Category Archives: Hokkien

And they called for macaronic — groups seek new national anthem for Taiwan

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The Taiwan Peace Foundation and the Taiwan Society, which are both non-governmental organizations, are holding a competition for a new national anthem for Taiwan. In the first stage, they are looking just for lyrics. They recommend the use of multiple languages of Taiwan in this and thus also recommend that the submission contain some romanization (“yǐ běnguó yǔyán wéizhǔ, fùzhù pīnyīn wéi jiā, kě jiāohù shǐyòng bùtóng yǔyán”). Given Taiwan’s linguistic situation, I think this is a reasonable approach. Of course, whether it has any chance of becoming officially enacted in the near future is another matter.

Táiwān Hépíng Jījīnhuì hé Táiwān Shè tuīdòng “xīn guógē yùndòng”, jīntiān gōng bù “xīn guógē” zhēng xuǎn bànfǎ, xīwàng jièyóu gōngkāi zhēngqiú hé shèhuì cānyù, xuǎnchū fúhé Táiwān mínzhòng qīpàn, néng gǎndòng mínzhòng de xīn guógē.

Táiwān Hépíng Jījīnhuì biǎoshì, “xīn guógē” yùndòng dì-yī jiēduàn jiāng jìnxíng gēcí zhēng xuǎn, Liùyuè shí’èr rì jiézhǐ shōujiàn, zìshù yǐ wǔshí dào yībǎi zì wéiyí, yǐ běnguó yǔyán wéizhǔ, fùzhù pīnyīn wéi jiā, kě jiāohù shǐyòng bùtóng yǔyán. Jiāng píngxuǎn yōushèng yīzhì wǔ míng, jiǎngjīn xīn tái bì shíwàn yuán, jiāzuò ruògān míng, jiǎngjīn yīwàn yuán.

Dì-èr jiēduàn wéi gēqǔ zhēng xuǎn, bìxū cóng dì-yī jiēduàn yōushèng gēcí zhōng, xuǎnzé yīzhì liǎng shǒu pǔqǔ, chángdù liǎng zhì sān fēnzhōng wéiyí, wǔ fēnzhōng wéixiàn, Bāyuè sānshíyī rì jiézhǐ shōujiàn. Dì-yī míng jiǎngjīn èrshí wàn yuán, dì-èr míng jiǎngjīn shíwàn yuán, dì-sān míng jiǎngjīn wǔwàn yuán, jiāzuò ruògān míng, jiǎngjīn gè yīwàn yuán.

Táiwān Hépíng Jījīnhuì dìzhǐ wéi Táiběi Shì Sōngjiāng Lù yībǎi liùshíbā hào sì lóu, wǎngzhǐ www.twpeace.org.tw.

source: Táiwān Hépíng Jījīnhuì hé Táiwān Shè zhēngqiú xīn guógē (台灣和平基金會和台灣社徵求新國歌), CNA, April 20, 2007

further reading: ROC National Anthem, Wikipedia

‘dialect’ and ‘Chinese’ from a linguistic point of view

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Another back issue of Sino-Platonic Papers has been released, this one of particular relevance to the themes of this site: What Is a Chinese “Dialect/Topolect”? Reflections on Some Key Sino-English Linguistic Terms (1991), by Professor Victor H. Mair of the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations.

Here is the abstract:

Words like fangyan, putonghua, Hanyu, Guoyu, and Zhongwen have been the source of considerable perplexity and dissension among students of Chinese language(s) in recent years. The controversies they engender are compounded enormously when attempts are made to render these terms into English and other Western languages. Unfortunate arguments have erupted, for example, over whether Taiwanese is a Chinese language or a Chinese dialect. In an attempt to bring some degree of clarity and harmony to the demonstrably international fields of Sino-Tibetan and Chinese linguistics, this article examines these and related terms from both historical and semantic perspectives. By being careful to understand precisely what these words have meant to whom and during which period of time, needlessly explosive situations may be defused and, an added benefit, perhaps the beginnings of a new classification scheme for Chinese language(s) may be achieved. As an initial step in the right direction, the author proposes the adoption of “topolect” as an exact, neutral translation of fangyan.

The entire text is now online as a 2.2 MB PDF: What Is a Chinese “Dialect/Topolect”? Reflections on Some Key Sino-English Linguistic Terms.

Strongly recommended.

Taiwanese couplet

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a chunlian written in Taiwanese, as described in this post

This photo of a chūnlián (春聯 / 春联) — couplet for Chinese New Year — has been making the e-mail rounds. (I don’t know the original source.) What’s interesting about this set is that they’re written in Taiwanese, not Mandarin.

I’ve written these left to right. But the orders in the original are

  1. to the right of the doorway, top to bottom
  2. to the left of the doorway, top to bottom

The writing above the doorway can be seen as separate from the other two or together with them. In the latter case it would be read first, from right to left. It reads 身體顧乎勇, which means “take care of health.”)

The one on the right reads 重情重義嗎著重粉味, which means “attach importance to relationships and brotherhood, but [people] also need to attach importance to powder’s smell” (i.e., to those who wear scented face power: women).

