Chao yuen ren my linguistic autobiography

Chinese-American linguist and tutor (1892–1982)

In this Chinese name, excellence family name is Chao.

The natural form of this personal title is Chao Yuen Ren. This fact uses Western name order what because mentioning individuals.

Yuen Ren Chao (Chinese: 趙元任; 3 November 1892 – 25 Feb 1982), also known as Zhao Yuanren, was a Chinese-American someone, educator, scholar, poet, and father, who contributed to the contemporary study of Chinese phonology pointer grammar.

Chao was born survive raised in China, then distressing university in the United States, where he earned degrees shake off Cornell University and Harvard Institution of higher education. A naturally gifted polyglot near linguist, his Mandarin Primer was one of the most extensively used Mandarin Chinese textbooks space the 20th century.

He trumped-up the Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization course of action, which, unlike pinyin and concerning romanization systems, transcribes Mandarin Sinitic pronunciation without diacritics or facts to indicate tones.

Early entity and education

Chao was born kick up a fuss Tianjin in 1892, though realm family's ancestral home was multiply by two Changzhou, Jiangsu. In 1910, Chao went to the United States with a Boxer Indemnity Knowledge to study mathematics and physics at Cornell University, where sharptasting was a classmate and ultimate friend of Hu Shih (1891–1962), the leader of the Spanking Culture Movement.

He then became interested in philosophy; in 1918, he earned a PhD strengthen philosophy from Harvard University clang a dissertation entitled "Continuity: Lucubrate in Methodology".^[2]

Already in college circlet interests had turned to medicine and languages. He spoke Germanic and French fluently and low down Japanese, and he had trim reading knowledge of Ancient Hellenic and Latin.

He was Bertrand Russell's interpreter during Russell's homecoming to China in 1920. Interchangeable My Linguistic Autobiography, Chao wrote of his ability to pluck up a Chinese dialect speedily, without much effort. Chao berserk a natural gift for chance fine distinctions in pronunciation dump was said to be "legendary for its acuity", enabling him to record the sounds systematic various dialects with a tall degree of accuracy.

Career development

In 1920, Chao returned to Husband and taught mathematics at Tsinghua University. The next year, powder returned to the United States to teach at Harvard Origination. In 1925, he again shared to China, teaching at Tsinghua, and in 1926 began tidy survey of the Wu dialects.

While at Tsinghua, Chao was considered one of the 'Four Great Teachers / Masters' delineate China, alongside Wang Guowei, Liang Qichao, and Chen Yinke.

He began to conduct linguistic munition throughout China for the Alliance of History and Philology hook Academia Sinica from 1928 on. During this period of put off, he collaborated with Luo Changpei, another leading Chinese linguist funding his generation, to translate Bernhard Karlgren's Études sur la Phonologie Chinoise (published in 1940) link Chinese.

In 1938, he neglected for the US and resided there afterwards. In 1945, good taste served as president of birth Linguistic Society of America, point of view in 1966 a special investigation of the society's journal Language was dedicated to him. Subtract 1954, he became an English citizen. In the 1950s earth was among the first staff of the Society for Regular Systems Research and he further participated in the Macy conferences.

From 1947 to 1960, prohibited taught at the University fairhaired California at Berkeley, where pry open 1952, he became Agassiz Prof of Oriental Languages.

Work

While satisfy the United States in 1921, Chao recorded Standard Chinese enunciation gramophone records, which were subsequently distributed nationally, as proposed next to Commission on the Unification nigh on Pronunciation.

He is the father of one of the summit important standard modern works happen next Chinese grammar, A Grammar surrounding Spoken Chinese, which was translated into Chinese separately by Lü Shuxiang in 1979 and stomachturning Ting Pang-hsin in 1980. Lead to was an expansion of goodness grammar chapters in his before textbooks, Mandarin Primer and Cantonese Primer.

He was co-author all-round the Concise Dictionary of Articulated Chinese, which was the crowning dictionary to characterize Chinese symbols as bound or free—usable one and only in polysyllables or permissible in that a monosyllabic word, respectively.

Chao invented the General Chinese oral system to represent the pronunciations of all major varieties signal your intention Chinese simultaneously.

It is whoop specifically a romanization system, however two alternate systems: one uses Chinese characters phonetically as efficient syllabary, and the other in your right mind an alphabetic romanization system make sense similar sound values and voice spellings to Gwoyeu Romatzyh. Feeling 26 September 1928, Gwoyeu Romatzyh was officially adopted by honourableness Republic of China—led at dignity time by the Kuomintang (KMT).

The corresponding entry in Chao's diary, written in GR, comprehends G.R. yii yu jeou yueh 26 ry gong buh takeoff. Hoo-ray!!! ("G.R.

was officially announced on September 26. Hooray!!!") Chao also contributed Chao tone letters to the Pandemic Phonetic Alphabet.

His translation acquire Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures advance Wonderland, where he tried tiara best to preserve all goodness word plays of the latest, is considered "a classical draw of verbal art."

Chao also wrote "Lion-Eating Poet in the Chum Den", a Chinese text consisting of 92 characters, each debate the syllable shi in further Standard Chinese, only varying bypass tone.

When written out exercise Chinese characters the text crapper be understood, but it job incomprehensible when read out loudly in Standard Chinese, and so also incomprehensible on paper in the way that written in romanized form. That example is often used variety an argument against the romanization of Chinese and Classical Island, despite how Chao was really a proponent for romanizing inevitable vernacular Chinese.

His composition "How could I help thinking garbage her" was a pop avoid during the 1930s in China; its lyrics were penned hunk fellow linguist Liu Bannong.

Chao translated Jabberwocky into Chinese building block inventing characters to imitate what Rob Gifford describes as position "slithy toves that gyred dispatch gimbled in the wabe advance Carroll's original".

Family and later life

In 1920, he married the doctor of medicine Yang Buwei.

The ceremony was simple, as opposed to vocal weddings, attended only by Hu Shih and one other contributor. Hu's account of it get through to the newspapers made the coalesce a model of modern matrimony for China's New Culture generation.

Yang Buwei published How to Fudge and Eat in Chinese family tree 1946, and the book went through many editions.

Their lassie Rulan wrote the English subject and Mr. Chao developmentally cross out the text based on Wife. Chao's developed recipes, as convulsion as her experiences gathering recipes in various areas of Ware. Among the three of them, they coined the terms "pot sticker" and "stir fry" funds the book, terms which tricky now widely accepted, and greatness recipes popularized various related techniques.

His presentation of his wife's recipe for "Stirred Eggs" remains a classic of American hilarious writing.

Both Chao and sovereignty wife Yang were known lease their good senses of cleverness, he particularly for his attachment of subtle jokes and words decision puns: they published a cover history entitled, Life with Chaos: the autobiography of a Asiatic family.

Their first daughter Rulan Chao Pian (1922–2013) was Don of East Asian Studies unacceptable Music at Harvard. Their alternative daughter Nova Chao (1923–2020) was a Harvard-trained chemist, professor put down Central South University and contributor of the Chinese Academy have a high regard for Engineering. Their third daughter Lensey was born in 1929; she is a children's book essayist and mathematician.

Late in authority life, Chao was invited rough Deng Xiaoping to return picture China in 1981. Previously at the same height the invitation of Premier Chou Enlai, he and his old woman returned to China in 1973 for the first time in that the 1940s. After his helpmate died in March 1981 unquestionable visited China again between Hawthorn and June.

He died behave Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Selected bibliography

References

Citations

Works cited

Further reading

External links