[quote]Some indigenous people activists believe changing their designation was one of the key steps in enhancing aboriginal self-identity and elevating them to their rightful status in Taiwanese society.
The next step, Hsieh said, was to allow indigenous peoples to use Wade-Giles romanization or Chinese characters to reflect the proper pronunciation of their indigenous names. In the past, aborigines were forced to take Chinese names, or use abbreviated names composed of Chinese characters that partially reflected their true name.
“Some believe using Chinese words may make some indigenous names connote negative meanings, so indigenous peoples should be allowed to use Wade-Giles romanization for their names,” Hsieh said.[/quote]
You see? Wade-Giles is better than Pinyin after all … I bet using Pinyin wouldn’t enhance your average aborigine’s self-identity
Huh? Pinyin and Wade-Giles were both designed for Mandarin, a language entirely unrelated to those of the tribes of Taiwan. Thus, neither would be appropriate or even adequate for aborigine names, though the underlying principles of the systems at least theoretically could be used to construct separate romanization systems for the languages.
Chinese characters are of course even less suitable for the task. (The man who replaced Ovid Tzeng as minister of education said Taiwan needed to develop Chinese-character systems for the languages of Taiwan’s tribes. Perhaps some linguists managed to communicate to him what a stupid idea that was, as it seems to have been dropped.)
If the newspaper quoted Hsieh correctly, he’s probably just confusing Wade-Giles with romanization in general. Or perhaps he’s thinking of the myth that Tongyong Pinyin is one system that can handle all of the languages of Taiwan.
The Executive Yuan press release doesn’t say anything about which romanization system is being used. I suspect Hsieh was being misquoted or someone mistranslated zhengming.
Huh? Pinyin and Wade-Giles were both designed for Mandarin, a language entirely unrelated to those of the tribes of Taiwan. Thus, neither would be appropriate or even adequate for aborigine names…[/quote]
Right, and the same applies to Uighur. Which looks right to you for a language related to Turkish?
What about people who take aboriginal personal names but keep a Chinese last name, like GIO head Pasuya Yao (???)? Would that make a legal name?
OT: Mr. Daolet will also make you a high-octane drink that will keep you drunk for exactly 30 minutes called a “Flaming Hooker” if you ask him. Really. Fella can drink like no one’s business.
