Chinese language romanization in Taiwan

There are manyromanizationsystems used inTaiwan(officially the Republic of China). The first Chinese language romanization system in Taiwan,Pe̍h-ōe-jī,was developed forTaiwanesebyPresbyterianmissionariesand has been promoted by the indigenousPresbyterian Churchessince the 19th century. Pe̍h-ōe-jī is also the first written system ofTaiwanese Hokkien;a similar system forHakkawas also developed at that time. During the period ofJapanese rule,the promotion of roman writing systems was suppressed under theDōka and Kōminka policy.After World War II, Taiwan washanded overfrom Japan tothe Republic of Chinain 1945. The romanization ofMandarin Chinesewas also introduced to Taiwan as official or semi-official standard.

Today, many commonly encountered Taiwanese proper names (places and people) are written inWade–Giles(a historic semi-official system),Chinese postal romanization(the system most used by Western academics until the internationalization of Hanyu Pinyin in the 1980s), orGwoyeu Romatzyh(a system that records tones without tone marks). After a long debate,Hanyu Pinyin,the official romanization system used in thePeople's Republic of China,was planned to be the nationwide standard in Taiwan for 2009.While the national government and many provinces and cities adopted Hanyu Pinyin for use on signs, some places useTongyong Pinyinand older systems. Examples being,Kaohsiung,Taiwan's second most populous city, andTaichung.

Since most Taiwanese are taughtBopomofoas a way to transcribe the pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese words rather than a romanization system, there is little incentive to standardize romanization.

History

Prior to Dutch arrival to Formosa, theTaiwanese indigenous peoplesdid not use writing.During the briefDutch rule over the island,Dutch missionaries created theSinkan( tân cảng ) romanization system based on their own language to communicate with and evangelize native Formosans, particularly theSiraya people,who continued to utilize the script for over a century after the Dutch departure.

Character-based writing only became prominent after the arrival ofKo xing a,who expelled the Dutch and established theKingdom of Tungning(1661–1683), the first Chinese governance in Taiwan.Han immigrants from mainland China increased, and thus Chinese characters became more prominent, displacingSinkanas the dominant writing system.The Han population during the 17th century spoke primarilyHokkienandHakka.

UnderQing dynasty rule over Taiwan(1683–1895),Mandarin (late imperial lingua franca)was used as an elitelingua francain governance, and those privileged enough to attend school would studyChinese charactersandChinese classics,while speaking Hokkien or Hakka natively. During this era, characters were also novelly deployed to write vernacular Hokkien books, calledKoa-á-chehh.

Pe̍h-ōe-jī(POJ), anorthographyused to write variants of Southern Min, was the first Chinese language romanization system in Taiwan. It was developed byPresbyterianmissionaries who arrived to the island circa 1860, based on previous work done by missionaries to Southern Min-speaking communities in Southeast Asia, particularlyMalacca.Pe̍h-ōe-jī is also the first written system forTaiwanese Hokkien,and a similar system for Hakka was also developed at that time. A milestone was reached when the system was standardized and popularized throughThomas Barclay'sTaiwan Church News,beginning in 1885.

In 1892, the Wade–Giles system for the romanization ofMandarin Chinesewas given completed form byHerbert Giles,who spent several years atFort Santo Domingo(1885–1888) inTamsui.

After theJapanese annexation of Taiwanin 1895 establishedJapan's colonial rule,Barclay encouraged Japanese officials to continue to use the system; Hokkien and written Chinese were tolerated, but Japanese was favored as the primary language of the island and a subject of mandatory education.Pe̍h-ōe-jī eventually faced strong competition during theJapanese erain Taiwan (1895–1945) in the form ofTaiwanese kana,a system designed as a teaching aid and pronunciation guide, rather than an independent orthography like POJ.

