Remembering Y.R. Chao: 1892-1982

Y.R. Chao

Y.R. Chao
November 3, 1892 – February 25, 1982

Today, the thirtieth anniversary of the death of the brilliant linguist and all-around interesting guy Y.R. Chao (Zhao Yuanren / Zhào Yuánrèn / 趙元任 / 赵元任), I’m remembering him by rereading some of his work. (Chao died twenty years and one day after his good friend Hu Shih.)

Here are some readings here on Pinyin.info by or about Y.R. Chao that you may wish to review:

5 thoughts on “Remembering Y.R. Chao: 1892-1982

  1. Jihniahn Zhaoh Yuarnrehn, yohng zihmuu biaodiaoh.
    Jìniàn Zhào Yuánrèn, yòng zìm? bi?odiào.
    To remember Zhao Yuanren, to use alphabet for marking tones.

  2. Personally I find Guoyu Luomazi more recognizable than Hanyu Pinyin because of the different word lengths of the tonal spelling. This system was well designed but only with the obvious flaw of being overly “difficult”. If Zhao Yuanren were still alive, I wonder what improvement he would bring to the system.

  3. Great man; great contribution to human understanding.
    May he rest in peace. Eventually, if China is to conquer the world both culturally and economically, they will have to make the national Chinese language easy to learn for the rest of the world.
    This man’s work, together with others such as Lin Yutang, pointed to the only
    practical way to try to do that. Difficulties will be refined through academics, and who knows what that will bring.

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