Tongyong Pinyin was the official Romanization

Romanization

In linguistics, romanization or latinization is the representation of a written word or spoken speech with the Roman script, or a system for doing so, where the original word or language uses a different writing system . Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written...

 of Mandarin Chinese

Standard Mandarin

Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....

 in the Republic of China (ROC)

Republic of China

The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...

 (Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

) between 2002 and 2008. The system was unofficially used between 2000 and 2002, when a new romanization system for the Republic of China was being evaluated for adoption. The ROC's Ministry of Education approved the system in 2002 but its use was not mandatory. Since January 1, 2009, Tongyong pinyin is no longer official, due to the Ministry of Education's approval of Hanyu pinyin on September 16, 2008.

History

The impetus behind the invention of Tongyong Pinyin came from the need for a standardized romanization system in Taiwan. For decades the island had employed various systems, usually simplifications or adaptations of Wade-Giles

Wade-Giles

Wade–Giles , sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a romanization system for the Mandarin Chinese language. It developed from a system produced by Thomas Wade during the mid-19th century , and was given completed form with Herbert Giles' Chinese–English dictionary of 1892.Wade–Giles was the most...

. (Zhuyin fuhao, a standard phonetic system for language education in Taiwan's schools, does not employ the Latin alphabet.)

Tongyong Pinyin was introduced in 1998 by Yu Bor-chuan (余伯泉). The goal was to preserve the strengths of Hanyu Pinyin while eliminating some of the pronunciation difficulties Hanyu presents to international readers, such as the letters q and x. Yu's system has undergone some subsequent revision.

Discussion and adoption of Tongyong Pinyin, like many other initiatives in Taiwan, quickly acquired a partisan cast turning on issues of national identity. Officials who identified most strongly with the nation itself, such as the Democratic Progressive Party

Democratic Progressive Party

The Democratic Progressive Party is a political party in Taiwan, and the dominant party in the Pan-Green Coalition. Founded in 1986, DPP is the first meaningful opposition party in Taiwan. It has traditionally been associated with strong advocacy of human rights and a distinct Taiwanese identity,...

 (DPP) and allied parties, saw no reason to adopt Hanyu Pinyin just because mainland China and the UN had. If Tongyong Pinyin more adequately met the nation's needs, the ROC had reason enough to adopt it. Officials who identified more strongly with Chinese culture, such as the Kuomintang

Kuomintang

The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...

 (KMT), saw no reason to introduce a new system unique to Taiwan if Hanyu Pinyin had already gained international acceptance. Each side accused the other of basing its preference on anti-China or pro-China sentiment rather than an objective discussion of community goals.

In early October 2000 the Mandarin Commission of the Ministry of Education proposed to use Tongyong Pinyin as the national standard. Education Minister Ovid Tzeng (曾志朗) submitted a draft of the Taiwanese Romanization in late October to the Executive Yuan

Executive Yuan

The Executive Yuan is the executive branch of the government of the Republic of China , commonly known as "Taiwan".-Organization and structure:...

 but the proposal was rejected. In November 2000 Minister Tzeng suggested the government adopt Hanyu Pinyin with some modifications for local dialects, but the proposal was rejected. On 10 July 2002 the ROC's Ministry of Education held a meeting for 27 members. Only 13 attended. Two left early, plus the chairman could not vote, so the bill for using Tongyong Pinyin was passed by ten votes. In August 2002 the government adopted Tongyong Pinyin through an administrative order which local governments have the authority to override within their jurisdiction. In October 2007, with the DPP

Democratic Progressive Party

The Democratic Progressive Party is a political party in Taiwan, and the dominant party in the Pan-Green Coalition. Founded in 1986, DPP is the first meaningful opposition party in Taiwan. It has traditionally been associated with strong advocacy of human rights and a distinct Taiwanese identity,...

 administration still in power, it was announced that the ROC would standardize the English transliterations of its Chinese Mandarin place names by the end of that year, after years of confusion stemming from multiple spellings, using the locally developed Tongyong Pinyin.

During 2008, the Kuomintang

Kuomintang

The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...

 won both the legislative

Republic of China legislative election, 2008

The 7th Legislative elections were held on January 12, 2008 in the Republic of China . The results gave the Kuomintang and the Pan-Blue Coalition a supermajority in the legislature, handing a heavy defeat to then-President Chen Shui-bian's Democratic Progressive Party, which won the remaining 27...

 and presidential elections. In September 2008, it was announced that Tongyong Pinyin would be replaced by Hanyu Pinyin as the ROC government standard at the end of the year. Since January 1, 2009, Hanyu Pinyin

Pinyin

Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...

 is the only official romanization system in the Republic of China

Republic of China

The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...

