Romanization of Chinese in the Republic of China

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There are a large number romanization systems used in the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan). Many commonly encountered Taiwanese proper names (places and people) are written in Wade-Giles, a historic system semi-official in the ROC. After a long resistance of using Hanyu Pinyin like the Mainland China, the ROC will officially adapt Hanyu Pinyin in 2009.

The contention surrounding romanizations has never been purely academic or in response to the needs of the foreign community in Taiwan, but rather shrouded by politics. As a result, romanization of Mandarin in Taiwan in the 20st century was by and large inconsistent and quite difficult for everyone—be they tourists, foreign-born residents or native-born Taiwanese—to interpret.

Contents 1 History 2 Education 3 Place names 4 Personal names 5 Businesses 6 Other contexts 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] History

The following systems were official in the ROC:

1. Gwoyeu Romatzyh (GR, 1928-1986),
2. Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II (MPS II, 1986-2002),
3. Tongyong Pinyin (2002-2008)^[1][2], and
4. Hanyu Pinyin (starting in 2009).^[3][4]

(All except the last were locally developed by officials of the ROC.)

Alongside these aforementioned nominally official systems, Wade-Giles has been widely used for decades in many contexts, such as in the passport.

When Tongyong was introduced, place names — save for counties and the top-level municipalities — were romanized in Tongyong. Street and building signs have been normally transcribed in one of the official systems and not Wade-Giles, except in Taipei, where Hanyu Pinyin was adapted in the early 2000s, before the rest of the country.

[edit] Education

Romanization is not normally taught in Taiwan's public schools at any level. Consequently, most Taiwanese do not know how to romanize their names or addresses. Teachers use only Zhuyin ("bopomofo") for teaching and annotating the pronunciation of Mandarin. There have been sporadic discussions about using a romanization system during early education to teach children Mandarin pronunciation (like how students in Mainland China learn Mandarin using Hanyu Pinyin). However, like all other aspects of romanization in Taiwan, this is a controversial issue. The plan in the early 2000s to adopt Pinyin was delayed due to disagreements over which form to use (Tongyong or Hanyu). The move is complicated by the massive effort needed to produce new instructional materials and retrain teachers.

Textbooks teaching other languages of Taiwan — namely, Hoklo, Hakka, and Formosan languages — now also often include pronunciation in romanizations (such as modified Tongyong) in addition to Zhuyin. Textbooks purely supplemented by romanization, without Zhuyin annotations, are very rare at the elementary-school level, since a sizeable minority of Taiwanese schoolchildren cannot easily read the English alphabet.

Government publications for teaching overseas Taiwanese children^[5] usually are completely bilingual, but only have Zhuyin in the main body of the texts and a comparison chart of Zhuyin and one or more Romanization systems. Those for teaching advanced learners (such as youths and adults) have infrequent phonetic annotations for new phrases or characters. These annotations, usually in the footnotes, are romanized, in addition to having Zhuyin.

Like most Mandarin instructional materials released in North America, phrasebooks and textbooks targeting Mandarin students from overseas (mostly adult learners and workers) in Taiwan usually include only Hanyu Pinyin with tone marks (accompanied by Traditional Chinese characters).

[edit] Place names

The national government officially adopted Tongyong Pinyin in 2002 ^[1][2] but allowed local governments to make their own choices. Consequently, Taipei, the ROC capital, adopted Hanyu Pinyin.^[6] Taipei replaced its earlier signage, most of which had used a bastardized version of Wade-Giles influenced by the Postal.^[7] Kaohsiung, Taiwan's second city, adopted Tongyong. Elsewhere in Taiwan, signs tend to be in a mixture of systems; with Tongyong Pinyin being increasingly common, but still many signs left over from the MPS II (or even the GR) era. In 2008, the Ministry of Education announced it was switching from Tongyong Pinyin to Hanyu Pinyin as of January 1, 2009. ^[3][4]

Romanization errors are common throughout Taiwan, because of the shortage of a workforce trained in romanization and the lack of political will for correct implementation. Many common errors are derived from the accent of Taiwanese Mandarin, such as interchanging the -ng and -n sounds. For example, guan and guang are often confused with one another on signs and plaques. Simple typos (such as replacing e with t) are also ubiquitous. The area with the fewest errors on official signage is Taipei. In Kaohsiung, because of the World Games 2009, the city sponsored a "Say It Right" effort, which fixed most of the romanization mistakes in the city.^{[citation needed]} Since romanized signage is not a priority in areas with few foreign tourists, most errors occur in remote areas with limited resources (if there were any romanized signs to begin with).^{[citation needed]}

Official websites of local governments also employ romanization inconsistently. For instance, as of 2007^[update], the Jhongli city hall website's title and URL are still in MPS II (Jung-li).^[8] On the other hand, the Jhongli Land Office has updated its title to Tongyong (Jhongli), but URL remains in MPS II.^[9] And the Jhongli Household Registration Office have a Wade-Giles URL (Chungli) but refers to itself in Tongyong ^[10].

