Anyone been noticing the recent sign changes on the MRT? And by sign changes I mean sticking stickers over “Danshui” and making it “T-a-m-s-u-i.” I’ve also noticed its incomplete, just on the maps and a few other places so far. Anybody know why?
Edit Thanks for pointing that auto pinyin error out
Just a guess: maybe the local (Taiwan) pronunciation is considered more appropriate than the foreign (Beijing) pronunciation?
The official English homepage of 淡水 certainly uses “Tamsui”…
In that case i doubt that it was the same “they” then. Could be a political tug-of-war between different “they”…
We’ve had issues like this in Okinawa, too - to give one example: the administration of the town of Tomigusuku at one time decided to change the name of the town to the Japanized reading Tomishiro, while another administration reversed that decision years later to return to the local name. That’s why i offered that guess regarding the “Danshui”-“Tamsui” issue…
Yes, I agree. One faction thinks everything should be in Taiwan’s version of pinyin, and another thinks they should be using Taiwanese-specific spellings. And so the signs will be changing back and forth depending on who is in power.
Danshui is mando, T.a.m.s.h.u.i. is closer to Taiwanese. In taiwanese it is pronounced something like dham with a soft T (meaning Wet) tzuee (with a T and a Z sound. and the word means Water). Together “soft water” means it is fresh water and is not salt water.