A Beginner's Guide to Taiwanese

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Li hø!

File:Lie hør.ogg
"Hello" in Taiwanese, written "Lie hør!"

Taiwanese is a beautiful and musical language spoken in Taiwan and by Taiwanese people around the world. This Beginner's Guide to Taiwanese will provide you with a brief introduction to the spoken language as well as a writing system called Modern Taiwanese Language (MTL).

Most speakers of Taiwanese are not aware that there are established ways to phonetically write down the language. While there is not a single widely adopted system for the written form of the language (not even in Harnji), MTL is a very useful tool for learning Taiwanese. There are several other systems in use in Taiwan, such as Pe̍h-ōe-jī (POJ), Daighi tongiong pingim, and Taiwanese Romanization System. Unfortunately most Taiwanese speakers will not be able to read any of these phonetic systems but they will understand it when you read it.

Introduction to Taiwanese Phonetics

We will first introduce all of the phonetic sounds that you will encounter in Taiwanese. Some sounds have an approximation in English, while others may be less familiar.

Consonants

File:ConExp.ogg

MTL Approx. Example Meaning
p B / crispy papaf father
ph P (crisp) phaq to hit
m me mi noodle
b mumble baq meat
t D (crisp) tit straight
th Thomas theh to take
n neat nii year
l Lima laang person
k gear kaf (ka'iuu) to add
kh key khix go
h heap hii fish
g gaggle go five
c(i) G ciaf here
ch(i) cheese chiaf car
s(i) she/sea si yes
j(i) Z jit day
z yards zef this
zh cats zhaix vegetable
s Saul svaf three
j zoo joah hot

The 'k' vs. 'g' as well as the 'p' vs. 'b' may be hard to differentiate at first. The 'g' and the 'b' are voiced, meaning the vocal cords vibrate along with the consonant. The 'k' and 'p' are unvoiced, not as aspirated as in English but do have a distinct click or pop.

Note that "j" and "s" appear twice: these are slightly different when followed by an "i" vs other vowels.

Vowels

Single Vowels

File:SimpleVowels.ogg

MTL example meaning
a ka bite
i hvi ear
u u have
e ke low
o lo road
ø hør good
m m no
ng hng far

The 'm' can be both vowel and consonant.

Compound Vowels

These vowels are a combination of two vowel sounds.

File:CompoundVowels.ogg

MTL example meaning
ai lai sharp
au au back
ia ia spread
iu chviu elephant
kiøo bridge
iau liau material/stuff
ui ui stomach
oa toa big
oe hoe meeting
øe øe able
oai koaix weird

Nasal Vowel

These vowel sounds are made using your nose. Most vowels have a nasal form. A 'v' is placed in front of the vowel to designate it.

File:FrontNasalV3.ogg

MTL example English
va va filling (for dumplings etc.)
vi hvi ear
ve gve stiff
vo gvo to comprehend
vai vai to carry on back
vau gvau lotus root
via thviaf to listen
viu sviu to think
viau gviaugviaw itchy
voa voa to exchange
voai kvoaimngg to close a door

Ending vowel

Taiwanese has ending nasal vowel sounds using 'm', 'n' and 'ng'.

File:RearNasal.ogg

MTL example English
-am lam mix
-im a'kim aunt
-iam liam nagging
-an ban slow
-in kin near
-un tun dull
-ien lien practice
-oan goan wish
-ang bang dream
-eng teng hard
-ong gong dumb
-iang liang bright
-iong iong use

A syllable in Taiwanese follows one of these two patterns:

  • [consonant] + [nasal] vowel
  • [consonant] + vowel + [rear nasal ending]

A valid syllable only needs to have a vowel. The brackets ([]) mean the consonant, nasal or rear nasal ending are optional.

A word can be formed with one or more syllables, but two syllables is most typical.


Tones

Taiwanese is a tonal language which means that the vowels are pronounced with a distinctive tone that relate a distinctive meaning. A vowel spoken with a different tones has different meanings. Learning to speak and listen for the tones correctly is often difficult for an English speaker since there are no tones in English. With practice you will be able to hear and speak it. Taiwanese has 7 tones (Mandarin has 4). Again most speakers of Taiwanese are not aware of the different tones but they can all understand it when you pronounce it.

File:Tones1235784.ogg

# Tones Description MTL Example
1 High high level tone f af
2 Shouting start high, then sharp downward r ar
3 Low Falling start mid then downward tone x ax
5 Curving start mid level then down and up doubling of vowel aa
7 Basic mid level tone default a
8 Short high short high tone ends with h, p, t or k ah, ap, at, ak
4 Short low short low tone ends with q, b, d or g aq, ab, ad, ag

The tone indicators (f, x, r, etc) are placed after the vowel.

Examples of the seven tones:

Tone MTL Meaning
Basic si is
High hiaf there
Low Falling zhaix vegetable
Shouting zar early
Curving hii fish
Short high ciah eat
Short low phaq hit
Short high hap close
Short low ciab catch
Short high kut slippery
Short low kud bone
Short high lok deer
Short low kog country

There are a few special vowels for certain tones. There are five special vowels in the shouting-out tone, plus two special vowels in the high tone. There is also a shortcut for the curving tone of 'ø'.

File:SpecialVowl.ogg

vowel + tone = special vowel example
ai r ae hae
i r ie lie
u r uo kuo
e r ea bea
au r ao kao
i f y
u f w
øø øo

The basic unit of speech is the syllable, which can change tone depending on where it is spoken in a sentence. If a syllable is spoken in the middle of a word, phrase or sentence, it changes tone according to the Tone Circle diagram below. If a syllable is spoken at the end of a phrase or sentence, it does not change tones. Most nouns do not change tone.

The different tones and the tone changes (sandhi) in Taiwanese are by far the hardest part of learning Taiwanese.

Three Special Symbols

Apostrophe (')

When two syllables are put together, it may be necessary to indicate a syllable boundary with an apostrophe, given the rule that letters must be grouped into a syllable starting from the right.

Example: of + kix vs og + ix

Suppose we want to combine of, meaning “black”, with kix, meaning “mole”. We simply take the modified tone of the first syllable and follow it by the second syllable. The result is okix(meaning “black mole”). Following the rules of MTL reading, kix is the longest possible syllable starting from the right. Thus the first syllable is the simple vowel o and the second syllable is kix, and no apostrophe is needed.

If we combine og (“evil”) and ix (“intention”) without an apostrophe, we also get okix. By the rules of reading MTL, the final syllable appears to be kix. Therefore, we must insert an apostrophe (ok'ix) to indicate that the last syllable is ix. Now we know the first syllable is ok, which is the modified tone of og. The word ok'ix means “evil intention”.

Hyphen (-)

A hyphen is used to join two, or more isolated words to make a new compound word with its own meaning.

Examples: Taioaan-laang (Taiwanese person); Bykog-kongbiin (American citizen).

When reading these hyphenated words, the syllable directly before the hyphen must undergo tone change.

Back-quote (`)

When a word contains a back-quote, all the syllables after the back-quote are accented in a weaker, lower tone -- either a low-falling tone or a low stop. The tone of the syllable before the back-quote remains unchanged.

Example:

File:Kviaf`sie vs Kviaf-sie.ogg

  • kviaf`sie ((v.) to freak someone out) - kviaf keeps its high tone but sie is pronounced with a weakened low tone.
  • kviasie ((adj.) scared of death) – kviaf is pronounced with normal tone change from high to basic while sie is pronounced as a shouting tone. Kiasi is Hokkien phrase that describes the attitude of being overly afraid or timid.

Further study