The Strategies of Using Chinese Characters in Transliteration of Thai names

Abstract

This research aims to study transliteration patterns and use of Chinese characters in each syllable of transliterated Thai names and surnames. The sample contains 1,710 syllables from Thai names and Chinese transliterated counterparts from 939 names obtained from Chinese newspapers, the Internet, related books and journals from 2012 to 2014.The data were analyzed using a phonetics framework. The research found that the following strategies are employed in transliteration: full transliteration, partial transliteration, no transliteration, transliteration using Southern Chinese dialect sounds, and transliteration using special features of the Thai language. The correlations observed in Thai-Chinese transliteration are one syllable to one Chinese character, one syllable to different Chinese characters, different syllables to one Chinese character, and different syllables to different Chinese characters.