Tuesday, February 09, 2010

漢語拼音

香港作家陶傑,對漢語拼音諸多不滿。在《曹操牛牛》一文中,他這麼寫:

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還在爭論《赤壁》,但至少已部分人漸漸開竅,就是要拍給美國人看的。。。

曹操,叫做Cao Cao,很蠢的漢語拼音,因為有八成美國觀眾,會唸成Cow Cow – 母牛母牛?另外一成會唸成Chow Chow,是北京狗的意思。。。

因此,漢語拼音是很蠢的發明,非要跟十九世紀的韋氏音標對著幹。韋妥瑪(Thomas Wade)是英國的傳教士,十九世紀當了駐中國的公使。他幾乎是英國史上第一個學懂中國話的人,把中國話用英語註了一套音標。像曹操,按韋氏音標,應該是Tsao Tsao,中國的夏朝,叫The Hsia Dynasty,姓張,叫Chang。。。

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那是陶傑的看法。我的看法稍有不同。必須知道,漢語拼音是為中國人而設,不是給講英語的人看的。所以漢語拼音不符合英語拼音不是大問題。不過大陸出版的書,往往在封面加上個漢語拼音標題,就很多此一舉。譬如我手上一本書,封面上寫著《內蒙古之旅 NEIMENGGUZHILU》。懂中文的人,必定只看漢字而不理會漢語拼音。不懂中文的人,看到了NEIMENGGUZHILU也不會明白,有啥X用?

想想看,如果李安把《臥虎藏龍》譯為WOHUCANGLONG,這齣電影在美國也不會那麼受矚目。為何中國奇瑞汽車的英文名稱是Chery而非Qirui

漢語拼音并非不好,但它有其局限。

馬來西亞和新加坡的華人也已經全面使用漢語拼音,但我的姓氏永遠是Chew

10 comments:

  1. For me, pinyin is only useful to look up a character in the dictionary!

    I don't understand the old transcription system and I hate to see things like "h'ueng" or "t'siao" because I don't understand them. Pinyin is at least understandable. Now I do think all Chinese learners should learn to read and write characters because it's so much easier in the long run!

    (sorry, can't write Chinese, my computer at work doesn't have the software)

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  2. absolutely agree with your points, the HYPY has got its own pronunciation rules, and you just cannot use English pronunciation to pronounce it.. HYPY is the first thing one should learn before learning Chinese, see?? i said "learn", you need to learn HYPY first and should put away your perception on all alphabets combination to be pronounced in the English way.. :)

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  3. 我觉得汉语拼音不错啊!至少在大马,很多种族学华语时容易拼音。

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  4. 没有绝对的好或不好,最重要灵巧的活学活用!

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  5. Zhu
    Tourists to China can do with pinyin. But serious learners must learn characters.

    SK
    I learned characters first before pinyin...

    花木兰,普普
    汉语拼音不能取代汉字!

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  6. hey my friends sing chinese songs by following the HYPY! :D

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  7. 我喜欢汉语拼音!助我与我的普通话发音很多!

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  8. foongpc
    I never knew you are so good in Chinese!

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  9. 人民幣上也有漢語拼音,比如YI YUAN(一元)。鐵路標識也都會附漢語拼音,比如CAN CHE(餐車)YING ZUO CHE(硬座車) 。這樣設計的一個目的是為了方便不懂漢語的少數民族。

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  10. Anon
    OK understood. Thanks.

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