Tongyong Pinyin As Std. Chinese Romanization Sys.

Discussions on the Hokkien (Minnan) language.
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KCTan

Tongyong Pinyin As Std. Chinese Romanization Sys.

Post by KCTan »

The Taiwanese Government has made the right decision in adopting the Tongyong Pinyin as the official romanization system for the Chinese languages in Taiwan. It can accomodate the sounds of various Chinese languages such as Hokkien and Hakka in additon to the official Mandarin and is therefore more friendly compared to Hanyu Pinyin which is biased towards Mandarin. The Hokkiens and other dialect groups should therefore support the step taken by Taiwan and help extend its usage outside Taiwan.
ppk

Re: Tongyong Pinyin As Std. Chinese Romanization Sys.

Post by ppk »

i wonder if u are supporting taiwan or supporting the use of tongyong pinyin... if tongyong is indeed the better improvement, people will use it, no need for a propaganda with 'taiwanese govt' in the background...
Mark
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Re: Tongyong Pinyin As Std. Chinese Romanization Sys.

Post by Mark »

Personally, I think that Hanyu Pinyin can be just as easily adapted to fit Hokkien and other Chinese dialects (perhaps you've heard of Cantonese Pinyin?)
Mark
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Re: Tongyong Pinyin As Std. Chinese Romanization Sys.

Post by Mark »

Oh, I forgot to mention that TongYong PinYin has changed in the last decade.
ppk

Re: Tongyong Pinyin As Std. Chinese Romanization Sys.

Post by ppk »

i think both are almost identical, so the learning slope is not steep at all. but tongyong got advantage in dialects romanisation.
James Campbell

Re: Tongyong Pinyin As Std. Chinese Romanization Sys.

Post by James Campbell »

They're both pretty shitty. If they were going to make a decision on one different than Pinyin, they should have at least made a decision on one designed differently than Pinyin. They're both almost identical, it doesn't make sense. And I don't know how it's supposed to be any better at representing dialects. How are you supposed to write Taiwanese voiced stop consonants (b and g)?

Maaah Yeieeing Djieoou (故意的) has decided to use Hanyu Pinyin within the city limits of Taipei so that it's up to international standards. Hooray, he can start with his own name. If he's ever president someday he'll probably get all of Taiwan changed, meanwhile spending millions of taxpayer money to get the signs changed back. --You heard what they did in Korea recently, right?

And I was just driving on the freeway in Taipei the other day when I noticed that they've changed some signs already (for example, when you cross over ZhongXiao, except that this sign has no apparent function whatsoever) but, the foreigners who are going need to use the signs are most likely not going to be driving on the freeways, they're down below on the city streets. And they've only changed the useless signs so far. ?!?!

And Keelung Rd. is now written in Taiwanese as Kelang (notice in this system K is not aspirated--so I assume G would be voiced, and what about the aspirated K, is it KH or still old system K'?), and it looks like that spelling's going to stay. How did they decide on that?

Here's what they should do: make a Pinyin just for Taiwanese, and use Hanyu Pinyin just for Mandarin. Then they can put all three on signs like this:

基隆
Jilong
Kelang

I think it calls for bigger signs, but who'd complain then? (Except you'd have more chance of hitting your head on them.) The foreigners would be happy. The Taiwanese advocates would be happy. The Taiwanese Mainlanders would be happy--I guess.

And for Hakka speaking areas, just use some kind of Hakka-developed pinyin:

苗栗
Miaoli
Miaolit
ppk

Re: Tongyong Pinyin As Std. Chinese Romanization Sys.

Post by ppk »

exactly james. i would oso suggest they use hanyu pinyin for mandarin and anoter pinyin system for dialects.
KDLim

Re: Tongyong Pinyin As Std. Chinese Romanization Sys.

Post by KDLim »

After all the debate on the pros and cons of Tongyong Pinyin system for romanization of dialects, I strongly feel it is best if romanized Hokkien using the Tongyong Pinyin system can be officially and universally accepted as standard Hokkien writing to create its own identity separate from the Chinese Mandarin as in the case of Vietnamese writing. However, it would require a government to realise it and Taiwan would be the best platform for such a situation since Hokkiens form the vast majority of the Taiwanese population.
Polack

Re: Tongyong Pinyin As Std. Chinese Romanization Sys.

Post by Polack »

It is no good idea to use Hanyu Pinyin for Mandaring either. Its usage of x and q is so misleading for the majority of the non-Chinese population of the world! Replace them by hs and ch' or something...
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