Suvarna Garge (Editor)

National Languages Committee

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Jurisdiction
  
Taiwan (ROC)

Parent agency
  
Ministry of Education

Agency executive
  
Tsao Feng-fu, Chairman

National Languages Committee

Formed
  
April 21, 1919 (1919-04-21)

Dissolved
  
January 1, 2013 (2013-01-01)

Superseding agency
  
Department of Lifelong Education, Fourth Sector (Reading and Language Education)

The National Languages Committee was established in 1928 by the Ministry of Education of the Taiwan (ROC) with the purpose of standardizing and popularizing the usage of Standard Chinese (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 phrase Due to the reorganization of the Executive Yuan, the duties of the National Languages Committee were transferred to the Department of Lifelong Education's fourth sector (Reading and Language Education), starting from 2013.

It was created as the Preparatory Commission for the Unification of the National Language by the Republic (then still based in Nanjing) on April 21, 1919. On December 12, 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.

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 January 24, 1920
  • Publishing the Guoyin Zidian (國音字典 "National Pronunciation Dictionary") edited by Woo Tsin-hang, on December 24, 1920. The Guoyin Zidian later became the Mandarin Chinese Dictionary (國語辭典; Guóyǔ Cídiǎn), a comprehensive online and CD-ROM Traditional Chinese 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 Systems. The official Mandarin romanization systems in the Republic of China have been:

  • Gwoyeu Romatzyh (1928–1984)
  • Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II (1984–2002)
  • Tongyong Pinyin (2002–2008)
  • Hanyu Pinyin (starting on January 1, 2009)

    • Since the Taiwanization movement took hold in government, the Committee also handles:

  • Researching mainland China Mandarin
  • Researching the Formosan languages
  • Researching other varieties of Chinese or languages like Hakka and Taiwanese Hokkien

    • References

    National Languages Committee Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA