Shaanxi
English
Etymology
From a modified form of the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of 陝西／陕西 (Shǎnxī).
The double-a spelling, used certainly to avoid homography with Shanxi (山西 (Shānxī), of shān rather than shǎn), is not a feature of Hanyu Pinyin and cannot be observed outside reference to Shaanxi (see also: Shaanbei, Ningshaan). It is likely inherited from the pre-Pinyin Latinxua Sin Wenz system devised and employed by Communist linguists, which was toneless and employed "irregular spellings" for undesirable homographs. A Sin Wenz textbook from 1938 (《中文拉丁化課本》) explicitly lists the pairs Shaansi (陝西／陕西) and Shansi (山西).
An alternative theory is that the double-a spelling is from the Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization system, where the third tone is spelled by doubling a vowel, but this is less likely considering the history of Gwoyeu Romatzyh and Sin Wenz, including the historical rivalry between the two systems.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ʃɑːnˈʃiː/, /ˈʃænˈʃiː/
Proper noun
Shaanxi
- A province in China, including the Wei River valley and the fertile southern half of the Ordos Loop, comprising much of the Loess Plateau. Capital: Xi'an.
- [1856, Thomas Taylor Meadows, The Chinese and their Rebellions, London: Smith, Elder & Co., →OCLC, page 176:
- The fact, therefore, that the Tae pings, when they raised the siege of Hwae king on the 1st September marched westwards by it into Shan se, shows that the Imperial forces were strong enough to prevent their descent by the Wei river.]
- [1963 June 24, Yang, Chung-chien, “Questions of Neotectonics in the Northern Foothills of the Ch'inling”, in V. N. Pavlinov, editor, Works of the First Conference on Neotectonics in China, →OCLC, page 123:
- In the fluvial deposits which have developed to the west of the village of T'ungeshanchen in Yuanchu County of Shenhsi Province, one can find the Nihewan fauna (Axis rugosus, etc.).]
- 1979 August, Lan Cao, “Tomb of the Yellow Emperor”, in China Reconstructs, volume XXVIII, number 8, China Welfare Institute, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 64, column 1:
- HUANG DI, the legendary Yellow Emperor to whom is attributed the founding of the Chinese nation about 2000 B.C., is said to have been buried on the loess plateau. There is a tomb in Shaanxi province’s Huangling county which has long been honored as his.
- 1984, Pan Jiang (P'an Kiang), “The Phylogenetic Position of the Eugaleaspida in China”, in Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, volume 107, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 311:
- Relevant new discoveries in China, not yet described, include polybranchiaspids and hanyangaspids which were recently (1981-82) recovered from an Early Silurian formation in western Hunan Province of south China, and in southern Shaanxi Province, west China.
- 1986 June 16, “CHINESE TOMB FOUND TO BE VICTIM OF GRAVE ROBBERS”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 24 May 2015, B, page 10:
- "Archeologists drew almost a complete blank in their search of the inner tomb," the official New China News Agency said Saturday in a report of excavations at the tomb site, thought to be between 2,200 and 2,800 years old. The site is in Fengxiang County of Shaanxi Province, about 90 miles west of the ancient Yellow River capital of Xian.
- 2019 January 13, “21 die in China coal mine collapse”, in EFE, archived from the original on 13 January 2019:
- Twenty one people were killed in China after the roof of a coal mine collapsed in Lijiagou, in the central province Shaanxi, state media reported on Sunday.
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Shaanxi.
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Translations
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