Re: OFF: More Pinyin reform...

On Sat, 26 Feb 2000 11:11:45 CST, "Daniel A. Wier" <dawier@...>
wrote:

>>From: DOUGLAS KOLLER <LAOKOU@...>
>
>>Okay on "au", I guess. I think Yale does something similar.
>>ü > iu raises some problems I think. A) There will now be ambiguous
>>syllables as you combine "niu2", "cow", with "nü3", "woman",
>
>Oh no, I'd be calling a woman a cow!  Better scrap that one... :P
So write "cow" as "niou". Problem solved.

>>How will you disambiguate pinyin "xu1", "need", and "xiu1", "rest", if you
>>do that?
"xiu" / "xiou".

>Hey, what is the Yale translit system?  All I know is Pinyin and Wade-Giles.
>  Yale is commonly used for Cantonese, right?
There's a Yale system for Cantonese and a different Yale system for
Mandarin.

Yale uses "yu" for Pinyin "ü" and "you" for "iu". Also "au" instead of
"ao", "r" and "z" as vowels instead of "i" (in combinations like si, shi),
and a few other differences. So the equivalent of "xu" would be "syu" and
the equivalent of "xiu" would be "syou". Similarly, "nyou" (cow) vs. "nyu"
(woman).

--
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      Thryomanes        /"If all Printers were determin'd not to print any
   (Herman Miller)     / thing till they were sure it would offend no body,
   moc.oi @ rellimh <-/  there would be very little printed." -Ben Franklin