[edit] Personal names

Most people in Taiwan have their names romanized using a variation of Wade-Giles. This simplified version employs no diacritics (tone marks, apostrophes and umlauts) and, in semi- and unofficial contexts, usually incorrectly capitalized. The first letter in the second character of the given names should be, according to governmental and academic conventions, in the lower case, but in reality usually not. For example, Lu Hsiu-lien is sometimes written incorrectly as Lu Hsiu-Lien, contrary to the set rules of Wade-Giles. The use of Wade-Giles is generally not out of personal preference but because this system has been used by most government offices' reference materials in Taiwan to date.

There are a few Taiwanese personalities (such as politicians) whose names are transcribed in obscure or idiosyncratic schemes. For instance, using any major romanization, Lee Teng-hui's surname would have been Li. Vincent Siew's surname and Ma Ying-jeou's given name are also peculiarly romanized. The single closest romanization to Chen Shui-bian's name would be Hanyu Pinyin, except that Hanyu never uses hyphens.

[edit] Businesses

Public and private enterprises are not bound to any set of standards in their English names. The variations in this areas are therefore even greater and unpredictable. Some choose to transliterate their names, but other transcribe. The first parts of Chunghwa Telecom, the Central Bank of the Republic of China, and China Airlines are actually identical in Mandarin, i.e., Zhonghua (中華), meaning "(of) China".

Many business owners use an ad hoc approach, just so long as the end result is pronounceable and visually pleasant. The Hualon Group and Yulon Motor have opt for readability and lose a couple of letters (the second syllable would be long or lung in all major romanizations).

As many conglomerates in Taiwan are owned by the Hoklo, it is not uncommon to find companies that romanized their names in Hoklo. The Shin Kong, for example, is faithful to its Hoklo pronunciation (Sin-kong) but not Mandarin.

Like those on street signs, romanization on store signs and commercial products' labels are not yet systematized.

[edit] Other contexts

Chunghwa Post currently provide official support to address romanization in both Hanyu and Tongyong Pinyin.^[11] Prior to 2000, addresses were usually written in Wade-Giles or MPS II. Given the correct 5-digit zip code, the postal workers are usually able to deliver mail in any other romanization as well.

Most of the universities in Taiwan have names in Wade-Giles, such as Cheng Kung, Chung Hsing, Feng Chia and Chiao Tung. A few with pre-Taiwanese existence were romanized using the Postal Guide, i.e., Tsing Hua, Soochow, and Chengchi (actually ad hoc, since it'd be chih in Postal). Few universities have names in other local languages, such as Tamkang and Takming (both in Hoklo).

Since elementary, middle, and senior high schools are under the jurisdiction of the local government, they follow whatever romanization the particular county or city uses at the time. For instance, during the first decade of the 21st century, the school signs outside of Taipei were usually in Tongyong Pinyin.

[edit] See also

• Romanization of Chinese, a general discussion across regions
• Daoism-Taoism romanization issue, case study of the academic contention in romanizing Chinese
• Wade-Giles · Punctuation section, example of deviations from set standards in Taiwanese romanizations

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Tongyong Pinyin the new system for romanization", Taipei Times (2002-07-11). 
2. ^ ^{a b} "Taiwan Authority Concerned Passes Tongyong Pinyin Scheme", People's Daily Online (2002-07-12). 
3. ^ ^{a b} "Hanyu Pinyin to be standard system in 2009", Taipei Times (2008-09-18). 
4. ^ ^{a b} "Gov't to improve English-friendly environment", The China Post (2008-09-18). 
5. ^ Global Chinese Language and Culture Center, Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission, Republic of China. Accessed 2008-09-21
6. ^ "Ma remains Tongyong Pinyin holdout", Taipei Times (2002-08-03). 
7. ^ Mark Swofford, Taipei's nicknumbering system for street names. Accessed 2008-09-21
8. ^ Jung-Li City International Information Website - English version. Accessed 2008-09-21
9. ^ Jhongli Land Office of Taoyuan County - English version. Accessed 2008-09-21
10. ^ Jhongli City Household Registration Office, Taoyuan County - English version. Accessed 2008-09-21
11. ^ Postal Services - Zip Codes, Chunghwa Post. Accessed 2008-09-21

[edit] External links

• A Comparison of Various Chinese Romanization Systems, summary from the Government Information Office (no GR)
• A comparison chart of Chinese romanizations, with Tongyong Pinyin highlighted and include GR
• Differences between Tongyong Pinyin and Hanyu Pinyin