Tainan City Councilor Lee Chi-wei (李啟維) yesterday called for the use of Romanized spellings to make Taiwanese dialects and languages internationally recognizable.
Speaking at a news conference in Tainan to mark International Mother Language Day, Lee said the use of zhuyin fuhao (注音符號, Mandarin phonetic symbols commonly known as Bopomofo) made it difficult to promote interest in, or recognition of, the nation’s dialects and languages, as the system is not commonly used outside of Taiwan.
“The legislature has already passed the Development of National Languages Act (國家語言發展法), but under the current circumstances that act is like a candle in the wind,” he said, describing it as ineffectual given the lack of a Romanized system.
Photo: Tsai Wen-chu, Taipei Times
Taiwan’s achievements in technology and combating the spread of COVID-19 have earned it international recognition, but it has not achieved the same success in promoting interest in its languages, he said.
The education system, through which Taiwanese learn to use Bopomofo, failed to recognize its shortcomings, he said, adding that using Romanization to teach students would be in line with the government’s expressed interest in “internationalizing” the nation.
Lee, of the Democratic Progressive Party, said he had met older Taiwanese who are unable to read their vehicle license plates, because they had never learned the English alphabet.
Taiwan uses English letters for its license plates, because this is the international standard, so the country’s dialects should also be written according to this standard, he said.
“Zhuyin fuhao has 37 symbols, which are usable only to describe Chinese phonetics. In contrast, English has only 26 letters and can be used to write languages worldwide,” he said, adding: “Can the government not follow that reasoning?”
Although he recognized the arguments made by those promoting localization, Lee said that he was concerned to see Taiwan’s languages disappear into obscurity.
“Perhaps if it weren’t for missionaries who wrote down Taiwan’s dialects for use in proselytizing, they would not have survived until today,” he said.
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