Mahjong or Mahjongg?In English the name of the game is variously written as Mahjongg, Mah Jong or Majong in addition to the overspread name Mahjong. There are other, less common spellings as well: mahjongg, majiang, and hyphenated forms such as mah-jong or mah-jongg. The spelling "Mah-Jongg" was trademarked by Joseph Park Babcock in 1920. The different spellings are consequences of the complicated history of the game. Mahjong originally came from China and took Chinese name that literally meant "hemp general". In Cantonese an alternate writing, which changed the initial name, became more common. In Cantonese the word or the game literally meant "sparrow", while in Japanese it meant "hemp sparrow," and was pronounced ma-jan. As you can see, the Oriental pronunciation of the word Mahjong differs from its European adaptation. It is quite reasonably that different European people found various names to suit unusual (as for them) oriental languages. Besides, they developed their own rules adapting Chinese version of mahjong for their habits. That's why, the mahjong game pieces, known as tiles, and scoring rules used in the game are slightly different depending on regional variations. However, the mahjong game play in general is very similar in all versions, as players compete to build sets including the highest point value. The object of the mahjong game is to build suits (usually of threes) from either 13 or 16 tiles. The first person to achieve this goal is said to have won the game. The winning tile completes the set of either 14 or 17 tiles. |
