Talk:Suao

Suao

Hey, I would like to comment that I am very happy with the recent geography entries you have made- you seem to be doing a great job. For this entry, I just wanted to let you know that Suao is more likely to be the actual name used in Taiwanese and international media as well as by the local government itself. The form Su'ao follows the convention that Hanyu Pinyin's 隔音符号 should be used in English, like with Xi'an, but see Reuters, Suao Township Office, and this scholarly work [1] where "Suao" is called Hanyu pinyin etc. cf. Daan District, Taipei, etc. I believe this whole phenomena is caused by the rejection by Taiwanese translators of the use of the spritius asper in Wade-Giles. I think people see the 隔音符号 apostrophe as something similar or akin to the other type of apostrophe, and so it is just ignored. --Geographyinitiative (talk) 21:08, 30 January 2021 (UTC)

@Geographyinitiative I hope Su'ao doesn't fail WT:CFI, but it can be deleted if it does. RcAlex36 (talk) 05:46, 31 January 2021 (UTC)

I suspect 'Su'ao' will pass CFI. All I mean to say is that Suao might be the word that is most commonly used. Check out Wangan for another example where 隔音符号 is ignored. Because Taiwan is not actually controlled by the PRC, its habits of English translation don't play by the rules and conventions of the PRC. Also, outside of Xi'an, many lower-level words in the PRC itself inappropriately or inaccurately use the 隔音符号 whenever someone thinks it helps "clear up confusion". PS In case you don't know all this: The ultimate counterexamples for someone who believes 隔音符号 should be used whenever there is "ambiguity" is to show them Henan and 天鹅- why isn't it written as 'He'nan' and 'Tiane'? Answer: 隔音符号 isn't used to resolve whatever you think is ambiguity- the real rule is to use the 隔音符号 before any syllable that begins with a o or e. Therefore, although Henan "could" be hen an or he nan, we know 'Henan' means he nan because it would be written as Hen'an if it meant hen an. Also, although there is no "tia" syllable in Mandarin (and therefore no possibility of a word read as "tia ne"), the rule still requires a 隔音符号 in tian'e. --Geographyinitiative (talk) 12:51, 31 January 2021 (UTC)

https://tw.appledaily.com/headline/daily/20121223/34723619/ |title=怪 北捷景安站 英譯如「金幹站」|quote=北市捷運局指出，目前有7大捷運站名英譯沒有隔音符號，常讓外國人問路鬧烏龍，如大安站「Daan」被誤唸為丹站、景安站「Jingan」變成金幹站等，捷運局擬加撇號「’」或橫線「-」，以利分辨音節。|date=2012年12月23日|accessdate=2019年4月2日|website=蘋果日報 They never did add the 隔音符号 or hyphen. --Geographyinitiative (talk) 13:03, 31 January 2021 (UTC)