A: No. Kinmen is a postal romanization of the Chinese name 金門. This transliteration system was developed in the 1890s. It is based on pronunciation in Southern Mandarin, a dialect spoken in the Lower Yangtze region, including the city of Nanjing. The spelling Kinmen is often used in material published by the Taiwanese government.[1]
"Jinmen" is a transliteration of the same characters made using the pinyin system. Pinyin spelling reflects pronunciation in putonghua, a standardized form of the Northern Mandarin dialect spoken in Beijing and other northern cities. Schools in China have taught pupils Northern Mandarin pronunciation since the 1930s.[2] Pinyin was adopted by China in 1958 and internationally in 1979.[3] Taiwanese schools also teach Northern Mandarin pronunciation, called Guoyu in Taiwan. The government adopted pinyin in 2009.[4]
An article called Jinmen would essentially duplicate this article.
