四十年ê文字思考

Forty Years of Rumination on Written Scripts

本談話分三大部分：（1）簡單討論理想ê文字ê要件；（2）評鑑POJ（白話字），討論伊ê優點&缺點以及伊ê重要性；（3）提出可行êPOJê體制內ê改革&漢羅文ê理想ê形式。理想ê文字著愛容易輸入、容易辨認、符合語音、符號充足。因為POJ是二維·ê，所以伊ê文書處理tī現代小可有困難；koh因為台語語音漸漸teh演變&伊佮其他語言tiāⁿteh接觸，傳統POJê符號小可無夠；koh來，POJê拼寫法佔用標點用ê連號。不過，其他ê台語拼音系統m̄nāmā有仝款ê缺點，而且koh較厲害，所以POJ確實是上合用ê文字。Koh較重要·ê是：POJ歷史真長，源頭真遠，傳承真久。其他台語ê拼音系統tòe袂著。POJm̄nātī台灣已經使用150外年；有寡特殊ê拼寫法koh攏tī16世紀ê文獻有。為著hō.POJ成做koh較有效力ê文字，會當做一寡系統內ê改革，親像連寫啦、縮寫啦、固定聲調ê位置啦、追加符號啦，尤其是追加符號上界需要。Nā到漢羅文ê改善，上重要·ê是hō.伊koh較會當一下看就看有。He做法是虛詞盡量用羅馬字、實詞盡量用漢字，iah漢字koh盡量區別字形。總話講，就文字ê功能來講，POJ上適當，iah就歷史來講，價值上koân。

This paper deals with three main themes: (1)a brief discussion on the prerequisites of an ideal writing system; (2)an evaluation of the traditional Romanized Taiwanese orthography POJ, discussing its merits and shortcomings as well as its importance; (3)a proposal for feasible changes within the POJ system and implementation of an ideal form of the mixed script of Romanization and kanji. We argue that an ideal writing system must be easy to encode and decode, must adequately correspond to sounds, and must have a sufficient number of symbols. POJ, being dual-dimensional, has some inevitable difficulties in encoding with modern writing technology. Besides, the traditional POJ suffers from a shortage of symbols for modern Taiwanese, as a result of sound changes that have occurred in the language, and the frequent contact of its people with people speaking other languages. Furthermore, POJ uses hyphens to link syllables of words and thus abuses the hyphen. However, since other Taiwanese spelling systems are no better in these respects, POJ is the most suitable writing system. POJ has an added advantage of a long historical tradition, which other Taiwanese spelling systems do not have. Not only has POJ been used in Taiwan for 150 years, some of its special ways of spelling can be traced back to the 16th Century. In order to make POJ a more efficient writing system, some changes within the system are feasible. As for improving the mixed script, the most important job is to make it easier to read. In conclusion, in terms of function, POJ is the most suitable writing system for Taiwanese and, in terms of history, the most valuable.