<h2>Pronunciation ≠ Spelling!</h2>
<p>It's very important to distinguish <em>spellings</em> from <em>pronunciations</em>, so I'm using IPA throughout my answer. I don't know how you pronounce <strong>&quot;wang&quot;</strong> or <strong>&quot;wong&quot;</strong>, but it's very likely that the closest pronunciation available in your dialect of English is <em>neither of them</em>.</p>
<h3>Chinese pronunciations</h3>
<p>I'm basing my IPA off of the Wikipedia help pages on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_Mandarin" rel="nofollow noreferrer">IPA for Mandarin</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_Cantonese" rel="nofollow noreferrer">IPA for Cantonese</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li>The Mandarin pronunciation of 王 (ignoring tones) is <strong>/wɑŋ/</strong>. I'm assuming this is the correct pronunciation of the politician's name.</li>
<li>The Cantonese pronunciation of 王 (ignoring tones) is <strong>/wɔːŋ/</strong>.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Chinese transliterations</h3>
<ul>
<li>The Pinyin (standard transliteration for Mandarin) spelling of 王 is <strong>&quot;wang&quot;</strong>.</li>
<li>The Jyutping (standard transliteration for Cantonese) spelling of 王 is <strong>&quot;wong&quot;</strong>.</li>
</ul>
<h3>English pronunciations</h3>
<p>There are <em>many</em> dialects of English, and they have wildly divergent pronunciations. I'm basing my IPA choices off of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet_chart_for_English_dialects" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this chart</a>. If you're confused about what the &quot;TRAP vowel&quot; or &quot;CLOTH vowel&quot; mean, see this article on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexical_set" rel="nofollow noreferrer">lexical sets</a>. They're by far the easiest way to talk about English vowels.</p>
<p>I give the concrete pronunciations for RP (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Received Pronunciation</a>), GA (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_American" rel="nofollow noreferrer">General American</a>), and AuE (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_English" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Australian English</a>).</p>
<ul>
<li><p>If <strong>&quot;wang&quot;</strong> is interpreted as having the TRAP vowel (i.e., the same vowel as &quot;bank&quot; or &quot;hang&quot;), then:</p>
<ul>
<li>RP = <strong>/wæŋ/</strong>, GA = <strong>/wæŋ/</strong>, AuE = <strong>/wæŋ/</strong></li>
<li>This pronunciation is <em>not</em> the correct pronunciation of the politician's name.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><p>Some people who are more savvy to transliterations and loan words might approach &quot;a&quot;s in unfamiliar foreign words as being the PALM vowel (i.e., same vowel as &quot;father&quot;). Then <strong>&quot;wang&quot;</strong> becomes:</p>
<ul>
<li>RP = <strong>/wäːŋ/</strong>, GA = <strong>/wɑŋ/</strong> or <strong>/wäŋ/</strong>, AuE = <strong>/wɑːŋ/</strong></li>
<li>This is the best match to the Mandarin pronunciation available in the given dialects.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><p>Almost certainly, <strong>&quot;wong&quot;</strong> will be interpreted as the CLOTH vowel (i.e., the same vowel as &quot;long&quot; and &quot;wrong&quot;).</p>
<ul>
<li>RP = <strong>/wɒŋ/</strong> or <strong>/wɔŋ/</strong> (free variation?), AuE = <strong>/wɔŋ/</strong></li>
<li>About <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_low_back_vowels#Cot.E2.80.93caught_merger" rel="nofollow noreferrer">half of GA speakers</a> have <strong>/wɔŋ/</strong> and half have <strong>/wɑŋ/</strong>.</li>
<li>Almost all of these are <em>not</em> correct, as they have a rounded vowel. Only the cot-caught merging speakers of GA have a good match to the Mandarin.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-08T21:02:53.050Z
2014-12-08T21:02:53.050Z
2020-06-17T09:50:11.587Z
Stumpy Joe Pete
<p>In Mandarin, 王 (pinyin = Wang) is pronounced (in Mandarin) as "Wong" (the sound of it). To an english speaker this will not make much sense because Wang does not sound like Wong at all. </p>

<p>Often times people will ask, how do you say your name in chinese? Assuming my surname is 王. I would say it's pronounced as "Wong" (or as close to as that). But still, people will simply say Wang because it is more natural for them (English speakers) to say it. </p>

<p>As for the wrong use of the surname - I would think there are 2 possibilities</p>

<p>1 - the person who used it only knew how the name was pronounced and not how it was written so he/she assumed it was written as it sounds and wrote Wong.</p>

<p>2 - the person who used it was Cantonese and assumed the other person is also Cantonese and use Wong because that's how they write it.</p>

<p><strong>How should you pronounce it?</strong></p>

<p>I think this comes down to personal preference. To me you can say Wang or Wong and I would not care. However, to someone else they might care and correct you on your pronunciation. </p>

<p>Any english speaker meeting someone named Wang, is naturally going to say Wang unless they have so much interaction with chinese people and knows the chinese way of saying it. </p>

<p>if you want to say the person's name properly in Mandarin, then pronounce it as "Wong", if you don't care and the other person with surname 王 don't mind, then say "Wang". It's best just to ask the other person what they want you to pronounce and go from there.</p>

<p>Further more...</p>

<p>Zhenya Wang is from Nanjing so the correct chinese way to say/pronounce her name in chinese is "Wong" but I would not expect english speakers to know this</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-08T19:28:21.567Z
It seems Americans would pronounce [ɒ] in "not" a little like [a] in "ah" ... But maybe British people will pronounce "Wong" like [wɔŋ]?
Stan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-08T19:37:17.210Z
@Stan Sorry I don't have the knowledge to answer your question
Huangism
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-02T17:41:10.710Z
@Stan I pronounce "Wong" as [wɔŋ], but some Americans would pronounce it like [wɑŋ]. This is why IPA is pretty important to answer a question like this. Anytime anyone writes "It's pronounced like 'Wong', not 'Wang'", I want to yell, "That doesn't clarify anything!".
Stumpy Joe Pete
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-03T01:18:51.683Z
@StumpyJoePete Totally agreed.
Stan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-08T18:58:12.430Z
2014-12-08T19:03:13.597Z
2014-12-08T19:03:13.597Z
Huangism
<p>Not only in Chinese even in Luo speaking community(Acoli in Northern Uganda and South Sudan  and all the Nilo people) do refers to &quot;Wang&quot; as water source(source of something) . This means in sounding is the same. example like Wang Oo=where friends and families gather during evening fireside,Wanglengo= village in Lamwo,Wang Bur= wound.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-05-25T09:44:57.393Z
2021-05-25T09:44:57.393Z
Robinson Ongom Omony
<p>Australian politician <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhenya_Wang" rel="nofollow">Zhenya Wang</a>, sometimes called Dio Wang, Chinese name 王振亚, has his surname written in English as "Wang", but it's sometimes pronounced in English as "Wong". Another Australian politician used "Wong" in an English sentence, and was accused of getting his name wrong.</p>

<p>From an English speaker's perspective, a name written as "Wang" being pronounced "Wong" seems wrong, even by English's ghoti-y standards. Is there an explanation relating to the Chinese language for this, such as how Chinese speakers describe their name in Chinese with Pinyin?</p>

