Taipei street names
Posted by site admin on 29 Sep 2006 at 05:58 pm | Tagged as: Chinese, Chinese characters, English, Mandarin, Taipei, Taiwan, pinyin, romanization, signage, tone marks, writing systems
I’ve finally put online here on this site my list of Taipei street names in Chinese characters and Hanyu Pinyin. The list includes versions both with and without tone marks, as well as in pure Hanyu Pinyin and the mix of Pinyin and English that is generally found here in Taiwan.
I’d like to say some more about this, but I just don’t have the time now.
Great list - thanks for your work on this. Questions:
1. Why is 德行東路 rendered as Dé-Xíng Dōng Lù and not Déxíng Dōng Lù? I understand why you hyphenate Shi-Da and Shi-Fu, so I must be missing a contraction of sorts?
2. Shouldn’t Shàoxīngnán Jiē (紹興南街) be Shàoxīng Nán Jiē?
3. I know this isn’t your purpose, but it would be neat to link these street names to some online Taipei street map website.
I just took your syllable quiz. Taking the instructions at face value, and not considering the meanings of the test items, then I think there are mulitple correct responses for the following:
5. lianjiaoku could be: li an ji ao ku, lian ji ao ku, lian jiao ku
7. xianangua could be: xia nan gua, xian an gua, xi an an gua
9. xian could be: xian or xi an
10. changan could be: chan gan or chang an
and I didn’t even consider using ‘a’ as an independent syllable. Am I missing something?
Prince Roy: Did you read the pages I linked to from both the Pinyin syllable-break quiz itself and the answers page?
* how to find syllable boundaries in Hanyu Pinyin
* apostrophes in Hanyu Pinyin: when and where to use them
These explain the rules, under which there are no multiple correct reponses possible to any of the questions on the quiz.
Joe:
Mea culpa on Shaoxingnan Jie (and Shaoxingbei Jie, too). These should be Shaoxing Nan Jie and Shaoxing Bei Jie. Thanks for pointing that out. I’ll get it fixed tonight.
As for De-Xing vs. Dexing, I generally use the ABC Chinese-English Comprehensive Dictionary as my standard. It gives the hyphenated form. OTOH, even some authors of Pinyin standards advocate using what might be called “compressed” forms on street signage; thus, a case could be made for either form.
I should add here that “Bei Jie”, etc., rather than “Beijie” is my own usage and a rare case in which I diverge from what some authorities call for.
I’d love to have more interoperability with map sites. Alas, I lack the programming skills to make it happen.
Thank you. I’m from Hsinchu and speak very little Chinese, so the information is really helpful to give to a taxi driver.
Regards,
Paul