Comments on: The “A” Vegetable

By: Keywords » Khol

Keywords » Khol — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 05:07:16 +0000

[...] And there is this older post about “A菜“ or “the ‘A’ vegetable” over at Doubting to Shuo, where it is generally agreed that it is of Hoklo (Taiwanese) origin. [...]

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 17:05:05 +0000

Misspellings are pretty rampant in Taiwan, but look on the bright side. It’s getting better! In Taibei city, especially, most of the romanizations are right. With the name “Taibei” (台北) itself being a notable exception, pretty much all of the MRT stops are either spelled correctly, or translated into English… and that includes “Danshui” (淡水). As for “Taibei” still being spelled as “Taipei”, just look how long it took before people started regularly writing 北京 as “Beijing” instead of “Peking”. It’s kind of ingrained and it won’t be updated until long after everything else has.

By: nate

nate — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 11:15:41 +0000

the taiwanese romanize “淡” as “tam”? WTF!!?

By: Tim Maddog

Tim Maddog — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 11:05:02 +0000

To further illustrate the point of my previous comment, here’s a page which contains an audio file of the song “Wandering to Tamshui.” Note the use of the character “阮” in place of “我.” It’s a contextual indication that the text should be read using Taiwanese pronunciation and not Mandarin.

By: Eli

Eli — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 14:35:53 +0000

Back again. Well, it is Mandarin, in the sense that people say that in Mandarin, at least in Taiwan. Of course, the other one that is supposed to be Taiwanese, also has a Mandarin pronunciation. And, the A is an approximation of a Taiwanese sound. I think part of the confusion comes from people linking Mandarin specifically with Chinese writing, as if they are one and the same. However, you could take all the writing away, and substitute pinyin or any other writing system, or none at all, and you would still have Mandarin. Just like you can pronounce Chinese characters many different ways.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 18:22:47 +0000

The Taiwanese who made that dictionary are pretty delusional if they’re calling A菜 “Mandarin”. You might as well be trying to study English in India.

By: Eli

Eli — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 13:53:32 +0000

Something else I hadn’t thought about in my comment above: Japanese rule of the island. Japanese was the official language and Taiwanese authors wrote mainly in Japanese. Then, they had to re-learn Chinese–or learn it for the first time.

By: Tim Maddog

Tim Maddog — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 11:36:59 +0000

Mindy wrote:
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The only source I know of that people still read Chinese texts in Taiwanese is in Taiwanese-speaking churches.
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I recommend that Mindy take a look at the results of this Google search for “請用台語唸” (which means “Please read [this] using Taiwanese pronunciation”).

To correct my own possible inaccuracies above, take a look at this dictionary entry which translates “A菜” (Mandarin) to Taiwanese as “萵仔菜 [=eu-a.tsai]” (which is how my mother-in-law pronounces it) and to English as “romaine lettuce.”

By: Eli

Eli — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 23:40:24 +0000

I meant in the past. Daoist priests-at least some–are another example.

By: mindy

mindy — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 17:09:00 +0000

Just want to respond to what Eli said, about pronouncing Chinese sript in Taiwanese.
The only source I know of that people still read Chinese texts in Taiwanese is in Taiwanese-speaking churches.
Here’s a page where you can listen to books of bible that were read in Taiwanese:
http://bible.fhl.net/new/audio_hb.php?version=1