Transliteration Into Chinese (音譯)

A foreign name entering Chinese is rewritten one syllable at a time out of a small pool of characters chosen for sound, and the meanings those characters carry come along whether anyone wanted them or not. That is the whole mechanism, and everything interesting sits in what happens to the meanings: 可口可樂 landed on characters that read “tasty” and “joy” and is celebrated for it, while 德魯伊 reads “virtue-dull-he” and 波拉勒斯 reads “wave-pull-bridle-this” and neither means anything at all. The tones are the second casualty. The source word has none, every Mandarin syllable must have one, and the tone that arrives is whichever tone the chosen character already had.

[!note] Confidence tags Every fact below carries one: [SOLID] (traced to a citable source, quoted where marked 直引), [COMMON CLAIM, verify] (widely repeated, no first-hand source located), [APOCRYPHAL/CONTESTED] (the evidence runs against it), [derived] (reasoning over the sourced facts above it). Anything tagged below SOLID is not an assertion.

Lineage. The production copy of this bank lives at tsumugu-core/docs/companion/craft/research/tsumugu-podcast-gaming/TRANSLITERATION-BANK.md — that is the citable grounding artifact for scripts. This vault note is the knowledge home. If the two ever diverge, the vault note wins on knowledge and the repo copy wins on what scripts may cite.

Who sets the standards

• 大陸有一個官方單位：新華社譯名室，1956年7月24日成立，是中國大陸唯一官方新聞譯名審定機構。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 新華社譯名室]
• 起因是周恩來的指示：「譯名要統一，要歸口於新華社」。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 新華社譯名室]
• 兩條總原則只有八個字：「名從主人，約定俗成」。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 新華社譯名室]
• 「名從主人」＝照本人母語的發音翻；「約定俗成」＝已經用慣的舊譯名照舊不改。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 新華社譯名室 / 世界人名翻譯大辭典]
• 《英語姓名譯名手冊》1965年初版，商務印書館，到2018年出到第五版，收英美加澳紐的英語姓名約7萬4千條。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 英語姓名譯名手冊]
• 《世界人名翻譯大辭典》1993年10月初版、2007年修訂版，新華社譯名室編，收約65萬條。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 世界人名翻譯大辭典]
• 新華社為每個語種各做一張譯音表：英漢、法漢、德漢、西漢…；另有《法語姓名譯名手冊》《德語姓名譯名手冊》等分冊。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 新華社譯名室]
• 大陸地名還有國家標準：GB/T 17693《外語地名漢字譯寫導則》，分英、法、德、俄、西、阿、葡、蒙等語種，2019年增日語部分。 [SOLID — 國家數字標準館 / 山東省民政廳]
• 該國標的原則是「以音譯為主，同時適當照顧約定俗成的譯名」。 [SOLID — 山東省民政廳 GB/T 17693 應用手冊介紹]
• 台灣沒有強制性的官方譯名標準——「台灣沒有正式的官方譯名，主要靠約定俗成」。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 中文譯名]
• 台灣的做法：「由出版社或公家單位出版『譯名參考詞書』，供各界參考，並依靠長久使用而約定俗成的習慣」。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 中文譯名，直引]
• 台灣最接近權威的是國家教育研究院（前國立編譯館），出《外國地名譯名》（2014第四版）與《外國學者人名譯名》，公告在「樂詞網」terms.naer.edu.tw。 [SOLID — 國教院電子報第203期、第110期]
• 《外國地名譯名（第三版）》收66,632則地名，附英文名、中譯與經緯度。 [SOLID — 國教院電子報]
• 《外國學者人名譯名》審譯8,912則人名，涵蓋英、德、法、西、義、阿、土、斯拉夫、日、韓十種來源語。 [SOLID — 國教院電子報第203期]
• 國教院自己講的原則也是「名從主人及根據學者原屬國家語文發音翻譯」。 [SOLID — 國教院電子報，直引]
• 台灣新聞界的事實標準是中央社：1980年編《標準譯名錄》，後來做成「中央社譯名檔資料庫」，約12萬2千筆。 [SOLID — 國家圖書館編目園地 Q&A / 中央社]
• 但媒體並不統一：「一些新聞媒體會採用中央社的譯法，但也有媒體是自起譯名」，「甚至即便是同家媒體，也可能出現同個人名而譯名不統一的情況」。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 中文譯名，直引]
• 民國時期就有成文標準，1924年的說法是：「即西文每一音素，均擇一發音相當之漢字，作為標準譯字」。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 中文譯名，直引]
• 一句話總結：大陸是「有表可查、由一個單位說了算」；台灣是「有參考書、沒有裁判」。 [SOLID — 綜合上列]

