The National Languages Committee was established by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China, commonly known as "Taiwan", with the purpose of standardizing and popularizing the usage of Mandarin in the Republic of China. The Committee was known in English as the Mandarin Promotion Council or the National Languages Promotion Committee until 2003, but the Chinese name has not changed.
It was created as the Preparatory Commission for the Unification of the National Language by the Republic (then still based in Nanjing) on April 21, 1919. On December 12, 1928, the Commission was renamed to the Preparatory Committee for the Unification of the National Language, headed by Woo Tsin-hang and had 31 members. The Committee was revived in 1983 as the Mandarin Promotion Council based on Taiwan.
The decisions reached by the Council include:
- Changing the first- and second-grade textbook titles from Guowen (國文 "National Script") to Guoyu (國語 "National language"), on January 24, 1920
- Publishing the Guoyin Zidian (國音字典 "National Pronunciation Dictionary") edited by Woo Tsin-hang, on December 24, 1920. The Guoyin Zidian later became the Guoyu Cidian (國語辭典), a comprehensive online and CD-ROM Traditional Chinese Mandarin dictionary.
The Committee for National Language Romanization (羅馬字母拼音研究委員會) under the Council selects and modifies Romanization Systems. The official romanization systems in the Republic of China have been:
- Gwoyeu Romatzyh (1928–1984)
- Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II (1984–2002)
- Tongyong Pinyin (2002–2008)
- Hanyu Pinyin (starting on January 1, 2009)
Since the Taiwanization movement took hold in government, the Committee also handles:
- Researching mainland Chinese Mandarin usages
- Researching aboriginal Taiwanese languages.
- Researching other varieties of Chinese or languages like Hakka, and Taiwanese Hokkien
Famous quotes containing the words national, languages and/or committee:
“Disney World has acquired by now something of the air of a national shrine. American parents who don’t take their children there sense obscurely that they have failed in some fundamental way, like Muslims who never made it to Mecca.”
—Simon Hoggart (b. 1946)
“The trouble with foreign languages is, you have to think before your speak.”
—Swedish proverb, trans. by Verne Moberg.
“A committee is organic rather than mechanical in its nature: it is not a structure but a plant. It takes root and grows, it flowers, wilts, and dies, scattering the seed from which other committees will bloom in their turn.”
—C. Northcote Parkinson (1909–1993)