The duration of the block is the ''occlusion'' of the consonan ...
is a
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced w ...
in which the speaker blocks the vocal tract so that all
airflow
Airflow, or air flow, is the movement of air. The primary cause of airflow is the existence of air. Air behaves in a fluid manner, meaning particles naturally flow from areas of higher pressure to those where the pressure is lower. Atmospheric ...
ceases, and a
denti-alveolar consonant
In linguistics, a denti-alveolar consonant or dento-alveolar consonant is a consonant that is articulated with a flat tongue against the alveolar ridge and the upper teeth, such as and in languages such as French, Italian and Spanish. That is ...
is articulated with a flat tongue against the
alveolar ridge
The alveolar process () or alveolar bone is the thickened ridge of bone that contains the tooth sockets on the jaw bones (in humans, the maxilla and the mandible). The structures are covered by gums as part of the oral cavity.
The synonymous ...
and upper teeth.
The present Chinese unaspirated denti-alveolar stop in pinyin ''dào'' 道 is commonly transcribed with the IPA symbol [], although some linguists prefer using with the slack voice, voiceless Ring (diacritic)#Underring, under-ring diacritic. The sinologist and phonologist Jerry Norman (sinologist), Jerry Norman explains the reason for using instead of
for Pinyin ''d''. Chinese stops and
affricates
An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pa ...
fall into two contrasting unaspirated and aspirated series. The unaspirated series (''b'', ''d'', ''g'', etc.) is
lenis, and "often gives the impression of being voiced to the untrained ear", while the aspirated series (''p'', ''t'', ''k'', etc.) is strongly aspirated (1988:139).
Standard Chinese phonology
This article summarizes the phonology (the sound system, or in more general terms, the pronunciation) of Standard Chinese (Standard Mandarin).
Standard Chinese phonology is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. Actual production varies wide ...
uses aspiration for the
contrastive distribution
Contrastive distribution in linguistics, as opposed to complementary distribution or free variation, is the relationship between two different elements in which both elements are found in the same environment with a change in meaning.
Phonology
I ...
of consonantal stops. For example, phonemically differentiating the unaspirated denti-alveolar stop // with the aspirated denti-alveolar stop //, as in unaspirated ''dào'' or // 道 "way" and aspirated ''tào'' or //
套 "sheath; case; cover".
Instead of aspiration,
English phonology
Like many other languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically and from dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regional dialects of English share a largely similar (but not identical) phonological system. Amon ...
primarily contrasts stop consonants by
voicing, that is, the
vocal cords
In humans, vocal cords, also known as vocal folds or voice reeds, are folds of throat tissues that are key in creating sounds through vocalization. The size of vocal cords affects the pitch of voice. Open when breathing and vibrating for speec ...
vibrate in a voiced sound but not in a voiceless or unvoiced one. The voiced stops (, , and ) are in contrastive distribution with voiceless (, , and ) in English. Voiced stops are usually unaspirated and voiceless stops are sometimes aspirated. There are six voiceless plosives in Chinese: simple and aspirated p p', t t', k k', which would correspond to English voiceless and voiced p b, t d, k g. The six Chinese plosives are generally rendered by English p t k, for instance, simple t in
moutan, and
Tanka
is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature.
Etymology
Originally, in the time of the '' Man'yōshū'' (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to distinguish "short ...
, and aspirated t' in
fantan and
twankay (Yuan 1981: 251).
In English, aspiration is
allophonic
In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in ' ...
, meaning multiple alternative pronunciations for a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, as in ''pin'' and as in ''spin'' are allophones for the phoneme because they cannot distinguish words. English-speakers treat them as the same sound, but they are phonetically different, the first is aspirated and the second is unaspirated.
