Talk:希腊

Palatalisation of 曉-initial (Middle Chinese: h/x-) (to which 希 belongs) in Beijing Mandarin occurred in Qing Dynasty. It is more likely that this name was first used before this sound change took place, than that the Cantonese people chose a checked tone character 臘 (-p) to mimic the original -s sound. The codas are very different, -p is unreleased, whereas -s is a sibilant sound.