The bleached character pool

• 譯音表是「一音一字」的對照表：IPA 音節 → 指定漢字，人名與地名各有一套（略有差異）。 [SOLID — Wikipedia:外語譯音表/英語]
• 詞尾 -r / -l（如 Bill 的 /l/、beer 的 /r/）→ 普通話固定譯「爾」。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 音譯，直引]
• /s/（如 Rose 的尾音）→ 「斯」或「絲」。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 音譯，直引]
• 表上有硬規定：「輔音字母 s，無論發 [s] 或 [z] 音，均按『斯』列譯寫」——所以 Jones 是「瓊斯」不是「瓊茲」。 [SOLID — Wikipedia:外語譯音表/英語，直引]
• /k/（Jack 的尾音）→ 「克」；/m/（Tom 的尾音）→ 「姆」；/t/ → 「特」；/d/ → 「德」。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 音譯 + 外語譯音表/英語]
• 母音起頭常用「阿、埃、伊、奧、烏」。 [SOLID — Wikipedia:外語譯音表/英語]
• 選字邏輯不是字義，是音近：「音譯詞只可以連在一起使用，不可拆分，否則沒有意義」。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 音譯，直引]
• 教學金句：「麥克風」是 microphone 的音譯，「和『麥子』或『風』沒有關係」。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 音譯，直引]
• 粵語有自己一套：Jack 的 /k/ 用入聲字「積」，Rose 的 /s/ 用「士」——所以香港譯名一看就不一樣。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 音譯]
• 「這些字為什麼被選中」的常見解釋是頻率高、字義空、涵蓋音節齊——但學理上的正式論證未找到可引的第一手來源。 [COMMON CLAIM, verify]

Choosing the characters: gender, connotation, sound-and-sense

• 譯音表明列一組女名專用字：「（婭）、（瑪）、（琳）、（娜）、（麗）、（莉）、（莎）、（黛）、（絲）和（妮）等用於女名」。 [SOLID — Wikipedia:外語譯音表/英語，直引]
• 但新華社規矩是：姓氏一律不用女字旁，只有名才用——例如姓氏要寫成「諾利奇」不是「諾蕾姬」、「斯卡利特」不是「斯卡蕾特」。 [COMMON CLAIM, verify — 二手轉述新華社凡例]
• 避免生僻字、避免帶貶義的字，是普遍被講述的譯名慣例，但未能找到可直接引用的官方條文。 [COMMON CLAIM, verify]
• 音義兼譯（又稱音義雙譯）＝音近＋字義也貼合，是另一條路線，主要用在商標與品牌。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 音義兼譯]
• 教科書級範例：Coca-Cola →「可口可樂」，「音譯與意譯兼顧的典範」。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 音譯，直引]
• Revlon →「露華濃」，取自李白〈清平調〉「春風拂檻露華濃」——音近又典雅。 [COMMON CLAIM, verify — 廣傳於翻譯教材與品牌文章]
• Carrefour →「家樂福」，法文原意是「十字路口」，中文取「家家快樂又幸福」。 [COMMON CLAIM, verify — 台灣官方／校園資料如此說]
• 台灣 Carrefour 已於2026年6月改名「萬家福」（統一企業入主後）；現名為萬家福。 [SOLID — 今周刊 2026-06-30]
• 台灣獨有的音義混血：hacker →「駭客」（大陸「黑客」），「駭」有驚駭之意，音義都在。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 音義兼譯]
• 其他音義兼譯：sonar →「聲納」、UFO →「幽浮」、World Wide Web →「萬維網」、Viagra →「威而剛」（俗稱「偉哥」）。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 音義兼譯]
• Mercedes-Benz：台灣「賓士」、大陸「奔馳」、香港「平治」——「平治」取《大學》《論語》「治國平天下」之意。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 梅賽德斯-賓士 + 港媒／汽車媒體]
• 更多品牌三地分歧：Subaru 台灣「速霸陸」／大陸「斯巴魯」；Volkswagen 台灣「福斯」／大陸「大眾」／香港「福士」。 [COMMON CLAIM, verify — 社群整理，非官方表]
• 反向案例（英文名回譯成中文）：Marvel 的 Shang-Chi，早期漫畫中譯「上氣」，2021電影版才定為「尚氣」，並新增姓氏成「徐尚氣」——原著漫畫沒給他姓。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 尚氣與十環傳奇 / HK01]

