Mark at Pinyin News reports that Tongyong has been rejected by government for Taiwanese romanization. Mark scribes:I’m already on the record as having called Tongyong Pinyin, in its various incarnations, a national embarrassment for Taiwan, so I won’t bother to disguise the fact that I got a real kick out of the fact that the Tongyong Pinyin scheme for the Taiwanese language was roundly rejected. I know that more than a few readers of Pinyin News will be cheering this news. For many, this has as much or more to do with the methods used to push through the much-despised Tongyong Pinyin system for Mandarin than any defects, real or imagined, in the Tongyong Pinyin system for Taiwanese.Mark speaks for many of us "colonialists" out there. Go and read the rest of his post; it's both entertaining and informative.
[Taiwan]
actually, they can have tongyong for Taiwanese. What they really need to do is soundly reject TY pinyin for Mandarin. This would be a workable compromise I think, except maybe that TY is so bad that even Taiwanese 'romanizers' want nothing to do with it.
ReplyDeleteSo what are Taiwanese learners to do? I've been doing language exchange, and I make good progress within each session. But I need to have something concrete put down on paper for the words to stick for the longterm.
ReplyDelete>>>>>
ReplyDeleteSo what are Taiwanese learners to do? I've been doing language exchange, and I make good progress within each session. But I need to have something concrete put down on paper for the words to stick for the longterm.
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If you are serious about learning Taiwanese, then learn a MLT (Modern Literal Taiwanese, also known as MTSS, Modern Taiwanese Spellng System).
http://www.studentorg.umd.edu/tsa/Eng/TMSS/index.html
For reasons too involved to discuss here, it is far preferable to Presbyterian Church Romanization. Within a few weeks of practice, you can start learning to skim and recognize simple Taiwanese phrases and expressions written in MLT.
There is also a small body of reading material available for MLT, once you become proficient in Taiwanese.
If you don't actually speak Taiwanese or have ever studied the romanization systems for it or don't know Hanyu pinyin yourself, I don't see how you would have an opinion on Tongyong Pinyin for Taiwanese. There is no international standard for Taiwanese Romanization... there are no signs in Taiwanese... the sounds are different from Mandarin... it... just... makes... no sense...
ReplyDeleteBattlepanda,
There is a Prebysterian romanization from a long time ago that you can learn. Many textbooks use this system. There are some books written in the Prebysterian romanization also.
I would probably prefer a Taiwanese romanization standard that uses Hanyu pinyin representations when the sounds are the same, the problem being that close sounds will be folded into the same letters, which is BAD BAD BAD. However, because of the superscript tones, you should be able to code switch and use a different set of pronounciations when you see the Presbyterian romanization.
Thanks. I'll check the presbyterian system out.
ReplyDeleteI still mess up "boy" and "girl" all the time. Gah!