A Beginner's Guide to Taiwanese
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 exist several ways to write it down. MTL and Taiwanese Romanization System both derive from Pe̍h-ōe-jī (POJ), which had over 100,000 users in the mid-20th century. While no single system has been widely adopted (whether romanized or in Han characters), MTL is a very useful tool for learning Taiwanese. Most Taiwanese speakers may not be able to read any of these systems but will understand you better because you used it.
Phonology
We will first introduce all of the phonetic sounds of Taiwanese, using the MTL alphabet. Some sounds have an approximation in English, while others may be less familiar. In the examples, we have underlined indicators (mainly f, r, x, v) that are silent, which we will explain later.
Initial consonants
Here are the 18 initial consonants in MTL, which come at the beginning of the syllable.
| MTL | Approx. | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| p | spin | papaf | father |
| ph | pin | phaq | to hit |
| m | Mimi | mi | noodle |
| b | mumble | baq | meat |
| t | stem | tit | straight |
| th | Thomas | theh | to take |
| n | neat | nii | year |
| l | lima | laang | person |
| k | ski | kaf | to add |
| kh | key | khix | to go |
| h | heap | hii | fish |
| g | gaggle | go | five |
| c(i) | gee | ciaf | here |
| ch(i) | cheese | chiaf | car |
| s | she / saw | si | is; yes |
| j | vision / zeta | jit | sun; day |
| z | yards | zef | this |
| zh | Tsai (Ts'ai) | zhaix | vegetable |
The p vs. b and k vs. g may be hard to differentiate at first. They are part of a three-way distinction, going from muddy to plain to aspirated.
- The muddy b and g are voiced, meaning the vocal cords vibrate along with the consonant.
- The plain p and k (and t) are unvoiced, not as aspirated as in English, but do have a distinct click or pop.
- The aspirated consonants are composed of the plain symbol followed by h.
Note that s and j appear twice: these are slightly different when followed by an i vs other vowels.
Vowels
Single vowels
These are the pure vowel sounds (monophthongs).
| MTL | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| a | ka | to bite |
| i | hvi | ear |
| u | u | to have |
| e | ke | low |
| o | lo | road |
| ø | hør | good |
| m | m | no |
| ng | hng | far |
We saw m earlier as a consonant, but it can stand alone as a vowel. In fact, both m and ng are complete syllables and complete words. We will see them both again later as final consonants.
Compound vowels
These vowels are a combination of two (or three) pure vowel sounds.
| MTL | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ai | lai | sharp |
| au | au | back |
| ia | ia | to spread |
| iu | chviu | elephant |
| iø | kiøo | bridge |
| iau | liau | material/stuff |
| ui | ui | stomach |
| oa | toa | big |
| oe | hoe | meeting |
| oai | koaix | weird |
Nasal vowels
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.
| MTL | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
Vowel plus nasal final consonant
The following finals are composed of vowels capped with m, n, or ng serving as a nasal final consonant (NFC).
| MTL | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| am | lam | to mix |
| im | a'kim | aunt |
| iam | liam | to nag |
| an | ban | slow |
| in | kin | near |
| un | tun | dull |
| ien | lien | to practice |
| oan | goan | wish |
| ang | bang | dream |
| eng | teng | hard |
| ong | gong | dumb |
| iang | liang | bright |
| iong | iong | to use |
Notes: ien is often spoken without the i. Also, eng sounds similar to the first part of "English" (Engbuun).
Syllabic structure
A syllable in Taiwanese follows one of these two patterns:
- [consonant] + [nasal] vowel
- [consonant] + vowel + [nasal final consonant]
As a bare minimum, only a vowel is required. The items in the brackets are optional. We will explain below how every syllable has a distinct tone.
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 pitch is used to convey meaning. Many words are differentiated solely by tone. Learning to speak and hear the tones of Taiwanese correctly is often difficult for an English speaker. With practice you will be able to hear and speak them. Again most speakers of Taiwanese are not aware of the different tones but they can all understand you when you pronounce them correctly.