Taiwan and the Mainland diverge

• Obama：台灣「歐巴馬」／大陸、香港「奧巴馬」。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 巴拉克·歐巴馬]
• 2009年11月，美國駐華大使館宣布美國政府的標準中譯是「歐巴馬」，理由是更接近英語發音；新華社不改，理由是 Obama 是常見肯亞姓氏、譯「奧巴馬」多年、且元首譯名定了不輕易動。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 新華社譯名室]
• 後續：2015年2月，美國駐華大使館的新聞稿實質上放棄自己那版，改用「奧巴馬」。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 新華社譯名室]
• 台語說法（坊間，非考證）：台語「奧」有鄙劣之意（「奧步」＝卑鄙手段），被認為是台灣不用「奧巴馬」的原因之一。 [APOCRYPHAL/CONTESTED — HK01 引述，非考證]
• Trump：台灣「川普」／大陸「特朗普」。 [SOLID — HK01 / 大紀元]
• 新華社譯名室主任的回應：《英語姓名譯名手冊》一直作「特朗普」，雖然離原音有距離，但已沿用超過50年，難改。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 新華社譯名室]
• Bush：台灣「布希」／大陸「布什」／香港「布殊」（父子兩位總統同樣處理）。 [SOLID — HK01]
• Reagan：台灣「雷根」／大陸「里根」／香港「列根」。 [SOLID — China Daily 兩岸四地專名翻譯]
• Kennedy：台港「甘迺迪」／大陸「肯尼迪」。 [SOLID — China Daily]
• Clinton：台灣「柯林頓」／大陸、香港「克林頓」。 [SOLID — China Daily]
• Sydney：台港「雪梨」／大陸「悉尼」——「內地人看港台新聞…看到『雪梨奧運會』時，也許會茫然不解」。 [SOLID — China Daily，直引]
• 關鍵結構性差異：台灣沿襲民國舊習，外國人名首字盡量用一個真的漢姓，所以是「甘」迺迪、「雷」根、「柯」林頓；大陸沒這條，才會有「肯」「里」開頭。 [COMMON CLAIM, verify — China Daily 該文如此解釋]
• 台灣甚至會用冷門小姓：「胡」笙（Hussein）、「佘」契爾（Thatcher）——對照大陸「侯賽因」「撒切爾」。 [SOLID — China Daily，直引]
• 完整可查的對照清單在中文維基的 Module:CGroup/People（地區詞轉換組），適合當查證來源。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia Module:CGroup/People]

