![\"\"](\"http:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/~bgzimmer\/putonghua.jpg\")
\n(Source)<\/a><\/p>\n
The sign says:<\/p>\n
Ji\u01ceng P\u01d4t\u014dnghu\u00e0 xi\u011b gu\u012bf\u00e0nz\u00ec
\n\u8bb2\u666e\u901a\u8bdd\u00a0 \u5199\u89c4\u8303\u5b57<\/p>\n
\"Speak Mandarin* \u00a0\u00a0 write standard characters**.\"<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
*Putonghua (Modern Standard Mandarin [MSM])<\/p>\n
**The official set of simplified Chinese characters<\/p>\n
Some things to note about the\u00a0Romanization<\/span>\u00a0here:<\/p>\n 1. Mandarin, not Cantonese<\/p>\n 2. toneless<\/p>\n 3. all caps<\/p>\n 4. word division, not syllable by syllable or all strung together<\/p>\n As we are all too aware on Language Log, it is quite common to provide English \/ Chinglish translations on signs and notices written in Chinese characters in the PRC. The fact that the ruby glossing here is in MSM tells us that the purpose of the annotations is to promote that pronunciation for Chinese characters in a Cantonese speaking area. Seldom do we see Cantonese Romanization annotations, except in Hong Kong, and then it is almost always ad hoc or loose, because Cantonese does not have an official Romanization supported and promoted by government. A small number of language specialists have developed and advocate\u00a0Jyutping<\/a>, but it is rare for non-linguists to be proficient in it.<\/p>\n Selected readings<\/b><\/p>\n Sign on the wall of a school: (Source)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[176,317,259,247,189],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diglossia-and-digraphia","category-romanization","category-signs","category-standard-language","category-transcription"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47289"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47329,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47289\/revisions\/47329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n