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You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.You should upgrade or use an alternative browser. How Do You Pronounce Genghis Khan?

• Thread starter EmperorTigerstar
• Start date Aug 13, 2014
• Tags genghis khan pronounce

How do you pronounce Genghis Khan?

• (Gang-gus Kan)

  Votes: 8 47.1%

• (Jang-gus Kan)

  Votes: 3 17.6%

• I spell it and pronounce it Chingis Khan (Ching-gus Kan)

  Votes: 5 29.4%

• It varies often with me.

  Votes: 1 5.9%

• Total voters 17

EmperorTigerstar

Joined Jun 2013 6,524 Posts | 142+ USA There are three major pronunciations of Genghis Khan that I've heard. One of them involves a different spelling change too. I prefer the one where g sounds like a j as in joy. Which do you prefer?

BenSt

Joined Aug 2013 4,572 Posts | 30+ Canada, originally Clwyd, N.Wales I've only heard of (phonetically): Gen-gis and Chen - giz. I'm so used to hearing Genghis with a hard G that for me that is his name. K

Kartir

Joined Jun 2013 2,361 Posts | 13+ -- I spell it Genghis Khan and pronounce it Chengiz Khan. How do you people pronounce Khan? Kan or Khan as the ch in German "achtung"?

EmperorTigerstar

Joined Jun 2013 6,524 Posts | 142+ USA

Kartir said: I spell it Genghis Khan and pronounce it Chengiz Khan. How do you people pronounce Khan? Kan or Khan as the ch in German "achtung"? Click to expand...

I think officially in the mongolic language it's IPA: [Xan] (in other words, the German achtung thingy), but all English speakers basically say "kan"

HistoryFreak1912

Joined Apr 2009 4,466 Posts | 22+ Alabama, USA I've always pronounced it as 'Geng-is Kh-awn'.

Belgarion

Joined Jul 2011 7,400 Posts | 951+ Australia "Chinngis" is the way it is pronounced and spelt in Mongolia. I know this from my in depth research into the country and its culture when I visited some years ago, and because this is how it is spelt on the beer cans.

Salah

Joined Oct 2009 23,286 Posts | 100+ Maryland

HistoryFreak1912 said: I've always pronounced it as 'Geng-is Kh-awn'. Click to expand...

Ditto.

Recusant

Joined Sep 2009 2,624 Posts | 41+ Sector N after curfew

Kartir said: I spell it Genghis Khan and pronounce it Chengiz Khan. Click to expand...

Same here. No poll option for it, however. H

heavenlykaghan

Joined Mar 2012 6,659 Posts | 2,174+ In Traditional Mongolian, it's written as Chinggis Hagan. Modern Mongolian drops the g in Hagan and pronounce it as Haan. The cyrillic spelling of the Khalkha(Mongolia) pronunciation is Чингис хаан. Which in Latin transcription, should be Chingis Haan.

Shtajerc

Joined Jul 2014 6,743 Posts | 472+ Lower Styria, Slovenia Last edited: Aug 14, 2014 Here it's different, it's written Džingiskan (dʒingiskɑn), which leaves no space for false pronunciation. H

heavenlykaghan

Joined Mar 2012 6,659 Posts | 2,174+ the correct pronunciation should be Chinggis, definitely not genghis, which is an English bastardization of the word.

Shaheen

Joined May 2011 2,741 Posts | 277+ Sweden Changez Khan in my language although when speaking in English of course I use the English "Genghis".

Ajanbahu

Joined Jun 2014 4,516 Posts | 85+ India

Shaheen said: Changez Khan in my language although when speaking in English of course I use the English "Genghis". Click to expand...

Same here,I hope you speak Persian or some Indic language.

Shaheen

Joined May 2011 2,741 Posts | 277+ Sweden

Ajanbahu said: Same here,I hope you speak Persian or some Indic language. Click to expand...

Yeah I speak Urdu, Punjabi and Hindko and understand basic Pushto. We had to study Persian at school but forgotten most of it now. Only remember some random poems by Hafez and Iqbal here and there now. T

Tulun

Joined Nov 2010 4,571 Posts | 773+ Western Eurasia dzsingisz /dʒinɡis/ in Hungarian and i also pronounce like that in English. i never spoke with a native English speaker about Genghis khan in irl so i don't know how they usually pronounce it. G

Gize

Joined Jan 2014 254 Posts | 3+ Canada I spell it Genghis Khan and usually pronounce it "Geng-gis-Kawn" because that's what people are more used to, though I'm aware that it's actually pronounced "Ching-gis-Kawn" P

PM96

Joined Feb 2012 4,676 Posts | 6+ California Last edited: Aug 14, 2014 I've always pronounced it as "Geng-gis-Kawn", though I'm not aware of a more correct pronunciation.

Ajanbahu

Joined Jun 2014 4,516 Posts | 85+ India

Shaheen said: Yeah I speak Urdu, Punjabi and Hindko and understand basic Pushto. We had to study Persian at school but forgotten most of it now. Only remember some random poems by Hafez and Iqbal here and there now. Click to expand...

Reason why I guessed is that Changez Khan is used by Persians and Indians only. Chinese and Europeans have their own different ways to call this conqueror as seen in this thread.

stevapalooza

Joined May 2009 1,699 Posts | 296+ Last edited: Aug 14, 2014 Part of the problem is that there's no one universal Romanization system for Mongolian, like Pinyin for Mandarin, so you have many different spellings of Mongolian names and words floating around out there. It gets more confusing when you factor in the differences between modern Mongolian and Middle Mongolian. The Secret History uses Middle Mongolian Chinggis Qan and Chinggis Qa'an, so I trust those as "authentic". But other spellings are also valid. I just use Genghis Khan because thats the recognizable name. Login or Register / Reply

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