Games and fantasy localization

• 暴雪台灣官網的職業名就是「德魯伊」（同頁另有「術士」「聖騎士」等）。 [SOLID — worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com/zh-tw/game/classes/druid]
• 「德魯伊」不是暴雪造的詞：Druid 是凱爾特古宗教的祭司階級，中文舊譯「督伊德」（督伊德教），意譯可作「橡木賢者」。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 德魯伊(信仰)，直引「又譯督伊德」「或意譯為橡木賢者」]
• 詞源：拉丁複數 druidēs；原始凱爾特語擬構 *dru-wid-s，意思是「知曉橡樹的人」。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 德魯伊(信仰)]
• 遊戲界的用法早於《魔獸世界》：2001年6月29日《暗黑破壞神II：毀滅之王》資料片新增的兩個職業之一就是德魯伊（台版當年寫「德魯依」，社群兩種寫法並存至今）。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 暗黑破壞神II：毀滅之王 / D2R 譯名對照]
• 更上游是桌遊：Druid 是《龍與地下城》的經典職業，台灣 D&D 5E 中文資料一律作「德魯伊」。 [SOLID — DND5E 中文資料網 / Dungeon World 中文]
• 流傳的說法：「德魯伊」是經英文→日文（ドルイド）→中文的二次音譯，所以離原音較遠，近年才出現較貼原音的「督伊德」。 [COMMON CLAIM, verify — 見於中文百科／社群整理，未見一手考證]
• 結論：德魯伊是奇幻翻譯傳統的共同財產，暴雪是把它推進大眾詞彙的那一家，不是發明者。 [SOLID — 綜合上列]
• Boralus 台灣官方作「波拉勒斯」，出現在暴雪台灣官方新聞〈《決戰艾澤拉斯》：提拉加德海灣預覽〉，含副本名「波拉勒斯圍城戰」。 [SOLID — news.blizzard.com/zh-tw]
• 大陸作「伯拉勒斯」（另見「博拉勒斯」）——同一個字池、不同首字，是兩岸分歧的教科書例子。 [COMMON CLAIM, verify — 灰機 wiki 條目名為「伯拉勒斯」，該站拒絕直接抓取]
• 波拉勒斯拆開看就是純音譯字池：波＋拉＋勒＋斯，四個字都是「無意義」的譯音專用字，尾音 -us 照規矩收在「斯」。 [SOLID — 依外語譯音表規則推得]
• Kul Tiras →「庫爾提拉斯」：Kul 的 -l 收「爾」，-s 收「斯」，兩條慣例同時現身於一個名字，是最好的示範例。 [SOLID — 暴雪台灣官方新聞用字 + 譯音表規則]
• 同一篇官方文出現的其他台版地名：提拉加德海灣（Tiragarde Sound）、斯陀頌恩谷地（Stormsong Valley）、托達戈爾（Tol Dagor）、佐司瓦（Drustvar 對應，映射待再確認）、普勞德摩爾（Proudmoore）。 [SOLID for 用字 — news.blizzard.com/zh-tw；Drustvar→佐司瓦 的對應 COMMON CLAIM, verify]
• 對照組：大陸資料把庫爾提拉斯四大家族寫成「普羅德摩爾、艾什凡、德魯斯克、斯托頌」，台灣官方作「普勞德摩爾」——同名不同字。 [COMMON CLAIM, verify — 大陸側取自灰機 wiki 搜尋摘要]
• 暴雪在地化的通則值得點出：城名多用意譯（暴風城 Stormwind、鐵爐堡 Ironforge），種族／地區名多用音譯（庫爾提拉斯、贊達拉）。 [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 魔獸系列地名列表 + 官方用字]
• 台灣玩家口語與官譯長期並存，D2R 的整理直指：「同一件裝備在論壇、影片與遊戲內可能出現三種不同叫法」——是講「約定俗成」如何打敗官方表的好例子。 [SOLID — bobogameguides D2R 譯名頁，直引]
• 台服／陸服資料片名也分家：Mists of Pandaria 台譯《潘達利亞之謎》／陸譯《熊貓人之謎》。 [COMMON CLAIM, verify — 社群與媒體整理]

Tones: there is no flat-tone rule

No. There is no flat-tone rule. Tones follow whichever character got picked, and character choice is driven by meaning, not by tone. [SOLID — Chang 2020 CUNY diss.; Glewwe 2015 UCLA MA thesis]

