[KS] Re: pinyin system and Korean romanization

[Ross King]

Junghee Lee wrote:

>If the rominization should be done only for foreigners, why do we accept
>Pinyin system
>in the west?

Equating Pinyin in China with romanization in Korea grossly distorts the
issue(s) at hand. Unfortunately, even the NAKL bureaucrats are missing this
point.

Pinyin is (I presume) taught to Chinese children in school, and is meant
for three things: 1) to indicate the pronunciation of Chinese characters,
2) to help promote the use of the standard vernacular, 3) Some Chinese
would argue that Pinyin is destined (in theory, anyway) to replace Chinese
characters as the official writing system in China. In any case,
romanization in Korea serves none of these purposes -- Korea doesn't need a
Pinyin. Pinyin is not a mere auxiliary romanization system for use on road
signs or in passports -- it is, first and foremost, for the Chinese
themselves, and is the only official alphabetic means for writing Mandarin
Chinese (a second language to millions of people in China, including
millions of Chinese). It also runs parallel to the beastly and inefficient
Chinese writing system, not to a perfectly good alphabet like hangul.

Let's not confuse things by dragging Pinyin into this discussion.

The current romanization farce in Korea is a fiasco perpetrated by zealous,
nationalist language bureaucrats eager to parade their linguo-patriotism
(scriptophilia?). Probably the best we can do as concerned 'foreign'
scholars is ignore it. But I would also be happy to inundate Rob Provine's
email address with "no" messages, as suggested earlier on the list.

Ross King
Associate Professor of Korean
UBC






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