At the time of Japanese annexation, neither Wade–Giles nor any other system came to serve as a uniform, standard romanization system. US Consul to FormosaJames W. Davidson,who had spent eight years in Taiwan from the 1895 Japanese invasion to his 1903 publication ofThe Island of Formosa, Past and Present,gave the "Chinese" names of the ten most populous cities asTainan,Twatutia(Toatutia),Banka,Kagi(Chia-i), Lokiang (Lokang), Kelung (Kiloung, Kilang orKeelung), Teckcham (Romanization of trúc hố, nowHsinchuTân trúc ), Changwha (Changhoa),Gilan,andTangkang—demonstrating a functionally arbitrary use of romanized names.

There is fortunately no variance in theromajispelling of the Japanese pronunciations; otherwise life inFormosawould be unbearable. The Chinese spelling and pronunciation is frequently given in as many as six or more different ways by as many so-called authorities.Tamsui,Tamshuy, Tamshui, Tamsoui, Tan-sui, are all one, likewise Changwha,Changhwa,Changhoa, Chanhue, Chan-hua, Tchanghoua, to which now is added the Japanese pronunciation Shoka. Hobé struggles along with nine different spellings all the way from Hobi to Hou-ouei.

— J. Davidson,The Island of Formosa(1903)

Scottish missionaryWilliam Campbell,whose mission in Formosa lasted forty-six years, wrote extensively on topics related to Taiwan. In 1903, he wrote that even as place names had increased in number with the recent development of the island, no effort was being made to follow any well-defined and consistent method of spelling. He also attributed some of the inconsistency in romanization to following the sounds ofMandarin dialectas opposed to the way they are locally pronounced. He believed that "the pronunciation as seen in Roman-letter books used by the natives must be taken as basis; while for outside purposes a simple method of spelling, in which all redundant letters and unusual signs are omitted, should be adopted."He also reported that, "since the cession of the island in 1895, the educational and telegraph departments have replaced the well-known Chinese names by Japanese ones."

From the 1930s onwards, with the increasing militarization of Japan and theKōminkamovement encouraging Taiwanese people to "Japanize", there were a raft of measures taken against local languages.In the climate of the ongoingSecond Sino-Japanese War,the government banned theTaiwan Church Newsin 1942.

After the handover of Taiwan to the ROC, Mandarin has been used as the medium of instruction in the educational system and in the media. Use of dialects was considered unpatriotic and any further efforts to develop romanization schemes for them were prohibited.Use of POJ for proselytizing was outlawed in 1955, and theTaiwan Church Newswas banned again in 1969.In 1974, theGovernment Information Officebanned Bernard Embree'sA Dictionary of Southern Min,with a government official saying: "...we don't want it published as a book and sold publicly because of the Romanization it contains. Chinese should not be learning Chinese through Romanization."With the ending of martial law in 1987, the restrictions on "local languages" were quietly lifted, resulting in growing interest in Taiwanese writing during the 1990s. From 1987 to 1999, thirty different romanizations were invented.

Wade–Giles (for Mandarin) continued to co-exist with several official but obscure romanizations in succession:Gwoyeu Romatzyh(GR),Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II(MPS II, 1986), andTongyong Pinyin(2002).Taiwan then switched toHanyu Pinyinin 2009,which had become the international standard for romanized Chinese in the previous decades.

When Tongyong was introduced, it was used to romanize placenames (excludingtop level divisions).Street and building signs have been normally transcribed in one of the official systems and not Wade–Giles, except inTaipei,where Hanyu was adopted in the early 2000s, before the rest of the country.

Education

Romanization is not normally taught in Taiwan'spublic schoolsat any level.Consequently, most Taiwanese do not know how to romanize their names or addresses. Teachers use onlyZhuyin( "bopomofo" ) for teaching and annotating the pronunciation of Mandarin. There have been sporadic discussions about using a romanization system duringearly educationto teach children Mandarin pronunciation (similar to the way students inMainland Chinalearn Mandarin using Hanyu Pinyin). However, like all other aspects of romanization in Taiwan, this is a controversial issue. The plan in the early 2000s to adopt Pinyin was delayed due to disagreements over which form to use (Tongyong or Hanyu). The move is complicated by the magnitude of the effort needed to produce new instructional materials and retrain teachers.

