persistent MPS2

Poagao sent me this photo of signs on Zhong’an Bridge, which joins Xindian and Zhonghe (both in Taipei County). (So the zhong is probably for Zhonghe; but I’m not sure what the an is meant to be short for.) The signs are a good illustration of the sloppy approach to romanization in Taiwan. Because this is a new bridge, these are definitely new signs and thus should be in Hanyu Pinyin, which is official not just in Taipei County but nationally.

two large directional signs above a road across a bridge, as described in this post

As the table below shows, however, the only name that definitely isn’t written in MPS2 — the romanization system that predated Tongyong, which in Taiwan predated Hanyu Pinyin — is a typo. MPS2 hasn’t been official for the better part of a decade.

on the sign	system	Hanyu Pinyin
Junghe	MPS2	Zhōnghé
Benchian	wrong in all systems	Bǎnqiáo
Jingping	(MPS2, Tongyong, Hanyu Pinyin)	Jǐngpíng
Shioulang	MPS2	Xiùlǎng

And there’s no excuse for making “Shioulang Bridge” so small and squashed. This also brings to mind another aspect of Hanyu Pinyin: because of its design and the fact that it uses abbreviated forms of some vowel combinations (e.g., uei -> ui, iou -> iu), it doesn’t need as much horizontal space as MPS2 or Tongyong Pinyin, which means it can be written with larger letters — an important factor in signage. (See the second table of the comparative typing chart to see such differences between Hanyu Pinyin and Tongyong Pinyin.)

system	spelling
MPS2	Shioulang
Tongyong Pinyin	Sioulang
Hanyu Pinyin	Xiulang

13 thoughts on “persistent MPS2”

My guess is that the “an” is meant to stand for “Ankeng”.

LOL Banqiao became Benchian! WTF is that?

Yeah, Benchian is a good one. If they have gone that far, why not go one step further and make it “Benchan”, thus significantly increasing that area’s popularity among younger Taiwanese: “Kawaiiiiiii…”