Re: Bopomofo and pinyin

DOUGLAS KOLLER wrote:

> Wovvv zaivvvv Zhongvguovv davvvvluvvvv zhuvvvv le sivvvv nianvv, zaivvvv
> Taivvwanv zhuvvvv le qiv nianvv.
>
> Gongvvvvchanvvvzhuvvvyivvvv wanvvvvsuivvvv! (loses some of its revolutionary
> fervor, doesn't it?).
It was a *joke*, people.  Furrfu!

> I'm not opposed to tonal spelling; if someone came up with a cool system,
> I'd hop aboard.
The usual convention, which works very well for Hmong and Yi, is to recycle
final consonants as tone markers.   This works fine in Chinese for single syllables,
but in multisyllabic words (and *the* issue in romanization is really
when to write whitespace!) it promotes confusion.

We already have to use ' to separate syllables in a few cases
(from Prager Banner's GR primer):

# [A]n apostrophe is used to mark the break between syllables
# that might otherwise be run together and read the wrong
# way. For instance, the ancient city of [Chang'an] ("extend the peace")
# needs the apostrophe after the g, because if we wrote
# [Changan] some people might decide to break after the n and pronounce
# it as [Chan gan] ("cicada livers"). The modern name of the same city
# is written [Xi'an] ("western peace"), because without the apostrophe
# we might read it as [Xian] ("deliciously fresh-tasting").

I have substituted Pinyin spellings for GR ones here, as the issue is the same.
Using final consonants to mark tone would require many more 's to distinguish
between tone finals and following initials.

> On the other hand, I don't mind diacritics either; let
> Anglophones get a clue.
The trouble with them is their tendency to get lost in transmission.
Similarly with the number-kludges we use here on the Net.

--

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