Ancient Egyptian Wonderland
First things first:
- THE online dictionary from Pyramid Texts to the Late Period: Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae – online dictionary and thesaurus of example sentences: http://aaew.bbaw.de/tla/servlet/TlaLogin
- Egyptian phonology from the Old Kingdom to Coptic: https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Egyptian-Phonology-James-Allen/dp/1108707300/ref=sr_1_8?crid=1TTN5PT9BK2EU&keywords=allen+egyptian+language&qid=1668383206&s=books&sprefix=allen+egyptian+language%2Cstripbooks%2C91&sr=1-8&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.006c50ae-5d4c-4777-9bc0-4513d670b6bc – not for the faint-hearted, it is very dense (but positively amazing)
- Loprieno’s diachronic overview: https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Egyptian-Loprieno/dp/0521448492/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1HGBOUYB7S0B&keywords=loprieno+egyptian&qid=1668383276&s=books&sprefix=loprieno+egyptian%2Cstripbooks%2C86&sr=1-2
- There’s more in phonology, e.g. Peust, but I will leave it at this for the moment
For Middle Egyptian (language):
- Bibalex has a nice intro to Middle Egyptian: https://www.bibalex.org/learnhieroglyphs/lesson/Introduction_En.aspx
- The Humboldt University Berlin has a nice online grammar, too: https://wikis.hu-berlin.de/ancientegyptian/Inhaltsverzeichnis (in German)
- For paper textbooks, I am an Allenite: https://www.amazon.com/Middle-Egyptian-Introduction-Language-Hieroglyphs/dp/0521741440
- Beylage is really nice, too: https://www.eisenbrauns.org/books/titles/978-1-57506-977-7.html
- I have heard good things about Borghouts, so I recently bit the bullet (it ain’t cheap) and bought it, but have not worked with it yet (more to come): https://www.amazon.com/Egyptian-Introduction-Exercises-EGYPTOLOGICAL-PUBLICATIONS/dp/904292294X
- Dictionary-wise, Faulkner-Jegorovic is excellent: Boris Jegorovic took Faulkner’s handwritten dictionary and brought it into the 21st century – he did ask the publishers several times if they wanted it but never got a response, so here we go: https://archive.org/details/pj1425.f3
- A really cute non-academic Middle Egyptian course by Assimil that actually works (many sentences are taken from literature): https://www.amazon.com/LEgyptien-Hieroglyphique-hieroglyphic-Egyptian-speakers/dp/2700505913/ref=sr_1_1?crid=8CGFQ1MJZCRK&keywords=assimil+egyptien&qid=1668383359&s=books&sprefix=assimil+egyptien%2Cstripbooks%2C88&sr=1-1 – in French
For Hieroglyphs:
- The polychrome hieroglyphs project: https://www.phrp.be/Palaeography.php
For Hieratic:
- Digital version of Moeller’s Paleography for Hieratic: https://moeller.jinsha.tsukuba.ac.jp/search
- Another database aiming to update Moeller by U. Mainz: https://aku-pal.uni-mainz.de/graphemes
- Introduction to hieratic writing: http://www.academia.edu/35681835/A_Very_Brief_Introduction_to_Hieratic; what I really like about this course is that it contains extensive tables showing the evolution of the most frequent glyphs and ligatures over time – this allows you to make a fair guess at the stroke order
- The only textbook in print that I am aware of for hieratic: https://www.amazon.it/Quaderni-egittologia-ieratico-Giacomo-Cavillier/dp/8899334684 – a big part of it is a facsimile of Moeller, but it’s still valuable. You can check out Cavillier’s Late Egyptian course for a good combo of language and writing system (see below)
- I bought the Hieratische Chrestomatie a little while ago, but I have not done much with it yet: https://www.amazon.com/Hieratische-Chrestomathie-Teil-1/dp/3643150210/ref=sr_1_31?keywords=hieratisch&qid=1668355573&sr=8-31
- You can find most of Moeller’s Lesestuecke here: http://www.egyptologyforum.org/bbs/Stableford/StablefordMoeller.html
- Hieratic practice – from my experience, writing (= copying) a few texts is the best way to become conversant. I would recommend the Shipwrecked Sailor (pap. 1115 in https://meretsegerbooks.cld.bz/golenischeffpapyrusermitage/14/) because it is very clearly written and there is a nice companion book by Poe called the “Skillful scribe” http://www.egyptologyforum.org/bbs/Stableford/Poe%2C%20The_Writing_of_a_Skillful_Scribe_An_intr.pdf – the scribe has a few (digitization) errors, so I would copy from the original papyrus (also to learn the stroke order as it was, not a modern interpretation), but the scribe is still very helpful in understanding grammar and vocabulary