.

Adoption and use

Tongyong Pinyin was the official romanization system in Taiwan but its use was voluntary. The romanization system one encounters in Taiwan varies according to which government authority administers the facility. Street signs in most areas employ Tongyong Pinyin, including the cities of Kaohsiung

Kaohsiung

Kaohsiung is a city located in southwestern Taiwan, facing the Taiwan Strait on the west. Kaohsiung, officially named Kaohsiung City, is divided into thirty-eight districts. The city is one of five special municipalities of the Republic of China...

, Tainan

Tainan

Tainan City is a city in southern Taiwan. It is the fifth largest after New Taipei, Kaohsiung, Taichung, and Taipei. It was formerly a provincial city, and in 2010, the provincial city merged with the adjacent Tainan County to form a single special municipality. Tainan faces the Taiwan Strait in...

, and surrounding counties. This contrast could be seen in the two entities that now make up the municipality of Taichung

Taichung

-Demographics:Taichung’s population was an estimated 1,040,725 in August 2006. There are slightly more females in the city than males.24.32% of residents are children, while 16.63% are young people, 52.68% are middle-age, and 6.73% are elderly....

 — Taichung County

Taichung County

Taichung County was a county in central Taiwan, the Republic of China, that surrounded but did not include Taichung City. The name Taichung means "central Taiwan"...

 used Tongyong, while Taichung City has used Hanyu pinyin since at least 2004. Taipei

Taipei

Taipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...

 uses Hanyu Pinyin exclusively. Taipei County

Taipei County

New Taipei City is the most populous city of Taiwan. The area includes a substantial stretch of Taiwan's northern coastline and surrounds the Taipei Basin...

 (now New Taipei City) used Tongyong Pinyin, but in Taipei Metro stations, Tongyong Pinyin was given in parentheses after Hanyu Pinyin. Modified Wade-Giles spellings are still popularly used for many proper names, especially personal names and businesses.

The political impasse stalled Ministry of Education goals of replacing Zhuyin with pinyin to teach pronunciation in elementary school. Zhuyin is still widely used to teach Mandarin pronunciation to schoolchildren. Children's books published in Taiwan typically display Zhuyin characters next to Chinese characters in the text.

On September 17, 2008, the Ministry of Education announced that the government standard for romanization will be switched to Hanyu Pinyin nationwide, effective January 1, 2009. Individuals will retain the choice of what spellings to use for their names. This effectively scraps Tongyong Pinyin as the ROC's standard.

Taiwanese language variant

The Tongyong Pinyin system also exists in a Taiwanese phonetic symbol version , Daighi tongiong pingim

Daighi tongiong pingim

Daī-ghî tōng-iōng pīng-im is an orthography in the Latin alphabet for Taiwanese Hokkien based upon Tongyong Pinyin. Up to the present, DT is one kind of orthographies for the Taiwanese language in general...

, which lacks the letter f but adds the letter bh (for bhān-万). However, in 2006, the Ministry of Education

Ministry of Education (Republic of China)

The Ministry of Education of the Republic of China is responsible for incorporating educational policies and managing public schools throughout the Free Area of the Republic of China. The ministry is a cabinet level governmental body of the Executive Yuan...

 rejected the use of Daighi tongiong pingim for the Taiwanese dialect in favor of Pe̍h-ōe-jī .

Spelling

Notable features of Tongyong Pinyin are:

• Tone 1 is unmarked.
• Hanyu Pinyin's zh- becomes jh- (Wade-Giles
  Wade-Giles
  Wade–Giles , sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a romanization system for the Mandarin Chinese language. It developed from a system produced by Thomas Wade during the mid-19th century , and was given completed form with Herbert Giles' Chinese–English dictionary of 1892.Wade–Giles was the most...
  
   uses ch-).
• Hanyu Pinyin's x- and q- are completely unused in Tongyong Pinyin: they become s- and c- (Wade-Giles uses hs- and ch'-).
• The Hanyu Pinyin -i (not represented in Zhuyin) known as the empty rime (空韻), are shown as -ih (partially like Wade-Giles), i.e., those in Hanyu Pinyin as zi (資), ci (慈), si (思), zhi (知), chi (吃), shi (詩), and ri (日) all end in -ih in Tongyong Pinyin.
• ü used in pinyin (written u after j, q and x) is replaced by yu.
• -eng becomes ong after f- and w- (奉、瓮)
• wen (溫) becomes wun
• -iong becomes yong, e.g. syong instead of pinyin xiong (兇). (Cf. -iang remains unchanged: siang).
• Unlike Wade-Giles and Hanyu Pinyin, -iu and -ui [e.g., liu (六) and gui (鬼)] contractions can be optionally written out in full as -iou and -uei. However, according to the Ministry of the Interior, in romanizations of names of places that is at township-level or below township-level, the letters must be written in full.

