OKKJIN OF THE NAMES LYCHEE <Ji) ANi> (j KI"N(JAN 15 



of the country. The Giles dictionary gives the Mandarin spelling as 

 fichih which would be unintelligible to the average Chinese dealing 

 in " Chinese nuts " abroad; and to the farmer of South China. 



Granted that the sounds to be used in making the name ;m 

 English word should be the Cantonese ones, it is clear that the 

 spelling should be that of lyckee, for the simple reason that this 

 invariably suggests the exact sounds of l\j as in lying and <:hf< as in 

 cheese. Unfortunately various factors have operated to initiate other 

 spellings. The Cantonese standard romanization according to Eitel 

 is faichi, which may indicate the proper sounds to a westerner living 

 in Kwangtung but to the average reader of English might be pro- 

 nounced in many ways, since Idi is found in loid. and Idif.y; and clii 

 is found in child and machine. If we follow the botanical name, 

 as Mr. Higgins 1 urges in his bulletin, or any other of the many 

 approaches to the Mandarin, we either depart from the South 

 China word or we have the trouble of explaining how the strange- 

 looking word is to be pronounced in English. The botanical name 

 litch-i requires the silencing of the "t" and then the pronunciation 

 of the two i's" in different ways. Other writers have given us 

 Hci, li-tchi, la-izi, litchc, hachca, lichi, lychi, leechee andlich<-<. 

 Only the last can rival lychee. And the objection to lichee is in the 

 fact that li as an initial syllable has varying sounds as in little, lithe 

 and litre , but ly as an initial syllable is always as in lying, lyctiim 

 and I y rate. The word lychcc will best convey the correct Cantonese 

 sound of the word. 



The lungan like the lychee is a two-character word 

 meaning "dragon-eye." The fruit of the lungan is smaller and 

 more rounded than that of the lychee and is said to resemble in ap- 

 pearance the eye of a dragon, from whence it doubtless gets its most 

 common name. If nlBJI be romanized according to the Cantonese 

 pronunciation the words should be written lung-ngan; but as an 

 " ng " sound appears at the end of the first word and also at the 

 beginning of the second, and as this sound is unusually difficult to 

 pronounce, the word "lungan " is more desirable. Chinese literary 

 works and local dialects record many other names for the lungan. 

 One common name is "uen ngan " (IHJajL) meaning "round eye." 

 Other names are 'lychee no" (j$i3t>&), meaning servant of the 

 lychee, because the fruiting season immediately follows that of the 

 lychee; and "a lychee " ($$;), the "second lychee. " 



1 Higgins, J. E., The Litchi in Hawaii, Hawaii Agricultural 

 Station, Bulletin Xo. 44, pages 3 ;uui 4. 