- You can also practice your reading skills with computer-reviewed exercixes on http://multipal.fr/
- Reading and copying is the best way to learn: I maintain a Google spreadsheet with links to high resolution photos of several dozen papyri – ping me if you would like access (not going to post the link here because it is user editable for collaboration, and I don’t need viagra links in there ;-))
- Some stuff by yours truly / our Hieratic Reading group (founded by Christian Casey):
- Hieratic stroke order: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceO69mkYxew&list=PLdoIdOGz7R2IbHiYVyvPqwuLPDaHEPUWe
- Horus and Seth line by line: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdoIdOGz7R2KygCReuuBN8_QJ5tDZpiba
For Abnormal Hieratic
- Haven’t taken this course yet, but it looks promising: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeumdok/2100/1/Donker%20van%20Heel_Abnormal%20Hieratic.pdf
For Late Egyptian:
- This one is essential: Lesko’s Late Egyptian dictionary. Sadly, it has been out of print forever and the last remaining copies at Meretseger come at a pretty penny, so you definitely want to download this: https://archive.org/details/ADictionaryOfLateEgyptian.VolumeIII
- A great overview article on Late Egyptian: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3fr419rk
- Cavillier is my favorite Late Egyptian textbook – beautiful layout, easy to read and you can attempt it even without knowing Middle Egyptian: https://www.libreriauniversitaria.it/corso-neoegiziano-elementi-nozioni-scrittura/libro/9788899334659; it also includes some hieratic practice; have to buy it directly from Italy, for some reason it’s always out on Amazon
- Neveu is the closest in English (originally French), but you’ll have to know some Middle Egyptian to use it, or somebody to guide you – will use it in our upcoming Late Egyptian course (early 2023): https://www.amazon.com/Language-Ramesses-Late-Egyptian-Grammar/dp/1782978682/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1RUTHPO2YLURT&keywords=francois+neveu&qid=1668366696&s=books&sprefix=francois+neveu%2Cstripbooks%2C94&sr=1-1
- Cerny Groll is the big one as Late Egyptian grammars go: if you cannot find it here you probably cannot find it. Once you have taken your first steps in Late Egyptian you will want this one for more detailed information and tons of examples: https://www.amazon.com/Late-Egyptian-Grammar-Studia-Pohl/dp/8876534350
- Junge is the fourth modern book on Late Egyptian – it hits heavy at the beginning (you have to know Middle Egyptian pretty well to take on the first exercises), but I have heard he adds interesting perspectives later on – look forward to working with it eventually: https://www.amazon.com/Egyptian-Grammar-Griffith-Institute-Publications/dp/0900416858/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1LJI50DXP0PSM&keywords=junge+egyptian&qid=1668366937&s=books&sprefix=junge+egyptian%2Cstripbooks%2C98&sr=1-1&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.006c50ae-5d4c-4777-9bc0-4513d670b6bc
- Ramses Online: a lot of practice texts with word-by-word translation and dictionary: http://ramses.ulg.ac.be/
- The bilingual editions by Elli provided free of charge (!) on Mediterraneoantico, e.g. https://mediterraneoantico.it/pubblicazioni/speciali/testi-di-letteratura-neo-egizia-sette-racconti-dallantico-egitto/ – very helpful references and commentary
- More for fun, but actually pretty good, by Carsten Peust who knows his Late Egyptian: https://www.amazon.com/hi%C3%A9roglyphe-poche-GUIDES-CONVERSATION/dp/2700502647 – actually , that’s the French translation of his https://www.amazon.com/Hieroglyphisch-Wort-f%C3%BCr-Wort-Kauderwelsch/dp/3894163178/ref=sr_1_2?crid=E81XA4AQQL77&keywords=kauderwelsch+peust&qid=1668383718&s=books&sprefix=kauderwelsch+peust+%2Cstripbooks%2C96&sr=1-2 – the illustrations are peppier in the French version and I think they ditched the rather unorthodox transcription of the German original, so I would steer you to the French one 😉
