A NEW CAPITAL OF CHINA.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECFATOR.1 -SIR,—Your interesting paragraph upon the new capital of China in the Spectator of October 27th is capable of two interpretations. You say its name is "Sian"; and, as a matter of orthography, we may let it stand as such. But when you proceed to infer that such is its pronunciation, by declaring that Si-ngan is "a word not pronounceable by Englishmen," then one must discover some equal difficulty in articulating the word "onion." For the value of "ng" in the Chinese word is equivalent (phonetically) to the " ni " in the English, to the ng " in the French word ignorant, and to the" ii. "in Spanish. It would be immoral to suggest that the difficulty in pronouncing the word =ion could be solved by pronouncing it as "cannon." Sir Harry Johnston has referred in one of his publiehed works to "that strange faculty for mispronunciation" which is an English characteristic. Let us not still further prove our claim to this peculiarity by mispronouncing the name of one
more of the world's capitals,—however temporary its title may
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