Phonological rules can miss the point when it comes to loanwords, which are borrowings that move from a language with one set of well-formedness conditions to a language with a different set, with the result that adjustments have to be made to meet the new constraints (Yip 1993:262). Coming back to the Chinese unaspirated denti-alveolar stop in pinyin ''dào'' 道, this speech sound exists in English—but never as the
stressed first syllable in a word. Unaspirated occurs instead in words such as "stop" or "pat" as a complementary /t/ allophone of the aspirated initial ''t'' in English, such as in "tap". Owing to the linguistic difference between the Chinese aspirated /tʰ/ vs. unaspirated /t/ phonemic contrast and English voiced /d/ vs. unvoiced /t/ phonemic contrast, an English speaker who is unfamiliar with Chinese romanization will likely pronounce ''Dao'' with the
voiced alveolar stop
The voiced alveolar, dental and postalveolar plosives (or stops) are types of consonantal sounds used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiced dental, alveolar, and postalveolar plosiv ...
and ''Tao'' with the
voiceless alveolar stop . Thus, the Chinese unaspirated phoneme in ''dào'' 道 /taʊ/ is nearer to the pronunciation of English voiced unaspirated in ''Dow'' /daʊ/ than the voiceless aspirated in ''Taos''
aʊs but it is neither (Carr 1990: 60).
Romanizations
Scholars have been developing
Chinese romanization
Romanization of Chinese () is the use of the Latin alphabet to transliterate Chinese. Chinese uses a logographic script and its characters do not represent phonemes directly. There have been many systems using Roman characters to represent Chin ...
systems for four centuries, and the unaspirated 道 "road; way" has many transcriptions.
Jesuit missionaries in China recorded the earliest romanizations of /taʊ/ 道. The first bilingual
Chinese dictionary
Chinese dictionaries date back over two millennia to the Han dynasty, which is a significantly longer lexicographical history than any other language. There are hundreds of dictionaries for the Chinese language, and this article discusses some of ...
in a Western language,
Michele Ruggieri's and
Matteo Ricci
Matteo Ricci, SJ (; la, Mattheus Riccius; 6 October 1552 – 11 May 1610), was an Italian Jesuit priest and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China missions. He created the , a 1602 map of the world written in Chinese characters. ...
's
Portuguese 1583–1588 ''Dicionário Português-Chinês'' or ''Pú-Hàn cídiǎn'' 葡漢辭典 (Yong and Peng 2008: 385), transcribed /taʊ/ as "táo" (Witek 2001: 190). The
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
1615 ''
De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas
''De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas suscepta ab Societate Jesu ... '' (Latin for "On the Christian Mission among the Chinese by the Society of Jesus...") is a book based on an Italian manuscript written by the most important founding figure ...
'', compiled by Matteo Ricci and
Nicolas Trigault
Nicolas Trigault (1577–1628) was a Jesuit, and a missionary in China. He was also known by his latinised name Nicolaus Trigautius or Trigaultius, and his Chinese name Jin Nige ().
Life and work
Born in Douai (then part of the County of Flanders ...
, romanized it as "tau" in the Chinese term "Tausu" (i.e., ''
Daoshi'' 道士, "Daoist priest"), which
Samuel Purchas
Samuel Purchas ( – 1626) was an English Anglican cleric who published several volumes of reports by travellers to foreign countries.
Career
Purchas was born at Thaxted, Essex son of an English yeoman. He graduated from St John's College, Cam ...
's 1625 English translation gave as "Tausa" (XII: 461).
During the 19th and 20th centuries, new and revised Chinese romanization schemes flourished. The Standard Chinese pronunciation of 道 is variously transcribed as
Wade–Giles
Wade–Giles () is a romanization system for Mandarin Chinese. It developed from a system produced by Thomas Francis Wade, during the mid-19th century, and was given completed form with Herbert A. Giles's '' Chinese–English Dictionary'' o ...
''tao'' (or ''tao''
4 marking
4th tone),
Legge romanization ''tâo'',
Latinxua Sin Wenz ''dau'',
Gwoyeu Romatzyh
Gwoyeu Romatzyh (), abbreviated GR, is a system for writing Mandarin Chinese in the Latin alphabet. The system was conceived by Yuen Ren Chao and developed by a group of linguists including Chao and Lin Yutang from 1925 to 1926. Chao himself la ...
''daw'',
Yale
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
''dàu'', and
Hanyu Pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...
''dào''. In addition to
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the ...
romanizations, there are
transliterations of
Zhuyin fuhao
Bopomofo (), or Mandarin Phonetic Symbols, also named Zhuyin (), is a Chinese transliteration system for Mandarin Chinese and other related languages and dialects. More commonly used in Taiwanese Mandarin, it may also be used to transcribe ...
ㄉㄠ and Cyrillic
Pallidius System ''дао''. Romanization systems use one of two arbitrary ways to represent the Chinese phonemic opposition between aspirated and unaspirated consonants. Take for example, Chinese unaspirated
道 "way" and aspirated
桃 "peach". Some systems, like Wade–Giles ''tao'' 道 and ''t'ao'' 桃, introduce a special symbol for aspiration, in this case the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
rough breathing
In the polytonic orthography of Ancient Greek, the rough breathing ( grc, δασὺ πνεῦμα, dasỳ pneûma or ''daseîa''; la, spīritus asper) character is a diacritical mark used to indicate the presence of an sound before a vowel, ...
diacritic (῾) indicating before a vowel; others, like Pinyin ''dao'' 道 and ''tao'' 桃, use "d" and "t". In English and other languages, "d" and "t" indicate a voiced and unvoiced distinction, which is not phonemic in Chinese (Carr 1990: 59).
While many scholars prefer the more familiar spelling "Taoism", arguing that it is now an English word in its own right, the term "Daoism" is becoming increasingly popular. In one work, "Daoism" was preferred to "Taoism" principally for technical, phonological and conventional reasons, but also because it was thought the modern term "Daoism" helped highlight a departure from earlier Western interpretations of the philosophy (Girardot, Miller, and Liu 2001: xxxi). Miller later added that "Daoism" is his preferred usage as a distinction "from what 'Taoism' represented in the 20th-century Western imagination" (Miller 2008: xiii). One commentator, who goes beyond the spelling distinction between
Orientalist "Taoism" and academic "Daoism", discriminates "Taoism" with its common voiced /ˈtaʊ.ɪzəm/ mispronunciation. Having explained that both "Daoism" and "Taoism" are pronounced "with a 'd' sound", i.e., /ˈdaʊ.ɪzəm/, Komjathy describes a
new religious movement
A new religious movement (NRM), also known as alternative spirituality or a new religion, is a religious or Spirituality, spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in ...
labeled "American Taoism" or "Popular Western Taoism" (a term coined by Herman 1998) in which "Taoism" is pronounced with a "hard 't' sound", /ˈtaʊ.ɪzəm/ (2014: 1, 206).
Borrowings
Within the
lexical set of
English words originating from Chinese, the loanword ''Tao/Dao'' is more typical than the loanblend ''Taoism/Daoism''. Most Sinitic borrowings in English are
loanwords
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...
directly
transliterated
Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus ''trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or L ...
from Chinese (for example, ''Tao/Dao'' from ''dào'' 道 "way, path; say" or ''
kowtow
A kowtow is the act of deep respect shown by prostration, that is, kneeling and bowing so low as to have one's head touching the ground. In Sinospheric culture, the kowtow is the highest sign of reverence. It was widely used to show reverenc ...
'' from ''kòutóu'' 叩頭 lit. "knock head"), some are
calques or loan translations (''
brainwashing
Brainwashing (also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control, thought reform, and forced re-education) is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques. Brainwashin ...
'' from ''xǐnăo'' 洗腦, lit. "brain wash" or ''
Red Guards
Red Guards () were a mass student-led paramilitary social movement mobilized and guided by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 through 1967, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a Red Guard lead ...
'' from ''Hóngwèibīng'' 红卫兵), and a few are
hybrid words or loanblends that combine a borrowing with a native element (''Taoism/Daoism'' from ''Tao/Dao'' "the Way" and
-ism
''-ism'' is a suffix in many English words, originally derived from the Ancient Greek suffix ('), and reaching English through the Latin , and the French . It means "taking side with" or "imitation of", and is often used to describe philo ...
suffix or ''
Peking duck
Peking duck is a dish from Beijing (Peking) that has been prepared since the Imperial era. The meat is characterized by its thin, crispy skin, with authentic versions of the dish serving mostly the skin and little meat, sliced in front of the di ...
'' from ''Běijīng kǎoyā'' 北京烤鴨 "roast Beijing duck"). Besides English ''Taoism/Daoism'', other common ''-ism'' borrowings include ''
Confucianism
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a Religious Confucianism, religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, ...
'', ''
Mohism
Mohism or Moism (, ) was an ancient Chinese philosophy of ethics and logic, rational thought, and science developed by the academic scholars who studied under the ancient Chinese philosopher Mozi (c. 470 BC – c. 391 BC), embodied in an ep ...
'', and ''
Maoism
Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...