<p>Ideally, answers to this should be understandable for someone with no prior knowledge about Chinese.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-03T10:14:36.780Z
"Wang" is written in the [Pinyin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin) system for transcribing the **Mandarin pronunciations** in PRC, Taiwan and Singapore. "Wong" is the **Cantonese pronunciation**, so in Hong Kong, the surname 王 is just written as "Wong" (but in Guangdong province in PRC, the area where Cantonese is spoken, most people don't follow this). I guess maybe in Australia there are many Chinese people calling him in Cantonese, so some English speakers follow the Cantonese pronunciation.
Stan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-03T11:56:55.553Z
What may complicate this case is the fact that there is also the Australian senator [Penny Wong](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Wong), with the surname 黄 (i.e. different Chinese surname, different pronunciation in Mandarin but same in Cantonese, and romanised into English via Cantonese rather than standard Mandarin Pinyin). It may be a simple mistake.
Michaelyus
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-08T20:15:48.340Z
This question would be greatly improved if you clarified the actual pronunciations in question. "Wang" and "Wong" are _spellings_, and the way English-speakers pronounce them vary greatly (e.g., vowel /a/ vs /ɒ/ vs /æ/ vs /ɔ/). This confuses the issue and leads to people talking past one another.
Stumpy Joe Pete
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-08T23:43:56.337Z
@倪阔乐 Hmmm... In France, my name would be Pierre. In Russia, Пётр (Pyotr). In Mexico, Pedro. In Greece, Πέτρος (Petros). While a Pinyin-based standard for transcribing Chinese names is convenient for me, saying that "regional spellings" do not exist for Western names is not really correct.
Stumpy Joe Pete
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-05-25T16:05:03.233Z
@user4452 Surnames such as Chua (蔡）ang Ng (黃， I guess) are used by people from south east Asia. You can't dictate what surname they should use.
joehua
<translation><names><transliteration>
Why is Zhenya Wang's surname in English "Wang" but sometimes pronounced "Wong"?
# Why is Zhenya Wang's surname in English "Wang" but sometimes pronounced "Wong"?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-12-03)

Australian politician [Zhenya Wang](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhenya_Wang), sometimes called Dio Wang, Chinese name 王振亚, has his surname written in English as "Wang", but it's sometimes pronounced in English as "Wong". Another Australian politician used "Wong" in an English sentence, and was accused of getting his name wrong.

From an English speaker's perspective, a name written as "Wang" being pronounced "Wong" seems wrong, even by English's ghoti-y standards. Is there an explanation relating to the Chinese language for this, such as how Chinese speakers describe their name in Chinese with Pinyin?

Ideally, answers to this should be understandable for someone with no prior knowledge about Chinese.

**Tags:** translation, names, transliteration

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: "Wang" is written in the [Pinyin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin) system for transcribing the **Mandarin pronunciations** in PRC, Taiwan and Singapore. "Wong" is the **Cantonese pronunciation**, so in Hong Kong, the surname 王 is just written as "Wong" (but in Guangdong province in PRC, the area where Cantonese is spoken, most people don't follow this). I guess maybe in Australia there are many Chinese people calling him in Cantonese, so some English speakers follow the Cantonese pronunciation.  
> **username_2**: What may complicate this case is the fact that there is also the Australian senator [Penny Wong](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Wong), with the surname 黄 (i.e. different Chinese surname, different pronunciation in Mandarin but same in Cantonese, and romanised into English via Cantonese rather than standard Mandarin Pinyin). It may be a simple mistake.  
> **username_3**: This question would be greatly improved if you clarified the actual pronunciations in question. "Wang" and "Wong" are _spellings_, and the way English-speakers pronounce them vary greatly (e.g., vowel /a/ vs /ɒ/ vs /æ/ vs /ɔ/). This confuses the issue and leads to people talking past one another.  
> **username_3**: @倪阔乐 Hmmm... In France, my name would be Pierre. In Russia, Пётр (Pyotr). In Mexico, Pedro. In Greece, Πέτρος (Petros). While a Pinyin-based standard for transcribing Chinese names is convenient for me, saying that "regional spellings" do not exist for Western names is not really correct.  
> **username_4**: @user4452 Surnames such as Chua (蔡）ang Ng (黃， I guess) are used by people from south east Asia. You can't dictate what surname they should use.  

---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2014-12-08. Score: 5

## Pronunciation ≠ Spelling!

It's very important to distinguish *spellings* from *pronunciations*, so I'm using IPA throughout my answer. I don't know how you pronounce **"wang"** or **"wong"**, but it's very likely that the closest pronunciation available in your dialect of English is *neither of them*.

### Chinese pronunciations

I'm basing my IPA off of the Wikipedia help pages on [IPA for Mandarin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_Mandarin) and [IPA for Cantonese](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_Cantonese).

* The Mandarin pronunciation of 王 (ignoring tones) is **/wɑŋ/**. I'm assuming this is the correct pronunciation of the politician's name.
* The Cantonese pronunciation of 王 (ignoring tones) is **/wɔːŋ/**.

### Chinese transliterations

* The Pinyin (standard transliteration for Mandarin) spelling of 王 is **"wang"**.
* The Jyutping (standard transliteration for Cantonese) spelling of 王 is **"wong"**.

