01 Chinese Intro Flashcards
To introduce general information about a brief history of learning methods essential to your study of Chinese language, and to get the American student of Chinese language on the right track.
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What is Zhùyīn Fúhào.
Zhùyīn Fúhào - literally “phonetic symbols”, otherwise known as BUH-PUH-MUH-FUH, is a phonetic script used in dictionaries, children’s books, text books, and in some newspapers and magazines, to show the pronunciation of Chinese characters.* Taiwan’s children use this method during their first few years of school. Zhùyīn Fúhào characters are derived from archaic, basic Chinese characters and are typically written as tiny (ruby) characters to the right of larger Chinese characters.
*SOURCE: http://www.omniglot.com/chinese/zhuyin.htm
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What is the history of Zhùyīn Fúhào.
Zhùyīn Fúhào was developed in China about 1912 by the Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation, but was slowly replaced with Hanyu Pinyin by 1958 after Chairman Mao Tse-tung pushed for language reform. Use of Zhuyin Fuhao has continued in Taiwan since then. There are 37 symbols, (21 initials and 16 finals), plus 4 tone diacritics.
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It is important to realize the reason Pinyin (Romanized Chinese “alphabet”) was established in China in the first place. It was NOT intended to be a pronunciation guide for foreign students who share the Roman alphabet. It was developed to help the Chinese language become Romanized to match the majority of other Romanized languages throughout the world, and to eventually phase out traditional Chinese characters. That is still the language reform’s ultimate intent according to Chairman Mao…
Chairman Mao taught us: “The written language must be reformed; it must move in the same direction as other written languages of the world, i.e. phoneticization [and romanization].” This is the right path for the work of reforming the written [Chinese] language, [and it is also the ultimate goal of Chairman’s philosophy].* Since 1954, over 2,200 Chinese characters have been simplified.**
SOURCE:
- http://www.sacu.org/pinyinissues.html
- *http://www.brown.edu/about/administration/international-affairs/year-of-china/language-and-cultural-resources/introduction-chinese-characters/introduction-chinese-characters
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Why is the Hanyu Pinyin Romanized pronunciation system of Chinese characters not a good pronunciation system for Roman alphabet users, from any country?
To use China’s pinyin system, Roman alphabet students would have to first learn how to pronounce Roman letter combinations all over again with an alphabetic pronunciation system in their own language. Re-learning a different Roman letter pronunciation to a user already familiar with their language’s Roman alphabet pronunciation would be unnecessary and terribly confusing. The majority of pronunciations cannot be accurately arrived at with pinyin, and therefore cannot be trusted nor reliably used for pronunciation.
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The Yale system of Romanization is one of the most accurate Chinese Romanization pronunciation systems in the world for American English speakers, and is one of the fastest ways to learn Chinese pronunciation using Roman characters. Here is a brief history of the Yale system…
Mandarin Yale romanization was developed in 1943 by the Yale University sinologist George Kennedy to help prepare American soldiers to communicate with their Chinese allies on the battlefield.*
SOURCE:
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale_Romanization#Mandarin
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Learning Zhùyīn Fúhào is the most direct and accurate way for any foreign student to learn Chinese pronunciation.
Though a bit more time consuming, Zhùyīn Fúhào, the best way of learning Chinese pronunciation, was the standard method of Chinese students before Chairman Mao’s language reform, and is still a proper method of the modern Taiwanese student, who learns the purest Chinese language. It is most accurate for any foreign student because it does not mix and confuse a Romanized alphabet with Chinese character pronunciation.
