Lie hør! Welcome to LearnTaiwanese.Org! (Li1hø2!)
Taiwanese is a beautiful and musical language spoken in Taiwan and amongst Taiwanese people around the world. This guide will provide you with a brief introduction to the spoken language as well as a writing system. We will write all of the Taiwanese in this web page in a system called Modern Taiwanese Language (MTL).
*Note: Most speakers of Taiwanese are not aware that there are established ways to phonetically write down the language. While there is not a single widely adopted system for the written form of the language (not even in Harnji), MTL is a very useful tool for learning Taiwanese. There are several other systems in use in Taiwan, such as Pe̍h-ōe-jī (POJ), Daighi tongiong pingim, and Taiwanese Romanization System. Unfortunately most Taiwanese speakers will not be able to read any of these phonetic systems but they will understand it when you read it.
Let's start with the consonants.
| MTL | English sound equivalent | example | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| p | 'b' as in bear | papaf | father |
| ph | 'p' as in poor | phaq | hit |
| m | 'm' as in mom | mi | noodle |
| b | deeper lower 'b' sound | baq | meat |
| t | 'd' as in dare | tit | straight |
| th | 't' as in take | theh | take |
| n | 'n' as in nut | nii | year |
| l | 'l' as in learn | laang | person |
| k | 'g' as in get | kaf | add |
| kh | 'c' as in cow | khix | go |
| h | 'h' as in help | hii | fish |
| g | deeper lower 'g' sound | go | five |
| c | 'j' as in jeep | ciaf | here |
| ch | 'ch' as in cheese | chiaf | car |
| s | 'sh' as in shoe | si | yes |
| j | short buzzing “zzzz” sound | jit | day |
| z | 'ds' as in yards | zef | this |
| zh | 'ts' as in its | zhaix | vegetable |
| s | 's' as in sam | svaf | 3 |
| j | 'z' as in grazing | joah | hot |
The 'k' vs. 'g' as well as the 'p' vs. 'b' may be hard to differentiate at first. The 'g' and the 'b' are voiced, meaning that you try to pronounce the sound before you say the consonant and make it deep and low in your throat. The 'k' and 'p' are unvoiced, not as aspirated as in English but do have a distinct click or pop.
Note that "j" and "s" appear twice: these are slightly different when followed by an "i" vs other vowels.
| MTL | English sound equivalent | example | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | 'a' as in ma | ka | bite |
| i | 'y' as in yes | ti | chopsticks |
| u | 'w' as in want | u | have |
| e | 'ay' as in hay | ke | low |
| o | 'o' as in or | lo | road |
| ø | hør | good | |
| m | nasal "m" sound with mouth closed | m | no |
| ng | hng | far |
The 'm' can be both vowel and consonant.
These vowels are a combination of two vowel sounds.
| MTL | English sound equivalent | example | English |
| ai | 'igh' as in sigh | lai | sharp |
| au | 'ow' as in cow | au | back |
| ia | 'yah' as in yah | ia | spread |
| iu | chviu | elephant | |
| iø | kiøo | bridge | |
| iau | 'eow' as in meow | liau | material/stuff |
| ui | 'wii' as in 'wii' | ui | stomach |
| oa | toa | big | |
| oe | hoe | meeting | |
| øe | øe | able | |
| oai | koaix | weird |
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 | English sound equivalent | example | English |
| va | thvaf | other | |
| vi | hvi | ear | |
| ve | gve | stiff | |
| vo | gvo | comprehend | |
| vai | vai | carry on back | |
| vau | gvau | the lotus root | |
| via | thviaf | listen | |
| viu | sviu | think | |
| viau | gviau | itchy | |
| voa | voa | exchange | |
| voay | kvoay mngg | close the door |
Taiwanese has ending nasal vowel sounds using the 'm' 'n' and 'ng'.
| MTL | English sound equivalent | example | English |
| -am | lam | mix | |
| -im | kim | aunt | |
| -iam | liam | nagging | |
| -an | ban | slow | |
| -in | kin | near | |
| -un | tun | dull | |
| -ien | lien | practice | |
| -oan | goan | wish | |
| -ang | bang | dream | |
| -eng | teng | hard | |
| -ong | gong | dumb | |
| -iang | liang | bright | |
| -iong | iong | use |
A word or sound unit in Taiwanese is either a
[Consonant] + [nasal] vowel
[Consonant] + vowel + [rear nasal ending]
The brackets mean the consonant, nasal or rear nasal ending can be left out.
Taiwanese, like Mandarin, is a tonal language which means that the vowel 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 listen for the tones correctly is 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 7 tones (mandarin has 4). 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | MTL | English |
| Basic | si | is |
| High | hiaf | there |
| Low Falling | zhaix | vegetable |
| Shouting | zar | early |
| Curving | hii | fish |
| Short high | ciah | eat |
| Short low | phaq | hit |
| Short high | hap | close |
| Short low | ciab | catch |
| Short high | kut | slippery |
| Short low | kud | bone |
| Short high | lok | deer |
| Short low | kog | country |
In MTL there are a few special letters for certain tones.
MTL special vowels | ||
| air | becomes | ae |
| ir | becomes | ie |
| ur | becomes | uo |
| er | becomes | ea |
| aur | becomes | ao |
| if | becomes | y |
| uf | becomes | w |
| øø | becomes | øo |
A word or sound unit is a called a syllable. A syllable changes tone depending on where it is spoken in a sentence. If a syllable is spoken in the middle of a word, phrase or sentence, it changes tone according to the Tone Circle diagram below. If a syllable is spoken at the end of a phrase or sentence, it does not change tones. Most nouns do not change tone.
The different tones and the tone changes (sandhi) in Taiwanese are by far the hardest part of learning Taiwanese.
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”.
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.
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:
Kviaf`sie (scary) - the kviaf is pronounced without any tone changes while the sie is pronounced with a weakened low tone.
Kviaf-sie (scared of dying) – the kviaf is pronounced with normal tone change from high to basic while sie is pronounced as a shouting tone. See Kiasi.