>Taioanji (previously Peh-oe-ji, literally Church Vernacular Character) "Peh-oe-ji" (POJ) is neither literally "Church Vernacular Character" nor has it been replaced. Neither "peh8-oe7" nor "ji7" carry the meaning of "church". At least two alternative -- and more accurate -- translations have been suggested: "Vernacular Writing", "Plain Writing". Thus, POJ was a set of symbols intended to, more or less, represent the everyday language in writing. In contrast, han-ji (Han characters) was the domain of the literary language and thus neither "vernacular" nor "plain" to anyone except the literati. Whoever came up with the term managed to provide a fair description of the sociolinguistic status of the spoken language it sought to record. Itis easy to imagine alternatives that are too narrow, too broad, or simply sectarian: "Kau3-hoe7-ji7" (Church Writing), "Seng3-keng1-ji7" (Scriptural Writing), "Thoan5-kau3-ji7" (Missionary Writing), "Lo5-ma2-ji7" (Roman Writing), "HoaiN5-sia2-ji7" (Horizontally Written Writing). The term "Tai5-oan5-ji7" (TOJ, Taiwanese Character/Writing) was created in the last few years as a synonym for the much older "Peh-oe-ji". It was in part motivated by nationalism, in part by a practical need in the movement to distance the script from its root in the Christian community. Although nationalism can be a creative force, in this caseit was misguided: it tried to fix something that was not broken to begin with. The energy would have been better spent renaming the numerous streets that make atlas of Taiwan look like China Transplanted. What does "Tai5-oan5" add exactly? Just geography and an obvious label at that. Sure, you can call kana "Jit8-pun2-ji7" (Japanese Writing) or the Latin alphabet "Lo5-ma2-ji7" -- but only from the vantage point of an outsider. We would label kana "Japanese" only because we are not. The desire to promote the script among the largely non-Christian population is a noble one, but the solution is not all well and good. By far the most serious defect is its disrupting a tradition. What draws some people to POJ is in fact the sense that here is something tangible that has survived three colonial powers in spite of attempts to make it irrelevant. Unlike material relics it does not crumble. Unlike speech it is more stable. Unlike Chinese characters it is more learnable. Yet unlike calculus it was considered sufficiently dangerous for the Japanese authorities to forbid its propagation. (This in spite of the fact that a Taiwanese armed with POJ was far less likely to learn of Marx or Bakunin than one taught the National Language.) In this sense people like POJ partly because of its seemingly conservative nature. Using the historical name is part of that imagination. Last but not least, a practical issue but perhaps too early to raise: permanently replacing "POJ" with "TOJ" binds the script to geography and makes it difficult to export in the future. "Previously Peh-oe-ji"? To soon to tell. Use "TOJ" if you must but only as a synonym, not a replacement. The dictionary has plenty of room. --Hong-giau

----- Original Message ----- From: Cc:[](https://web.archive.org/web/20060105065354/mailto: "") Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2003 8:58 AM Subject: [inbox] Re: [TGB] Konrad's introduction
Dear Konrad: Welcome to the fascinating world of Romanized Taiwanese (Taioanji, or literally Taiwanese Characters). I am a dermatologist and Taiwanese language teacher at Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan. I am very glad to have you in the Taigubang e-mail group. Tai-gu (Taiwanese language) is the official language and Taioanji (previously Peh-oe-ji, literally Church Vernacular Character) is the official writing system of this e-mail group. You would notsee many articles in languages other than Tai-gu in this group. However English is also welcomed if you wish to write in that way. Recently, Taioanji has been promoted to the status of official writing system of Taiwanese by offical "National Language Promotion Council" in Taiwan, which is headed by previous Taiwanese language professor in University of Hawaii, Dr. Robert Cheng (TeN Liong-ui). The issue of Taiwanese writing system has been quite determined in Taiwan. Again, I would like to welcome you in this convivial e-mail group. TeN Si-chong, MD

----- Original Message -----
From : Konrad Hsu Aschenbach ()
Subject : Re: [TGB] Konrad's introduction

Hello All on Tai-gu-bang,
I am a third-year graduate student in Electrical Engineering at the
University of California, Berkeley. My research is toward the development of a
power system that will make electricity from sunlight without using silicon. 
Outside of school, I have been taking Taiji class on campus, like to play jazz
saxophone, and study things about Taiwan.
My mother sent me to Taiwan for the summer of 2001 to study Mandarin at
National Taiwan Normal University. I did not know any Taiwanese or Mandarin at
the time, so I did not venture to interact much outside of class or my host's
home.
Since that summer was my first-hand introduction to anything related to
Taiwan, I did not know of all the issues contributing to the rise of Mandarin
language on Taiwan. Through my readings, I now have a better idea of the
island's history and also what proper Mandarin sounds like.  
I realized that I don't like the harsh Beijing consonants and simplified
pronunciation, and that Taiwanese Hoklo sounds more comforting and has
pronunciation with roots way back to before Tang dynasty. I also know about
the political factors that forced Mandarin upon Taiwanese people.
At least for my own enjoyment, I am going to start learning Taiwanese Hoklo. 
People say Hoklo has no writing and the Romanization is for illiterates. I
think Romanization is a convenient way of conveying the pronunciation of a
language. I hope to be able to communicate with this group after I learn some
Hoklo.

I have a question: Does the group really have 97 members, as shown at
http://tw.groups.yahoo.com/group/taigubang/ ?

Sincerely,
Konrad


__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Li chu-chheh e e-mail khau-cho si: Konrad Hsu Aschenbach .
* Beh kia phoe ho' tak-ke tioh iong chit-e khau-cho chiah kia-e-kau.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *