In order to preserve distinctive cultures, people anxiously figure out writing systems of their languages as recording tools. Mandarin, Taiwanese and Hakka languages are three major and the most popular dialects of Han languages spoken in Chinese society. Their writing systems are all in Han characters. Various and independent phonetic…

Author described efforts to modernize a system of writing, extremely difficult to teach and to learn, and assessed the benefits of changing from traditional characters to a Latin alphabet including the cost that would be involved: the separation of modern Chinese writing from the heritage of the past. (Editor/RK)

ALTHOUGH THE PURPOSE OF THIS DICTIONARY IS TO "GIVE A FULL AND ACCURATE PORTRAYAL OF THE BASIC NATIVE KOREAN VOCABULARY," SOME OF THE COMMON AND USEFUL CHINESE AND EUROPEAN LOANWORDS HAVE BEEN INCLUDED AS WELL. THE AUTHORS (SAMUEL E. MARTIN, YANG HA LEE, AND SUNG-UN CHANG) HAVE FOLLOWED THE HANKUL SPELLING CONVENTIONS OF THE…

Problems in the translation of Judeo-Spanish texts go beyond the problems normally associated with translation. Aside from near-native control of two languages, the translator must have knowledge of vocabulary that is not completely Spanish and an understanding of the unique orthographic history of the Judeo-Spanish dialect. There are Spanish…

This seven-volume series constitutes the Defense Language Institute (Army Language School) 47-week course in the Toishan dialect of Cantonese. Beginning lessons present the tone and sound system in romanized script. Chinese characters are introduced in the fourth lesson. (See related document AL 001 479, "Chinese Cantonese Basic Course,"…

The purpose of this guide is to provide Americans working with the Hmongs with: (1) some practical information on the Hmongs, their origins and language; (2) a detailed description of the sounds of the Hmong language; and (3) a discussion on Hmong as an unwritten language. This is the first of three guides to be published on the Hmongs, a people…