Some recent news and posts from Pinyin.info

OMG, it’s nougat (4/15/23) — "OMG" borrowed into Mandarin

A long post on puns, multiscriptal writing, and the difficulties of Hanzi.

Puns piled upon puns.

Microsoft Translator and Pinyin (4/15/23)

Microsoft's not very good character-to-Pinyin conversion.

They have the resources and could surely do better.

Japan likely to regulate pronunciations of personal names (4/14/23) — “No, no, no. It’s spelled ‘Raymond Luxury Yacht,’ but it’s pronounced ‘Throatwobbler Mangrove.’” — Monty Python’s Flying Circus

Among the stories listed in the current e-mail message, this is the biggest news.

Japan to add romanization to names on My Number cards (4/11/23) — The Japanese government has reportedly decided to add romanization for names on My Number cards, starting next year (2024). My Number cards — also known as Individual Number cards (or kojin bangō kādo / 個人番号カード) are a form of national ID.

This is probably something aimed at helping people deal with foreigners, but it seems significant nevertheless.

This will be a much welcome improvement.

Tone marks on Taiwan store sign’s Pinyin (4/10/23) — An observant reader sent in this relatively rare example in Taiwan of the use of Hanyu Pinyin with tone marks on signage

Elegantly esthetic.

 

Selected readings

• "OMG! American English" (5/1/15)
• "Passport pickup by pinyin" (3/2/12)