Essay About Street Names

In Hong Kong, there are over 4000 streets. The names of the streets are multifarious. Every street name has its own story behind. Besides, they have distinctive features. Some are related to animals; some contain British characteristics and so on. Among them, numerous streets in Hong Kong are named after plant species. Most of them can be found in Tai Kok Tsui, where 17 street names are related to plants. Since Hong Kong is a former British colony, the street names need to be presented in both English and Chinese. There are some funny stories and mistakes in the translation of Hong Kong street names related to plants.

Research question and hypotheses

What methods are used to translate the street names in Hong Kong?
1. Transliteration is often used in translating street names.
2. The street is named after a plant because the plant is grown there.
3. There are discrepancies between the Chinese and English street names.

Findings

Firstly, transliteration is often used in translating street names. Sycamore Street is one of the examples using transliteration. The Chinese name of the street comes directly from its pronunciation of

Quite a few street names are translated from English into Chinese by transliteration. It is not always the case that the translator did not know the meaning of the English words, they might think the street name would sound better to translate by pronunciation. However, using transliteration would inevitably destroy the meaning or origin of the street name. Also, using the name of a plant as the street name does not imply the plant is grown there and it happens to most of the streets which are named after plant species. Besides, discrepancies exist between the Chinese and English name of those streets. In some cases, the plants mentioned in Chinese version and English version of the same street are different. It would be considered as a