Re: IPA tones

From: "Adam Walker"

> >From: John Cowan
> >And the Pinyin diacritics are so nicely mnemonic, too.
> And to ones used in Taiwanese are so frustratingly COUNTER-intuitive!
> *grrrrrrrrr*
Oh, please, that whole system sucks. As you've pointed out earlier, that
missionary thing gives such wonders as chho'h. I learned it 'cause that's
what TLI (Taipei Language Institute - there are missionary affiliations
there) was using, but I've long since abandoned it. If you're serious about
Taiwanese, look into "Guo2 Tai2 Shuang1 Yu3 Ci2 Dian3", Mandarin-Taiwanese
Dictionary) edited by Yang2 Qing1 Chu4. Quirky, but very informative -- I
bought the whammy package as a set for about NT$1200 (tapes, intro book,
etc.), but I think the hardcover dictionary alone is now available for
NT$700-800. Check finer bookstores like Eslite. There is also a marvelously
useful mainland Hokkien dictionary floating around (Pu3tong1hua4 Min3nan2yu3
Ci2dian3) (and it's in simplified characters, if that's an obstacle for
you) -- I snapped it up knowing it was a serendipitous find, but I saw it
(serendipitously) elsewhere after I bought my copy. It, too, was a real
price, but a great investment. Alas, so many romanizations, so little time.

Kou