CHANGES IN CHINESE LANGUAGE
57
A new term, Kuo-yü #, meaning national language, came into use soon after the founding of the republic in 1911. A phonetic system based on kuan-hua had been devised in 1909 but then discarded because it proved inadequate as a means of mass communication. The term Kuo-yü rapidly won acceptance, replacing kuan-hua first in official circles and then gradually, in other circles as well.
The promotion of Kuo-yü, already nation-wide, received new impetus when some prominent scholars, notably Ch'ien Hsüan-tung 錢玄同, Li Chin-hsi 黎錦熙 and Chao Yuan-jen 趙元任, backed by the government, announced that the term Kuo-yü should be used in a broader sense than "current standard language of the nation". They held that it should mean "unification of the national language, study of dialects and preparation of a phonetic script". They also suggested that because of Peking's geographical and historical position, the Peking dialect should be chosen as the standard national language.
For almost fifty years such efforts to create a national language have constituted the main current of Chinese language reform. This is not the place to give a full account of the successes and failure of these efforts. We shall merely summarise their most important results. Their first result was the adoption in 1913 of the chu-yin tzu-mu ✯✯$ or National Phonetic Alphabet for use in dictionaries and text books. This alphabet rendered the sound of each character much more accurately than the traditionally fan-ch'ieh, which had been cumbersome and difficult to learn. Another important accomplishment of the Kuo-yü movement was the introduction of the so-called Gwoyeu Romatzyh # or National Romanization, formally adopted under the name of Kuo-yin tzu-mu ti-erh shih #"second form of national alphabet". This system represented the first attempt by Chinese linguists to replace the traditional characters by a romanized script based on the Latin alphabet. Although it never gained popular acceptance, it helped greatly to establish Kuo-yü as the national language; and the promotion of it for this purpose was in fact one of the important turning points in the course of recent changes in the Chinese language.
:
CHANGES IN CHINESE LANGUAGE
57
A new term, Kuo-yü #, meaning national language, came into use soon after the founding of the republic in 1911. A phonetic system based on kuan-hua had been devised in 1909 but then discarded because it proved inadequate as a means of mass communication. The term Kuo-yù rapidly won acceptance, replacing kuan-hua first in official circles and then gradually, in other circles as well.
The promotion of Kuo-yü, already nation-wide, received new impetus when some prominent scholars, notably Ch'ien Hsüan- tung 錢玄同,Li Chin-hsi 黎錦熙 and Chao Yuan-jen 趙元任, backed by the government, announced that the term Kuo-yü should be used in a broader sense than "current standard language of the nation". They held that it should mean "unification of the national language, study of dialects and preparation of a phonetic script". They also suggested that because of Peking's geographical and historical position, the Peking dialect should be chosen as the standard national language.
For almost fifty years such efforts to create a national language have constituted the main current of Chinese language reform. This is not the place to give a full account of the successes and failure of these efforts. We shall merely summarise their most important results. Their first result was the adoption in 1913 of the chu-yin tzu-mu ✯✯$ or National Phonetic Alphabet for use in dictionaries and text books. This alphabet rendered the sound of each character much more accurately than the traditionally fan-ch'ich, which had been cumbersome and difficult to learn. Another important accomplishment of the Kuo-yü movement was the introduction of the so-called Gwoyeu Romatzyh # or National Romanization, formally adopted under the name of Kuo-yin tzu-mu ti-erh shih a454
, "second form of nation alphabet". This system repre- sented the first attempt by Chinese linguists to replace the traditional characters by a romanized script based on the Latin alphabet. Although it never gained popular acceptance, it helped greatly to establish Kuo-yü as the national language; and the promotion of it for this purpose was in fact one of the important turning points in the course of recent changes in the Chinese
language.
·
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.