Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported on August 30 that Walis Pelin, the head of the government’s Council of Indigenous Peoples, is pushing for Taiwan’s Aborigines to be able to use accurate renditions of their names. (It’s about time!) Pelin says that only about 1,000 of Taiwan’s 460,000 Aborigines are presently using their real (i.e. non-sinified) names. (The context of this use isn’t clear in the story — typical for CNA!)
Chinese characters, being for a completely different language family, aren’t particularly suited for this task. So he wants the Roman alphabet used, too. But it seems he may not fully understand the situation, given his remarks on romanization and churches and the fact that he’s calling for just one system — a situation that may not be practical, given that Taiwan’s Aborigines have quite a few different languages.
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Tā shǒuxiān jǔ yuánzhùmín huīfù běn xìng wéilì zhǐchū, quán tái de 460,000 yuánzhùmín zhīzhōng, xiànjiēduàn yuē jǐnyǒu 1,000 rén huīfù běn xìng. Yóuyú zhíxíng fāngmiàn què yǒu shízhì kùnnan, wèilái xīwàng yuánzhùmín de míng xìng nénggòu cǎi Luómǎ pīnyīn hé Hànzì bìngliè móshì.
Bùguò, yǒu jiàn yú Luómǎ pīnyīn jǐnxiànyú jiàohuì shǐyòng, zàijiā shàng gè jiàohuì de Luómǎ pīnyīn yě bùyī’érzú, [Táiwān Xíngzhèngyuàn Yuánzhùmín Zú Wěiyuánhuì zhǔwěi] Walis Pelin qīpàn Luómǎ pīnyīn de shūxiě xìtǒng hé fúhào néng jǐn sù tǒngyīhuà.