''. While most Chinese loanwords have a "foreign appearance", monosyllabic ones such as
li or
tong Tong may refer to:
Chinese
* Tang Dynasty, a dynasty in Chinese history when transliterated from Cantonese
* Tong (organization), a type of social organization found in Chinese immigrant communities
*''tong'', pronunciation of several Chinese ch ...
are more likely to remain "alien" than loanblends with English elements such as Taoism or
tangram
The tangram () is a dissection puzzle consisting of seven flat polygons, called ''tans'', which are put together to form shapes. The objective is to replicate a pattern (given only an outline) generally found in a puzzle book using all seven pi ...
that are more readily "naturalized" (Yuan 1981: 250).
The ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a c ...
'' (2nd ed.) records the progression of occurrences over the succeeding centuries: ''Tao'' 1736, ''Tau'' 1747, ''Taouism'' and ''Taouist'' 1838, ''Taoistic'' 1856, ''Tao-ism'' 1858, ''Taoism'' 1903, ''Daoism'' 1948, ''Dao'' and ''Daoist'' 1971.
Linguists distinguish between
hypercorrection
In sociolinguistics, hypercorrection is non-standard use of language that results from the over-application of a perceived rule of language-usage prescription. A speaker or writer who produces a hypercorrection generally believes through a mis ...
, the erroneous use of a nonstandard word form due to a belief that it is more accurate than the corresponding standard form (for instance, the /fra:ns/ pronunciation for France /fræns/), and
hyperforeignism
A hyperforeignism is a type of qualitative hypercorrection that involves speakers misidentifying the distribution of a pattern found in loanwords and extending it to other environments, including words and phrases not borrowed from the language th ...
, the misapplication of foreign loanword pronunciation patterns extended beyond their use in the original language (such as dropping the "t" in
claret
Bordeaux wine ( oc, vin de Bordèu, french: vin de Bordeaux) is produced in the Bordeaux region of southwest France, around the city of Bordeaux, on the Garonne River. To the north of the city the Dordogne River joins the Garonne forming the ...
/ˈklærɪt/). ''Taoism'' is neither a hypercorrection because it originated from a spelling misunderstanding rather than a phonemic modification, nor a hyperforeignism because it is not an attempt to sound more Chinese (Carr 1990: 68).
The pronunciation of ''Taoism'' as instead of is not unique and typifies many Chinese borrowings in English (e.g.,
gung-ho, Cohen 1989) that are distorted owing to Chinese romanization systems. Wade–Giles ''
I Ching
The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zh ...
'' and ''
T'ai Chi Ch'üan'' (Pinyin ''Yìjīng'' and ''Tàijíquán'') are two common cases in which the Pinyin romanization more accurately represents Chinese pronunciation than Wade–Giles (Carr 1990: 67-68). ''I Ching'' transcribes the Chinese /i t͡ɕiŋ/
易經 Book of Changes
The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zho ...
, but some English speakers pronounce it /ˈaɪ tʃiːŋ/, reading Chinese ''I'' /i/ as the English pronoun ''
I'' /aɪ/ and the aspirated alveolo-palatal ''Ch'' / t͡ɕʰ/ as the fortis
postalveolar
Postalveolar or post-alveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the ''back'' of the alveolar ridge. Articulation is farther back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but n ...
/tʃ/. The ''T'ai Chi Ch'üan'' martial art /tʰaɪ̯ t͡ɕi t͡ɕʰy̯ɛn/
太极拳 is commonly misspelled ''Tai Chi Chuan'' (Pinyin ''Daijizhuan'') without umlaut or apostrophes (the Wikipedia article is titled
Tai chi
Tai chi (), short for Tai chi ch'üan ( zh, s=太极拳, t=太極拳, first=t, p=Tàijíquán, labels=no), sometimes called " shadowboxing", is an internal Chinese martial art practiced for defense training, health benefits and meditation. ...
), and is similarly naturalized as English /ˌtaɪ ˌtʃi ˈtʃwɑn/.
Lexicography
English dictionaries provide some insights into the ''Daoism''/''Taoism'' pronunciation issue. For over a century, British and American
lexicographers glossed the pronunciation of ''Taoism'' as (), but gradually began changing it to () and added ''Daoism'' entries.
One scholar analyzed ''Taoism'' pronunciation glosses in general-purpose English dictionaries, comparing twelve published in Great Britain (1933–1989) and eleven published in the United States (1948–1987). After standardizing the various dictionary
respelling systems into the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation ...