Textbooks teaching other languages of Taiwan — namely,Hoklo,Hakka,andFormosan languages— now also often include pronunciation in romanizations (such as modified Tongyong) in addition to Zhuyin. Textbooks purely supplemented by romanization, without Zhuyin annotations, are very rare at the elementary-school level, since some schoolchildren are still unfamiliar with the Latin Alpha bet.

Government publications for teaching overseas Taiwanese childrenusually are completely bilingual, but only have Zhuyin in the main body of the texts and a comparison chart of Zhuyin and one or more romanization systems. Those for teaching advanced learners (such as youths and adults) have infrequent phonetic annotations for new phrases or characters. These annotations, usually in the footnotes, are romanized, in addition to having Zhuyin.

Like most Mandarin instructional materials released in North America, phrasebooks and textbooks targeting Mandarin learners from overseas (mostly adult learners and workers) in Taiwan usually include only Hanyu Pinyin with tone marks (accompanied byTraditional Chinese characters).

Placenames

Two street signs using two different romanization systems for English translation at an intersection inEast District, Hsinchu,Taiwan

When the national government officially adopted Tongyong Pinyin in 2002, local governments were to make their own choices. Consequently,Taipeiadopted Hanyu Pinyin.Taipei replaced its earlier signage, most of which had used a modified version of Wade–Giles influenced by the Postal Office.Elsewhere in Taiwan, signs tend to a mix of systems, with Tongyong being common, but still having many signs left over from the MPS II (or even the GR) era.

The legal standard since 2009, Hanyu Pinyin, is used fairly consistently onTaiwan High Speed Railandhighways.Kaohsiung,Taiwan's third most populous city, continues to use Tongyong in its streets andMRT.Former mayorHan Kuo-yuproposed that the city adopt Hanyu Pinyin, but the plan was not carried through due to Han's recall and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thefirst- and second-level divisions of Taiwan(all counties and the biggest cities) are unaffected by the changing standards throughout the years, as their usage has become well-established. By tradition, all are in Wade–Giles, exceptKinmen,which is a postal romanization, andKeelung,which is a long-standing way to refer to the city.Takowwas another of the few well-known placenames of the early 20th century, but was changed toTakaoafter 1920 andKaohsiungafter 1945.TainanandTaiwanhave a history extending at least back to the Japanese era, as they are romanized consistently across Japanese and Wade–Giles.Tamsui DistrictandLukang Townshiphave officially chosen to maintain their historic names (in Hoklo and Wade–Giles, respectively) to maintain recognition among tourists from abroad. In Tainan, theEast,South,West Central,andNorthDistricts use English instead of pinyin.

Romanization errors on local street signs are common throughout Taiwan because of the shortage of a workforce trained in romanization and the lack of political will for correct implementation. Many common errors are derived from the accent ofTaiwanese Mandarin,such as interchanging the-ngand-nsounds. For example,guanandguangare often confused with one another on signs and plaques. Random typos (such as replacingewitht) are also ubiquitous. The area with the fewest errors on official signage is Taipei.

Because of theWorld Games 2009,Kaohsiung sponsored a "Say It Right"effort that fixed most of the romanization mistakes in the city.Since romanized signage is not a priority in areas with few foreign tourists, most errors occur in remote areas with limited resources (if there were any romanized signs to begin with).

Personal names

Most people in Taiwan romanize their names using a variation of Wade–Giles. This simplified version employs no diacritics, tone marks, apostrophes,umlautsand, in semi- and unofficial contexts, does not follow the standard capitalization conventions of Wade–Giles. Under Wade–Giles, the first letter in the second character of the given names is generally lower case, but Taiwanese names tend not to follow this practice. For example,Lü Hsiu-lienis often written asLu Hsiu-Lien.The use of Wade–Giles is generally not out of personal preference but because this system has been used by most government offices' reference materials in Taiwan to date.

