Re: Millions of Chinese forced to change their names

On Apr 21, 3:37 pm, hol...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Eugene Holman) wrote:
In article
<9eb3ead2-2780-4a19-a619-f7a84c25e...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Tadas

Blinda <tadas.bli...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
[Time to drop the out-dated pictograms and get with Latin script?}

The ideograms and computers get along quite well, while Chinese, like
French, has so many homonyms that a purely phonologically-based Latin
script would be dysfunctional. Learning the Chinese writing system is an
arduous task, but once you *have* learned it, you can read at an
incredible rate of speed. It's like writing 5234 instead of "five thousand
two hundred and thirty four". The Chinese have been able to modernize and
become a developed country that even has a space program using that
script, so it is not sorely in need of being abandoned.

Ask the kids who have to spend thousands of hours learning it. In my
view, the Vietnamese did the right thing. I think you meant to say
homophones instead of homonyms, but unlike in French they are not true
homophones because they have different tones, which have, as you know,
not just phonemic value but most often lexemic. ("Ma" can mean four
things depending on the tone.) Even with its five tones instead of
four, Vietnamese adapated very well to the Latin script. Tones are
not difficult to mark with diacritics. Even Lithuanian dictionaries
and pedagogic texts to mark the unique Lithuanian pitch stress,
Lithuanian being the only Indo-European language that retains it:
màno: my
mãno: thinks
Máno: Mann's (as in Thomas Mann's House:
http://muziejai.terramedia.lt/Multimedija/Vykdomi-multimedijos-projektai/Tomo-Mano-namas-muziejus-Nidoje


As to Ma Cheng's name, the 30-stroke (exceptionally complex) character in
question is athttp://nihongo.j-talk.com/parser/search/kanjisearch.php?pick=716A, a
charming character consisting of three very obvious stylized horses.
<deletions>

After the switch to Latin script, those who feel so inclined can
pursue Chinese calligraphy as a hobby, like bonsai or ikebana.

I notice you are not at all disturbed by the Chinese government
forcing people to change their names.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Academic/scientific journals in Esperanto?
    ... But when two languages share a script, ... You're again demonstrating your ignorance about Chinese. ... simple google "Mandarin Romanization" gives lots of relevant pages. ... Manuel> names and Chinese words in its written communications. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: intrinsic advantage of Latin alphabet over bopomofo (for Chinese)??
    ... Herman> I do not know if much larger alphabets than the Latin one ... There used to be Chinese typewriters. ... actually accelerates typing speed far beyond typing Latin scripts. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Why Chinese is so damn hard
    ... learn, both writing and speaking, than their European languages, since they had both a new writing system to get to grips with, and the mystery of tones. ... It's always surprising when people get their knickers in a knot because of the Mandarin Chinese tones. ... Many other languages have tones. ...
    (alt.usage.english)
  • Re: Shofar--Dravidian?
    ... >> out Wenyan out of pinyin without any tones marked. ... one variety of Chinese. ... modern Peking pronunciation when the subject was ANCIENT ... Cambridge's typesetter probably didn't have undotted modern Moroccan ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Languages on the CITSOT
    ... [SNIP] ... Cantonese, would be able to read Chinese, but not speak or understand ... It's not a language I'm ... knows ancient Latin. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
Loading