The second one, the one on the left, reads 愛鄉愛土嗎著愛查某, which means “love your home town, love your motherland; but also love women.”

The language of the first half of each of the two vertical strips is formal and traditional. But the style of both second halves is more akin to a sales pitch for a Viagra-like patent medicine.

Bichhin, which looks like a promising blog on Taiwanese (and written in Taiwanese, too), has helpfully rendered this in both the Tai-Luo and church romanization systems. It’s easier to see the rhymes that way.

further reading:

Taiwan premier calls for support for romanization of Taiwanese

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Taiwan’s premier, Su Tseng-chang (Sū Zhēn-chāng / 蘇貞昌), has instructed the Ministry of Education to back the Tái-Luó romanization system for Taiwanese.

Unless I’ve been misled by the local media, which has been known to confuse various romanization systems, this romanization system is simply what the Ministry of Education approved back in October 2006. (Tai-Luo means “Taiwan Romanization,” which is not a particularly specific name.) So the statement is likely simply as speculated in the media: that Su is seeking to bolster his “green” and “localization” credentials ahead of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s choice of a candidate for the 2008 presidential election. It’s hard to know if this is simply lip service or something that will lead to increased support for the romanization of Hoklo (Taiwanese), probably the former.

Su made the statement during a meeting last week with the head of the Taiwan Society, Chet Yang (Yáng Wén-jiā / 楊文嘉 / Yang Wen-chia). The Taiwan Society, an umbrella organization for pro-Taiwan groups, backs the same romanization system.

sources and further reading:

new book on language policy in Taiwan during the Japanese era

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photo of the cover of the book discussed in this postWhile browsing at Eslite the other day I happened across a new book that sounds interesting: Tónghuà de tóngchuángyìmèng: Rìběn zhì shíqī Táiwān de yǔyán zhèngcè, jìndài huà yǔ rèntóng (同化的同床異夢: 日治時期臺灣的語言政策、近代化與認同), by Chen Pei-feng (Chén Péi-fēng / 陳培豐).

Although the book is written in Mandarin and has essentially no English, it has a strange but intriguing English title: The Different Intentions Behind the Semblance of “Douka”: The Language Policy, Modernization, and Identity in Taiwan during the Japan-Ruling Period. This doesn’t quite match the Mandarin.

I’d be interested in hearing from anyone who has read this.

Beijing’s reaction to Taiwan’s language-education moves

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China’s unofficial propaganda machine has come up with a predictable response to Taiwan’s recent approval of an official romanization for Hoklo/Taiwanese, calling it an attempt at wenhua Tai-Du (“cultural Taiwanese independence”). And Beijing doesn’t much care for earlier developments, either:

Lìngwài jù bàodào, zǎo zài 2002 nián Táiwān dāngjú “Jiàoyùbù” jiù zuòchū juéyì, Táiwān xuésheng cóng xiǎoxué sānniánjí kāishǐ tíqián shíshī xiāngtǔ yǔyán Mǐnnányǔ, Kèjiāyǔ de “yīnbiāo fúhào” xìtǒng jiāoxué, yǐ tú jìnyībù qiēduàn Táiwān yǔ zǔguó dàlù de wénhuà niǔdài. Rújīn yòu zài Táiwān gè zhōng-xiǎoxué tuīxíng “Táiwān Mǐnnányǔ Luómǎzì pīnyīn fāng’àn”, qǐtú yǐcǐ ruòhuà yǔ Pǔtōnghuà jiējìn de “Guóyǔ” zài Táiwān de dìwèi. Zhèizhǒng kèyì zài wénhuà shàng zhìzào Táiwān yǔ zǔguó dàlù de chāyì yǔ qūfēn, shì Táiwān dāngjú chìluǒluǒ de “wénhuà Tái-Dú” tǐxiàn.

(另据报道，早在2002年台湾当局“教育部”就做出决议，台湾学生从小学三年级开始提前实施乡土语言闽南语、客家语的“音标符号”系统教学，以图进一步切断台湾与祖国大陆的文化纽带。如今又在台湾各中小学推“台湾闽南语罗马字拼音方案”，企图以此弱化与普通话接近的“国语”在台湾的地位。这种刻意在文化上制造台湾与祖国大陆的差异与区分，是台当局赤裸裸的“文化台独”体现。)

Blah, blah, blah.

source: “Wénhuà Tái-Dú” — Mǐnnányǔ pīnyīn xìtǒng chūlú (［两岸纪行］“文化台独” 闽南语拼音系统出炉), October 17, 2006, ChinaTaiwan.org

MOE approves Taiwanese romanization; Tongyongists protest

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Years of valuable time has been lost in the squabbling over romanization systems for Taiwanese. And that squabbling will no doubt continue, as the links below make clear. But an important step was taken on Thursday. Finally, finally, Taiwan’s Ministry of Education has approved a romanization system for Taiwanese: Tái-luó-bǎn Pīnyīn (台羅版拼音), to give its Mandarin name.

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.

