tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1380144972441181329.post360976867348498805..comments2023-12-06T01:29:11.517-07:00Comments on The Razzel Berry: Taiwan's Confusing Street SignsRazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02654484137610307987noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1380144972441181329.post-26944169419263186472009-08-21T05:15:50.017-06:002009-08-21T05:15:50.017-06:00Yes, you are 100% right. Spelling Taipei as Taibei...Yes, you are 100% right. Spelling Taipei as Taibei not phonetically more accurate; it is more intuitive for the native English speaker. <br /><br />It is because of all of this confusion that I am actually a HUGE fan of native English speakers learning bopomofo when they learn to speak Chinese. It removes all of the problems that we encounter when we use a familiar letter (R for example) to represent a sound that is completely absent from the English language (ㄖ). <br /><br />With bopomofo (ㄅㄆㄇㄈ) there is absolutely no previously held ideas about what sound those characters represent and therefore there can be no confusion. <br /><br />But, for spellings of cities and street names... no matter which system is chosen, inevitably, there will always be mispronunciations by those who are unfamiliar with the language. <br /><br />Based on my studies alone, I do believe that Hanyu Pinyin is the most intuitive system for native English speakers, but I cannot make any comments or assertions beyond that. <br /><br />Thanks for reading and Thanks for the comment!Razhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02654484137610307987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1380144972441181329.post-64324098875991480342009-08-21T00:36:31.949-06:002009-08-21T00:36:31.949-06:00I agree with your fundamental point, that the only...I agree with your fundamental point, that the only thing that matters is one system is picked for labeling all streets. And if the system is primarily to help foreigners, than Hanyu Pinyin makes the most sense. <br /><br />At the same time, I will note that the spelling of <i>Taibei</i> is no more phonetically accurate than <i>Taipei</i>.<br /><br />Zhuyin/Pinyin/WG/IPA<br />ㄅ b p [p]<br />ㄆ p p' [p']<br /><br />English speakers take a cue from their mother tongue and aspirate all syllable with initial <i>p</i> (that is, they pronounce words starting with a <i>p</i> as [p']), but speakers of other Western languages (like Spanish) have a much shorter or (like French) non-existent aspiration of these spellings. <br /><br />Wades Giles uses the p / p' distinction to avoid confusion over voicing (spelling <i>b</i> is voiced in many Western languages including English, but not Mandarin, and in addition other Chinese languages like Holo Taiwanese have a three way distinction between IPA [b] / [p] / [p'] ...).<br /><br />In other words, Hanyu Pinyin is generally more intuitive to a native English speaker, but not more phonetically accurate and not necessarily more intuitive to speakers of other European languages.阿牛https://www.blogger.com/profile/08403972286057197709noreply@blogger.com