Taai-oaan (Harnji)

Taai-oaan (Harnji: 臺灣/臺員/臺圓; Taioaan)

How do I say this?

• Put taai (curving-up tone) together with oaan (also curving-up)
• We write this as Taioaan, because the curving-up tone converts to basic tone due to tone sandhi.
• Modern Literal Taiwanese is inclined to the Ciangciw-oe variant. Taioaan (IPA: tai˧˧uan˧˥)
  • You will also hear the Zoanciw-oe "accent" in the north of Taiwan. Taixoaan (IPA: tai˨˩uan˧˥)

How do I write this?

• Traditional Chinese: 臺灣 (variant: 台灣)
• Simplified Chinese and Japanese: 台湾
• POJ: Tâi-oân
• MLT: Taioaan

Details

• "Taiwan" derives from the ethnonym of a tribe in the southwest part of the island
• 1684: Taiwan Prefecture (臺灣府) was established
• In Taiwanese, "灣" is usually read oafn (high tone/#1), not oaan (curving up tone/#5).
• Other phonetic transliterations include 大員, 大圓, 臺員, 臺圓, and 大灣. 員 and 圓 are read as oaan (buun readings).
• See also: Køelaang, Bafngkaq, Pangkiøo

Example Derived terms

• Taioaan Haykiab
• Taioaan-laang

Zhamkhør

• Governor-General of Taiwan (1931-1932). "Tâi-oân (臺灣)", in Ogawa Naoyoshi, ed. 臺日大辭典 [Taiwanese-Japanese Dictionary] (in Japanese and Taiwanese) 2. Taihoku: 同府 [Dōfu]. p. 14.