[Buddha-l] Ts'ao-ch'i or Caoxi?

[Dan Lusthaus]

Hi Mitchell,

> why it is that the Wade-Giles references were mostly all to the Ts'ao-ch'i 
> pronunciation and the Pinyin to the other, Caoqi (in W-G, ts'ao-hsi)?

I don't know. There may be a specific answer (e.g., local preference), but 
more likely someone started to transcribe it one way, and everyone else just 
followed suit (there is a lot of that sort of falling in line in East Asian 
studies). While theoretically either pronunciation is possible, the locals 
probably say it one way or the other, not either way. Whether either the W-G 
or pinyin are based on actual local pronunciation, or just the preferences 
and hunches of armchair sinologists, I don't know.

Is this important, or just a matter of curiosity?

Dan