Yau

this is not actually what we're discussing, it's being implemented by People's Republic of China for more than decades. To satisfy only a little, and to discomfort of many, romanized chinese characters looks like this:

ruguo xie zhe zhong zi, bu ru xie yingwen ba. zhe zhongzi zhui zhuyao yongtu shi gei xueseng xiaoxuexi yong, you xie ren hui yong ta shuru hanzi.

This monster writing has mainly been taken as learning aids for primary students to learn standard mandarin. No one takes them serious and no books (except experimental one) are published in this romanized chinese.

If you need anything "handy" for international use, use English. The so-called "international use", in my opinion, is one of the most invalid reasons for romanization. Many european languages are romanized, but it can't avoid their name being parallel with English on the embassy.

abu_dana

Although I am not Chinese and this thread looks like pretty outdated, let me tell my opinion. I don't support such reforms as changing scripts from indigenous and traditional ones to some easy phonetic ones under pretext of easy communication and spreading knowledge, literacy, or modernity etc. Come on, guys, be more realistic - people have to stay with their own traditional ones, because it reflects their history their connection to the past, it's a kind of bridge between past, present and to future, if you cut the past off the bridge would look like silly and insufficient.

And we know also that Japanese language has the most complicated writing system on Earth (consisting of Chinese Kanji and two more syllabic writing systems, and Furigana, may be???) and this heavy complication doesn't prevent Japan from charging ahead of the rest of the world in literacy and technology.

I also support current policies of Chinese govt. in promoting and preserving traditional scripts in ethnic minority groups such as Kazaks, Uygurs, Tajiks making them stay with traditional Arabic script. And making also Mongols and Manchus stay with their own traditional scripts. That's a very wise step, praise be to China!

All these current and recent wrangling with scripts is nothing more than just politics. Forget about scientific justification.

Read this article to get more details... - http://www.omniglot.com/language/art...ry_scripts.doc

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OMNIGLOT; ANCIENT SCRIPTS