Asian Geography by Letter - D

That's quite generous: I typed in Davos for the Filipino city, scrambling it with the Swiss one, and it gave a tick for Davao!

:-/ but I wasn't able to come up with an acceptable type-in for Denpasar. I think I had a few vowels and consonants switched around. Also feel dumb for missing Darjeeling.

I think Taoism is the most usual spelling, but it wouldn't fit a "letter D" quiz ;).

Never ever saw it spelled with a D, but apparently that works too. I just went "religion with a D, nope don't know that one, next question please".

I think 道教 is the common "spelling." :P Transliterations of words from languages that do not use the Roman alphabet are always tricky and often done in multiple different ways.

Especially as the characters kal referenced are pronounced differently across the many, many Chinese dialects. In Mandarin, the initial sound is closer to a T, but in Cantonese, it's better represented as a D.

If you want to be technical, that sound in Mandarin is an unaspirated "t." However, since the unaspirated "t" does not exist in most (all?) English dialects at the beginning of a syllable, to the untrained ear it sounds a lot like a "d."

TLDR- If you want to be a pedant, it's a "t." Otherwise, it's a "d."

You're totally right, Big Cheesy. It's called Taoism (pronounced Dow-izm). Calling it Daoism is like pronouncing Brunei "Broo-nay" instead of "Broo-nye". It's common and only borderline acceptable. Taoism is undoubtedly the correct spelling, and Daoism should not be on this quiz. On most other JetPunk quizzes it's spelled Taoism, and JetPunk should stay consistent with that.

First of all, your analogy doesn't make sense. If you believe that Taoism is the correct spelling but "dow-izm" is the correct pronunciation, then writing Daoism would be like spelling Brunei "Broonye."

Secondly, the spelling Taoism is based on the old Wade-Giles romanization system, which rendered the character 道 as "tao." However, Wade-Giles is generally being phased out in favor of the more modern Pinyin romanization system. This is why, for example, we now write Chongqing for the city that was once Chungking--the city didn't change its name, we just changed how we represent that name in Latin characters. In Pinyin, 道 is written as "dao."

Taoism may be the spelling you're familiar with, but you can hardly say that it's "undoubtedly correct," or that the "common" spelling with a "D" is unacceptable. Maybe try descending from your high horse and learn to change with the times?

Sort of raising my hand. I knew if from MY office, not The Office, where many of my co-workers are consultants from India.

'raising hand'

Wow. Tough one. 12/20.

9/20. Agree, although I would have had one more if I could have spelled Dhaka.

Scored 13 today - it IS possible for this old dog to learn new tricks.

Diet is a general (English) term, not specific to Japan

What? It didn't say anything about it being specific to Japan.

Did you just say "Dong"?

Yes, the currency of Vietnam is also a slang term for penis. You're welcome, anyone under 12.

I'm guessing all Japanese politicians must be very healthy if they're on The Diet. *I'll just leave now*...

Spent a minute trying to think of a word in Japanese that started with "D" and could refer to the parliament . . . *facepalm*