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From: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Transliteration [was: Re: Pinyin
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References: <7fybe9ur4n.fsf@phoenix.cs.hku.hk> <7fzpymb1mn.fsf@phoenix.cs.hku.hk> <E3MK5t.KHo@midway.uchicago.edu> <7fenfxqpuw.fsf@phoenix.cs.hku.hk>
Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 22:15:20 GMT
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In article <7fenfxqpuw.fsf@phoenix.cs.hku.hk>,
Lee Sau Dan ~{@nJX6X~} <sdlee@cs.hku.hk> wrote:
>>>>>> "Daniel" == Daniel von Brighoff <deb5@midway.uchicago.edu> writes:
>
>    Daniel> When there is no equivalent sound in a dialect, speakers
>    Daniel> will just have to substitute whatever is closest.  So the
>    Daniel> bopomofo symbols for <s>, <sh>, and <x> might be
>    Daniel> pronounced alike is many dialects; it's still better than
>    Daniel> having them end up as [h] or [t] or [th] or whatever
>    Daniel> depending on which cognate character was used to
>    Daniel> transliterate.
>
>But  this may eventually  result   in ugly transliterations  like  the
>Japanese "makkadonarudo".

This is worse than "Neihaksam"?  Bopomofo may not be perfect, but, IMHO,
anything is better than the messy kludge now in use.

>    Daniel> Besides, don't all countries with Chinese as an official
>    Daniel> language have the goal of making all citizens Mandarin
>    Daniel> speakers anyway?
>    >>  How many such countries are there?  I know only China and
>    >> Singapore (and Taiwan, if you dare to claim it as an
>    >> independent country).
>
>Wait...  Is Chinese an official language in San Francisco?

Is San Francisco a country?  If not, it's irrelevant what its official
languages (if any) are.

>    Daniel> 	Only two or three, true, but high in population and
>    Daniel> influence.  And what else do these three governments agree
>    Daniel> on?
>
>Although they try  teach the same language, they   don't agree on  the
>name  of that language.  Mainland China  calls  it "Putonghua"; Taiwan
>calls  it "Guoyu"; Singapore  calls it "Huayu".  (And English speakers
>call it "Mandarin".)

I don't care what they call the national varieties as laong as they 
remain mutually intelligible.  It also doesn't matter to me if the the
Croats teach "Croatian", the Serbs "Serbian", and the Bosniaks "Bosnian"
as long as I can still be understood there when I speak "Serbo-Croatian".
-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