### English pronunciations

There are *many* dialects of English, and they have wildly divergent pronunciations. I'm basing my IPA choices off of [this chart](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet_chart_for_English_dialects). If you're confused about what the "TRAP vowel" or "CLOTH vowel" mean, see this article on [lexical sets](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexical_set). They're by far the easiest way to talk about English vowels.

I give the concrete pronunciations for RP ([Received Pronunciation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation)), GA ([General American](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_American)), and AuE ([Australian English](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_English)).

* If **"wang"** is interpreted as having the TRAP vowel (i.e., the same vowel as "bank" or "hang"), then:

  + RP = **/wæŋ/**, GA = **/wæŋ/**, AuE = **/wæŋ/**
  + This pronunciation is *not* the correct pronunciation of the politician's name.
* Some people who are more savvy to transliterations and loan words might approach "a"s in unfamiliar foreign words as being the PALM vowel (i.e., same vowel as "father"). Then **"wang"** becomes:

  + RP = **/wäːŋ/**, GA = **/wɑŋ/** or **/wäŋ/**, AuE = **/wɑːŋ/**
  + This is the best match to the Mandarin pronunciation available in the given dialects.
* Almost certainly, **"wong"** will be interpreted as the CLOTH vowel (i.e., the same vowel as "long" and "wrong").

  + RP = **/wɒŋ/** or **/wɔŋ/** (free variation?), AuE = **/wɔŋ/**
  + About [half of GA speakers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_low_back_vowels#Cot.E2.80.93caught_merger) have **/wɔŋ/** and half have **/wɑŋ/**.
  + Almost all of these are *not* correct, as they have a rounded vowel. Only the cot-caught merging speakers of GA have a good match to the Mandarin.


---

### Answer by username_5 on 2014-12-08. Score: 1

In Mandarin, 王 (pinyin = Wang) is pronounced (in Mandarin) as "Wong" (the sound of it). To an english speaker this will not make much sense because Wang does not sound like Wong at all.

Often times people will ask, how do you say your name in chinese? Assuming my surname is 王. I would say it's pronounced as "Wong" (or as close to as that). But still, people will simply say Wang because it is more natural for them (English speakers) to say it.

As for the wrong use of the surname - I would think there are 2 possibilities

1 - the person who used it only knew how the name was pronounced and not how it was written so he/she assumed it was written as it sounds and wrote Wong.

2 - the person who used it was Cantonese and assumed the other person is also Cantonese and use Wong because that's how they write it.

**How should you pronounce it?**

I think this comes down to personal preference. To me you can say Wang or Wong and I would not care. However, to someone else they might care and correct you on your pronunciation.

Any english speaker meeting someone named Wang, is naturally going to say Wang unless they have so much interaction with chinese people and knows the chinese way of saying it.

if you want to say the person's name properly in Mandarin, then pronounce it as "Wong", if you don't care and the other person with surname 王 don't mind, then say "Wang". It's best just to ask the other person what they want you to pronounce and go from there.

Further more...

Zhenya Wang is from Nanjing so the correct chinese way to say/pronounce her name in chinese is "Wong" but I would not expect english speakers to know this

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: It seems Americans would pronounce [ɒ] in "not" a little like [a] in "ah" ... But maybe British people will pronounce "Wong" like [wɔŋ]?  
> **username_5**: @username_1 Sorry I don't have the knowledge to answer your question  
> **username_3**: @username_1 I pronounce "Wong" as [wɔŋ], but some Americans would pronounce it like [wɑŋ]. This is why IPA is pretty important to answer a question like this. Anytime anyone writes "It's pronounced like 'Wong', not 'Wang'", I want to yell, "That doesn't clarify anything!".  
> **username_1**: @StumpyJoePete Totally agreed.  

---

### Answer by username_6 on 2021-05-25. Score: -2

Not only in Chinese even in Luo speaking community(Acoli in Northern Uganda and South Sudan and all the Nilo people) do refers to "Wang" as water source(source of something) . This means in sounding is the same. example like Wang Oo=where friends and families gather during evening fireside,Wanglengo= village in Lamwo,Wang Bur= wound.


---

