Re: USAGE: Chinese Romanization (was: USAGE: Help with Chinese phrase)

On 9 Sep 2004 11:48:43 "Isaac A. Penzev" <isaacp@UKR...> wrote:

> One more side note: the Turkish alphabet is an adaptation (sic!) of
> Azeri "New Alphabet" ("Yenalif"), that was designed in 1920s by Soviet
> linguists.
  It is very convincing.

> Just a side note: Romanian was written with Cyrillic letters till 1859.
> Latin orthography was introduced after independent Romanian state
> came to existence, as a symbol of Westernization and being a "Romance"
> country. So in 1930s Moldovan Romanians simply returned to their native
> orthography (that I personally find very aesthetic).
  Just a side note from me: Azeris changed their Yenalif to
Cyrillic in 1939/40. Tadjiks, Bashkirs etc. in USSR changes their
Latin script also in 1939/40, almost almost every Soviet nation
introduced Cyrillic orthography in 1939/40. And "suprisingly"
Moldovans returned back to their "native" orthography just in the
same time. I do not feel this sudden Pan-Soviet change a natural,
spontaneous process...

  Rumanian was no a literary language (there was nor a common
standard) until the middle of 19th century (i.e until Vasile
Alecsandi). Earlier Rumanian was a folk-speech, because the
language of the royal chancellary and nobility was Church Slavonic
until 18th century, later Greek and French were used in the Regat
(in Moldavia and Wallachia), or Latin, Hungarian and German in
Transsylvania.
  Therefore there was no Rumanian "orthography" until 1859, at all.
The conventions used were only transcriptions on the basis of
another language. That was Church Slavonic, and Latin in
Transsylvania.
  The first attempts for creation a literary language came from the
|S,coala Ardeleana(| 'Transsylvanian School' on the turn of the 18-
19th century and they had Latin traditions as citizens of Hungary.
This was the reason that Latin script was used for the freshly
developed literary language of a freshly founded state (Moldavia
and Wallachia were united in this year, and this was the first de
facto independent Rumanian state after 14th cenrury). Moreover
previous Cyrillic tranditions were based on Church Slavonic, while
Moldavian orthography
was a mutation of the post-1917 Russian script.