Why does Japan still use ペキン for Beijing?


Why not ベジン or even 北京｛きたきょう｝?




Supplementing the existing answer. Short answer: **because there's neither /b/
nor /j/ in that word.** Nor do they even exist in modern standard Chinese to
begin with.

This may come as a surprise, but modern standard Chinese, aka Mandarin, lacks
most voiced consonants. So there's no /b/, /g/, /j/, or /d/. Although the
official romanization system for modern standard Chinese, aka pinyin,
prescribes these phonetic symbols, they are really realized as non-aspirated
voiceless consonants. But in Japanese—and English I may add, as well as most
European languages that I have knowledge of—voiced consonants are prevalent.

The way Beijing is actually pronounced is something close to / **peiching** /.

For more accurate and technical explanations, check out this Wiki page:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Chinese_phonology>

Technically, the sound that the pinyin **j** represents is [t͡ɕ], the
voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant affricate, and it's the same consonant as
/ch/ in ち.

The sound that the pinyin **b** represents is just a good ol unaspirated /p/,
as the /p/ in spy.

This is actually the reason why native Chinese speakers seem to have a hard
time telling apart か and が, ぱ and ば, た and だ, etc. See, for instance, this
Q&A:

[What's the pronunciation of か in
ですか?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/49059/30454)




Supplementing the existing answer. Short answer: **because there's neither /b/
nor /j/ in that word.** Nor do they even exist in modern standard Chinese to
begin with.

This may come as a surprise, but modern standard Chinese, aka Mandarin, lacks
most voiced consonants. So there's no /b/, /g/, /j/, or /d/. Although the
official romanization system for modern standard Chinese, aka pinyin,
prescribes these phonetic symbols, they are really realized as non-aspirated
voiceless consonants. But in Japanese—and English I may add, as well as most
European languages that I have knowledge of—voiced consonants are prevalent.

The way Beijing is actually pronounced is something close to / **peiching** /.

For more accurate and technical explanations, check out this Wiki page:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Chinese_phonology>

Technically, the sound that the pinyin **j** represents is [t͡ɕ], the
voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant affricate, and it's the same consonant as
/ch/ in ち.

The sound that the pinyin **b** represents is just a good ol unaspirated /p/,
as the /p/ in spy.

This is actually the reason why native Chinese speakers seem to have a hard
time telling apart か and が, ぱ and ば, た and だ, etc. See, for instance, this
Q&A:

[What's the pronunciation of か in
ですか?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/49059/30454)

