Why is it now Yilan instead of what it used to be I.l.a.n (had to spell it out to avoid autospell).
The latter was the name for a long time, and adding a Y to it adds nothing to the equation really. Your view?
Any other weird changes in Taiwan on names?
Ever since I first moved here and saw place/street names spelled 3 or 4 different ways on signs all within a couple kilometers of each other, I stopped wondering why. It just is. They can’t agree on a common method to transliterate Chinese into the Western alphabet.
[quote=“tommy525”]Why is it now Yilan instead of what it used to be I.l.a.n (had to spell it out to avoid autospell).
The latter was the name for a long time, and adding a Y to it adds nothing to the equation really.[/quote]
Well, in Hanyu Pinyin the “y” adds the information that the “i” is long, does it not? They could have chosen Iilan instead, bit that seems harder to read.
And what about the pronunciation of “x” and “q”? No objections there? Nevermind “ü”. 
Just look at English: to get a long “i” we need to write “ee” while a short “i” is written as such. On the other hand, “oo” can be either long or short, while “a” by itself is either long or short.
Trying to make sense of somebody’s spelling from an English point of view is, i suspect, next to pointless. 
[quote=“yuli”][quote=“tommy525”]Why is it now Yilan instead of what it used to be I.l.a.n (had to spell it out to avoid autospell).
The latter was the name for a long time, and adding a Y to it adds nothing to the equation really.[/quote]
Well, in Hanyu Pinyin the “y” adds the information that the “i” is long, does it not? They could have chosen Iilan instead, bit that seems harder to read.
And what about the pronunciation of “x” and “q”? No objections there? Nevermind “ü”.
Just look at English: to get a long “i” we need to write “ee” while a short “i” is written as such. On the other hand, “oo” can be either long or short, while “a” by itself is either long or short.
Trying to make sense of somebody’s spelling from an English point of view is, i suspect, next to pointless. [/quote]
Good points.
So, yuli, how is your username pronounced? Is it /youlee/, /youlai/, /oolee/, /oolai/, or …? Not making fun of you, just asking.
[quote=“tommy525”]Why is it now Yilan instead of what it used to be I.l.a.n (had to spell it out to avoid autospell).
The latter was the name for a long time, and adding a Y to it adds nothing to the equation really. Your view?[/quote]
Why is it now Y-I-L-A-N? Tommy, the government has called for the Yilan spelling for about ten years so far.
The y fits as part of a logical system of spelling and orthography. That’s the key to having workable romanization: a good, consistent system, not ad hoc approaches to every spelling question.
Also, here is how Yilan is spelled in the various romanization systems that have been officially adopted in the R.O.C.
[ul][li]Gwoyeu Romatzyh: Yilan[/li]
[li]MPS2: Yilan[/li]
[li]Tongyong Pinyin: Yilan[/li]
[li]Hanyu Pinyin: Yilan[/li][/ul]
There’s not an [color=#000040]I[/color]lan in any of 'em.
The real question is why did the government fix the spelling of [color=#000040]I[/color]lan (Yilan) when it refused to correct the spellings of Hual[color=#000040]i[/color]en (Hualian), Chi[color=#000040]a[/color]yi (Jiayi), Tait[color=#000040]u[/color]ng (Taidong), Kao[color=#000040]h[/color]siung (Gaoxiong), Taich[color=#000040]u[/color]ng (Taizhong), Pingt[color=#000040]u[/color]ng (Pingdong), etc. This is something of a mystery.
They should make it E-lan.
About ten years ago the Yilan County Government tried to get people to call the place “E-Land”, because it was so very e (e-commerce, e-mail, etc). Unfortunately, I’m not making that up.
So they changed it when i left the rock in 99? Sneaky bastards ! I always liked I.L.A.N . YILAN just looks so odd u know?
i h8 wen they doo that.
That name has a kind of élan about it.
I personally could give a rat’s bum about what roman spelling someone uses for a local place names. Any that were used and are recognizeable, will do. What I hate, though, is the tendency to read them using English phonics rules, as if it is English. “I’m going to ‘Cow shung’ and then ‘Key lung.’” It bugs me to no end how these mispronunciations are actually taught to students here as the ‘way to say it in English.’
