The National Languages Committee was established in 1928 by the Ministry of Education of the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeas ...

with the purpose of standardizing and popularizing the usage of

Standard Chinese Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern standa ...

(also called Mandarin) in the Republic of China. The committee was known in English as the Mandarin Promotion Council or the National Languages Promotion Committee until 2003, but the Chinese name has not changed. The phrase ''Guoyu'' (國語 "National language") typically refers to Standard Chinese, but could also be interpreted as referring to "national languages". The reorganization of the Executive Yuan made the duties of the National Languages Committee be transferred to the Department of Lifelong Education's fourth sector (Reading and Language Education) from 2013. It was created as the Preparatory Commission for the Unification of the National Language by the Republic (then still based in

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and t ...

) on 21 April 1919. On 12 December 1928, the commission was renamed to the Preparatory Committee for the Unification of the National Language, headed by Woo Tsin-hang and had 31 members. The committee was revived in 1983 as the Mandarin Promotion Council based on

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...

. The decisions reached by the Council include: * Changing the first- and second-grade textbook titles from ''Guowen'' (國文 "National Script") to ''Guoyu'' (國語 "National language"), on 24 January 1920 * Publishing the ''Guoyin Zidian'' (國音字典 "National Pronunciation Dictionary") edited by Woo Tsin-hang, on 24 December 1920. The ''Guoyin Zidian'' later became the ''Mandarin Chinese Dictionary'' (), a comprehensive online and CD-ROM

Traditional Chinese A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays ...

Mandarin dictionary. The Committee for National Language Romanization (羅馬字母拼音研究委員會) under the Council selects and modifies

Romanization Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, a ...

Systems. The official Mandarin romanization systems in the

have been: *

Gwoyeu Romatzyh Gwoyeu Romatzyh (), abbreviated GR, is a system for writing Mandarin Chinese in the Latin alphabet. The system was conceived by Yuen Ren Chao and developed by a group of linguists including Chao and Lin Yutang from 1925 to 1926. Chao himself la ...

(1928–1984) *

Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II ( zh, t= ), abbreviated MPS II, is a romanization system formerly used in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was created to replace the complex tonal-spelling Gwoyeu Romatzyh, and to co-exist with the popular W ...

(1984–2002) *

Tongyong Pinyin Tongyong Pinyin () was the official romanization of Mandarin in Taiwan between 2002 and 2008. The system was unofficially used between 2000 and 2002, when a new romanization system for Taiwan was being evaluated for adoption. Taiwan's Ministry ...

(2002–2008) *

Hanyu Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

(starting on 1 January 2009) Since the Taiwanization movement took hold in government, the committee also handles: * Researching

mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the China, People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming Island, Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territorie ...

Mandarin * Researching the Formosan languages * Researching other varieties of Chinese or languages like

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

and

Taiwanese Hokkien Taiwanese Hokkien () (; Tâi-lô: ''Tâi-uân-uē''), also known as Taigi/Taigu (; Pe̍h-ōe-jī/ Tâi-lô: ''Tâi-gí / Tâi-gú''), Taiwanese, Taiwanese Minnan, Hoklo and Holo, is a variety of the Hokkien language spoken natively by about ...

References

{{reflist

External links

National Languages Committee
official website
National Languages Committee: mandate (in the English-language section of the Ministry of Education website)
Standard Chinese Executive Yuan Education in Taiwan Language regulators 1928 establishments in China Language policy in Taiwan

See also

References

External links