Language ideologies of the transcription system Zhuyin fuhao: a symbol of Taiwanese identity

ABSTRACT

This study argues that the transcription system Zhuyin fuhao, which has been widely used in Taiwan for the last seventy years, has been reinvented as a symbol of Taiwanese identity by the Taiwanese people. With the attempt to localise and globalise in the past 30 years, different scripts have been introduced to codify or transcribe the various languages used in Taiwan. The proposed scripts were often associated with political ideologies and caused controversies. This study focuses on a public debate in 2018 on whether or not Zhuyin fuhao should be abolished. By analysing different discourses, this study shows that it is likely that in the digital age, the transcription system is no longer just a tool for learning characters, rather it has gained orthography status which distances Taiwanese from other Chinese-speaking communities. The transcription system, although originating in China, is a linguistic capital that is shared by all young Taiwanese regardless of their ethnicity and therefore has become an exclusive symbol to represent the emergent Taiwanese national identity.

KEYWORDS:

• Language ideologies
• Zhuyin fuhao
• Bopomofo
• Taiwan
• identity
• transcription system
• computer-mediated communication

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 These transcription systems are often referred to as transliteration systems. Here I adopt Beesley’s definitions (1997) which reserves the term ‘transliteration’ for representing the characters (letters or signs) with ‘a symbol set which has a one-to-one, fully reversible mapping with the symbol set of the original orthography’; and ‘transcription’ refers to ‘an orthography devised and used by linguists to characterise the phonology or morphophonology of a language.’ In Chinese, characters can map to multiple sounds, and a tone syllable can map to multiple characters. Therefore, I will use to term ‘transcription’ to refer to these devices.

2 For example, in Hanyu Pinyin, <ü> was used for /y/ only when the sound is not predictable: [y] is written <u> when it is after alveolo-palatals, and is written <yu> when there is no preceding initial; In Wade-Giles, /ʈʂ/ and /tɕ/ are both written with <ch> so it can be produced more intuitively. The phonemic distinction between /ʈʂi/ and /tɕi/ in this case is marked on its rime (<chih> vs. <chi>).

3 Nowadays Gwoyeu Romatzyh is rarely found except for some sporadic cases in personal names and place names.