A Beginner's Guide to Taiwanese: Difference between revisions

Taiwanese is a tonal language which means that pitch is used to convey meaning. Many words are differentiated solely by [[sviatiau|tone]]. Learning to speak and hear the [[tones of Taiwanese]] 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 seven tones (Mandarin has four). Again most speakers of Taiwanese are not aware of the different tones but they can all understand it when you pronounce it.

| 1 || High || high level tone || [[f]] || {{x|khaf}}

| 2 || Shouting || start high, then sharp downward || [[r]] || {{x|ar}}

| 3 || Low Falling || start mid then downward tone || [[x]] || {{x|extaxng}}

| 5 || Curving || start mid level then down and up || doubling of vowel || {{x|gaau}}  

| 7 || Basic || mid level tone || default || {{x|toa}}

| 8 || Short high || short high tone || ends with ''h'', ''p'', ''t'' or ''k''  || {{xl|ah}}, {{xl|ap}}, {{xl|lat}}, {{xl|bak}}

| 4 || Short low || short low tone || ends with ''q'', ''b'', ''d'' or ''g'' || {{xl|aq}}, {{xl|ab}}, {{xl|ad}}, {{xl|ag}}

The letters ''f'', ''r'' and ''x'' are silent tone indicators for [[Tng'ym|long tone]]s.  

Here are some common examples of the long tones:

Here are some examples of the short tones:

The ending letter of a [[short tone]] tells both final consonant and tone. Looking at the high short tones first: the ''h'' is a {{w|glottal stop}}, then the ''p'', ''t'' and ''k'' are stops sounding similar to how they're used as an initial consonant. The low short tones are then the same as the corresponding high tone version but in lower pitch.