A Beginner's Guide to Taiwanese

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

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.

Website

• URL