Yes, those pronunciations are pretty awful. But pronunciations such as “Tai Tongue” and “Tam Shoe-ee” (my bete noire) are the entirely predictable result of the government not using Hanyu Pinyin spellings (those being the international standard and the ones with the most support for learning how they should be pronounced) but instead choosing to use perversions of counter-intuitive systems and other such things.
dont forget my favorite TIEN MOW
Well, since you asked - that is my name in “Toneless Hanyu Pinyin” 
. In Japan its sound is [ju͍:ɽi] (phonetic representation), written in Latin letters as “yuurí”. English speakers sometimes pronounce it like “yoody” (rhymes with “moody”), which is pretty close, sometimes like “yooly” (rhyming with “newly”), which is also pretty close, sometimes like “yoory” (rhyming with “jewry”) which is quite a bit off, and sometimes even like “yury” (rhymes with “jury”), which is totally off - it is like calling someone “Better” when his name is actually “Peter”. In Taiwan my name sounds the same as the name of the town 玉里 (Yu4Li3) in southeastern Hualien county. And in Korea it is perhaps written as 유리 or 유이 (unless the kanji is used).
Yeah, “shung” is not English, for sure. In English those places would be called something like “Lofty Man” and “Basic Prosperity” - a bit odd, mind you, but certainly better than Cow what? and Key lung. 
Yeah, “shung” is not English, for sure. In English those places would be called something like “Lofty Man” and “Basic Prosperity” - a bit odd, mind you, but certainly better than Cow what? and Key lung. [/quote]
The point being that you should neither translate them nor slaughter their pronunciations for some mythical “English” way to say them that locals seem to be ever searching for. Chinese over do it with translations, even with items that make no sense in translation. And anyway, where Gaoxiong is concerned, I prefer it’s previous name.
You mean “Da koh” as in Beat Dog ? Keelung actually meant Chicken basket in Taiwanese Gai = chicken , luhng = basket.
Wonder what the Nipponese names were of Taiwanese places when they had the con?
[quote=“tommy525”]You mean “Da koh” as in Beat Dog ? Keelung (Jilong) actually meant Chicken basket in Taiwanese Gai = chicken , luhng = basket.
Wonder what the Nipponese names were of Taiwanese places when they had the con?[/quote]
Yup. Much more interesting if people want to translate, doncha think?
[quote=“tommy525”]You mean “Da koh” as in Beat Dog ? Keelung actually meant Chicken basket in Taiwanese Gai = chicken , luhng = basket.
Wonder what the Nipponese names were of Taiwanese places when they had the con?[/quote]
Taipei was Taihoku
Taichung was Taichu
Taitung was Taito
Chiayi was Kagi
Yilan was Giran
Keelung was Kiirun. Comes from Kelang, which is believed to ultimately stem from Ketagalan.
Hualien was Karenko
Kaohsiung was Takao (in fact, that was its older name, but the Japanese replaced the characters)
Songshan was Matsuyama, which replaced Xikou
Taoyuan was To-en, which replaced To-a-hng
Hsinchu was Shinchiku, which replaced Tek Cham
[quote=“Chris”][quote=“tommy525”]You mean “Da koh” as in Beat Dog ? Keelung (Jilong) actually meant Chicken basket in Taiwanese Gai = chicken , luhng = basket.
Wonder what the Nipponese names were of Taiwanese places when they had the con?[/quote]
Taipei was Taihoku
Taichung was Taichu
Taidong was Taito
Jiayi was Kagi
Yilan was Giran
Keelung (Jilong) was Kiirun. Comes from Kelang, which is believed to ultimately stem from Ketagalan.
Hualian was Karenko
Kaohsiung was Takao (in fact, that was its older name, but the Japanese replaced the characters)
Songshan was Matsuyama, which replaced Xikou
Taoyuan was To-en, which replaced To-a-hng
Xinzhu (Hsinchu) was Shinchiku, which replaced Tek Cham[/quote]
Interesting!
The Taiwanese pronunciation of these: (as close as the alphabet can get to the pronunciation)
Taipei = dai Bpuck
Taichung = dai Tyiong
Taitung = dai Dtang
Chiayi = Gah gee
Yilan = Gee Lan
Keelung = Gay Lang
Hualian = Hwa Len