• Glewwe 2015 (UCLA MA thesis, adviser Kie Zuraw, cttee Bruce Hayes/Megha Sundara) built a corpus of 3,660 syllables from 1,372 English loanwords in Mandarin. [SOLID]
• Baseline Mandarin tone frequency (Tsai 2000, type frequency by word): T1 26.9%, T2 24.7%, T3 18.3%, T4 30.1% — tone 4 is the commonest tone in the language, not tone 1. [SOLID — Glewwe 2015 Table 2]
• In Glewwe’s onset-coded loanword subset (N=3,047): T1 28.8%, T2 29.5%, T3 16.0%, T4 25.7%. [SOLID source-backed; percentages are sums over Glewwe’s Figure 4]
• So tone 1 in loanwords runs ~29% vs ~27% in the general lexicon — a ~2-point bump. That is not a “flat tone rule,” that’s noise-adjacent. [SOLID — computed from Glewwe 2015 Fig. 4]
• Stated plainly: transliterations aren’t flat. They’re just slightly tone-1-ish, and only in one specific position. [derived]
• What DOES condition tone, per Glewwe’s corpus: the voicing of the English onset consonant. [SOLID]
• English voiceless-obstruent onset → tone 1 38.4% of the time (N=1,957). English sonorant onset (m/n/l/r/w/y) → tone 1 only 11.6%, tone 2 37.2% (N=1,090). [SOLID — Glewwe 2015 Fig. 4]
• Glewwe’s explanation: F0 perturbation — voiceless consonants raise the pitch of a following vowel, voiced ones lower it, and adapters hear that as high vs rising tone. [SOLID]
• Glewwe’s experiment (live speakers adapting novel words) gave a different answer than her corpus: there, English stress was the main driver — stressed syllables took tone 1 most often, word-final stressed syllables took tone 4. The voicing effect vanished. [SOLID]
• Glewwe’s own conclusion is that the two studies conflict, i.e. the field does not have a settled rule. Quotable: tonal adaptation “depends on overall English intonation rather than small F0 perturbations.” [SOLID — Glewwe 2015 abstract]
• Chang 2020 (Zhuting Chang, CUNY Graduate Center PhD, “Tonal Adaptation of Loanwords in Mandarin: Phonology and Beyond”) is the strongest source for the honest answer: tone assignment operates “beyond any usual phonological concerns.” [SOLID — direct quote]
• Chang 2020’s mechanism: adapters use implicit knowledge of tone probability and character frequency in the existing lexicon, plus “seeking of appropriate characters based on their meanings, either to avoid unintended readings of loanwords or to form desired interpretations.” [SOLID — direct quote]
• The load-bearing line: you pick the character for its meaning, and the tone comes along for the ride. [SOLID — paraphrase of Chang 2020]
• Chang 2020 credits “the role of the writing system,” previously underestimated — the morpho-syllabic script, compounding productivity, and heavy homophony are what actually drive the outcome. [SOLID — direct quote]
• Constraint worth stating: Mandarin has tonotactic gaps — e.g. there is no syllable dán, no character reads that. Glewwe: Mandarin does not fill tonotactic gaps in loanword adaptation. Only syllable+tone combos already in the native lexicon are available. [SOLID — Glewwe 2015 §2.3.1]
• Stated plainly: sometimes the tone isn’t chosen at all — it’s the only tone that syllable comes in. [derived from Glewwe]
• Earlier claim in the literature (Wu 2006) that /s/-initial inserted syllables take tone 1 does hold: of 251 tone-1 epenthetic syllables in Glewwe’s corpus, 195 are the single syllable sī. [SOLID — Glewwe 2015 §3.2]
• That one is directly load-bearing for 波拉勒斯. [derived]

可口可樂 kě-kǒu-kě-lè (Coca-Cola)

Tone pattern: 3–3–3–4. Zero tone 1. The most famous transliteration in the language is the single best counterexample to the flat-tone theory. [SOLID — tones verified against 教育部重編國語辭典 via moedict.tw]

• 可 ㄎㄜˇ kě — “肯定、贊成、贊同” (to affirm, approve); also “適宜” (suitable). Modern workhorse sense: can / -able. [SOLID — MOE dict]
• 口 ㄎㄡˇ kǒu — “人或動物飲食、發聲的器官” (mouth); also an opening in an object. [SOLID — MOE dict]
• 樂 ㄌㄜˋ lè — “歡喜、愉悅” (joyful, delighted). [SOLID — MOE dict]
• 樂 is a three-reading character — lè (happy), yuè (music, 音樂), yào (to be fond of, literary 樂山樂水). In 可口可樂 it is lè. Prime learner trap. [SOLID — MOE dict]
• 可口 kěkǒu is a real pre-existing Chinese word meaning “tasty / palatable.” It was not invented for the brand. [SOLID — MOE dict]
• 可樂 kělè reads as “can-be-enjoyed / delightful” — and has now been fully captured by the brand; in modern Taiwan Mandarin 可樂 just means “cola.” [SOLID]
• Tone sandhi note the learner needs: 3-3-3-4 is not what you say. 可口 → ké-kǒu. Spoken it’s ké-kǒu-kě-lè. [SOLID — standard 3-3 sandhi]
• The double win: it tracks ko-ka-ko-la in sound AND reads “tasty + joy” — sound and meaning both. Widely called the best brand translation into Chinese ever made. [COMMON CLAIM, verify — the “best ever” ranking is advertising-industry consensus, not a measured finding]

