A Beginner's Guide to Taiwanese: Difference between revisions

[[File:Lie hør.mp3|thumb|"Hello" in Taiwanese, written '''''[[Lie hør!]]''''']]  

'''''Li<u>e</u> hø<u>r</u>!''''' [[Taiwanese Hokkien|Taiwanese]] is a beautiful and musical language spoken in [[Taioaan|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 the [[Modern Literal Taiwanese]] writing system, which we call MTL for "Modern Taiwanese Language".

Most speakers of Taiwanese aren't aware that there are several writing systems for the language. ''[[Pe̍h-ōe-jī]]'' (POJ), also known as Church Romanization, might be the most popular romanization, though the government is now promoting a similar system called [[TRS]]. We're going to use MTL here because we found it very useful while studying Taiwanese at the [[Washington DC Taiwanese School]], and we think it could help you too. True, most Taiwanese speakers won't be able to read any of these systems, but they will probably understand you better because you learned one.

Let's learn how to write any syllable using the [[MLT alphabet]]. The three important parts of a syllable we will look at first are: starting consonant, vowel, and ending consonant. We will talk about tones later.  

A syllable can start with one of [[List of all initial consonants in MTL|18 initial consonants]]. Some sounds have an approximation in English, while others may be more exotic. For now, you can just ignore the silent indicators (mainly ''f'', ''x'', ''r'', ''v'').

| [[e]]  || {{x|e}} || to be able to; ...

 

* '''ien''' (from '''ia''' + '''n''' = '''ian''') is often spoken without the ''i''

* '''eng''' (from '''e''' + '''ng''') is a little more like ''ieng''

These vowel sounds are made using your nose. Most vowels from the first two groups can be nasalized, indicated by the letter ''[[v]]'' (read like "you" in English but nasal), chosen because it looks like the Greek letter "nu" ({{wt|ν}}). The word for nose is ''{{x|phvi}}'', which also means "to smell".

The basic unit of speech is the syllable, which can change tone depending on its environment. This process of [[tone sandhi]], from the Sanskrit word for "joining", is extensive in Taiwanese.

When two syllables are put together, sometimes one letter might appear to be connected to the right syllable when it shouldn't be. The apostrophe is used to remove the ambiguity. For example:  

In MTL, we group the letters starting from the right into the longest syllable. So reading ''okix'', the second syllable is ''kix''. Then the first syllable is ''o''. There's no need to write ''o'kix''.

If you drop the apostrophe from ''ok'ix'', it would be ''okix'', so the apostrophe needs to stay.

A hyphen is used to join two, or more isolated words to  

make a new compound word with its own meaning. When reading a hyphenated word, the syllable just before the hyphen should change tone. For example: {{XL|Taioaan}} + laang = {{XL|Taioaan-laang}} (Taiwanese person)

* [[File:Kviaf`sie.mp3]] {{x|kviaf`sie}} ((v.) ''to freak someone out'') - ''kviaf'' keeps its high tone but ''sie'' is pronounced with a weakened low tone.  

* [[File:Kviasie.mp3]] {{x|kviasie}} ((adj.) ''scared of death'') – ''kviaf'' is pronounced with normal tone change from high to basic while ''sie'' is pronounced as a shouting tone. ''{{w|Kiasi}}'' is Hokkien phrase that describes the attitude of being overly afraid or timid.