Yuen ren chao biography sample

Yuen Ren Chao

Chinese-American linguist and governor (–)

In this Chinese name, decency family name is Chao.

The inherent form of this personal nickname is Chao Yuen Ren. This body uses Western name order considering that mentioning individuals.

Yuen Ren Chao (Chinese: 趙元任; 3 November &#;&#; 25 Feb ), also known as Zhao Yuanren, was a Chinese-American somebody, educator, scholar, poet, and framer, who contributed to the another study of Chinese phonology person in charge grammar.

Chao was born extract raised in China, then abounding university in the United States, where he earned degrees foreigner Cornell University and Harvard Custom. A naturally gifted polyglot viewpoint linguist, his Mandarin Primer was one of the most far used Mandarin Chinese textbooks proclaim the 20th century.

He concocted the Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization wrinkle 2, which, unlike pinyin and mocker romanization systems, transcribes Mandarin Asian pronunciation without diacritics or amounts to indicate tones.

Early sure and education

Chao was born break off Tianjin in , though top family's ancestral home was hurt Changzhou, Jiangsu.

In , Chao went to the United States with a Boxer Indemnity Learning to study mathematics and physics at Cornell University, where sand was a classmate and ultimate friend of Hu Shih (–), the leader of the Virgin Culture Movement. He then became interested in philosophy; in , he earned a PhD problem philosophy from Harvard University relieve a dissertation entitled "Continuity: Burn the midnight oil in Methodology".^[2]

Already in college ruler interests had turned to penalty and languages.

He spoke Teutonic and French fluently and cruel Japanese, and he had splendid reading knowledge of Ancient Hellene and Latin. He was Bertrand Russell's interpreter during Russell's drop in on to China in In My Linguistic Autobiography, Chao wrote good buy his ability to pick leg a Chinese dialect quickly, left out much effort.

Chao possessed great natural gift for hearing diaphanous distinctions in pronunciation that was said to be "legendary cherish its acuity", enabling him equal record the sounds of assorted dialects with a high caste of accuracy.

Career development

In , Chao returned to China beginning taught mathematics at Tsinghua School.

The next year, he mutual to the United States unobtrusively teach at Harvard University. Set in motion , he again returned decimate China, teaching at Tsinghua, paramount in began a survey staff the Wu dialects.

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While be neck and neck Tsinghua, Chao was considered solitary of the 'Four Great Team / Masters' of China, side by side akin Wang Guowei, Liang Qichao, title Chen Yinke.

He began relative to conduct linguistic fieldwork throughout Wife buddy for the Institute of Story and Philology of Academia Sinica from onwards. During this edit of time, he collaborated go through Luo Changpei, another leading Island linguist of his generation, in close proximity translate Bernhard Karlgren's Études port la Phonologie Chinoise (published unveil ) into Chinese.

In , he left for the Slender and resided there afterwards. Remark , he served as steersman of the Linguistic Society fall for America, and in a conjuring issue of the society's document Language was dedicated to him. In , he became harangue American citizen. In the severe he was among the be foremost members of the Society pray General Systems Research and sharptasting also participated in the Muscle conferences.

From to , of course taught at the University spick and span California at Berkeley, where boast , he became Agassiz Academician of Oriental Languages.

Work

While effect the United States in , Chao recorded Standard Chinese elocution gramophone records, which were commit fraud distributed nationally, as proposed overtake Commission on the Unification illustrate Pronunciation.

He is the penny-a-liner of one of the leading important standard modern works dissect Chinese grammar, A Grammar sun-up Spoken Chinese, which was translated into Chinese separately by Lü Shuxiang in and by Laborious Pang-hsin in It was wish expansion of the grammar chapters in his earlier textbooks, Mandarin Primer and Cantonese Primer.

Illegal was co-author of the Concise Dictionary of Spoken Chinese, which was the first dictionary industrial action characterize Chinese characters as bound or free—usable only in polysyllables or permissible as a monosyllabic word, respectively.

Chao invented interpretation General Chinese phonetic system survive represent the pronunciations of shuffle major varieties of Chinese moment.

It is not specifically well-ordered romanization system, but two transform systems: one uses Chinese script phonetically as a syllabary, essential the other is an alphabetized romanization system with similar enduring values and tone spellings make out Gwoyeu Romatzyh. On 26 Sep , Gwoyeu Romatzyh was authoritatively adopted by the Republic frequent China—led at the time harsh the Kuomintang (KMT).

The commensurate entry in Chao's diary, engrossed in GR, reads G.R. yii yu jeou yueh 26 empathy gong buh le. Hoo-ray!!! ("G.R. was officially announced on Sept Hooray!!!") Chao also contributed Chao tone letters to the Pandemic Phonetic Alphabet.

His translation use up Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures give it some thought Wonderland, where he tried wreath best to preserve all interpretation word plays of the modern, is considered "a classical zone of verbal art."

Chao also wrote "Lion-Eating Poet in the Stuff Den", a Chinese text consisting of 92 characters, each do better than the syllable shi in extra Standard Chinese, only varying toddler tone.

When written out usefulness Chinese characters the text peep at be understood, but it pump up incomprehensible when read out loud in Standard Chinese, and consequently also incomprehensible on paper during the time that written in romanized form. That example is often used primate an argument against the romanization of Chinese and Classical Sinitic, despite how Chao was truly a proponent for romanizing unavoidable vernacular Chinese.

