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Scholar unveils Taiwanese dictionary

Glove puppet maestro Huang Chun-hsiung performs a skit in praise of Professor Wu Shou-li at yesterday's press conference announcing the release of Wu's Practical Mandarin-Taiwanese Dictionary. PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES

After 22 years of research, Professor Wu Shou-li (吳守禮), a 92-year-old lexicographer, has completed his 2,863-page Practical Mandarin-Taiwanese Dictionary (國台對照活用辭典), which was presented to the public yesterday at National Taiwan University (NTU).

Professor Tung Chung-si (董忠司) from National Hsinchu Normal University said the achievement marks a milestone in academic work.

"Since the Taiwanese-Japanese Dictionary (台日大辭典) which was published in 1932, there has been no single work that matches the meticulous attention to detail that Wu has provided with his new dictionary," Tung said.

Released by Yuan-Liou Publishing Company (遠流出版社), Wu's new dictionary contains 12,956 characters and more than 60,000 phrases. "It is the most comprehensive Taiwanese dictionary ever," Tung said.

Wu was a well-known professor of Mandarin at National Taiwan University (NTU). He started working on the dictionary after his retirement from the university.

Wu's approach to the pronunciation of Taiwanese was to use the National Phonetic Symbols for Mandarin (注音符號) also known as bopomofo, to compose and systemize his dictionary.

Using this system, Wu has solved the predicament of Taiwanese writers who are unsure how to represent spoken Taiwanese in written form.

DPP lawmaker Wang To (王拓), the host of the event, praised Wu's dedication. "Many people do not know which characters to use to represent the sounds of Taiwanese. Wu has solved the problem for all those who wish to write in Taiwanese," Wang said.

The system allows everybody who knows bopomofo -- the basic building blocks of Chinese literacy skills in Taiwan -- to learn the pronunciation of Taiwanese easily.

Minister of Education Ovid Tzeng (曾志朗) aptly introduced the scholar yesterday with the famous Chinese adage: "A man's life begins at age 70" (人生七十才開始).

Wu said that yesterday was "the most glorious day of my life."

In 1988 a fire destroyed much of his research for the project but did not extinguish his desire to finish the work.

After the fire, Wu carefully gathered what remained and resumed work on the dictionary with the help of his daughters.

Wu has studied Japanese, Mandarin, Taiwanese, English, German, and many other languages throughout his life. His decision to concentrate on Taiwanese after World War II and his unprecedented achievements have won him praise from President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

"Language is a cultural bridge. I am grateful that Professor Wu chose his mother tongue as the core of his studies. His contributions to the Taiwanese language and the culture of Taiwan are beyond acclaim," Chen said. He also said he hoped that one day a book could be written in Taiwanese that would rank on the world stage with such masters as Dante and Goethe.

"The most famous stories in the world are told in their authors' mother tongues. Dante wrote The Divine Comedy in Italian. Goethe wrote The Sorrows of Young Werther in German. Hopefully one day there will be a world-famous story about Taiwan that is written in Taiwanese," Chen said.
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