A Beginner's Guide to Taiwanese: Difference between revisions

Most speakers of Taiwanese aren't aware that there are several writing systems for the language. ''[[Pe̍h-ōe-jī]]'' (POJ), also known as Church Romanization, might be the most popular romanization, though the government is now promoting a similar system called [[TRS]]. We're going to use MTL here because we found it very useful while studying Taiwanese at the [[Washington DC Taiwanese School]], and we think it could help you too. True, most Taiwanese speakers won't be able to read any of these systems, but they will probably understand you better because you learned one.

The three important parts of a syllable we will look at first are: starting consonant, vowel, and ending consonant. We will talk about tones later.  

A syllable can start with one of [[List of all initial consonants in MTL|18 initial consonants]]. Some sounds have an approximation in English, while others may be more exotic. For now, you can just ignore the silent indicators (mainly ''f'', ''r'', ''x'', ''v'').

* ''p'', ''k'', ''t'' are unvoiced, crisp but not aspirated  

* ''ph'', ''th'', ''kh'', ''ch'', and ''zh'' have a strong burst of breath

A syllable in Taiwanese can't go without having a vowel. [[:File:Seven Tones of Taiwanese.pdf|This chart, ''Seven Tones of Taiwanese'']], shows how to write any vowel in any tone. For now, just look at the basic tone, and the five categories: simple, compound, plus three categories ending in nasals.  

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.

Several vowels can be capped with a nasal final consonant, either ''m'', ''n'', or ''ng''.

 

* ''ien'' (from ia + n = ian) is often spoken without the ''i''

* ''eng'' sounds similar to the first part of "English" (''{{XL|Engbuun}}'')

These vowel sounds are made using your nose. Most vowels from the first two groups can be nasalized, indicated by the letter ''[[v]]'' (read like "you" in English but nasal), chosen because it looks like the Greek letter "nu" ({{wt|ν}}).

| vau || {{x|gvau}} || lotus root. see {{x|liengvau}}

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 beginners. 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.

As you may have noticed from the [[:File:Seven Tones of Taiwanese.pdf|''Seven Tones'' chart]], there are five long tones and two short tones.

[[File:af,_a,_ax,_ar,_aa,_ah,_aq.mp3|thumb|none|af, a, ax, ar, aa, ah, aq]]

! # !! Tones !! Description !! MTL !! Example

| 1 || high || level (55 or 44) || [[f]] (silent) || {{x|khaf}} (''leg''; ''foot'')

| 7 || basic || mid-level (33) || default || {{x|toa}} (big)

| 3 || low falling || somewhat downward (31) || [[x]] (silent)|| {{x|pax}} (''leopard'')

| 2 || shouting || sharply downward (51) || [[r]] (silent)|| {{x|ar}} ({{wt|仔}})

| 5 || curving || mid, downward, then upward (214) || doubling of vowel || {{x|gaau}} (''extraordinary'')  

| 8 || short high || (5ʔ) || ends with ''h'', ''p'', ''t'' or ''k''  || {{x|ah}} (''a box'')

| 4 || short low || (3ʔ) || ends with ''q'', ''b'', ''d'' or ''g'' || {{x|aq}} (''a duck'')

[[File:say, chviu, pax, hor, hiim, lok, piq.mp3|thumb|none|Animals: say, chviu, pax, hor, hiim, lok, piq (lion, elephant, leopard, tiger, bear, deer, snapping turtle)]]

| 1. high || {{x|hiaf}} || there

| 3. low-falling || {{x|zhaix}} || vegetable

| 2. shouting || {{x|zar}} || early

| 5. curving || {{x|hii}} || fish

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: ''{{x|gaau}}'', ''{{x|jidthaau}}'', ''{{x|na'aau}}''.

For certain vowels in certain tones, the following ornamental substitutions/shortcuts are used:

* [[shouting tone]]: ''ie'', ''uo'', ''ea'', ''ae'', ''ao'', when they end the syllable

* [[high tone]]: ''{{x|y}}, w'', (and ''{{x|ym}}'', ''{{x|yn}}'', ''{{x|wn}}'')

* curving-tone: ''øø'' -> ''{{x|øo}}'' (and ''iøø'' -> ''{{x|iøo}}'')

 

[[File:ie, uo, ea, ae, ao.mp3|thumb|none|ie, uo, ea, ae, ao]]

[[File:y w ym yn wn.mp3|thumb|none|y, w, ym, yn, wn]]

! Vowel^# !! Parts !! Substitution !! Example || Meaning

| i²  || i + r || {{x|ie}} || {{x|lie}} || you

| u²  || u + r || {{x|uo}} || {{x|kuo}} || (''of time'') long

| e²  || e + r || {{x|ea}}  || {{x|bea}} || horse

| ai²  || a + ie || {{x|ae}}  || {{x|hae}} || sea

| au²  || a + uo || {{x|ao}}  || {{x|kao}} || dog. nine

| i¹  || i + f || {{x|y}}  || {{x|y}}, {{x|yn}}, {{x|kym}} || he; she; it. they. gold

| u¹  || u + f || w || {{x|titw}}, {{x|zhwn}} || spider. spring season

| ø⁵  || ø + ø || {{x|øo}} || {{x|kiøo}} || bridge; eggplant

* [initial] + vowel + [nasal final consonant]

* [initial] + [nasal] vowel

where the brackets mean the initial consonant, nasal ''v'', or nasal final consonant (NFC) can be left out. Therefore:

* there is never "double nasal": ''v'', ''-m'', ''-n'', or ''-ng'' are mutually exclusive  

Finally, syllables usually aren't "double nasal", except for [[ng|various tones of ''mng'' and ''nng'']]. For example, ''ban'' and ''bang'' are valid, but ''man'' and ''mang'' are not valid.

The basic unit of speech is the syllable, which can change tone depending on its environment. This process of [[tone sandhi]], from the Sanskrit word for "joining", is extensive in Taiwanese.

When two syllables are put together, sometimes one letter might appear to be connected to the right syllable when it shouldn't be. The [[apostrophe]] is used to remove the ambiguity. For example:  

A [[hyphen]] is used to join two, or more isolated words to  

make a new compound word with its own meaning. When reading a hyphenated word, the syllable just before the hyphen should change tone. For example: {{XL|Taioaan}} + laang = [[Taioaan-laang]] (Taiwanese person)

* [[File:Kviaf`sie.mp3]] [[kviaf`sie]] ((v.) ''to freak someone out'') - ''kviaf'' keeps its high tone but ''sie'' is pronounced with a weakened low tone.  

* [[File:Kviasie.mp3]] [[kviasie]] ((adj.) ''scared of death'') – ''kviaf'' is pronounced with normal tone change from high to basic while ''sie'' is pronounced as a shouting tone. ''{{w|Kiasi}}'' is Hokkien phrase that describes the attitude of being overly afraid or timid.

== Further study ==

* [[:Category:PTC1|Practical Taiwanese Conversation Level 1]]

* [[Table of all finals in MTL]]

* [[Taiwanese-English dictionaries]]

* [http://learntaiwanese.org/Beginner's%20Guide%20to%20Taiwanese.html HTML version]

* Modern Literal Taiwanese Foundation (MLTF). [http://learntaiwanese.org/english/mtl.html Handbook]

* Liim Keahioong (1990). [http://www.edutech.org.tw/Text-Book/Textbook-1990.htm 台灣話現代文書法讀本''Textbook of Modern Literal Taiwanese'']. Tainan: 大夏.