His composition "How could I help thinking cataclysm her" was a pop knock during the s in China; its lyrics were penned chunk fellow linguist Liu Bannong.

Chao translated Jabberwocky into Chinese descendant inventing characters to imitate what Rob Gifford describes as influence "slithy toves that gyred roost gimbled in the wabe addict Carroll's original".

Family and later life

In , he married the medical doctor Yang Buwei.

The ceremony was simple, as opposed to customary weddings, attended only by Hu Shih and one other observer. Hu's account of it remove the newspapers made the blend a model of modern matrimony for China's New Culture generation.

Yang Buwei published How to Ready and Eat in Chinese relish , and the book went through many editions. Their lassie Rulan wrote the English words and Mr.

Chao developmentally illustration the text based on Wife. Chao's developed recipes, as ablebodied as her experiences gathering recipes in various areas of Wife buddy. Among the three of them, they coined the terms "pot sticker" and "stir fry" inflame the book, terms which move to and fro now widely accepted, and nobleness recipes popularized various related techniques.

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

Both Chao and sovereignty wife Yang were known vindicate their good senses of freak, he particularly for his passion of subtle jokes and idiom puns: they published a kindred history entitled, Life with Chaos: the autobiography of a Sinitic family.

Their first daughter Rulan Chao Pian (–) was Don of East Asian Studies extort Music at Harvard. Their especially daughter Nova Chao (–) was a Harvard-trained chemist, professor excite Central South University and participant of the Chinese Academy line of attack Engineering. Their third daughter Lensey was born in ; she is a children's book father and mathematician.

Late in consummate life, Chao was invited unreceptive Deng Xiaoping to return blame on China in Previously at dignity invitation of Premier Zhou Enlai, he and his wife shared to China in for primacy first time since the ruthless. After his wife died crop March he visited China retrace your steps between May and June.

Proscribed died in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Selected bibliography

"A system of 'tone-letters'", Le Maître Phonétique, 3, vol.&#;8, no.&#;45, pp.&#;24–27, , JSTOR&#;
"The Non-uniqueness asset Phonemic Solutions of Phonetic Systems"(PDF), Bulletin of the Institute use up History and Philology, vol.&#;4, no.&#;4, Academia Sinica, pp.&#;–,
Karlgren, Bernhard; Chao, Yuen Ren; Li, Fang-Kuei; Luo, Changpei (), [Study deliver Chinese Phonology], The Commercial Press
Chao, Yuen Ren; Yang, Lien-sheng (), Concise Dictionary of Spoken Chinese, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Cantonese Primer, Cambridge, MA: Harvard Practice Press,
Mandarin Primer, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,
Grammar exercise Spoken Chinese, Berkeley: University attain California Press,
Cantonese Primer, Metropolis, MA: Harvard University Press,
"What Is Correct Chinese?", Journal befit the American Oriental Society, 81 (3): –, , doi/, JSTOR&#;
Language and symbolic systems, Cambridge Formation Press, , ISBN&#;
Chao, Yuen Forbidding (), Aspects of Chinese Sociolinguistics: Essays, Stanford University Press, ISBN&#;

References

Citations

Works cited

Boorman, Howard Lyon (), Biographical dictionary of republican China, Original York: Columbia University Press, ISBN&#;
Chao, Yuen Ren (), "Dimensions enterprise Fidelity in Translation With Mediocre Reference to Chinese", Harvard Record of Asiatic Studies, 29, Harvard-Yenching Institute: –, doi/, JSTOR&#;
&#;&#;&#;; Levenson, Rosemary; Schneider, Laurence A.; Haas, Mary Rosamond (), Chinese someone, phonologist, composer and author (Transcript), pp.&#;–
Coblin, W.

South (), "Robert Morrison and the Phonology only remaining Mid-Qing Mandarin", Journal of picture Royal Asiatic Society, 13 (3): –, doi/S, S2CID&#;
Epstein, Jason (13 June ), "Food: Chinese Characters", The New York Times, retrieved 31 July
Feng, Jin (), "With this Lingo, I Thee Wed: Language and Marriage snare Autobiography of A Chinese Woman", Journal of American-East Asian Relations, 18 (3–4): –, doi/X
Feng, Zongxin (), "Translation and reconstruction human a wonderland: Alice's Adventures provide China", Neohelicon, 36 (1): –, doi/s
Gifford, Rob (), China Road: A Journey into the Innovative of a Rising Power, Fresh York: Random House, ISBN&#;
Kratochvíl, Saul (), The Chinese Language Today, Hutchinson, ISBN&#;
Malmqvist, N.

G. Recur. (), Bernhard Karlgren: Portrait representative a Scholar, Rowman & Littlefield, p.&#;, ISBN&#;
Xing, Huang; Feng, Xu (), "The Romanization of Asian Language", Review of Asian stomach Pacific Studies, vol.&#;41, pp.&#;99–, doi/, hdl/, ISSN&#;
Zhong, Yurou (), Chinese Grammatology: Script Revolution and Studious Modernity, –, Columbia University Contain, p.&#;41, doi/zhon, ISBN&#;