There are a few Taiwanese personalities (such as politicians) whose names are in obscure or idiosyncratic schemes. For instance, using any major romanization, former presidentLee Teng-hui's surname would have beenLi.Former vice-presidentVincent Siew's surname is a rare form ofXiao,fromHokkien(alsoSioorSiau).Hsiao Bi-khim,Taiwan representative to the US, has a given name that is the Hokkien romanization of mỹ cầm.The given names of successive presidentsMa Ying-jeouandTsai Ing-wenare romanized inGwoyeu Romatzyh.The single closest romanization toChen Shui-bian's name would be Hanyu Pinyin.

On August 9, 2019, theMinistry of Foreign AffairsBureau of Consular Affairs amended Article 14 of the Passport Act to make it possible to have Romanized names transliterated from one of a number of "national languages", which include Hoklo, Hakka, and indigenous languages.Previously only Mandarin romanization in Wade–Giles, Pinyin, or Tongyong Pinyin were possible.

Businesses

Public and private enterprises are not bound to any set of standards in their English names. The variations in this areas are therefore even greater and unpredictable. Some chose to transliterate their names, but others opted to translate the meaning. The first word ofChunghwa Telecom,Chinese TelevisionandChina Airlinesare actually identical in Mandarin, i.e.,Zhonghua( Trung Hoa ), meaning "Chinese (in a general sense)".

Many business owners use anad hocapproach, so long as the result is pronounceable and visually pleasant. TheHualonGroup andYulon Motorhave opted for readability and have lost a couple of letters. (The second syllable would belongorlungin all major romanizations).

As many conglomerates in Taiwan are owned by theHoklo,it is not uncommon to find companies that romanized their names inHokkien.TheShin Kong Group,for example, is faithful to its Hokkien pronunciation (Chinese:Tân quang;Pe̍h-ōe-jī:Sin-kong) but not Mandarin.

Like those on street signs, romanization on store signs and commercial products' labels are not yet systematized.

Other contexts

Postal addresses are romanized officially in both Hanyu and Tongyong Pinyin.Prior to 2000, addresses were usually written in Wade–Giles or MPS II. Given the correct 6-digit postal code, the postal workers are usually able to deliver mail in any romanization as well.

Most universities in Taiwan have names in Wade–Giles, such asCheng Kung,Chung Hsing,Feng ChiaandChiao Tung.A few with pre-Taiwanese existence were created usingpostal romanization,i.e.,Tsing Hua,Soochow,andChengchi(actually simplified, since it would be -chihin Postal). Few universities have names in other local languages, such asTamkangandTakming(both in Hoklo).

Since most elementary, middle, and senior high schools are under the jurisdiction of the local government, they follow whatever romanization the particular county or city uses at the time. For instance, during the first decade of the 21st century, the school signs outside of Taipei were usually in Tongyong Pinyin.

See also

• Romanization of Chinese,a general discussion across regions
• Daoism–Taoism romanization issue,case study of the academic contention in romanizing Chinese
• Wade–Giles · Punctuation section,example of deviations from set standards in Taiwanese romanizations

Works cited

• Campbell, William(1903)."Explanatory Notes".Formosa Under the Dutch: Described from Contemporary Records, with Explanatory Notes and A Bibliography of the Island.London: Kegan Paul.ISBN9789576380839.LCCN04007338.
• Chiung, Wi-vun Taiffalo (2001)."Romanization and Language Planning in Taiwan*"(PDF).The Linguistic Association of Korea Journal.9(1): 15–43.
• Davidson, James Wheeler(1903).The Island of Formosa, Past and Present.London: Macmillan.OL6931635M.
• Klöter, Henning (2005).Written Taiwanese.Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.ISBN9783447050937.
• Lin, Peiyin (2015)."Language, Culture, and Identity: Romanization in Taiwan and Its Implications"(PDF).Taiwan Journal of East Asian Studies.12(2): 191–233.doi:10.6163/tjeas.2015.12(2)191.

External links

• A Comparison of Various Chinese Romanization Systems,summary from theGovernment Information Office(no GR)
• A comparison chart of Chinese romanizations,with Tongyong Pinyin highlighted and include GR
• Differences between Tongyong Pinyin and Hanyu Pinyin