, there are four types of ''Taoism'' glosses involving
prescriptive linguistics and
descriptive linguistics: () is prescriptively accurate, () describes a common distortion, and the alternate (, ) and (, ) glosses are more comprehensive (Carr 1990: 63–64).
Nine of the twelve British-English dictionaries gloss the pronunciation of ''Taoism'' as (), and three give (, ). The eleven American-English references haves more varied glosses: (, ) six times, () twice, (, ) twice, and () once (''
OAD'', 1979). The respective first accurate American and British lexicographic glosses for ''Taoism'' were "''douizm; tou''-" (''
Webster's Second'', 1934) and "Also Daoism and with pronunc. (dau•iz'm)" (''
OED supplement'', 1986). Within the present sample of English-language dictionaries, the American publications were faster to rectify the mistaken () pronunciation to () (Carr 1990: 64–65).
Besides () and () pronunciation variations for the consonant ''T'' in ''Taoism'', the dictionaries also glosses the vocalic ()
diphthong
A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...
as (//), (//), and the
triphthong (//), which may be owing to the old ''Taouism'', ''Tauism'', and ''Tavism'' variant spellings (Carr 1990: 64). For instance, the 1989 ''
OED2'' mixed gloss "(ˈtɑːəʊɪz(ə)m, ˈdaʊɪz(ə)m)" combines the (//) pronunciation from the 1933 ''
OED1'' ''Taoism'' entry and the (}) from the 1986 ''OED supplement''.
References
* Carr, Michael. 1990. "Whence the Pronunciation of ''Taoism''?" ''Dictionaries'' 12:55–74.
* Cohen, Gerald. 1989. "''Gung Ho'' Revisited, Part 1". ''Comments on Etymology'' 29.3:1–42.
*Girardot, N. J., James Miller and Liu Xiaogan, eds. 2001. ''Daoism and Ecology: Ways within a Cosmic Landscape''. Harvard University Press.
* (Only snippet view on Google Books)
*Herman, Jonathan R. 1998. "Review of Tao Te Ching: A Book About the Way and the Power of the Way". ''Journal of the American Academy of Religion'' 66.3: 686–89.
*Komjathy, Louis. 2014. ''Daoism: A Guide for the Perplexed''. A&C Black.
*Miller, James. 2008. ''Daoism: A Beginner's Guide''. Oneworld Publications.
*Norman, Jerry. 1988. ''Chinese''. New York: Cambridge University Press.
*Purchas, Samuel. 1625. ''A discourse of the Kingdome of China, taken out of Ricius and Trigautius, containing the countrey, people, government, religion, rites, sects, characters, studies, arts, acts; and a Map of China added, drawne out of one there made with Annotations for the understanding thereof'', found in
Hakluytus posthumus, or Purchas His Pilgrimes'.
*Witek, John W, ed. 2001. ''Dicionário Português-Chinês'', Michele Ruggiero and Matteo Ricci, S. Local, Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa, IPOR, Ricci Institute, University of San Francisco.
*Yip, Moira (1993), "Cantonese Loanword Phonology and Optimality Theory", ''Journal of East Asian Linguistics'' 2.3: 261–291.
*Yong, Heming and Jing Peng, 2008. ''Chinese Lexicography: A History from 1046 BC to AD 1911'', Oxford University Press.
*Yuan Jia Hua (1981), "English Words of Chinese Origin", ''Journal of Chinese Linguistics'' 9.2: 244-286
External links
Daoism or Taoism? James Miller,
Queen's University
Popular Western Taoism Louis Komjathy, Center for Daoist Studies
Why we say "Beizhing" and not "Beijing" Victor H. Mair
Victor Henry Mair (; born March 25, 1943) is an American sinologist. He is a professor of Chinese at the University of Pennsylvania. Among other accomplishments, Mair has edited the standard ''Columbia History of Chinese Literature'' and the ''Col ...
discusses "Taoism" mispronunciations, ''
Language Log
''Language Log'' is a collaborative language blog maintained by Mark Liberman, a phonetician at the University of Pennsylvania.
Most of the posts focus on language use in the media and in popular culture. Text available through Google Search f ...
'', 2 May 2019
{{DEFAULTSORT:Daoism-Taoism Romanization Issue
Language comparison
Chinese
Naming controversies
Romanization of Chinese
Standard Chinese
Taoism