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Buun-peh-i-thak 🔊 (文白異讀; Literary and colloquial readings of Chinese characters)

Literary vs colloquial

• Colloquial readings (peqthak 🔊) are usually used in vernacular speech.
• Literary readings (bunthak 🔊) of Harnji are usually used in formal loan words or names, when reading aloud and in formal settings.
• For example, take the Harnji 白
  • Colloquial: peh 🔊, as in peqzhaix 🔊 (bakchoy)
  • Literary: pek 🔊, as in zuxpek 🔊 自白 (confession)
• The existence of literary and colloquial readings is a prominent feature of some Hokkien dialects and indeed in many Sinitic varieties in the south.
• Quanzhou Hokkien even has three different kinds of readings. The additional one is vulgar (俗 siok 🔊). For example, 肉 (meat):
  • Vulgar: baq 🔊 (baq is the most commonly used)
  • Colloquial: hek 🔊 (no example for this one)
  • Literary: jiok 🔊, as in kutjiok 🔊 骨肉 (flesh and blood; kindred)

Examples

The following examples<ref>Victor H. Mair, How to Forget Your Mother Tongue and Remember Your National Language, University of Pennsylvania</ref> show differences in literary and colloquial readings in Taiwanese Hokkien.

Harnji Readings

The following chart illustrates some of the more commonly seen sound shifts:

Colloquial	Literary	Example
[p-], [pʰ-]	[h-]	分	pwn	hwn	divide
[ts-], [tsʰ-], [tɕ-], [tɕʰ-]	[s-], [ɕ-]	成	cviaa	seeng	to become
[k-], [kʰ-]	[tɕ-], [tɕʰ-]	指	kie	cie	finger
[-ã], [-uã]	[-an]	看	khvoax	khaxn	to see
[-ʔ]	[-t]	食	cia̍h	sit	to eat
[-i]	[-e]	世	six	sex	world
[-e]	[-a]	家	kef	kaf	family
[-ia]	[-i]	企	khia	khix	to stand

Amoy_dialect#Literary_and_colloquial_readings

Sorji (數字; Numbers)

This feature extends to Chinese numerals, which have both literary and colloquial readings. Literary readings are typically used when the numerals are read out loud (e.g. phone numbers), while colloquial readings are used for counting items.

	1	2	3 / 三	4 / 四	5 / 五	6 / 六	7 / 七	8 / 八	9 / 九	10 / 十
Peh	cit (蜀)	nng (兩)	svaf	six	go	lak	chid	pøeq	kao	zap
Buun	id (一)	ji (二)	safm	sux	gvor	liok		pad	kiuo	sip

• Bunthak: 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. 🔊
• Peqthak: cit,nng,svaf,six,go,lak,chid,peq,kao 🔊

For more detail, see Sorji and Tiexn'oe

More details

In Hokkien, reading pronunciations (thag'ym 🔊 讀音) differ from spoken pronunciations/explications (gwym 🔊 語音/kayseq 🔊 解說). Hokkien dictionaries in Taiwan often differentiate between such character readings with the prefixes 文 (buun 🔊) for literary readings, and 白 (pek/peh) for colloquial readings.

The bulk of literary readings (bunthak 🔊 文讀) are based on pronunciations of the vernacular during the Tang (Toong) dynasty and mainly used in formal phrases and written language (e.g. philosophical concepts, surnames, and some place names). For example, see Most Common Surnames in Taiwan and Laixgoaxkhøf Kharnhoxhak. Literary readings tend to be more similar to the pronunciations of the Tang standard of Middle Chinese than their colloquial equivalents. The colloquial (or vernacular) readings (peqthak 🔊 白讀) are basically used in spoken language and vulgar (ordinary/common) phrases.

The divergence between literary and colloquial is due to several strata in the Min lexicon. The earliest, colloquial stratum is traced to the Han Dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE, Haxn); the second colloquial one comes from the period of the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420 - 589 CE, Lampaktiaau); the third stratum of pronunciations (typically literary ones) comes from the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907 AD, Toong). (Note: this could be why literary readings sound closer to Mandarin than colloquial.)

Source

• Hokkien dialect#Literary_and_colloquial_readings