Hanyu/tongyong comparison chart

Olaf,

Thanks for the comments.

I was not, however, in any way, trying to imply I wouldn’t learn pinyin. I just think, personally, for me it is easier for me to learn phonetically – by zhuyin – first. That’s how I learned English anyway, phonetically. With pinyin my brain has to think too much – “no, it doesn’t sound like this, it sounds like that.” Even though it took (and is still taking) me some time to recognize the symbols of zhuyin, I have found it easier in learning to pronounce Mandarin (Taiwanese style).

Just sharing my experience… wasn’t a judgement in anyway.

Rgds,
LJ

quote[quote] You mentioned Yale, which is an eminently sensible system, but simply seeks to duplicate the function of Pinyin. [/quote]

Actually pinyin was based on Yale.

Wade-Giles is shite because ch can be pronounced 3 different ways.

Bri

There were questions about the earlier versions of Tongyong that Yu
Boquan [Tongyong main conspirator] tries to destroy the evidence of.
I copied taipei.zip from his account before he could delete it, and
stuck it on my website, which is physically offshore, so sue me.

Other version history should be on the site of my secret admirer,
Prof. Qiu Yaochu of Dongwu Univ. http://mail.scu.edu.tw/~t0812345/
(Chinese)

For some English insights do also see
http://www.geocities.com/hao520/research/
(Chih-Hao Tsai at the Univ. of IL)

By the way, self-proclaimed pinyin controversy expert me says:
Zhuyin fans: do not fear, zhuyin is not a target in my campaign. We
are not out to kill zhuyin [well, ok, unless we get bored 25 years
later], we are only trying to prevent some crackpot trying to fog
things up with counterfeit [= Tongyong] pinyin, because they secretly envy
hanyu pinyin. [Indeed, since I know Yu Boquan very well, if someone
told him how to write such a successful system as hanyu pinyin, he
would have promulgated himself, despite the x’s and q’s that he hung
around Taibei and now rails against. —remember, the whole thing is
to “make a unique identity”, too bad those commies claimed those cool
X’s and Q’s first.

P.S. The tongyong turkeys like to say in ominous tones “hanyu pinyin
was invented by the soviets”. Dan says: I thought it was Zhou
Youguang, Wang Li, etc. anyways, what if it were true, It doesn’t
matter
, because we scientist types don’t check to see that the
grandma of the transportation division chief didn’t use organic
molasses before we ride the bus. Wait, the character 5 has unclean
origins. I shall not use 5. I shall exchange 5 and 6, creating a
unique identity. Please read “6” as “five”. Don’t worry, we can
write computer programs to translate them back if you have trouble. I
have computer goggles to translate tongyong back to hanyu as you ride
your motorbike. Wait, lets have a referendum. opps, Mr. Foreigner is
not allowed to vote because he can never become a citizen,
sorry. [actual themes on news:tw.bbs.lang.english this week, in
Chinese, do a google search for things I posted there to find the
thread] http://groups.google.com?q=jidanni tw.bbs.lang.english might
do it.]

Originally posted by Bu Lai En:

quote[quote]Actually pinyin was based on Yale.[/quote]

None of the references I’ve seen link the two systems. Even though Yale came out earlier than pinyin (late 1940s and late 1950s, respectively), pinyin’s models were Latinxua sin wenz 拉丁化新文字 and gwoyeu romatzyh. Latinxua sin wenz, also known as Beila 北拉 for short (with the bei indicating “northern” speech), is from the late 1920s and was used by the Communists.

拉丁化新文字

Ladinghua Xin Wenzi

I too have never seen it written anywhere that Pinyin was based on Yale…

Hexuan

Yes, Ladinghua Xin Wenzi is the hanyu pinyin romanization of the name. AFAIK, however, Latinxua Sin Wenz is the spelling used by the creators of the system.

Kinda like Guoyu Luomazi vs. Gwoyeu Romatzyh.

“Tongyong” (aptly renamed by Maoman) is the same in hanyu and tongyong.

Cranky laowai, I bookmarked your website a while back because of the mo-po-bo-fo chart you put up. It’s extremely useful for me in typing characters since I haven’t quite memorized the Taiwanese phonetic alphabet yet. I plan to use it when I do get enough time to focus on memorizing it.