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-oân

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

Example Derived terms

• Taioaan Haykiab
• Taioaan-laang

ZK

• 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.