For Neo-Middle Egyptian:
- A UCLA overview article on Égyptien de Tradition: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0bg342rh
- And another one for Neo-Middle Egyptian in Ptolemaic and Roman times: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8g73w3gp
For Ptolemaic Egyptian:
- Dieter Kurth has a comprehensive sign list – I find this absolutely necessary to do anything with Ptolemaic texts: https://www.amazon.com/Ptolemaic-Sign-List-Hieroglyphs-Graeco-Roman-Meanings/dp/3981086996/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1JKARF66KM07A&keywords=dieter+kurth+ptolemaic&qid=1668379058&s=books&sprefix=dieter+kurth+ptolemaic%2Cstripbooks%2C92&sr=1-1 – if you can get the German version in three volumes even better, because it also contains information on grammar etc. – or so I believe because the German one has been out of print for a while now 😦 … but the English version of the sign list is in stock
- Again everything by Alberto Elli (see under Late Egyptian), for example https://mediterraneoantico.it/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/MediterraneoAntico_Genesi-Esna-Sais_Alberto-Elli_170829.pdf or https://mediterraneoantico.it/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/SpecialeMA_Elli_LeDieciBattaglieDiHorus.pdf – all are beautifully edited with hieroglyphs, transcription and interlinear translation (into Italian)
For Demotic:
- A textbook from the OI in Chicago using Onchsheshonqy as a base: https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/publications/saoc/saoc-45-thus-wrote-onchsheshonqy-introductory-grammar-demotic
- Another Demotic textbook online: https://sites.google.com/site/egyptiandemotic/grammar
- The demotic paleography database: http://129.206.5.162/
For Coptic:
- For Sahidic: Lambdin, hands-down. If you do the 30 lessons and excercises you WILL be able to read Coptic! https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Sahidic-Coptic-Thomas-Lambdin/dp/0865540489
- For Bohairic: Younan. Not as scholarly as Lambdin, but still very comprehensive unlike many online introductions. https://www.amazon.com/So-you-want-learn-Coptic/dp/B009ALA5MS/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1XC7MD94GRWBS&keywords=younan+coptic&qid=1668381701&s=books&sprefix=younan+coptic%2Cstripbooks%2C91&sr=1-1&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.006c50ae-5d4c-4777-9bc0-4513d670b6bc
- For other dialects: Allen’s Coptic Dialects – note, you will need fluency in at least one variant of Coptic to benefit from this (very terse) book: https://www.amazon.com/Coptic-Grammar-Dialects-Languages-Didactica/dp/1646020642/ref=sr_1_1?crid=RBFZS29TH3R7&keywords=allen%27s+coptic+dialects&qid=1668381772&s=books&sprefix=allens+coptic+dialects%2Cstripbooks%2C91&sr=1-1&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.006c50ae-5d4c-4777-9bc0-4513d670b6bc
- Christian Casey’s egyptian school: we went through Lambdin and Allen chapter by chapter and did all the exercises – the school is now on hiatus, but the videos are still up: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjLuQOYWne-pi9MmIf2T8JA/playlists – oh, and we continued the work for Late Egyptian at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVndO84aMjd6W4OAQ3Q3nXg/playlists
- A good online Coptic dictionary: https://coptic-dictionary.org/ (for Sahidic)
- Lots of texts with online glossing (sometimes wonky because it is automatic): https://copticscriptorium.org/
- Coptic etymology: https://www.amazon.com/Etymological-Dictionary-Cambridge-Library-Collection/dp/1108013996/ref=sr_1_1?crid=21WQ9RKTCYH91&keywords=cerny+coptic&qid=1668383013&s=books&sprefix=cerny+coptic%2Cstripbooks%2C91&sr=1-1 – the other etymology is Vycichl, but he is out of print
- Crum is THE dictionary for Coptic (in all its forms), but decoding his space-saving annotations is a science in itself and harder than reading hieratic: https://www.amazon.com/Coptic-Dictionary-Ancient-Language-Resources/dp/159752333X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=21BA9BNDI78P2&keywords=coptic+dictionary&qid=1668383065&s=books&sprefix=coptic+dictionary%2Cstripbooks%2C96&sr=1-1&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.f5122f16-c3e8-4386-bf32-63e904010ad0 – still, you want this one if you are serious about Coptic