Predictably, Yu Bo-quan (余伯泉, I’ve given up bothering to figure out which of the various spellings for his name he’s using now), the main person behind the Tongyong romanization systems, is unhappy. Reportedly, after it was clear things were not going his way he stormed out of the meeting. After he left the new system was approved unanimously.

Yu’s remarks make clear the political nature of his approach.

Tái-luó-bǎn pīnyīn xìtǒng zuó chuǎngguān chénggōng hòu, Yú Bó-quán qìfèn de shuō, Tái-luó xìtǒng de qǐyuán shì Táiwān Mǐnnányǔ yīnbiāo xìtǒng (TLPA), shì Guómíndǎng shídài de chǎnwù, ér 2002 Tōngyòng Pīnyīn shì Mínjìndǎng zhízhèng nèi tōngguò de, zhìyí wèihé Jiàoyùbù wúfǎ hànwèi zhízhèngdǎng de Mǐnnányǔ pīnyīn xìtǒng zhǔzhāng, Jiàoyùbù duànrán tōngguò Tái-luó-bǎn, Táiwānyǔ Tōngyòng Liánméng hòuxù jiāng zhǔnbèi kàngzhēng. (台羅版拼音系統昨闖關成功後，余伯泉氣憤地說，台羅系統的起源是台灣閩南語音標系統（ＴＬＰＡ），是國民黨時代的產物，而二○○二通用拼音是民進黨執政內通過的，質疑為何教育部無法捍衛執政黨的閩南語拼音系統主張，教育部斷然通過台羅版，台灣語通用聯盟後續將準備抗爭。)

That doesn’t sound all that far from calling those on the committee dupes of the KMT, which isn’t likely to win him any friends with those in power. But it may well be that by this point he has so alienated others he thinks he has nothing to lose.

Apparently Tongyong for Taiwanese will retain something of a foothold in southern Taiwan. (See source no. 8 below.)

Later, I’ll try to put up more about just what system was approved and under what circumstances it will (and will not) be used — unless the ever-knowledgeable a-giâu beats me to it.

Because there’s a lot of confusion about Tongyong, a few notes are in order:

  • Tongyong is not one romanization system for all the languages of Taiwan but rather a group of related systems, some of which could be said to work better (or worse) than others.
  • When Tongyong (for Mandarin) was officially approved in Taiwan in 2002, the Tongyong system for Hakka also received approval but not the Tongyong Pinyin system for Taiwanese.
  • As the vote should make clear, plenty of strong supporters of romanization (and other scripts) for Taiwanese have never much cared for Tongyong.

sources:

  1. Tái-luó-bǎn pīnyīn míngnián shànglù; Jiàoyùbù duànrán dìng’àn; Tōngyòng liánméng jiāng kàngzhēng (台羅版拼音明年上路 教育部斷然定案 通用聯盟將抗爭), Píngguǒ Rìbào (Apple Daily), September 29, 2006
  2. Guóxiǎo lǎoshī: xiāngtǔ yǔyán zuìhǎo zìrán xuéxí (國小老師：鄉土語言最好自然學習), Liánhé Xīnwén Wǎng, September 29, 2006
  3. Zuóyè zuìxīn: Mǐnnányǔ xiāngtǔ jiàoxué quèdìng cǎi Táiwān Mǐnnányǔ Luómǎzì pīnyīn (昨夜最新：閩南語鄉土教學確定採台灣閩南語羅馬字拼音), CNA, September 29, 2006
  4. Táiyǔ Tōngyòng liánméng kàngyì Jiàoyùbù cǎi Mǐnnányǔ Luómǎ pīnyīn (台語通用聯盟抗議教育部採閩南語羅馬拼音), CNA, September 29, 2006
  5. Mǐnnányǔ xiāngtǔ jiàoxué quèdìng cǎi Táiwān Mǐnnányǔ Luómǎzì pīnyīn (閩南語鄉土教學確定採台灣閩南語羅馬字拼音), CNA, September 29, 2006
  6. Mǐnnányǔ pīnyīnfǎ quèlì: Luómǎ pīnyīn shèng chū (閩南語拼音法確立：羅馬拼音勝出), Zhōngguǎng Xīnwén Wǎng, September 29, 2006
  7. Pāibǎn dìng’àn! Jiàoyùbù tōngguò Mǐnnányǔ jiàoxué; cǎiyòng Tái-luó pīnyīn (拍板定案！教育部通過閩南語教學　採用台羅拼音), Dōngsēn Xīnwénbào, September 29, 2006
  8. Nánbù sì xiàn-shì dǐzhì; Tái-luó pīnyīn jīn chuǎngguān (南部四縣市抵制 台羅拼音今闖關), Zhōngshí Diànzǐ Bào, September 29, 2006

Ministry of Education and romanization for Taiwanese … again

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The matter of Taiwanese, script, and pedagogy is in the news again. But it’s still hard to figure out exactly what’s going on. And the government has been so slow to get much done in this area that even complete agreement about what to do wouldn’t convince me that anything substantial is going to happen soon.

So I’ll just refer those interested in the topic to the stories and hope people can provide some clarity in the comments here.