The naming history — the popular story is dead

• The popular story: Coca-Cola advertised in The Times in the mid-1930s offering £350 for a Chinese name; London-based scholar 蔣彝 (Chiang Yee, the “啞行者” / Silent Traveller) submitted 可口可樂 and won. [APOCRYPHAL/CONTESTED — this is the version in Taiwan press incl. 中央社 CNA 2017]
• The story does not survive dating. 蔣彝 did not reach London until 1933, and 可口可樂 is attested in print in 1930. [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 可口可樂; 祝淳翔 考證]
• Mainland scholar 葉新 found a 1930年5月《商業雜誌》 advertisement reading 「屈臣氏汽水可口可樂」 — five years before the alleged contest. [SOLID — 祝淳翔, 澎湃新聞 2019]
• In 1930 蔣彝 was serving as 縣長 (county magistrate) of 九江, Jiangxi — in China, not London. He cannot be the translator. [SOLID — 祝淳翔, 澎湃新聞 2019]
• Researcher 祝淳翔 pushes the name-lineage back much further: 「可口汽水」in 《時報圖畫周刊》 no.160, 1923年8月6日. [SOLID]
• 屈臣氏 (Watsons) 「可口露」 ads in 《申報》1924年5月1日 and 《新聞報》1924年5月2日; 「可口水」 in 《工商新聞》1924年10月10日. [SOLID — 祝淳翔]
• 《商業雜誌》創刊號, 1926年11月 explicitly glosses: 「可口係 coca 之譯音」 — i.e. 可口 was understood as the transliteration of coca from the start. [SOLID — 祝淳翔]
• Trademark: The Coca-Cola Company applied 1930年3月26日, 審定 1931年6月24日, published in 商標公報第54期 (1931年8月15日); agent of record was lawyer 阿樂滿 (Norwood F. Allman). [SOLID — 祝淳翔]
• Bottom line: the name evolved in the Shanghai market across the 1920s. Nobody won a prize for it. [SOLID]

蝌蝌啃蠟 — the “bite the wax tadpole” predecessor is apocryphal

• 蝌蝌啃蠟 was never an official Coca-Cola name. [SOLID — Snopes; 祝淳翔]
• Its actual documented origin: Norwood F. Allman (阿樂滿), Coca-Cola’s former China legal counsel, wrote it up in a 1957 issue of 《可口可樂海外》 (Coca-Cola Overseas) as a NEGATIVE EXAMPLE — a “荒誕字眼” illustrating merchants who chased sound and ignored meaning. [SOLID — 祝淳翔, 澎湃新聞 2019]
• Allman: American lawyer in Shanghai 1916–1950, practice founded 1922, Coca-Cola’s China counsel. [SOLID]
• The mechanism behind the real phenomenon: Coke reached China ~1927–28 before the company had registered an official Chinese name, so individual shopkeepers wrote their own ad-hoc characters on in-store placards. Some were nonsense. [SOLID — Snopes]
• So: “bite the wax tadpole” renderings plausibly existed on shop signs; 蝌蝌啃蠟 as the official predecessor brand name is a legend, and it traces to a 1957 cautionary anecdote, not a 1927 label. [SOLID]
• zh.wikipedia frames the whole 蝌蝌啃蠟 + £350 + 蔣彝 package as 「傳聞」 and 「備受質疑」. [SOLID]
• Also cited against the contest story: The Times is a British paper with no motive to run a Chinese-naming contest, and no such advertisement has ever been located. [SOLID — zh.wikipedia]

德魯伊 dé-lǔ-yī (druid)

Tone pattern: 2–3–1. Not flat. Contains a tone 3, which is the rarest tone in the language. [SOLID — moedict.tw]

