Another mispronunciation by the Chinese president? Bilu or Milu for Peru

Xi Jinping is celebrated as the first national leader of the People's Republic of China who speaks Modern Standard (MSM) rather than some heavily accented Sinitic dialect / topolect.  That is basically true, though he slurs and swallows his words, and is (in)famous for his numerous verbal gaffes (see "Selected readings" below).  Now the pseudoscience and fraud muckraker Fang Shimin / Fang Zhouzi has pointed out another alleged language error perpetrated by President / Chairman / Party Secretary of the CCP while he has been at the APEC meeting in Peru the last few days.

习主席访问了三次秘鲁，还是坚持把“秘鲁”说成密鲁，以后“秘鲁”的读音也要改了吗？央视还提醒过习主席要怎么读“秘鲁”，太大胆了。 pic.twitter.com/LtR0sGVwT3

— 方舟子 (@fangshimin) November 18, 2024

Xí zhǔxí fǎngwènle sāncì Bìlǔ, háishì jiānchí bǎ “Bìlǔ” shuō chéng "Mìlǔ", yǐhòu “Bìlǔ” de dúyīn yě yào gǎile ma? Yāngshì hái tíxǐngguò Xí zhǔxí yào zěnme dú “Bìlǔ”, tài dàdǎnle"

习主席访问了三次秘鲁，还是坚持把“秘鲁”说成密鲁，以后“秘鲁”的读音也要改了吗？央视还提醒过习主席要怎么读“秘鲁”，太大胆了。

"President Xi has visited Peru three times, but still insists on referring to 'Peru' as 'Miru'. Will the pronunciation of 'Peru' also be changed in the future? CCTV (China Central Television) also reminded President Xi how to pronounce 'Peru', which was too bold."

(GT)

The problem is that "Bìlǔ" and "Mìlǔ" are both widely used in Mandarin for 秘鲁, especially the latter by older folks and by individuals who speak topolects and dialects, although I think that language authorities in education, the media, etc. are trying to make "Bìlǔ" the official standard.

The same interchange between initial bilabials "b-" and "m-" is evident in variant pronunciations of the Mandarin word for "secretary", where we find 秘書 (also written as 祕書) being pronounced as "mìshū" (with a voiced bilabial nasal) in MSM, but with "bìshū" (voiceless bilabial plosive) as a common variant in non-Mandarin dialects and topolects

 

Selected readings

• "Yet another literary misreading by Xi Jinping" (7/5/21)
• "Mair's hypothesis on tonal repetition" (7/26/21)
• "More misreadings by Xi Jinping" (5/2/19)
• "Comrades, 'hike up your skirts for a hard shag'" (7/23/17)
• "More literary troubles for Xi Jinping" (1/3/19)
• "The face of censorship" (1/11/19)
• "Annals of literary vs. vernacular, part 2" (9/4/16)
• "Latin Caesar –> Tibetan Gesar –> Xi Jinpingian Sager" (3/20/18)
• "Pinyin for the Prez" (10/25/18)
• "Peking University president misreads an unobscure character: monumental implications" (5/5/18)
• "Xi Jinping's reading errors multiply" (12/28/18)
• "The political dangers of mispronunciation" (4/5/17)
• "Phonetic annotations as a welcome aid for learning how to read and write Sinographs" (4/26/19)
• "Words mangled as officials tongue-tied at China meet", Ben Blanchard, Reuters (10/17/07)

[Thanks to shaing tai]