Irene Saunders is the author of the English- Chinese

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies ...

''The Right Word in Chinese'' or ''Hànyǔ Zhǐnán''.Saunders, Irene. ''The Right Word in Chinese'', 284 pages,

Biography

Saunders graduated from West Virginia University with a degree in

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

. She is married to Lynn C. Saunders, Vice President-Executive Director in the People's Republic of China for Westing House Electric S.A., a company that funded the creation of the dictionary. ''The Right Word in Chinese'' is a dictionary that is the first of its kind with Pinyin romanization of the

Putonghua Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern standar ...

language or Modern-day Standard Mandarin Chinese published in 1985. It evolved from Irene Saunders' experience of working in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

while having a limited knowledge of Mandarin Chinese. The proceeds of the dictionary were donated to the China Wildlife Conservation Association (CWCA), particularly for the endangered panda. It later became one of the sources for many modern-day English–Chinese / Chinese–English dictionaries.

References

American lexicographers Living people West Virginia University alumni Women linguists Women lexicographers Year of birth missing (living people) Linguists from the United States {{US-linguist-stub