A Practical English-Chinese Pronouncing Dictionary (Tuttle Language Library) (Mandarin_chinese Edition) (Paperback)

by Janey Chen (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This dictionary provides 15,000 words that can be used in everyday conversation. It gives both Mandarin and Cantonese romanization and pronunciation, along with Chinese characters.

Language Notes
Text: English, Chinese --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 600 pages
• Publisher: Tuttle Publishing (September 15, 1992)
• Language: English, Mandarin Chinese
• ISBN-10: 0804818770
• ISBN-13: 978-0804818773
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #877,514 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful reference in back, decent main vocab list, January 10, 2001

By	E. Chan (Bay Area, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book consists of a long vocabulary list and a reference section. The vocabulary list is kind of old. I got a real kick when I opened its map of China and still see "xikang" province - I did an internet search and found out that this province was split up between Tibet and Sichuan provinces back in the 50's! Kind of shows you the dating of the vocab list, which uses the bopomofo/Yale mandarin romanization (NOT the commonly used Pinyin) and Yale cantonese romanization.

A useful part of the vocab list is that it lists the "spoken" Cantonese pronunciation. For example, a cockcroach is written as jeung1long4, but spoken as gaat6jaat2.

I find myself using the reference section more than the vocubulary list. It includes the pronuncations for christian and bhuddist religious terms, including the books of the bible (protestant & catholic), as well as a list of military terms. It also has lists of Simplified/Traditional Chinese characters, chinese calendar solar terms, summary of chinese dynasties, 100 surnames, and a pretty deep discussion of family relation appellations.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good for Mandarin and Cantonese pronunciation., December 22, 1997

By	Dale Dellinger - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This dictionary's strong point is that it has both Mandarin pronunciation (bo-po-mo-fo and Yale romanization), and Cantonese for each word. There are also appendices on religious terms (apparently for use by missionaries) and military terms.

On the downside, the book appears to be from pre-WWII so newer terms are not present. Also, the definitions have no explanations or usage examples. The typeface for the Chinese characters is a serif style which makes it harder to read than it should be.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great, but with serious typos!, July 2, 2005

By	Jerry L. the Bibliophile (California, United States) - See all my reviews

I found this book pretty useful - many of the phrases are the ones you normally hear in everyday (Taiwanese) conversation. The characters are in traditional form. The compiler/author, Janey Chen, also does a good job compiling a list of religious terms in the back.

However, I do want you to watch out for WRONG TONE MARKINGS! Sometimes the romanization gives the correct tone while the bo po mo fo phonetics gives the wrong tone - and thus ANOTHER MEANING. The author seems to know what she means, but it's probably the blurry typesetting or careless typist that creates serious mistakes. If you want to learn a phrase from the book that is very important to you, be sure to VERIFY the tone markings in a reliable dictionary (like the Far East Chinese-English Dictionary). The romanization is also not standard, and it's something about this book that I don't like.

Basically, the translations are great, and you can learn new characters quickly, but it would be very helpful if a native Chinese speaker can help you verify that the tone markings are correct. Also, rarely the bo po mo fo pronunciation even goes wrong.

NOTE: Old-styled binding and typesetting. Published in 1970 and not revised, a little too old.