LINGUIST List 14.1951

Thu Jul 17 2003

Qs: Hanyu Pinyin; Shoebox

Editor for this issue: Naomi Fox <foxlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. christina mendez, hanyu pinyin: mandarin in romanized transcription
2. James Long, SIL Shoebox use

i'm looking for some information on hanyu pinyin and its usage. is
this the standard romanized transcription form? how familiar are
native mandarin speakers with hanyu pinyin? is it generally only used
for learning mandarin?

Subject-Language: Chinese, Mandarin; Code: CHN 

All:
 I'm doing a short field collection of lg. data and taking my first
shot at using SIL's Shoebox program to store and massage the data into
a multi-lg. glossary. And I'm running into what are probably typical
newbie glitches. Here's an example:

 I want to insert an empty line between fields in a record, to make
them stand out visually in groups of my choosing. So I build a record
accordingly, including the blank lines, using <enter> to place the
empty line, and save the record as the template. But when I open a
new record, no blank lines. There must (I hope) be a way to do this
simple task, but I can't turn it up.

 I think there must be others who use Shoebox and have similar
little cranky troubles (or big ones) and might contribute solutions
(or solicit assistance) via this thread. I know I'd welcome the
solutions others have worked out.

 If there is any interest, I'll post a summary.

 By the way, I'll be using the dictionary formatter (trying to use
it!) to display this data later, so any tips on that formidable
looking task would also be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Jim Long
jimlongworldpassage.net