Tai-lo/Taiwanese Romanization System
In 2007, after five years of debate, Taiwan's National Languages Council (formerly known as the Mandarin Promotion Council) reached a decision on standard romanization to be used in Taiwan's education system. This form is known as Tâi-ûan Lô-má-jī or Tâi-lô for short.
Tai-lo is essentially a slightly modified form of POJ. The 'ch' of POJ becomes 'ts' in Tai-lo and the troublesome character ‘o dot’ (o͘) from POJ has been replaced with 'oo'. There are also some other small changes among the vowels, but the tone markings remain the same and the system as a whole requires little effort to read for someone already familiar with POJ.
Given the spotty implementation of the government-sanctioned Tongyong Pinyin for Mandarin (also a committee-born political compromise), it is uncertain whether Tai-lo will obtain a significant user base. If the present paltry level of Taiwanese instruction in schools remains the same as today, it seems unlikely that this system will become the dominant one any time soon.
