Pollard script: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 07:46, 12 August 2020

Revision as of 19:01, 26 November 2020

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|caption = Miao manuscript in Pollard script, in the [[Yunnan Nationalities Museum]], Kunming, Yunnan, China.

}}

The '''Pollard script''', also known as '''Pollard Miao''' (Chinese: 柏格理苗文 Bó Gélǐ Miao-wen) or '''Miao''', is an [[abugida]] loosely based on the Latin alphabet and invented by [[Methodism|Methodist]] [[missionary]] [[Sam Pollard]]. Pollard invented the script for use with [[A-Hmao language|A-Hmao]], one of several [[Miao languages]]. The script underwent a series of revisions until 1936, when a translation of the [[New Testament]] was published using it. The introduction of Christian materials in the script that Pollard invented caused a great impact among the [[Miao people|Miao]]. Part of the reason was that they had a legend about how their ancestors had possessed a script but lost it. According to the legend, the script would be brought back some day. When the script was introduced, many Miao came from far away to see and learn it.<ref name="enwall-nopage">Enwall 1994</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Tapp | first1 = N. | doi = 10.1017/S0022463400019858 | title = The Impact of Missionary Christianity Upon Marginalized Ethnic Minorities: The Case of the Hmong | journal = Journal of Southeast Asian Studies | volume = 20 | pages = 70 | year = 2011 | pmid = | pmc = }}. Republished in {{cite book |series=The Pacific World: Lands, Peoples and History of the Pacific, 1500–1900 |volume=17 |title=Religions and Missionaries around the Pacific, 1500–1900 |editor-last=Storch |editor-first=Tanya |publisher=Ashgate Publishing |year=2006 |pages=289–314 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rR0GbqNKDzAC&pg=PA296 |accessdateaccess-date=20 July 2013 }}</ref>

Pollard credited the basic idea of the script to the [[Cree syllabics]] designed by [[James Evans (linguist)|James Evans]] in 1838–1841, “While working out the problem, we remembered the case of the syllabics used by a Methodist missionary among the Indians of North America, and resolved to do as he had done”. He also gave credit to a Chinese pastor, “Stephen Lee assisted me very ably in this matter, and at last we arrived at a system”.<ref>{{Citation | last = Pollard | first = Samuel | year = 1919 | title = Story of the Miao | publisher = Henry Hooks| publication-place = London | page = 174 | url = | accessdate = }}</ref>

Changing politics in [[China]] led to the use of several competing scripts, most of which were [[romanization]]s. The Pollard script remains popular among [[Hmong people|Hmong]] in China, although Hmong outside China tend to use one of the alternative scripts. A revision of the script was completed in 1988, which remains in use.

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{{Main article|Miao (Unicode block)}}

The Pollard script was first proposed for inclusion in [[Unicode]] by John Jenkins in 1997.<ref>{{cite web | last = Jenkins | first = John H. | title = L2/97-104: Proposal to add Pollard to Unicode/ISO-IEC 10646 | date = 21 May 1997 | url = https://www.unicode.org/L2/L1997/97104-Pollard.pdf | accessdateaccess-date = 6 August 2014}}</ref>

It took many years to reach a final proposal in 2010.<ref>{{cite web | title = N3789: Final proposal for encoding the Miao script in the SMP of the UCS | date = 26 March 2010 | url = http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n3789.pdf | accessdateaccess-date = 6 August 2014}}</ref>

It was added to the Unicode Standard in January, 2012 with the release of version 6.1.

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| title=Description of the Pollard script

| publisher=Omniglot

| accessdateaccess-date=2012-01-03

}}

* {{cite web

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|title=Across China on Foot

|author=Edwin Dingle

|authorlinkauthor-link = Edwin Dingle

|work=Project Gutenberg

|accessdateaccess-date=July 29, 2005

}} Dingle describes how Sam Pollard used positioning of vowel marks relative to consonants to indicate [[tone (linguistics)|tone]]s.

*{{cite web|url=http://phjamr.github.io/miao.html|title=Miao Unicode, Open source font for users of the Miao script}}