- Coptic keyboard: https://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/coptic.htm
- A great paper by Quack on how Coptic writing developed: https://www.academia.edu/42127007/How_the_Coptic_Script_came_about
- And a very thought-provoking book on the Rise and the demise of Coptic: https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Coptic-Egyptian-Antiquity-Rostovtzeff/dp/0691230234/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?crid=BVNZECSBC93N&keywords=rise+and+fall+of+coptic&qid=1668385142&sprefix=rise+and+fall+of+coptic%2Caps%2C144&sr=8-1-fkmr0 – thought-provoking because – if the author is right – there was a window after the weakening of the empire where Coptic could have become a dominant language of writing again
Hokkien (閩南話, 台語)
For the iphone (US Apple store, under Taiwanese language)
- Taiwan MOE: 萌典 dictionary application – uses proper 本字(!) as per TW MOE, Chinese only (繁體/POJ)
- Taiwanese dictionary app (jī-tián = 字典) handles English, 繁體,简体 and POJ, no characters for Hokkien, though – best combined with MoeDict
- Taiwander’s Taiwanese (台灣達Tâi-gí) – a playful approach to learning Taiwanese vocabulary and some short sentences for everyday conversation
Paper-based:
- Philip T. Lin: Taiwanese Grammar, A Concise Reference (great work, in English)
- Nicolas C. Bodman: Spoken Amoy Hokkien, 2 volumes + tapes (1950s, but good)
- Maryknoll has a range of textbooks and dictionaries in English (of which I have bought some but have not gotten round to working with yet)
- I have not used this one (yet), but it came highly recommended: Southern Hokkien: An Introduction (see Guy Emerson’s detailed description in the comments) – http://www.press.ntu.edu.tw/?act=book&refer=ntup_book00760
- A special mention: the Rev. Douglas’ 1873 monumental Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy (not sure it still makes sense to buy this in the age of moedict and itaigi, but only 10 years ago this was the best there was) – if you do, get the pdf version with characters that comes as part of this book: https://www.amazon.com/Loan-Words-Indonesian-Malay-Russell-Jones/dp/9067183040. All printed versions out there cost thousands of dollars or have no characters, but this Malay book ships with a pdf copy with characters!
Online:
- Dictionaries
- Holodict at http://twblg.dict.edu.tw/holodict_new/index.html (Chinese)
- Moedict (see iphone apps section) online: https://www.moedict.tw (Chinese)
- iTaigi https://itaigi.tw – dictionary page, lots of examples per word (Chinese)
- Maryknoll dictionaries online: http://www.taiwanesedictionary.org/ (English!)
- Language courses / programs
- Glossika free language learning course for Taiwanese Minnan (with characters!): https://ai.glossika.com/language/learn-taiwanese-hokkien?lang=eng-US
- 講台語當著時 – a Taiwanese learning program on Youtube (Chinese) – here is the link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdY3Qw5Mo6Q&list=PLe8vfIFNtjRcbTvj_qwwwxbaaeIukdZTE&index=26 – work your way up from there 🙂
- A collection of learning dialogues: http://hokkienese.com/?page_id=426 (mostly Mandarin/Hokkien)
- Children’s books in Taiwanese, with characters, bopomofo and audio: http://ws2.chkops.kh.edu.tw/newholo/teach/teach_2.htm
- Pronunciation exercises: http://www.ntcu.edu.tw/tailo/exercise.htm; still uses flash, so internet explorer seems to be the only thing that works to get the audio
- More pronunciation exercises: http://tailo.moe.edu.tw/pronounces/pronounces01.htm
- More videos, although a little mechanical: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDhAte6p4HU
- Literature (yup, you read that right) – original and translations
- The mother lode: http://language.moe.gov.tw/001/Upload/files/site_content/M0001/language_104/index05_a.html and https://www.chinacom.tw/nativelanguage/%e6%ad%b7%e5%b1%86%e7%8d%b2%e7%8d%8e%e4%bd%9c%e5%93%81/
- 廖玉蕙 has 3 e-books with short stories in Taigi, using proper Taiwanese characters and with audio by the author – look her up on GoogleBooks ̣̣̣ (https://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22%E5%BB%96%E7%8E%89%E8%95%99%22)!
