Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Bopomofo and pinyin

From:Acadon <acadon@...>
Date:Tuesday, January 25, 2000, 5:45
The book appears to be a "pirated edition"
of the Yale book "Speak Chinese."

Taiwan was famous for book pirating. They were
legal on the Island, but were not supposed to
be exported.

Leo Moser

FFlores wrote:
> > Boudewijn Rempt <bsarempt@...> wrote: > > > > I found a book > > > of Chinese lessons in English. Mainly drills and patterns, > > > but interesting nevertheless. > > > > > > > Care to describe it a little closer? Is the binding red? > > I'm sure it's not a famous book -- now B., if you actually > have a copy, I'm going to start believing all those rumours > about your giant library. ;) > > The book has a soft cover, light-blue, with a shallow canvas-like > texture. In the front it reads 'Speak Chinese'; that is preceded > by four hanzi (one of them is the one for 'gwo', but that's all > I can identify); then there is a 'yi' hanzi in parentheses (the > number 1, isn't it?). In the lower part of the cover there are > also two rows of hanzi. > > In the first page it has the same, plus it also says > > Revised and Adapted > by the > MANDARIN TRAINING CENTER > NATIONAL TAIWAN NORMAL UNIVERSITY > > The printing itself is quite bad; the hanzi and bopomofo characters > are well done, but the Roman transliterations are apparently type- > written (with a typewriter, I mean) and I suspect the tones are > marked by hand. > > There is no date of publication. Despite its quality, the book is > quite well-bound. It totals 576 pages, most of which are exercises > and drills in hanzi, no transliteration; the transliterated pieces > and grammatical notes are just *notes*, it seems, though there are > examples and you usually get what they mean. > > --Pablo Flores > http://www.geocities.com/pablo-david/index.html > http://www.geocities.com/pablo-david/draseleq.html