A Beginner's Guide to Taiwanese: Difference between revisions

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 '''''Li<u>e</u> hø<u>r</u>!''''' [[Taiwanese Hokkien|Taiwanese]] is a beautiful and musical language spoken in [[Taioaan|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 the [[Modern Literal Taiwanese]] writing system, which we call MTL for "Modern Taiwanese Language".
-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.
+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 ''[[Tâi-lô]]''. 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.
 == How to make a syllable ==
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 === Initial consonants ===
-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'').
+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'', ''x'', ''r'', ''v'').
 [[File:Initial_consonants.mp3|thumb|none|Consonants]]
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 | {{x|iong}} || {{x|iong}} || to use
 |}
+Some pointers:
-* ''ien'' (from ia + n = ian) is often spoken without the ''i''
+* '''ien''' (from '''ia''' + '''n''' = '''ian'''): used to sound like "yan", then "yen", now usually "en"
-* ''eng'', used to sound like ''e'' + ''ng'', ([[:File:Greetings to the Universe in 55 Different Languages - amoy.ogg|listen]]), now more like ''ieng''
+* '''eng''' (from '''e''' + '''ng'''): used to sound as written, now is a little more like "ieng", but not quite "ing"
 ==== Nasal vowels ====
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 [[File:Tone Circles.png|right|frame|The seven tones, and how they change due to tone sandhi.]]
-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.
+The basic unit of speech is the syllable, which can change tone depending on its environment. This process is generally called [[tone sandhi]] ("sandhi" is from the Sanskrit word for "joining") and in Taiwanese the rules for it are extensive.
 Generally, a syllable inside of a word changes tone according to the Tone Circles. For example, the single-syllable word for "duck" (bird): ''{{x|aq}}''. Its original tone is low-short. After adding the suffix ''{{x|ar}}'', the tone becomes high-short: ''{{x|ah'ar}}''.