Inconsistent Transcription of Chinese Toponyms in Mongolian: Evidence from Media and Learner Usage

Abstract

This study investigates the transcription of Chinese provincial and major city names into Mongolian, focusing on inconsistencies in current usage despite the existence of an official transcription guideline issued in 2016. The research ex-amines two primary data sources: (1) commonly used Mongolian news websites and (2) written responses from Mongolian learners of Chinese with at least two years of study experience. Although the official guideline is based on adapting Pinyin into Mongolian phonological and orthographic systems, findings reveal substantial and systematic variation in transcription practices across both media and individual users.
While a limited number of place names show signs of stabilization, most continue to appear in multiple orthographic variants. Notably, all participants re-ported being aware of the official transcription guidelines; however, this aware-ness does not correspond to consistent application in practice.
The analysis identifies recurring patterns of phonological confusion, includ-ing the misrepresentation of nasal distinctions, affricates, and vowel correspond-ences. These issues do not stem from the absence of such categories in Mon-golian, but rather from differences in their phonetic realization and distribution across the two languages. In particular, the frequent confusion between the al-veolar nasal /n/ and the velar nasal /ŋ/ suggests limited phonetic awareness among users, especially in distinguishing place of articulation in transcription.
Despite the guideline being introduced a decade ago, the expected stand-ardization has not been achieved. The study argues that effective standardiza-tion requires not only formal guidelines but also systematic integration into lan-guage education and increased attention to phonological adaptation.