Talk:Fan (surname)

Fan vs Fàn (Chinese family name)
Hi, I have noticed that Ciryanroth has been changing Fan to Fàn on a number of articles including Fan (surname) - however the sources on Fan (surname) all aper to use Fan. Also the sources on some of the individual bio articles use Fan. I did find references to Fàn as a translation so thought I would just flag here for input from editors with knowledge/interest in the subject to judge if this is a reasonable change. Cheers KylieTastic (talk) 12:09, 1 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Note: Wikipedia talk:WikiProject China‎ and Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Anthroponymy‎ notified

While the accent is not essential, it communicates useful information about how the name should be properly pronounced and read. For the sake of differentiating between multiple transliterations (e.g., 范 vs. 樊), the pinyin accent is essential (范 = Fàn, 樊 = Fán) and somewhat analogous to diacritics in French orthography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_orthography. To some extent, given the tonal nature of the Chinese language, accent provision is essential to assisting readers with filtering character possibilities and to avoid misunderstandings. Please see the General Rules of Hanyu Pinyin (section 2.3 onwards is particularly relevant): http://www.pinyin.info/readings/zyg/rules.html#x4.1. KylieTastic brings up a reasonable point, however, and this is a topic of continued debate amongst Chinese linguists and the Chinese community more broadly. The lack of accents commonly leads to both Chinese and non-Chinese speakers making pronunciation mistakes, but the work required to identify and type the correct accent oftentimes leads many to neglect accent provision in many cases. Happy to answer any additional questions and to engage with other opinions, Ciryanroth


 * Hi Ciryanroth, thanks for the response. I had forgotten to note that I had left notices on the two projects noted above to let them know this had been raised (now added). My only comment would be although I understand than many sources would just use a simplified Fan with no accent, that the article should have at least one source that shows that the particular accent for Fàn is the correct one - maybe it is covered in one of the non internet sources, but an on-line one would be more helpful. Cheers KylieTastic (talk) 11:48, 2 July 2017 (UTC)


 * Hello KylieTastic, appreciate your help as well. I will see if I can find something online sometime over the next two weeks or so. Ciryanroth (talk) 12:26, 3 July 2017 (UTC)