Punctuation

• Tongyong syllables in the same word (except placenames) are to be separated by hyphen
  Hyphen
  The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. The hyphen should not be confused with dashes , which are longer and have different uses, or with the minus sign which is also longer...
  
  s, like Wade-Giles. Except that, in Ministry of the Interior's romanizations, placenames have no spaces between the syllables.
• Tongyong uses tone marks like Zhuyin, and not like Hanyu, i.e., Tongyong has no mark for the first tone, but a dot for the neutral tone (which is optional on computers).
• The optional syllable disambiguation mark is apostrophe
  Apostrophe
  The apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets...
  
   (like Hanyu), e.g., ji'nan vs. jin'an. The mark may also, as in the Ministry of the Interior placenames, be a hyphen
  Hyphen
  The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. The hyphen should not be confused with dashes , which are longer and have different uses, or with the minus sign which is also longer...
  
  .

Shared Features with Hanyu Pinyin

Ignoring tone, 80.53% of the Tongyong Pinyin syllable

Syllable

A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...

s are spelled identically to those of Hanyu Pinyin; 19.47% are spelled differently. The difference widens when syllables are measured according to average frequency of use in everyday life, resulting in a 48.84% difference in spellings.

Arguments

The prevalence of Hanyu Pinyin as an established system weighs at least as heavily on the debate over Tongyong Pinyin as any feature of the system itself. Arguments presented in the ongoing debate include these.

Intrinsic

• Tongyong spelling, it is argued, yields more accurate pronunciation from non-Chinese speakers than does Hanyu Pinyin. Tongyong does not use the letters q and x, for example, in ways that confuse non-Chinese speakers who lack training in the system [this argument needs a credible reference. The current reference is to a letter to a newspaper by a non-expert]. However, this argument is contradicted by internal inconsistencies in Tongyong Pinyin (for example, in the use of the letter "c" in Tongyong Pinyin to represent the sound tɕʰ, represented by "q" in Hanyu Pinyin). Such a pronunciation would necessitate the same amount of familiarization as Hanyu Pinyin.
• Persons familiar with Hanyu Pinyin will encounter nothing radically different when using Tongyong Pinyin.
• Tongyong eliminates the need for diacritics for the umlauted-u sound.
• The spellings "fong" and "wong" more accurately reflect the sounds of 風 and 翁 as pronounced in Standard Mandarin in Taiwan, as compared to "feng" and "weng".

Practical

• Tongyong is business-friendly because of the ease it offers in pronunciation. Internationals in Taiwan may more easily describe and find place names, personal names, businesses and locales.
• Tongyong Pinyin requires no more special accommodation in international correspondence than the difference in Chinese characters (Simplified, Traditional) already requires.
• Tongyong strikes a balance between the need for internationalization and Taiwan's local needs.
• Tongyong Pinyin would not supplant Hanyu Pinyin in Taiwan, as Hanyu is rarely encountered outside the Taipei area anyway and has never been in common use. Tongyong is intended to supplant the many variants of Wade-Giles which remain the dominant form of romanization encountered in Taiwan. No one questions the superiority of Tongyong Pinyin to Wade-Giles and the benefit to be gained from the change.
• Tongyong does not force its exclusive use on those who have already studied Hanyu. One can use any system one wishes in rendering characters while typing or formatting documents in Mandarin. Computers and electronic devices in Taiwan already offer Hanyu Pinyin and MPS keyboards as options. Transitions between romanized forms are also easily achieved if needed.
• Romanization is most useful to individuals who, lacking training in Mandarin, encounter names and terms in press reports and literature. Students of Mandarin gain literacy in Chinese characters and drop romanization systems of any kind. It therefore makes sense, if one can preserve other goals, to make a priority of enabling confident first-time pronunciation of Mandarin words by the untrained.

Intrinsic

• Hanyu Pinyin romanization includes fewer phonological rules in its systematization than Tongyong Pinyin, albeit at the expense of requiring more phonemes. This may be seen in the Tongyong Pinyin treatment of the letters c and s.