• 德 ㄉㄜˊ dé — “人類共同遵循的規範” (moral norm); “品行、作風” (character, conduct). = virtue. [SOLID — MOE dict]
• 魯 ㄌㄨˇ lǔ — “愚鈍、笨拙” (dull-witted, clumsy); also 國名, the state of 魯 (Confucius’s home state; modern abbreviation for Shandong). [SOLID — MOE dict]
• 伊 ㄧ yī — “第三人稱代名詞，相當於「彼」、「他」” (literary he/she); also 2nd person “你”. Today mostly a pure transliteration syllable (伊朗 Iran, 伊拉克 Iraq). [SOLID — MOE dict]
• Literal read-through: “virtue–dull–he.” It means nothing. This is the clean bleached case — the exact opposite of 可口可樂. [SOLID — derived from MOE glosses]
• 德 is a high-prestige character (道德, 品德) doing zero semantic work here. It’s there because it sounds like “d-”. [derived]
• 德 is the standard transliteration character for foreign d-/de- generally: 德國 Germany, 德州 Texas, 德古拉 Dracula. [COMMON CLAIM, verify — pattern is uncontroversial but no count was sourced]
• Official Taiwan usage: 德魯伊 is Blizzard’s zh-TW class name in 《魔獸世界》 — confirmed on news.blizzard.com/zh-tw. Same characters in Mainland simplified (德鲁伊). No TW/CN split here. [SOLID]
• Variant rendering 督伊德 dū-yī-dé (1–1–2) is listed by zh.wikipedia as “又譯” — closer to the English, and note it has a completely different tone shape for the same source word. [SOLID — zh.wikipedia 德魯伊(信仰)]
• Diablo’s zh rendering is 德魯依/德鲁依 (依 yī) — a one-character variant. [COMMON CLAIM, verify — Diablo Fandom wiki]
• Widely repeated claim: 德魯伊 came into Chinese via Japanese ドルイド (do-ru-i-do), not straight from English — a second-hand transliteration. [COMMON CLAIM, verify — asserted by dictionary/aggregator sites; zh.wikipedia’s 德魯伊 article does NOT say this, and no primary source was found]
• Phonological note that holds either way: ドルイド maps to 德-魯-伊 syllable-for-syllable (with the final ド dropped), which is a tidier fit than English /ˈdruːɪd/. Suggestive, not proof. [derived]
• Etymology of the English word, for a meaning-vs-sound contrast: Proto-Celtic *dru-wid-s = “oak-knower”; Pliny the Elder endorsed “one who knows oak trees.” [SOLID — zh.wikipedia, quoting 「橡木知曉者」]
• The real word means “oak-knower.” The Chinese characters say “virtue-dull-he.” A meaning translation was available and nobody took it. [derived]

波拉勒斯 bō-lā-lè-sī (Boralus, WoW)

Tone pattern: 1–1–4–1. Three of the four ARE tone 1 — so this word looks like it supports the flat-tone theory, and 可口可樂 (3–3–3–4) demolishes it. Put them side by side. [SOLID — moedict.tw]

• 波 ㄅㄛ bō — “水因湧流或風力振盪所產生的起伏現象” = wave, ripple. [SOLID — MOE dict]
• 拉 ㄌㄚ lā — “摧折”; “挽、牽引” = to pull, drag, haul. [SOLID — MOE dict]
• 勒 ㄌㄜˋ lè — “有嚼口的馬絡頭” = a bridle/bit; also a calligraphy stroke term. Second reading ㄌㄟ lēi = to cinch tight with rope. In transliteration it is always lè. [SOLID — MOE dict]
• 斯 ㄙ sī — “劈開、析分” (to split); literary demonstrative “this.” Today functionally a pure phonetic filler. [SOLID — MOE dict]
• Literal read-through: “wave–pull–bridle–this.” Fully bleached — yes, all four. [SOLID — derived from MOE glosses]
• 波 (wave) happens to land on a harbour city. That is coincidence, not design — 波 is the default character for foreign bo-/po- syllables (波士頓 Boston, 波蘭 Poland, 波音 Boeing). [derived; the 波- pattern is COMMON CLAIM but trivially checkable]
• 斯 is THE transliteration terminal in Chinese — it’s how a foreign final -s or -us gets a syllable of its own. Backed by Glewwe: 195 of 251 tone-1 inserted syllables in her corpus were sī. [SOLID]
• Syllable-count fact: Boralus is 3 syllables in English, 4 in Chinese. The extra one is 斯, carrying the -s. [SOLID]
• ★ TAIWAN vs MAINLAND SPLIT — and it changes the tone: Taiwan official is 波拉勒斯 bō- (tone 1); Mainland official is 伯拉勒斯 bó- (伯, tone 2). [SOLID — Blizzard zh-TW news vs 灰機 warcraft.huijiwiki.com]
• Verified TW source quote: Blizzard zh-TW 《決戰艾澤拉斯》提拉加德海灣預覽 — 「這塊土地被首都波拉勒斯一分為二」, 「波拉勒斯是受惠於海洋的城市」. [SOLID]
• This is the single best evidence in the whole lane: same source word, two localization teams, different character, DIFFERENT TONE. If tone were determined by the English, this could not happen. [SOLID — derived from the TW/CN pair]
• Surrounding TW canon for context: 庫爾提拉斯 (Kul Tiras), 提拉加德海灣 (Tiragarde Sound), 普勞德摩爾 (Proudmoore). [SOLID — Blizzard zh-TW]

