News Brief: place names is election issue

DPP candidate calls for checks of Hakka road sign names

Taipei Times, 23/09/2011
[link: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/09/23/2003513988]

Democratic Progressive Party legislative candidate Yiong Cong-ziin holds up examples in Miaoli County of Hakka place names where incorrect characters have been used, often significantly changing the meaning.
Photo: Peng Chien-li, Taipei Times

Yiong Cong-ziin (楊長鎮), director of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Hakka affairs department, yesterday urged the government to conduct a thorough review of road signs for Hakka place names, saying they are often written using incorrect characters that significantly alter their meaning.

“Driving around Miaoli County, you will find road signs set up by either the county government or the Directorate-General of Highways using the wrong characters for these Hakka places,” Yiong said by telephone. “This shows the government’s lack of care and a disrespect for local culture.”

What’s more, these wrong signs often alter the original meaning of the names of those places, with this wrong information being passed on to visitors and the younger generation, he said.

“For example, the Xie’ai Ancient Trail (楔隘古道) in Miaoli’s Shitan Township (獅潭) has been written as ‘Xi’ai Ancient Trail’ (錫隘古道) for decades,” said Yiong, who is also running as the DPP’s legislative candidate in Miaoli County.

“‘Xie’ai’, or ‘shiap-ai’ in Hakka, refers to a supportive post placed between major defensive posts along the boundary between the Aboriginal domain and non--Aboriginal domain in the past when ethnic tensions were high,” he said.

However, writing it out as “xi’ai” (錫隘) might lead some people to think that it used to be a tin mine because the character “xi” (錫) means “tin,” Yiong said.

There’s also a mountain in Dahu Township (大湖) called Yaoposhan (鷂婆山), meaning “mountain of eagles,” because it’s a place frequented by eagles, he said.

“Yaopo” is pronounced as “yo’po” in Hakka.

However, the official road sign uses the character “yao” (耀) instead of “yao” (鷂), which is pronounced the same way in Mandarin, but are two different characters that differ in meaning, Yiong said.

“The government should make an effort to survey all Hakka place names and correct all the mistakes to better preserve local culture,” he said.

At a separate setting, Chen Ban (陳板), a long-time researcher and advocate for the preservation of Hakka culture, said that he fully supported the idea that official signs should carry the original and correct place names, as a way to pass on the culture and history of a place.

Chen said he heads a project that has been conducting a survey of Hakka place names for six years now for the Council for Hakka Affairs.

“I would like to call on the council to take action and change these road signs, especially as we’ve been doing this project for six years now,” he said.

苑裡, 通霄,Yuanli, Tongxiao: various Aboriginal-originated names, Miaoli County

Continuing from the previous post ( 卓蘭 Zhuolan) which traced the process by which the Pazih name Tarien meaning “beautiful open-country”became the Chinese Zhuolan meaning "eminent orchid", here are some more examples from Miaoli County (苗栗縣):

[Hakka or Hoklo pronunciations are given when they seem appropriate; anyone with academic historically-accurate versions, please do comment.]

Miaoli (苗栗) as noted already (here), lit. “seedling chestnut”), evolved from the Taokas aboriginal name Bari meaning “plain", through Chinese name 貓貍 (meu-li in Hakka pronunciation) meaning "cat fox-like animal”, to today's 苗栗(miao-li in Mandarin), meaning "seedling chestnut".

Yuanli (苑裡; lit. “garden + inside”) Township
Transliterated from the Taokas aborigine name Wanrie (though Abe suggests 彎里 [Hoklo: Oan-li] was perhaps contracted from earlier 里灣里; Li-oan-li). Similarly pronounced alternatives such as 宛里 and苑裏 are also recorded, before 苑裡 became standard.

Tongxiao (通霄; lit. “unobstructed clouds”)
Taokas aboriginal community Tonsuyan, due to its deep waters of Nanshi River (南勢溪) where mercantile boats could moor, became a center of trade for local produce from Tongluo (銅鑼), Sanyi (三義), Miaoli (苗栗) &c.

Availing of the pun “swallow and sell” (吞銷; Hakka: tun-seu or Hoklo: thun-siau); with the second character changed to霄 (“clouds”; Hakka: seu/siau; Hoklo: siau), the aboriginal name was transliterated as 吞霄 (tun-siau, “swallow clouds”).

By the end of the Qing dynasty (1895), the similarly pronounced 通霄 (tung-siau [both languages]; “unobstructed clouds”) had sometimes also been used, and in 1901(4?) during Japanese rule this became the standard, as it seemed to fit the high mountains poking through the clouds.


[to be continued here and again later]

卓蘭 Zhuolan Township, Miaoli County

Zhuolan 卓蘭 (lit.“eminent orchid”) Township, Miaoli County



Transliteration of the Pazih (巴則海) plains aboriginal name Tarien, meaning “beautiful open-country”, initially in land contracts during the Qing dynasty Yongzheng (雍正; 1723-35) reign period using the characters 搭連 (Hoklo Taiwanese: dah-lien; lit. “construct + connect”).



This was changed to 罩蘭 (Hoklo: da-lan; lit. “cover + orchid”) in 1836; appeared on the first government map of Taiwan as 打難 (Hoklo: da-lan; lit. “hit + difficulty”) in 1860; and became the present 卓蘭 (Japanese たくらん [Taku-ran]) in 1920.



Notes:

1) This is another example—like the title of this blog—where:

i) an aboriginal name is preserved by transliteration into Hoklo Taiwanese (Minnan; 閩南語) with no connection between the two names’ meanings;

ii) the characters are changed to preserve a similar punctuation in Japanese, again with no attention to meaning; and

iii) the written form (i.e. the "meaningless meaning") is preserved by the incoming ROC administration, but using Mandarin, thus leading to a change of pronunciation.



Hence, despite three“preservation” processes, none of the meaning, pronunciation or written name is preserved.



2) It might seem that Hakka pronunciations would have been used in this process, since the area was settled by Hakka. This may be the case [it is beyond my linguistic knowledge], but, while the Hoklo fit is excellent, the Hakka pronunciation of dap-lien for 打難 is less close to the Pazih original, while that of zau-lan for 罩蘭 is even less likely.







Text and photos © Jiyue Publications 2011

苗栗 Miaoli (City and County)

Miaoli (苗栗, lit. “seedling chestnut”), originated from the Taokas (道卡斯) plains aboriginal township name Bari, meaning “plain”. This was rendered in the Hakka language (others explain it as Hoklo Taiwanese) by the characters 貓貍 (Hakka: meu-li; lit. “cat” + “fox-like animal”). The was later adapted as 貓狸 (meu-li; “cat” + “fox/raccoon”); and in official documents using the similarly pronounced 貓裡 (meu-li; “cat” + “within”), and 貓里 (meu-li; “cat” + “neighbourhood”).

In 1889, it was changed for a more elegant name, based on the Hakka pronunciation, to the Meu-lit (苗栗; Mdn. Miaoli), which is still used.

As the photograph shows, however, the original wording has some retro popularity.

Text and photos © Jiyue Publications 2011