Why the difference in spelling? Is it pronounced differently, too?
Just a western difference. 
Same Chinese character, same pronounciation (kün), but a different combination of alphabets.
could be a differene in dialect - cantonese and hokkien or something? 
dawood
It’s how you say it not how you spell it.
Typically though:
kuen - fist (cantonese)
chuan - fist (mandarian)
Peace.
Ive heard it said Koonn and kyoon. Kune and kuen. ???
Good point.
But in this case it’s plain Cantonese. Both ‘kuen’ and ‘kune’ (as well as ‘kyun’) are “valid” Cantonese spelling methods.
Kune I have only heard in connection with Jeet >Kune< Do, and Kuen in most southern styles.
I just wandered why JKD has it written “Kune”.
How is Kuen pronounced? Kün, as Sho said?
different spelling is caused by:
- Dialects
- Different methods of Romanization
Here’s some more:
Quan = Mandarin in Modern Pinyin. Pronounce just like Chuan
Kun = is Hokkian spelling
does anybody have more spellings?
Chen Zen-
It all depends on what romanization you are using. I think that the best romanization is Yale. It actually sounds more like the words really do in cantonese.
So in this case the Yale is Kyun.
There is a “ya” sound and “oo” sound like in moon. (Although the “oo” sound has a slight “r” sound behind it. )
Its hard to make your mouth in the right shape.
for mandarin i prefer pinyin
once u get used to the Q, X, Z and stuff it is ok, and also just looks plain cooler lol
dawood
OK thanks, that cleared it a bit.
But the ‘u’ is pronounced like ‘ü’ in German.
So u actually say “Wing Chun Kün”, when u pronounce it?
ok..
yeah, pinyan is great. The Chinese Gov’t decided to use our alphabet but change the meanings of the letters. Q-without the u is pronounced ch,as in Qi, but qu is pronounced Ch, as in Quan,x is pronounced sh,as in Xing-Yi. wonderful-great logic. Hey, while we’re at it, why don’t we also use the numeral two for 17, and all zeros will be written as 4’s? Is there a reasonable, sensible explanation why simple phonetic spelling couldn’t be used? Even Yale and Wade-Giles was better, although Ch’i pronounced ‘chi’ and chi pronounced ‘ji’ still doesn’t cut it. I always wondered why they simply didn’t spell chi c-h-i, and ji j-i?
I always get a big kick out of people telling me they study 'TaijiKWAN", or Shaolin KWAN, or KWEEGONG.
XIIX !!! (pronounced Sheesh!) Holy Xit!
I actually heard a Taijiquan Sifu who pronounced it Tai-Kee-Kwan…
:rolleyes::plol
I think pinyin is excellent for its precision (which is also simple to abide by once understood), but Wade-Giles suits better for the majority of the people who are more or less unfamiliar with Chinese.
The -ing suffixes in Cantonese are pronounced more like -eng, therefore Weng Tsun Kün.
Taijiquan is Tai Gik Kuen in Cantonese.
Taijiquan is Tai Gik Kuen in Cantonese.
I know;)
PINYIN
PINYIN wasn’t developed as a phonetic system; not to help foreigners pronounce Chinese.
Originally PINYIN was developed by and for the Chinese. The plan was to eliminate the (feudal) characters and replace them by PINYIN. That didn’t happen, of course. Simplefied characters did came.
So pinyin is Chinese in every way; the ‘logic’ of trying to pronounce them as ‘English’ words doesn’t work, most of the times.
It is now worldwide accepted in the scientific community as the official way to transcribe Mandarin.
In China (mainland) it is also used to teach children the right way of pronouncing Chinese and eliminate local accents (and mistakes).
This doesn’t mean every Chinese (from the mainland, that is) actually knows how to use Pinyin correctly, but most people with some education do.
very interesting, thanks
dawood
Pinyin
Pinyin was actually developed for the cyrrillic alphabet (Russian) which is why it doesn’t work so well for our us. But it is the standard in the PRC and the UN, so any serious researcher has to grapple with it. Check out our glossary since we’ve done it all in pinyin and phonetic Cantonese.