/c/ → [tɕ]/_i
/s/ → [ɕ]/_i

• Internal inconsistencies exist within Tongyong Pinyin, such as the use of different letters to represent the same sound: e vs. u (ben, pen, fen & men but wun) and i vs. y (ciang but cyong); or the use of the same letter to represent different sounds (s, c and z each representing both a dental and a palatal sibilant).
• Every Mandarin syllable can be expressed in equal or fewer keystrokes in Hanyu Pinyin compared to Tongyong Pinyin.

Practicality Issues

• The standard romanization system of the People's Republic of China
  People's Republic of China
  China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
  
   (mainland China), ISO
  International Organization for Standardization
  The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO, is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial...
  
   and UN
  United Nations
  The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
  
   is Hanyu Pinyin. For this reason it is the system taught in educational systems outside of Taiwan. Internationals learning Mandarin thus have to learn Hanyu Pinyin anyway. Whatever the merits of a new system, it is unlikely to displace Hanyu Pinyin at this level.
• Any new system of romanization, regardless of its merits, makes romanization choices more complex rather than more simple. New spellings are introduced where established spellings already exist and even compete. "Qing Dynasty" (Hanyu) and "Ch'ing Dynasty" (Wade-Giles) can now also be spelled as "Cing Dynasty" (Tongyong). "Zhou Dynasty" (Hanyu) or "Chou Dynasty" (Wade-Giles) can now also be spelled as "Jhou Dynasty" (Tongyong).
• The use of Tongyong or Hanyu in Taiwan appears tied too heavily to the fortunes of specific political parties. Given the situation, it is usually considered best to default to the more widely-used system.
• Hanyu Pinyin is more business-friendly because businesses already use it.
• Tongyong Pinyin is currently more useful to visitors and tourists who are unfamiliar with Mandarin than to residents who have to learn Mandarin. Because Tongyong has not been adopted for language learning in Taiwan's schools, most natives of Taiwan continue to use other romanization methods (usually modified Wade-Giles systems). Expatriates and immigrants who study Chinese generally have to learn Hanyu Pinyin.
• Unlike the People's Republic of China, where citizens are taught Hanyu Pinyin in schools, Tongyong romanization is not taught in the general educational curriculum. As a result, few citizens of Taiwan ever use it. Given the fact that overseas learners of Mandarin are not taught Tongyong Pinyin either, there are few people in the world who use it in any practical sense. In other words, it can be thought that the system should not be promoted if neither locals nor foreigners use it.

Comparison between Hanyu Pinyin and Tongyong Pinyin

The differences between Hanyu and Tongyong pinyin are relatively straightforward:

• The palatalized consonants are written j, c, s rather than j, q, x
• The retroflex consonants are jh, ch, sh rather than zh, ch, sh
• The "buzzing" vowels are written ih (shih, sih) rather than i
• Yu and yong are written this way even after a consonant (nyu, jyong), rather than as ü, u, or iong
• You and wei are written iou and uei after a consonant (diou, duei), rather than contracted to iu and ui
• Eng is written labialized ong after the labial consonants f, w (fong, wong), though weng/wong contracts to ong after another consonant in both systems
• Wen becomes wun
• First tone is not written, but neutral tone is

See also

• Hanyu Pinyin
• Daighi tongiong pingim
  Daighi tongiong pingim
  Daī-ghî tōng-iōng pīng-im is an orthography in the Latin alphabet for Taiwanese Hokkien based upon Tongyong Pinyin. Up to the present, DT is one kind of orthographies for the Taiwanese language in general...
  
   (DT in Taiwanese; )

External links

• Linguistic analysis
• Hanyu-Tongyong comparison chart
• Formal documents (in Traditional Chinese): from Academia Sinica
  Academia Sinica
  The Academia Sinica , headquartered in the Nangang District of Taipei, is the national academy of Taiwan. It supports research activities in a wide variety of disciplines, ranging from mathematical and physical sciences, to life sciences, and to humanities and social sciences.Academia Sinica has...
  
  
• Toponomastic Rules (in Traditional Chinese): from Wikisource
  Wikisource
  Wikisource is an online digital library of free content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Its aims are to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, it has...
  
  
• Pinyin.info
• Chinese Phonetic Conversion Tool - Converts between Tongyong Pinyin, Hanyu Pinyin, Zhuyin and other formats
• Tongyong Pinyin Annotation Adds Tongyong Pinyin and English pop-ups to Chinese text.