Why is the "Q" in "Qin Dynasty" pronounced like "ch"?

Answer 1

Why is the "Q" in "Qin Dynasty" pronounced like "ch"?

It all has to do with the way English is translated from Chinese, which is not always 100% accurate. It's easy to explain the "Q" sound in Mandarin Chinese. The way I teach it is when you smile think of your mouth and facial expressions. In English when we say "cheese", posing for a picture, we smile with our teeth together and tongues pressing against our teeth, then we just let out the air.

"Ch" is not the best translation. Those of us who study Chinese know that the Roman alphabet is limited.

Answer 2

In Chinese/Mandarin the pronunciation system is called "pinyin". In pinyin the "q" makes the "ch" sound. Therefore it is the Qin (Cheen) Dynasty. It's that simple. Same as in English "ph" makes the "f" sound. To understand more about that just look up pinyin.