Good. That settles it. I guess it is Tongyong pinyin, but in this case it is the same as Hanyu pinyin, so that’s fine.
The New York Times, like all Western newspapers, has adopted pinyin as its official romanization system. However, newspapers also make exceptions for: 1. people’s names, which are supposed to be spelled the way the person wants them to be spelled, and 2. well-known names and place names that have already become established in English.
Therefore Yilan, because I can’t see how the alternate could be considered a well-established spelling for a well-known place.
Is it EE-LAN or is it YEE-LAn?
Actually very helpful thanks. The NYT isn’t conducive to search - anything older than 7 days must be paid. A Google Search News, however, gives interesting results.
news orgs. using “Ilan”:
-Taipei Times
-China Post
-Taiwan News
-Asia Times Online
news orgs. using “Yilan”:
-Taipei Times
-China Post
and no, the TT and the CP did not switch from one to another at any date. They just dabble a little with “Yilan” but mostly use “Ilan.”
In my current opinion as an Almighty Bachelor of English, both spellings can be considered correct but I prefer “Ilan” for its popularity. Maybe in a few years if the city council stays the course “Ilan” will drop out of usage. Everyone’s comments have been very helpful, thanks.
There is enough variation between individuals to say that both are OK. The difference is very slight, anyway. Equal stress on both syllables. Just please don’t say “eye”-lan like those Americans who call Iran “eye”-ran and Iraq “eye”-rack. That really makes me cringe.
The initial Y serves an important purpose in dividing syllables. This is becomes apparent when “yi” is not the first syllable in a word, e.g. Jiayi (Hanyu pinin) as opposed to Chiai (Wade Giles - Is it chi + ai or chia + i? - You can’t tell unless the syllables are separated by a space or hyphen). Then, to be consistent, if its “yi” in Jiayi it should also be “yi” in Yilan.
To throw a cat among the pigeons, it might be argued that if Ilan is an aboriginal placename, as I suspect it is, then the spelling need not follow the rules of Han Chinese phonetic systems. Such is the case with Taroko and Ketagalan, for example. But then we’d be in a big mess, because a lot of apparently Chinese placenames in Taiwan are non-Chinese in origin, e.g. (not sure about these)…Taiwan (originally the name of the place now called Tainan), Jilong, Dadu, Takao/Dagou (an older name for Gaoxiong) and quite a few more. So please don’t think I’m actually suggesting that - I’m just saying it might be argued.
I am local here in Ilan.I always use "Ilan ".“Yilan” just poped up from the past few yrs.I still like "Ilan "a llittle more than “Yilan”
Item Number 3 on the Guidelines says you must go with MOI Guidelines. I don’t have time to look for those guidelines now, but searching for Ilan on the Taiwan Tornado Search Engine on the MOI English Web site begets only 6 hits, but searching for Yilan gets you 8 hits. Use
Yilan!