In our daily life, we often encounter some seemingly simple but easy to mispronounce polyphonic words, such as the word "retort cake". So, should "甑cake" be pronounced "jing cake" or "zeng cake"?
First of all, we need to understand the pronunciation of the word "甑". According to the annotations of authoritative dictionaries such as the Dictionary of Modern Chinese, the character 甑 has two pronunciations, one is "zèng" and the other is "zēng". Among them, the pronunciation of "zèng" is often used for "甑子" (a type of cooking utensil) and "甑cake". Therefore, we can deduce that the character "甑" in "甑cake" should be read as "zèng".
So, why do some people mispronounce it as "jing cake"? This may be due to the fact that the pronunciation of "jing" is more common in spoken language, and the character "甑" and "菁" are somewhat similar in glyphs, which can be confusing. However, from a phonetic and semantic point of view, the pronunciation of "zèng" is more in line with the pronunciation rules and meaning of the word.
甑饼" should be read as "zèng cake". We need to pay attention to our daily use of language, improve the accuracy of our speech, and avoid unnecessary embarrassment or misunderstanding caused by misreading. At the same time, we should also pay attention to the learning and standardized use of Chinese characters, so as to better inherit and carry forward Chinese culture.