Why Write Penang Hokkien in Romanised Form

When I embarked on the journey to develop Taiji Romanisation, a writing system for Penang Hokkien, one of the earliest decisions I have to make is whether to use Chinese characters or to create one that is uniquely its own. It was not a difficult decision to make, for I easily settled to create a writing system for it.

One may say that part of the decision comes from my being from my own English background. That would not be untrue. Being English educated, I would personally prefer reading Penang Hokkien in romanised form. However, beyond my own personal preference, the decision to write in romanised form is also influenced by the romanised form of Penang Hokkien already in existence in the streets. This appears in the signages of food items at coffee shops and hawker centres, and in how the Chinese people spell their names.

I subscribe to the ideal of "one nation one heritage". When George Town was inscribed as a World Heritage Site, a great deal of attention was focused on its built heritage, while much of its intangible heritage remains neglected. One of these is Penang Hokkien. In my opinion, one of the crucial steps in developing this language is in making it accessible to all communities in the country. Rather than regarding Penang Hokkien as the intangible heritage of the Chinese in Penang, we should regard it as the shared heritage of all Malaysians. To make it a shared heritage, Penang Hokkien should be made easy to learn by all communities as well as any foreigner coming to Penang.

Some have argued that by developing Penang Hokkien as a romanised language, we are severing its ties to its Chinese heritage, and that we would lose our appreciation of the etymology of words in Hokkien. I counter such argument by pointing to Malay. Once upon a time, Malay was written only in jawi script. However, a romanised form was created, and was eventually made the official written form for Malay. Today, many people can be fluent in Malay without learning how to write it in jawi. This development has unlocked the language and made it more easily accessible by people of various communities. In the same vein, we should approach the development of Penang Hokkien.

Although any form of development to Penang Hokkien is important, the priority at the moment is to develop a written form for the language. An orthography for Penang Hokkien can be the basis for future literary works in the language. Without that, it will remain an oral language that is easily threatened with extinction. The orthography has to be more sophisticated than simply transcribing the sounds of the spoken language. I argue that the written language, being an artificial, created form of communication, has to be more precise than the spoken language, in order for it to convey nuances and depth of thought.

Latest from Discover with Timothy: Gurney Bay - what to see and do there

About this website

Hello and thanks for reading this page. My name is Timothy and my hobby is in describing places so that I can share the information with the general public. My website has become the go to site for a lot of people including students, teachers, journalists, etc. whenever they seek information on places, particularly those in Malaysia and Singapore. I have been doing this since 5 January 2003, for over twenty years already. You can read about me at Discover Timothy. By now I have compiled information on thousands of places, mostly in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, and I continue to add more almost every day. My goal is to describe every street in every town in Malaysia and Singapore.

Robbie's Roadmap