Why the different spellings, “Gung Fu” and “Kung Fu?
This is yet another result of western linguists confusing both eastern and western speakers. In the once near-universal Wade-Giles spelling, a Chinese “G” sound was written in English as “K”, while what the Chinese pronounced as “K” was transcribed as “K’ “. Thus if kung fu were supposed to be pronounced with a “k” sound, it would have been written as “k’ung fu.” When Bruce Lee introduced American audiences to his martial arts, he both spoke and wrote the American “G”, hence “gung fu.” Confused? Don’t worry about it, so is everyone else….
