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 Taiwanese alphabet. Some sounds have an approximation in English, while others may be less familiar. In the examples, we have underlined tone indicators that are silent, which we will explain later.
Consonants
| MTL | Approx. | Example | Meaning | More Examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| p | B / crispy | papaf | father | Taipag |
| ph | P (crisp) | phaq | to hit | |
| m | me | mi | noodle | |
| b | mumble | baq | meat | bin, bexbae |
| t | D (crisp) | tit | straight | Taioaan, tee |
| th | Thomas | theh | to take | |
| n | neat | nii | year | |
| l | Lima | laang | person | laai |
| k | gear | kaf | to add | ka'iuu, kafmsia |
| kh | key | khix | to go | khaothaau |
| h | heap | hii | fish | |
| g | gaggle | go | five | Gilaan, goar |
| c(i) | G | ciaf | here | |
| ch(i) | cheese | chiaf | car | |
| s(i) | she / sea | si | yes | |
| j(i) | Z | jit | day | Jidpurn, jidthaau |
| z | yards | zef | this | |
| zh | cats | zhaix | vegetable | zheq |
| s | Saul | svaf | three (3) | samparn |
| j | zoo | joah | hot |
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.
Note that s and j appear twice: these are slightly different when followed by an i vs other vowels.
Vowels
Single Vowels
| 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 |
The m can be both vowel and consonant.
Compound Vowels
These vowels are a combination of two 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 |
| øe | øe | to be able to (dialectal) |
| oai | koaix | weird |
Nasal Vowel
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 |
Ending vowel
Taiwanese has ending nasal vowel sounds using m, n and ng.
| MTL | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| -am | lam | to mix |
| -im | a'kim (akim) | 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 |
Syllabic structure
A syllable in Taiwanese follows one of these two patterns:
- [consonant] + [nasal] vowel
- [consonant] + vowel + [rear nasal ending]
A valid syllable only needs to have a vowel. The items in the brackets are optional.
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 the vowels are pronounced with a distinctive tone that relate a distinctive meaning. A vowel spoken with a different tones has different meanings. Learning to speak and hear the tones of Taiwanese correctly is often difficult for an English speaker since there are no tones in English. With practice you will be able to hear and speak it. Taiwanese has seven tones (Mandarin has four). Again most speakers of Taiwanese are not aware of the different tones but they can all understand it when you pronounce it.
| # | Tones | Description | MTL | Example (a-) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | High | high level tone | f | af |
| 2 | Shouting | start high, then sharp downward | r | ar |
| 3 | Low Falling | start mid then downward tone | x | ax |
| 5 | Curving | start mid level then down and up | doubling of vowel | aa |
| 7 | Basic | mid level tone | default | a |
| 8 | Short high | short high tone | ends with h, p, t or k | ah, ap, at, ak |
| 4 | Short low | short low tone | ends with q, b, d or g | aq, ab, ad, ag |
The tone indicators (f, x, r, etc) are placed after the vowel.
Examples of the seven tones:
| Tone | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| High | hiaf | there |
| Shouting | zar | early |
| Low Falling | zhaix | vegetable |
| Curving | hii | fish |
| Basic | si | is |
| Short high | ciah | to eat |
| Short low | phaq | to hit |
| Short high | hap | to close |
| Short low | ciab | to catch |
| Short high | kut | slippery |
| Short low | kud | bone |
| Short high | lok | deer |
| Short low | kog | country (kokkaf) |
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 | øo | øo | kiøo | bridge |
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, it may be necessary to indicate a syllable boundary with an apostrophe, given the rule that letters must be grouped into a syllable starting from the right.
Example: of + kix vs og + ix
Suppose we want to combine of, meaning “black”, with kix, meaning “mole”. We simply take the modified tone of the first syllable and follow it by the second syllable. The result is okix (meaning “black mole”). Following the rules of MTL reading, kix is the longest possible syllable starting from the right. Thus the first syllable is the simple vowel o and the second syllable is kix, and no apostrophe is needed.
If we combine og (“evil”) and ix (“intention”) without an apostrophe, we also get okix. By the rules of reading MTL, the final syllable appears to be kix. Therefore, we must insert an apostrophe (ok'ix) to indicate that the last syllable is ix. Now we know the first syllable is ok, which is the modified tone of og. The word ok'ix means “evil intention”.
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.
Back-quote (`)
When a word contains a back-quote, all the syllables after the back-quote are accented in a weaker, lower tone -- either a low-falling tone or a low stop. The tone of the syllable before the back-quote remains unchanged.
Example:
- File:Kviaf`sie.ogg kviaf`sie ((v.) to freak someone out) - kviaf keeps its high tone but sie is pronounced with a weakened low tone.
- File:Kviasie.ogg 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
- Introduction to Taiwanese Vocabulary
- Taiwanese-English Dictionaries