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. IPA: tai˧˧uan˧˥ 🔊
- You will also hear the Zoanciw-oe "accent" in the north of Taiwan. IPA: tai˨˩uan˧˥ 🔊
How do I write this?
- Official Mandarin: 臺灣
- Unofficial Mandarin: 台灣
- Simplified Chinese and Japanese: 台湾
- MTL: Taioaan
- POJ: Tâi-ôan
Details
- The name "Taiwan" is derived from the ethnonym of a tribe in the southwest part of the island.
- Use of the current Chinese name 臺灣 was formalized as early as 1684 with the establishment of Taiwan Prefecture.
- However, in Taiwanese, "灣" is usually read oafn 🔊 (high tone/#1), not oaan 🔊 (curving up tone/#5).
- Thus it appears that Taioaan is more closely related to historical variants 臺員 and 臺圓, where 員 and 圓 are both properly read as oaan 🔊 (buun readings).
- You will find other cases where Taiwanese does not quite align with written Harnji: Køelaang, Bafngkaq, Pangkiøo