音译外国专有名词要秉承三个原则

要遵循专有名词所有者的发音

Follow the pronunciation of the owners of proper names

It is unquestionably true that all the proper names should be transliterated from the correct pronunciation of their owners.

The French names should be transliterated directly from the correct French pronunciation, the German names from the correct German pronunciation, and so on.

The Chinese translations of "England", "Paris", "Berlin" and "Rome" are correct ones according to this rule.

要用汉字的普通话发音

Use the standard pronunciation of the Chinese character

Chinese characters are all monosyllabic with a single sound. The only remedy for this great confusion in translation is to fix certain Chinese characters to a certain syllable of foreign names.

This work has been done by the Xinhua News Agency, whose achievements led to the drawing up of a list of Chinese characters for transliteration.

要采用已获得广泛认可和使用的译名

Adopt the established popular translated names

Names such as , Bernard Shaw, Athens (/ˈæθənz/), Oxford, Cambridge, etc., are either inaccurate in pronunciation or even ridiculous in translation.

But as they have been popularly known, they are generally accepted and well established.

We have no idea to change these names or to retranslate them. To do so, we would perhaps create new confusion among the readers.