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I feel like bopomofo and pinyin don't serve the same purpose as katakana. If Chinese folks want to write Churchill, they might write: A) Churchill B) 丘吉尔 Bu
by rahimnathwani 2y ago
I feel like bopomofo and pinyin don't serve the same purpose as katakana.
If Chinese folks want to write Churchill, they might write:
A) Churchill
B) 丘吉尔
But they will never write:
C) Qiūjí'ěr (the pinyin for B)
I've never seen an adult Chinese use pinyin for anything other than typing (as an input method for Chinese characters).
- raincole 2y agoThe purpose of bopomofo was, historically, to standardize Mandarin across the whole China (ROC, not PROC). It was not invented to spell foregin words.
- PaulHoule 2y agoI understand it they incorporate foreign words by matching up with Chinese characters bearing the matching syllables with some preference for preserving semantics, repetition, and an implied semantic anyway that is in the consciousness of the reader for either the native or foreign word: it must matter that a person’s name is spelled “stream creek creek” but in the end it is best kept in 中文.