A Beginner's Guide to Taiwanese: Difference between revisions

A Beginner's Guide to Taiwanese (view source)

137 bytes added , 21:23, 29 December 2020

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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''' (from '''e''' + '''ng''') is a little 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}}''.