One of my students found that one of the street names in Shanghai was strange: Why some of the Shanxi Road陕西路 was written as Shaanxi Road which for them was almost impossible to read?
I found the answer from Google: 本市从2007年8月起，对城市道路路名牌进行了全面更新工作，由于陕西路和山西路的拼音均为“shanxi”,故在陕西路的拼音内加了“a”，拼写成 “shaanxi”，此举主要是为了区别于山西路，并非疏忽，这一方案主要是为方便外国友人查找道路，同时，也通过了相关专家的评审。
So finally the reason is just to keep Shaanxi Road(Which in Pinyin should be written as Shanxi Road陕西路) different from Shanxi Road(It is also written as Shanxi Road in Pinyin 山西路). Actually it is very easy for Chinese people to distinguish 陕西路 Shaanxi Road and 山西路 Shanxi Road from the pronouciation with the help of different tones, in which 陕西路Shaanxi Road should be pronounced as Shan3 Xi1 Lu4, and 山西路 Shanxi Road should be Shan1 Xi1 Lu4.
This is also a reason I suggest people who are learning Mandarin to learn some characters instead of only Pinyin. I could imagine how boring and difficult for those who insist on Pinyin study... In my oipnion the best time to start a character study is when you know the basic conversations and have a very good Pinyin basis.
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3 comments:
chinese wouldnt really look at the pinyin anyway but wouldnt it be better for chinese learners to put numbers instead to differentiate the tone?
well the numbers besides the pinyin is quite useful but might be a little bit Nan Kan for both Chinese and foreigners.
It is true that ordinary Chinese people don't really pay attention to Pinyin when they grow up...but we still care about how the Pintyin should be written correctly.:-)
as long as there are chinese characters there, thats all that matters. pinyin alone is meaningless, literally.
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