- Taigí magazine http://tsbp.tgb.org.tw/ – and lots of their articles read aloud (with text) on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXGFtP8Nq2rPRttUxu-6cAsoUJjZAB6BQ
- Digital database for written Taiwanese: http://ip194097.ntcu.edu.tw/nmtl/dadwt/pbk.asp (POJ and mixed characters)
- Hokkien translation of Le Petit Prince: http://hokkienese.com/?p=952
- Aesop’s fables – here: http://ip194097.ntcu.edu.tw/nmtl/dadwt/thak.asp?id=1685 or here: https://zh-min-nan.wikisource.org/wiki/I-sap_G%C5%AB-gi%C3%A2n_01
- Songs (w/ lyrics)
- Hokkien song lyrics explained – here on wordpress: https://taikegui.wordpress.com/%e5%8f%b0%e8%aa%9e%e6%ad%8c/
- And more Taiwanese/Hokkien songs with lyrics: https://kuasu.tgb.org.tw/
- And more: http://hokkienese.com/?page_id=1018
- Interesting websites
- Another great recommendation by Dr. Emerson: https://www.speakhokkien.org/hokkien – unabashedly promoting the use of Hokkien in schools, we need more of that
Other 方言
- CantoDict, with example sentences: http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/
- A video series for Shanghainese: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNhNwlbcOEklpUNq4yWZEQhUgZeHkO9Iv&app=deskto
文言文
- http://chinesetexts.stanford.edu/
- http://facultysites.vassar.edu/brvannor/ClassicalChineseEveryone.pdf
- https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/handle/2022/23481 (part 1, part 2 in next link)
- http://www.iub.edu/~e103/306/Wenyanwen_Part-Two_1.0.pdf
- A classical Chinese reader: http://donwagner.dk/HHS/HHS.pdf
- Archie Barnes: Chinese through Poetry – great book!
- http://www.uky.edu/~mgwach2/ChinesePoetry/Chinese_Poetry.pdf
General Chinese Studies
- Classical phonology: the 廣韻, 16 攝, thankfully provided by Dylan: http://dylansung.tripod.com/chinese/she.htm
- https://ctext.org/ – of course 🙂
- Dictionary of Chinese character variants: http://dict2.variants.moe.edu.tw/suo.htm
- 多音字: https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/13361-%E5%A4%9A%E9%9F%B3%E5%AD%97-duoyinzi-discussion-and-lists
- https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Grammar_points_by_level
- A great site about Phags-pa, the first attempt at a phonetic transcription of Chinese (during the Yuan): http://www.babelstone.co.uk/Phags-pa/Description.html
- Phagspa, Tangut and more: http://ccamc.co/tangut.php?n4694=%F0%97%B0%B8
Japanese
- Pitch Accent: http://www.gavo.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ojad/eng/pages/home
- More pitch accent: http://accent.u-biq.org/english.html
- Positively awesome: http://maggiesensei.com/
- Fairy tales with audio: http://hukumusume.com/douwa/index.html
- And more children’s stories: http://life.ou.edu/stories/
- News in simple Japanese (NHK): https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/
- Classical Japanese: http://www.sengokudaimyo.com/bungo/bungo.html
Vietnamese
Yiddish
- National Yiddish Book Center: https://archive.org/details/nationalyiddishbookcenter
- Di Velt fun Yidish, audio stories: http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/Stories.html
- Der Bavebter Yid: http://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/bavebter/
- Stories oyf yidish: https://www.uni-trier.de/index.php?id=31033
- Der Forverts, of course: http://yiddish.forward.com/
Latin / Greek
Another Hokkien textbook, which I can strongly recommend:
“Southern Hokkien: An Introduction”, by Bernhard Fuehrer and Yang Hsiu-fang
http://www.press.ntu.edu.tw/?act=book&refer=ntup_book00760
An absolute must-have for anyone serious about learning Hokkien!
