Termonolgy question

[Master Raiden]

I've had this question for a while and thought I'd ask; in certain styles of martial arts, is it kung fu or gung fu? I know that there is Jun Fan Gung fu, but everywhere else I've seen it the termonology always seems to be Kung fu. Are they both real seperate wordings for styles or is it something else?

[TigerDude]

It's just a different way to put the pronounciation into English.

[ps1]

nope...same word

[ninjanurse]

It can also be said Wu Kung.

[bushido_man96]

Different words that mean the same thing. It seems that Chinese words can translate in several different ways in English. Also, the "g" may sound more accurate than the "k" does in pronunciation.

[P.A.L]

North Chinese pronunce it "gong fu" or "gon fu"

[Jiffy]

As mentioned, the problem occurs when chinese, japanese or any language for that matter is translated into English. It can only be done pheonetically and therefore, the interpretation will vary from person to person, as will the spelling.

As for Jun Fan, that was a style created by Bruce Lee prior to the creation of JKD and was formed as a result of elementry study of various kung fu/gung fu styles. (Jun-Fan was Bruce's middle name)

[Master Raiden]

I checked under the Bruce Lee foundation website, it says that Bruce always spelled it Gung because it's the cantonese dialect and that Kung is the Mandarin dialect. I saw it just a couple minutes ago, it's the "Bruce Lee Bio.pdf" file if anyone is interested, good reading.

[Syphax]

The joy of dialects and Romanization.

[bushido_man96]

I checked under the Bruce Lee foundation website, it says that Bruce always spelled it Gung because it's the cantonese dialect and that Kung is the Mandarin dialect. I saw it just a couple minutes ago, it's the "Bruce Lee Bio.pdf" file if anyone is interested, good reading.

That would explain the different spellings.