In my opinion, writing Chinese words with the Latin character set and neglecting tone marks is the equivalent of writing English words with dots in place of the vowels. Yes, it’s possible to guess the missing information from context, but it’s not a very complete writing system. Even with the current, standardized pinyin, there’s no way for a person who reads “Guting” to know if the word is gŭtíng”, gūtìng, gùtíng, or one of thirteen other possible tone combinations.
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Dueling Lǎowài: Tone Marks on Roadsigns?
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Ryan
9 weeks 16 hours 21 min 14 sec agoI've voted this up, as I think it's an interesting read for anyone studying Chinese. However, it should be noted that the post is more than 2 years old.
nstanosheck
9 weeks 14 hours 31 min 39 sec agoTrue, but just like many Lost LaoWai posts, I think this entry is timeless... at least until the issue is fixed. :-)
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Alex
9 weeks 6 hours 52 min 55 sec agoI don't see a need for the purveyors of traffic signs to deviate from Every Single Chinese Textbook I've ever seen where Pinyin is offered it is intonated.
Ryan
8 weeks 6 days 16 hours 9 min agoHey, if it works for the French (here, and here), no reason why there shouldn't be tone marks.
I do agree that it doesn't require a grand initiative to fix. Just as the signs are replaced, replace them with a standards-compliant (for lack of a better term) pinyin version.