I believe I have found the perfect Romanization system for Taiwan. I call it "That-Horse-Isn't-Dead-Yet [THIDY] Pinyin" (in honor of the incessant flogging of the Tongyong versus Hanyu debate). THIDY Pinyin accurately reflects real usage patterns in Taiwan, because it doesn't exist, and so does not have to be taught in local schools.
Supporters of Tongyong Pinyin often argue that it is superior to Hanyu Pinyin because it's "easier to read" for foreigners, and because of its "versatility" for the different languages of Taiwan. As a foreigner, I do not see Tongyong as a better Romanization system for Chinese, rather it is only a nuisance. From cojones to cappuccino to Schadenfreude to chutzpah, we foreigners already have beaucoup foreign spelling systems to keep track of. Please don't burden us with another, not when there's already a world-recognized standard for that particular language.
Yes, we are confused at first by the "x" and "q" in Hanyu Pinyin, but no more so than by weird pronunciations in other languages, such as those listed above. And a quick glance at a phrase book is enough for most people to adapt.
And there is nothing particularly "versatile" about Tongyong either. This is a red herring, no more meaningful than to say the Latin alphabet is versatile because it can be used to transcribe most European and American languages -- even Chinese and Taiwanese, with a bit of tweaking.
The designers of Hanyu were forced to make some compromises (such as "x" and "q") in order to shoehorn Chinese pronunciation into the English alphabet. But the choices they made resulted in an elegant, almost irreducibly simple system, which respects the linguistic traditions of both the Chinese language and the Latin alphabet.
For example, although the Hanyu reading of "q" is completely novel to an English speaker, it is easy to absorb, because we are used to consonants having both "hard" and "soft" (velar and dental) pronunciations, such as "g" and "c" in English. The Hanyu "q" fits well into this mental slot.
The Hanyu "x" reflects the unique flavor of this phoneme, which as far back as Wade-Giles ("hs") and Zhuyinfuhao ("ㄒ") has been deemed distinct enough from "s" ("ㄙ") to warrant a separate way of writing. Furthermore, the variation in pronunciation of "x" among Western languages fairly approximates the linguistic drift in the pronunciation of some Chinese characters, such as "xing/hang" (行).
Changing these two consonants to "s" and "c" only adds confusion, by giving these two letters multiple readings in Tongyong. In Hanyu, every consonant has only one pronunciation. Only the vowels "a", "i", and "u" have multiple readings, one "high" and one "low" for each. (Linguists describe vowels by the position of the tongue in relation to the soft palate, on a low-to-high scale: "oo, oh, ah, eh, ih, ee, ng.")
The Hanyu letters "j," "q" and "x" naturally distinguish these vowel readings, because in order to sound them properly, the tongue must be in a high position. Whereas the Hanyu "s" is produced with the "tip" of the tongue (about the first 1cm), the "j," "q" and "x" are made with the "blade" of the tongue (the next 2cm or so). With the tongue in this position, it's nearly impossible to produce a "low" vowel sound.
There are many such levels of interlocking consistency in Hanyu Pinyin, which aid in the learning of Chinese pronunciation. Many of these are broken or twisted in the Tongyong system.
The fact is, the argument about Hanyu versus Tongyong is not about phonetics at all, it's about politics. The irony is that the pan-green aficionados who push Tongyong Pinyin (in order to differentiate Taiwan from China) are missing the much stronger political case they could make by embracing Hanyu Pinyin as a "foreign" spelling system for a "foreign" language. Use Tongyong for the native Taiwanese languages, that's fine. But use the "colonial" Romanization system for the "colonial" language.
Teach both systems in schools.
We foreigners have to learn both, and others as well. Japanese students learn four separate writing systems. Taiwanese students can and should learn the accepted Romanization standards for any languages they use regularly. In the Internet Age, they are going to need to know Hanyu anyway, so students should at least learn it, even if it's not used as the primary system here.
Adopting both systems solves the political dispute between them. Better still, it will finally give the native Taiwanese languages an official, widely understood writing system -- a "popular" system, as opposed to the unwieldy "philological" systems already in use by scholars.
Look what popularized Romanization systems have done for the languages and cultures of Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia. It's high time for Hakka, Hoklo and the rest to undergo a similar transformation. Given the potential benefits of Tongyong Pinyin for Taiwan's native languages, who cares which system is used for that other language?
John Diedrichs is the Web site editor for the Taipei Times.
When US budget carrier Southwest Airlines last week announced a new partnership with China Airlines, Southwest’s social media were filled with comments from travelers excited by the new opportunity to visit China. Of course, China Airlines is not based in China, but in Taiwan, and the new partnership connects Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport with 30 cities across the US. At a time when China is increasing efforts on all fronts to falsely label Taiwan as “China” in all arenas, Taiwan does itself no favors by having its flagship carrier named China Airlines. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is eager to jump at
The muting of the line “I’m from Taiwan” (我台灣來欸), sung in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), during a performance at the closing ceremony of the World Masters Games in New Taipei City on May 31 has sparked a public outcry. The lyric from the well-known song All Eyes on Me (世界都看見) — originally written and performed by Taiwanese hip-hop group Nine One One (玖壹壹) — was muted twice, while the subtitles on the screen showed an alternate line, “we come here together” (阮作伙來欸), which was not sung. The song, performed at the ceremony by a cheerleading group, was the theme
Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised eyebrows recently when he declared the era of American unipolarity over. He described America’s unrivaled dominance of the international system as an anomaly that was created by the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War. Now, he observed, the United States was returning to a more multipolar world where there are great powers in different parts of the planet. He pointed to China and Russia, as well as “rogue states like Iran and North Korea” as examples of countries the United States must contend with. This all begs the question:
In China, competition is fierce, and in many cases suppliers do not get paid on time. Rather than improving, the situation appears to be deteriorating. BYD Co, the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer by production volume, has gained notoriety for its harsh treatment of suppliers, raising concerns about the long-term sustainability. The case also highlights the decline of China’s business environment, and the growing risk of a cascading wave of corporate failures. BYD generally does not follow China’s Negotiable Instruments Law when settling payments with suppliers. Instead the company has created its own proprietary supply chain finance system called the “D-chain,” through which
RSS