Tian Tian, the male panda, plays with a toy spool. The pandas will go on display in January. (Jessie Cohen - National Zoo) _____About the Pandas_____ • Pandas Special Report _____Multimedia_____ • Photo Gallery: The pandas' journey to Washington. • Photo Gallery: Exclusive photos of Tian Tian and Mei Xiang in Sichuan, China. • Video: The pandas arrive in Washington. • Video: The pandas at home in Sichuan, China. • Video: A press conference announcing the pandas' arrival date, and interviews with zoo visitors. E-Mail This Article Printer-Friendly Version

By Karlyn Barker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 9, 2000; Page B01

What's in a name? If it's the name of the National Zoo's new female giant panda, it all depends on how you pronounce it.

Her name, Mei Xiang, means "beautiful fragrance" in Chinese. But if you pronounce it "may sh-ONG," which is the pronunciation put out by zoo officials, it may sound as though you are calling her "beautiful bear" or "beautiful fierce" or something much less complimentary.

At least that's the opinion of several Chinese language experts who have taken issue with the zoo's phonetics since Mei Xiang and her pal and prospective mate, Tian Tian (t-YEN t-YEN), arrived in the nation's capital on Wednesday.

Nobody's quibbling about the pronunciation of Tian Tian's name. But the correct pronunciation of Mei Xiang is very much open to dispute.

The nominations so far: may she-yahng, may shee-Ahng, may sheeAHNG, may shee-Ahaung, may she-ahng, may sh'ahng and even mayshee-Ahng, in one word instead of two.

"The trick is how to write it so it can be easily pronounced by Americans or English speakers," said Charlie Heyda, of Bethesda, a scientific linguist with the National Imagery and Mapping Agency. "The way the zoo has it is just not a correct interpretation."

Barbara Gilbert-Chen, of Alexandria, wrote a letter to The Washington Post's editorial page, asking that the newspaper stop using the phonetic key that was recommended by the zoo.

"If a Chinese speaker heard Mei Xiang's name pronounced may sh-ONG, they would hear it as 'Beautiful Fierce,' or possibly 'Beautiful Bear,' but not as 'Beautiful Fragrance,' " Gilbert-Chen said in her letter.

At the zoo yesterday, where the "may sh-ONG" pronunciation is written on the wall of the Panda House, officials beg to differ.

"We talked with the Chinese at the Wolong Nature Reserve, and we also double-checked it with officials at the Chinese Embassy just to be sure," said Robert Hoage, the zoo's spokesman. "We'd have to be convinced there is an egregious error before we'd change" the pronunciation.

Hoage agreed, however, to consult the zoo's resident experts, the two Chinese panda keepers who are spending the next month in Washington while their former charges adjust to their new home. The two keepers were believed to be sightseeing yesterday and couldn't be reached for comment.

Perry Link, a professor of Chinese at Princeton University, favors "may shee-Ahng." He considered, and rejected, the notion of putting an apostrophe between "shee" and "ahng," as some have suggested. Putting an "h" toward the end of the phonetic key is absolutely essential, Link said, to keep Americans from saying "she-yang," which is incorrect.

Link and others noted that the pronunciation of Chinese can be a problem because, like English, it varies enormously from region to region. There are nonstandard pronunciations for Mandarin, the official language of the People's Republic of China and one of five major Chinese dialects.

Heyda, of the Imagery and Mapping Agency, argued that the official pronunciation should be "mayshee-Ahng," noting that when Chinese publications wrote about the zoo's previous pandas, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, they did not put any spaces between the letters in their names.

He conceded, however, that language purists can't have everything. "The [Chinese] tones have to be left out of it for English speakers," he said. "That would just be too hard."

At the zoo, meanwhile, the new celebrities spent their second full day inside the Panda House, eating, playing and "wrestling" together, according to the zoo's final 3 p.m. update before the weekend. They again made quick work of 40 pounds of bamboo, and keepers planned to give them 50 pounds last night. The keepers also cut up apples and carrots for the pandas to have after their nap and gave them a big plastic ball and an oversized spool toy to play with.

Zoo officials also gave out a simpler Web site address for those who want to keep up on panda news, pandas.si.edu, but they said the Web cam won't be operating for at least two weeks.