The Surnames of the Chinese in America/Introduction
Introduction.
Lack of uniformity in the English spelling of the names of Chinese persons has been a prolific source of confusion to immigration officers and Federal Court officials, and of injury to the Chinese persons themselves whose rights have been jeopardized in many instances because the name of the same persons happened to be spelled in English in different ways on the official records. To remedy this evil by introducing a uniform system of English spelling of such names, a system which will be adopted by the United States Government has been the aim of the author of the present work.
The plan of the David Jones System is to follow as closely as possible the natural English method, dispensing with diacritical marks which have been used heretofore to indicate the sounds of the vowels and dipthongs. In this work will be found nearly all the clan names represented by the Chinese population in the United States, and they are spelled according to a uniform method.
The bulk of the Chinamen in the United States and Canada are from a farming section of the Kwangtung Province, about sixty to one hundred miles southwest of Canton. They speak what is called the Sz Yip dialect.
Most of the women and some of the merchants are from the city of Canton and immediate neighborhood. They speak what is called the Saam Yup dialect.
The names, spelled according to both dialects, are given in this work.
The earlier missionaries in Canton devised a Romanized system of writing Chinese, based on the alphabet of Continental Europe. Many of the vowel sounds differed materially from the sounds conveyed by the same vowels in the English language, and as each of these vowels had to represent more than one sound, diacritical marks were used to distinguish them. This system is the one used in dictionaries, and is sometimes employed by interpreters who have acquired the Chinese language by their use. When names written in this system are transcribed into court records and other official documents, however, the diacritical marks are often omitted, and the non-use of such distinguishing signs brings about a change of pronunciation. When reading a Chinese name in an English record, the reader naturally gives the same phonetic value to the vowels in the Chinese name as he does to the vowels in the English.
Another cause of confusion is the fact that attorneys and others who have occasion to write Chinese names give widely different forms in English to the same Chinese sound, according to the way they themselves pronounce the language.
The Chinese generally give only their given names, preceded by the word "Ah," omitting the surname. The surname always comes first in Chinese, as for instance, "Chin Sin." Chin is the surname and Sin the given name. When asked his name, the Chinaman would probably say "Ah Sin." The full name should appear in all documents.
The importance of a uniform system of spelling is readily seen in many cases. If a Chinaman should have had a certificate of residence issued to him in the name Tsam Gow, and should apply for a duplicate in the name Jaam Gow, which has nearly the same sound in English, the chances are that, because of the variance in spelling, his certificate would be overlooked in the Department, and a duplicate refused. Again, many Chinese merchants have their names misspelled in the partnership lists, and have considerable difficulty in returning to this country as merchants when the names given on their steamer tickets differ from the ones appearing on the partnership lists. In the probate of estates of Chinese, also, it is important that the name of the Chinese should appear in connection with all of his property, and in all contracts and leases spelled in only one way.
In the preparation of this system the author here acknowledges the valuable assistance of Professor John E. Gardner and Mr. Carlton Rickards of the Chinese Bureau at San Francisco (who are experts on the Saam Yup dialect of Cantonese); also of Professor Marshall B. Woodworth of Hastings College of the Law, United States Attorney; also of Mr. Charles Mehan, Inspector-in-Chief of the Chinese Bureau, and of several other Federal officers.
The author lived five years in the Sz Yip districts of China, as missionary, was interpreter for the Registration Bureau of the Internal Revenue Department at San Francisco during the Chinese registration period, and for the past eight years has been and is now official Chinese Interpreter of the United States Courts at San Francisco.