death to tongyong, death to tongyong…
one question tho’…how many place names would you leave in WG due to accepted usage…ie Keelung (with the incorrect spelling), Kaohsiung, Taipei…any others?
I’d leave the names of major cities in Wade-Giles just for the sake of legacy and compatibility with established records. I didn’t like it when Bombay was changed to Mumbai, or Burma was changed to Myanmar. It’s like Austria insisting that we call Vienna “Wien”.
Don’t know about Keelung, though. In the 90s, wasn’t it spelled “Chilung”?
EDIT: Damn Pinyinizer: I wrote Chi lung, but as as one word.
Ich bin ein Wiener.
All place names should be in proper pinyin – Gaoxiong, Jilong, and Taibei for instance. There should be no exceptions, or bottoms will be smacked. And all road signs should have tone marks added.
Just use English for everyrthing, you peasants: if it was good enough for Jesus, it’s more than good enough for you.
(from a fundie Christian blog)
But the English name of this city is Taipei, pronounced in English with an aspirated p.
I’d leave the major cities as is (so that guidebooks, letterheads, business cards, research papers, books, etc. won’t have to be re-written), but use Hanyu Pinyin with smaller cities, street names, etc. And yes, with tone marks! And no InTerCaps!
[quote=“urodacus”]Just use English for everyrthing, you peasants: if it was good enough for Jesus, it’s more than good enough for you.
(from a fundie Christian blog)[/quote]
Yea sure, why not! After all, Taiwan is a US military district. Right ? Richard.
But the English name of this city is Taipei, pronounced in English with an aspirated p.[/quote]
Nah. I’m with Dragonbones. Consistency, I say. Alles muss in Ordnung sein.
Ahem…you mean Gāoxióng, Jīlóng, and Táiběi, right? 
And why not change it all to HYPY. If Peking can become Beijing, Canton can become Guangzhou and Shanghai can become…uh…never mind, then so can Taipei and Kaohsiung change their spellings. Other nations can determine on their own whether to relabel their maps to the new names. After all, the US still uses Burma. France still uses Pékin. The English speaking world still uses Rome and not Roma.
HYPY doesn’t solve all problems of course – Shaanxi being a prime example of some necessary tweaking reminiscent of Gwoyeu Romatzyh. The PRC have also retained traditional nomenclature in minority regions when translating into other languages – Tibet, Urumqi, etc. But with names that are clearly based on their Chinese counterparts, HYPY (with the occasional tweak) is the way to go.
Maybe this can be the new name rectification.
Finally, a use of that word where (proper) newspaper editors won’t have to add quotes and a “so-called” every time they see it.
[quote=“urodacus”]Just use English for everyrthing, you peasants: if it was good enough for Jesus, it’s more than good enough for you.
(from a fundie Christian blog)[/quote]
I doubt that’s from a Christian’s blog, considering that the quote has been falsely ascribed to Christians since the late 19th century in order to ridicule their backwardness. A variation on that quote was ascribed to Miriam A. (Ma) Ferguson, the first lady governor of Texas (served from 1925-27, then again from 1933-35). It goes:
Problem being that there is no historical evidence to prove that she said this, and given her high level of literacy it’s very doubtful she ever said it.
But, but, I kinda like the street names changing spelling at every intersection and being different on every map published. It’s an essential part of the quirky charm of Taiwan. 
But seriously, Taipei, Kaohsiung and Taichung should be left alone.
[quote=“redwagon”]But, but, I kinda like the street names changing spelling at every intersection and being different on every map published. It’s an essential part of the quirky charm of Taiwan.
But seriously, Taipei, Kaohsiung and Taichung should be left alone.[/quote]
Especially Kaohsiung. Just think of all the institutions that would have to change their abbreviations.
[quote=“gao_bo_han”]A variation on that quote was ascribed to Miriam A. (Ma) Ferguson, the first lady governor of Texas (served from 1925-27, then again from 1933-35). It goes:
Problem being that there is no historical evidence to prove that she said this, and given her high level of literacy it’s very doubtful she ever said it.
link[/quote]
funnily enough, i was actually aware of that, but the sentiment has certainly become part of the venacular. anyway, who am I to let the details stand in the way of an enjoyable argument?
Ahem…you mean Gāoxióng, Jīlóng, and Táiběi, right? [/quote]
Ja, und if die bloody website hadn’t replaced zo many of my diacritically marked vowels mit zee ugly white boxes in zee past, I vould haf written dat.
Ahem…you mean Gāoxióng, Jīlóng, and Táiběi, right? [/quote]
Ja, und if die bloody website hadn’t replaced zo many of my diacritically marked vowels mit zee ugly white boxes in zee past, I vould haf written dat.[/quote]
Entschuldigungen, Entschuldigungen.
Thei shud meik TongYong sistumz for uTHer langWahJiz tu. Leik esPeRanTo.
To me you’ve gotta go with pinyin spellings as although not perfect they are usually more likely to get a better approximation of the real sound from a non-Chinese speaker. And that’s a good thing, regardless of countries who wish to keep saying things their way.
I mean for fucks sake we used to say Peking…? And now the average Joe gets it pretty damn close with the new spelling. No Mandarin classes necessary, just the abandonment of a mentally retarded spelling system (Keelung for Jilong? righhhhtt…)
Taipei with an aspirated p is an erroneous reading of unfortunate romanization, and not ‘the proper English name’. It’s such a small jump from that to the proper pronunciation that most of the world wouldn’t even notice if the p got changed to a b overnight. So it doesn’t make any sense to me NOT to change it. As said above, if the world can adjust to “Beijing” so easily after “Peking”, this one’s a no brainer.
Peking? You mean the duck?