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Thank you, this looks interesting and at USD 50 very reasonably priced! What does it use for romanization and characters?
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It uses POJ but with superscript tone numbers instead of diacritics — citation tones and sandhi tones are both indicated, separated by a hyphen, e.g. ho2-1 (where the 2-1 is superscript) means citation tone 2, but sandhi tone 1 in the particular context. The indication of sandhi tones is fantastic, because Hokkien tone sandhi takes quite a while to get used to.
When introducing vocabulary, it lists all commonly used characters for a particular expression — sometimes there are several! If there is enough evidence, they indicate the etymological character cognate with either Classical Chinese or Mandarin, which they use in later examples. If it’s not clear what the etymological character is (and it’s a simple fact that some expressions do not have cognates), they choose a loan character, and write the character in square brackets to indicate this. When introducing vocabulary, they also indicate the “Current Taiwan Standard” (characters suggested by the Taiwan Ministry of Education), but they don’t use these characters in later examples.
It also comes with audio CDs, including both dialogues and vocabulary examples. Examples that have variant pronunciations are pronounced by multiple speakers, e.g. so-called Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, and Amoy variants (I say “so-called” because it means Taiwanese accents derived from these places, not mainland Chinese accents).
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Sounds great, will add it to the list! Including variant pronunciations is a good idea – “we don’t say it like this” has been my constant companion since trying to learn this language :-D.
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It sounds like you’re already aware there is a lot of variation in written Hokkien (both for romanisation and for characters). If you’re interested in reading more, I would recommend Henning Klöter’s book “Written Taiwanese”. But don’t expect easy answers! To quote the conclusion from the end of the book:
“In sum, it seems highly unlikely that the common confusion regarding the written representation of Taiwanese expressions will surrender to an authoritative guideline in the near future. For the time being, the reader of Taiwanese texts will have to come to terms with chaos.”
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Yes, it has been a bit of mess 😉 POJ (> Tailo/TLPA), kana, modified zhuyin, the GR-based systems (Phofsit Daibuun), + all the idiosyncratic spelling systems used by only one or two individuals, to not even start with the whole 本字 debate :-D. It reminds me of the saying that you cannot call yourself a sinologist before having created your own transcription system (I don’t call myself a sinologist, but I have made my own, as well, something of a modified POJ with Mandarin vowels and Cantonese final consonants to write three 方言 in one – a bit like what Yuen Ren Chao was trying to do with his General Chinese).
It seems to me, though, that a consensus is emerging of using some variant of POJ (e.g. TLPA) and the modern Taiwanese characters – at least to judge from recent innovations like the iphone apps, itaigi, Lin’s grammar. It was a completely different story when I first heard about Hokkien / Southern Min 20 years ago … chaos was reigning supreme and you could not find 2 resources that used the same standard. I believe that languages can only survive in the long term if there is some written standardization – otherwise, they will fall prey to the influence of “proper” languages (that you can write in) and will die a slow death. So, the recent emerging TW approach gives me some hope … although I have not seen any influence yet in Fujian itself or the SEA Hokkien-sphere.
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Haha, a combined Hokkien-Mandarin-Cantonese transcription sounds exciting XD
I completely agree that a standardised orthography would be a good idea — the problem comes when the choice of orthography takes on political and ideological dimensions! I’m not yet at the stage where I can read Taiwanese Hokkien literature, but I would be interested to see to what extent authors use the MoE standard or a different standard.
In Penang, there is a Speak Hokkien Campaign which mostly follows the Taiwan MoE both for romanisation and characters (but with a few idiosyncrasies):
https://www.speakhokkien.org/hokkien
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What an awesome website!!! I was unaware of it. What is particularly impressive is that they lobby for the reintroduction of the language in schools – which is the only way to preserve it.
Of course, some will say, this prevents children from learning a more “useful” language like English or Mandarin, but not so – in our family, tetra- or pentalinguism is the norm (!) and by no means the end of the scale ;-). Countries like the Netherlands or Spain show that this can work at a national level – not always without problems, sure, but then again: what is without problems in human endeavors? Thanks for sharing!
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