Taiwanese has seven tones: five long tones and two short tones.
| # | Tones | Description | MTL | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | High | level (55 or 44) | f (silent) | khaf (leg; foot) |
| 2 | Shouting | sharply downward (51) | r (silent) | ar (仔) |
| 3 | Low Falling | somewhat downward (31) | x (silent) | extaxng (to be able to) |
| 5 | Curving | mid, downward, then upward (24) | doubling of vowel | gaau (extraordinary) |
| 7 | Basic | mid-level (33) | default | toa |
| 8 | Short high | (5ʔ) | ends with h, p, t or k | ah (a box) |
| 4 | Short low | (3ʔ) | ends with q, b, d or g | aq (a duck) |
The letters f, r and x are silent tone indicators for long tones. Short tones always end with a stop (the ending letter tells both consonant and tone).
Long tones
Here are some common examples of the long tones:
| Tone | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| High | hiaf | there |
| Shouting | zar | early |
| Low Falling | zhaix | vegetable |
| Curving | hii | fish |
| Basic | si | is |
The tone indicators always come to the right of the vowel, with one exception. To indicate the curving tone of a compound vowel, normally its last letter is repeated. But when there is an a, it is the one repeated, even when it doesn't sit at the very end of the vowel. For example: gaau, jidthaau, na'aau.
Short tones
Here are some examples of the short tones:
| Pitch | -h | -p | -t | -k |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| high | ciah (to eat) | ap (a box) | lat (strength) | bak (ink) |
| low | phaq (to hit) | ciab (juice) | kad (knot) | kag (horn) |
The ending letter of a short tone tells both final consonant and pitch. Looking at the high short tones first: the h is a 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.
Special vowels
For certain vowels in certain tones, there are a few substitutions/shortcuts: five for the shouting-out tone, plus two in the high tone. There is also a shortcut for the curving tone of ø.
| Basic Vowel |
Tonal Vowel |
Special vowel (shortcut) |
Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ai | air | ae | hae | sea |
| i | ir | ie | lie | you |
| u | ur | uo | kuo | (of time) long |
| e | er | ea | bea | horse |
| au | aur | ao | kao | dog |
| i | if | y | y | he / she / it |
| u | uf | w | wtiu | universe |
| ø | øø | øo | kiøo | bridge |
Now that you've learned all the vowels and the tones, you might be interested in what we call a "final". This is the rear part of the syllable that includes everything except the initial consonant. So, in MTL, the final uniquely spells out the vowel, tone, and any consonant endings.
Counting only the basic and high-short tones, there are about 70 commonly-used finals. A complete table of all the finals in all tones is given here.
Tone sandhi
The basic unit of speech is the syllable, which can change tone depending on where it is spoken in a sentence. This is referred to as tone sandhi, which is extensive in Taiwanese.
If a syllable is spoken in the middle of a word, phrase or sentence, it changes tone according to the Tone Circle diagram. If a syllable is spoken at the end of a phrase or sentence, it does not change tone. Most nouns do not change tone.
These tone changes are probably by far the hardest part of learning Taiwanese.
Three special symbols
Apostrophe (')
When two syllables are put together, an apostrophe may be used to indicate a syllable boundary if there's any ambiguity. The rule in MTL is that letters are grouped into a syllable starting from the right. Here's one case where a consonant could be part of the first or second syllable.
Okix, meaning "black mole", comes from of (烏; "black") plus kix (痣; "mole"). We simply take the sandhi-modified first syllable (of -> o) and follow it by the second syllable, to get okix. Reading this word, we know the longest syllable starting from the right is kix.
But, there are two other syllables we could combine to get the same result. If we combine og (惡; "evil") and ix (意; "intention") without using an apostrophe, we would also get okix. Clearly, we don't want this. It looks like the k belongs with the second vowel i instead of o.
That's where the apostrophe comes in to save the day. By writing ok'ix with an apostrophe, we keep "evil intention", or "malice", distinct from the harmless okix.
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.
Backquote (`)
When a word contains a backquote, all the syllables after it are accented in a weaker, lower tone -- either a low-falling tone or a low stop. The tone of the syllable before the backquote remains unchanged.
Example:
- 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
- Practical Taiwanese Conversation
- Taiwanese-English Dictionaries
- Frequently-Used Syllables in Frequently-Used Words