Text | Bao
Recently, after turning over the 2016 edition of the "Transliteration Word Review Table", some netizens suddenly found that many of their pronunciations could not be read. For example, the canonical pronunciation of "urticaria" will change from "qiánmázhěn" to "xúnmázhěn"; for example, "dull" and "conclusive", the pronunciation will be changed from the original áibǎn and quèzuò to the current dāibǎn and quèzáo, respectively. This change of some years has recently been on the hot search.
What's going on? Obviously, it was a pronunciation that was repeatedly corrected by the teacher when reading a book, why has everything changed now?
In fact, this phenomenon should not be too surprised. This is the phenomenon of "accumulation of non-success" in the process of daily language use. That is to say, language is constantly evolving in daily use, so there will inevitably be some new language phenomena that break through the original norms and are accepted and recognized by most people.
To put it more in layman's terms, although we usually read the pronunciation of some words incorrectly, there are many people who read it this way, and we are used to reading it again, so it is better to "make mistakes and make mistakes" and adjust the pronunciation to the reading method that everyone is accustomed to.
This practice seems to be "as good as flowing", but it has also caused many people to wonder - if the adjustment of Chinese pronunciation is really "casual", then do we still have a reliable pronunciation standard?
Thus, a contradiction is formed: on the one hand, convention is the law of language development and the embodiment of the vivid vitality of language; but on the other hand, a strong language should also have a stable core. As early as 2019, the famous scholar Li Bo posted on Weibo that it must not be changed because "most people read it wrong", otherwise it may hurt the cultural context of the language.
So who should we trust in these two opposing views?
In previous years, the pronunciation of some famous verses has also been controversial. For example, "the township sound does not change the sideburns (shuāi)", "far on the Hanshan stone path oblique (xié)", "a ride (qí) red dust concubine laughs", said to be decay in the poem ben read cuī, oblique in the poem ben read xiá, riding in the poem ben read jì, due to the number of people who read incorrectly, it is said that the pinyin has been changed.
However, this change of law has aroused a lot of discussion. Because everyone does not disagree with the pinyin modification of the daily language, but the ancient poems similar to the rhyme of Ping Shu rhyme, I am afraid that we must first respect the tradition. Poetry and song are the most exquisite is the beauty of rhyme, poetry creation is just to choose the most appropriate word, and the most appropriate word, obviously has sound, color, taste and other considerations.
Conversely, if we arbitrarily change the pronunciation because we covet "convenience", we may destroy the phonological beauty of ancient poetry. Since ancient poetry has its own reason and logic, it is obvious that more consideration is needed to accommodate the practice of today's people in order to save trouble and convenience.
Therefore, considering the pronunciation habits of many people, and in order to avoid confusion, the pronunciation of some common words is not impossible to change. However, from the perspective of respecting ancient culture and ancient history, we should still pay attention to preserving the existence of multiple pronunciations of Chinese characters, there is no need to forcibly unify, and there is no need to change the pronunciation standard at will because of the habits of today's people. For example, "buzzwords" that clearly violate the laws and characteristics of language itself should not be arbitrarily included in the normative literature.
In the final analysis, whether to change the pronunciation or not to change is not the main issue, the key is whether we can formulate scientific and rigorous pronunciation standards. On the one hand, it is necessary to extensively listen to the opinions of the people; on the other hand, it is also necessary to conscientiously study the academic research results of relevant experts. Not only should we not let everyone drill the tip of the individual pronunciation in the examination, but also carefully change the pronunciation under the consensus of respecting traditional culture.
Text: Abao
Image: Network
Column moderator: Zhang Yongqun
Editor-in-charge: Wang Zimo
Editor: Wang Yuanfang, Wu Yaqi