Why the source speaker can’t hear their own word

• Glewwe 2015, line 1: “English words borrowed into Mandarin Chinese must be assigned tones.” There is no toneless option. Every syllable gets one whether the original had pitch or not. [SOLID — direct quote]
• The source word has no tones. Mandarin has no un-toned syllables. So the borrowing process invents pitch information that was never in the word. [SOLID — derived]
• Mandarin bans consonant clusters, so English dr- cannot survive: it must split across two syllables, 德 + 魯. 2 English syllables become 3. [SOLID]
• Mandarin codas are limited to -n and -ng (plus -r). Every other final consonant is either dropped or promoted to a whole syllable. Boralus’s -s becomes 斯. 3 syllables become 4. [SOLID]
• Glewwe’s term for this is epenthetic syllables; her worked example is lace → lěisī, a one-syllable English word arriving as two. [SOLID]
• Compounding effect, stated plainly: the word gets longer, gets a pitch melody it never had, and every syllable gets swapped for the nearest legal Mandarin one. Three transformations stacked. [derived]
• Chang 2020 adds the fourth: the adapter is simultaneously shopping for characters whose meanings won’t embarrass the brand — so segments get bent to reach a character with an acceptable meaning. [SOLID — Chang 2020]
• And Glewwe’s tonotactic-gap finding means sometimes no choice existed — the syllable only comes in one tone, so that’s the tone. [SOLID]
• One-sentence summary: by the time “Boralus” comes out the other side, it’s a syllable longer, it’s carrying a tune it never had, and every sound has been rounded to the nearest Chinese one. Of course the English speaker doesn’t recognize it. [derived]
• The counterweight: 可口可樂 proves the constraint isn’t a loss. Forced to pick characters, someone picked ones that MEAN something. English brand names can’t do that. [derived]
• The closing gate on the tone question: 可口可樂 3-3-3-4, 德魯伊 2-3-1, 波拉勒斯 1-1-4-1. Three transliterations, three completely different tone shapes. There is no rule — there are just characters, and characters come with tones attached. [SOLID — all tones MOE-verified]

What this bank does not have

• 沒找到暴雪台灣在地化團隊談譯名原則的一手訪談；遊戲那節的「原則」都是從實際用字歸納，不是官方宣示。
• 「避免貶義字／生僻字」與「女名用女字旁」的新華社成文條文，只找到二手轉述，宜寫作「一般的做法是…」而非「規定是…」。
• 「德魯伊經日文二次音譯」這條宜以「有一種說法是」表述。
• No Chinese-language study of 音譯詞聲調 with Taiwan-specific data was located. The solid tone research is all English-language and Mainland/general-Mandarin based. Tone values for 可口可樂, 德魯伊, and 波拉勒斯 are identical in TW and CN regardless. [gap declared]
• The 德魯伊-via-Japanese claim is unsourced beyond aggregator sites and is not stated as fact anywhere above. [gap declared]

Sources

• Glewwe, Eleanor Rachel (2015), Tonal Assignment in English Loanwords in Mandarin Chinese, UCLA MA thesis — full text extracted locally; tone tables at Fig. 4 / Table 2
• Chang, Zhuting (2020), Tonal Adaptation of Loanwords in Mandarin: Phonology and Beyond, CUNY Graduate Center PhD
• Phonology (Cambridge), “The phonological determinants of tone in English loanwords in Mandarin” — abstract only; full text 429’d
• 祝淳翔《可口可乐商标的汉译故事考》, 澎湃新聞 2019 · sina mirror
• 維基百科（繁體）可口可樂 · 德魯伊 (信仰)
• Snopes, “Bite the Wax Tadpole” — 402’d on fetch; content via search summary
• 中央社 CNA 2017, 可口可樂曾叫蝌蚪啃蠟？ — Taiwan press carrying the legend version
• Blizzard zh-TW 官方《決戰艾澤拉斯》提拉加德海灣預覽 — 波拉勒斯 · 灰機 warcraft wiki 伯拉勒斯 (CN)
• 教育部重編國語辭典 via moedict.tw — all per-character readings and glosses

Two governments’ worth of standards, a dictionary of 650,000 approved renderings, a national standard for place names, and the outcome is still that Taiwan and the Mainland write the same city with different first characters and therefore different tones. What the research settles is that the sound is the constraint and the characters are the choice: a translator picks from a bleached pool where the meanings have been worn off, and the tones are a by-product of that pick. 可口可樂 is what happens when someone spends the choice on meaning; 德魯伊 and 波拉勒斯 are what happens when nobody does.