An Introduction to Taiwanese Vocabulary

Introduction

Modern Taiwanese has extensive colloquial vocabulary from Old Chinese (ca. start of common era) as well as literary vocabulary from the eras of the Tang Dynasty (ca. 618-907) and South Song Dynasty (1127-1279). However, it is still not natural for many people to write modern Taiwanese with Han characters. Until the late 19th century, educated Taiwanese speakers wrote solely in literary Chinese. Where Han characters have been used to record spoken Taiwanese, they are not always etymological or genetic; the borrowing of similar-sounding or similar-meaning characters is a common practice. The lack of a written standard and the difficulty in learning the relatively complicated Han characters posed a great barrier to written record of Taiwanese speech.

A system of writing Taiwanese using Latin characters called POJ, meaning "vernacular writing", was developed in the 19th century. The indigenous Presbyterian Church in Taiwan has been active in promoting the language since the late 19th century. In 1945, Professor Liim Keahioong, formerly of the Cheng-Kung University in Taiwan, pioneered a system based on POJ called the Taiwanese Modern Spelling System (TMSS), which evolved into Modern Literal Taiwanese (MLT). This page uses MLT to write Taiwanese.

Review of Tones in MLT

Sample phrases

More Common Phrases

Han Chinese

Harnji used differently than Mandarin

Mixed Han and Roman

Bach Viet and Austronesian

The West

English

Dutch

Japanese

Place Names

The Spanish came in 1626, built Fort Santo Domingo on the northwest coast of Taiwan near Keelung, which they occupied until 1642 when they were driven out by a joint Dutch-Aborigine invasion force. Some Taiwan place names come from Spanish. The Modern Hanji may have been influenced by Japanese.

Spanish	MLT	Old Hanji	Kanji/Modern Hanji	Modern English
Santo Domingo	Samkiøh'erng	三角湧	三峽鎮	Sansia Township, southwestern part of Taipei County
San Diego	Samtiaukag	三貂腳	三貂角	Cape of San Diego, eastern part of Taipei County

Here are some Taiwanese terms that come from Spanish:

Modern Spanish	MLT	English
jabón	satbuun	soap
col	kølezhaix	cabbage

Miscellaneous

Literary vs. Colloquial: The Numbers

Examples:

• (L) Chviafmng larn hiaf si safm kiuo sux, gvor khoxng, liok pad? = Question, is this 3945068?
• (L) Itkiuo Kiwpad Nii, Siegøeh Zhøezap= 1998, April 10th
• (C) Zap zhuix, kao khazhngf. = 10 mouths, 9 bottoms.

Directional Words

Some Taiwanese Sayings

U Tngsvoaf Kofng, bøo Tngsvoaf Mar. (有唐山公、無唐山媽)
Literally, "Have Tangshan grandfathers, but not Tangshan grandmothers."
Meaning: "We have Chinese forefathers but no Chinese foremothers."

Sva'hwn laang, chit'hwn zngf. (三分人，七分妝)
Three parts nature, seven parts makeup.

Zhawmeh'ar lang køekafng. (草蜢仔弄雞公)
Grasshopper teases a cock...making a provocation does one in.

More Proverbs here

References

• Wikipedia: Taiwanese Hokkien
• Wikipedia: Hokkien
• 台語是甚物?, 臺灣字ABC : 臺語基礎教材, 張復聚, 王淑珍. 台語傳播企業有限公司, 2001. (ISBN: 9579886180)
• 羅馬字是台灣母語的救星, 張復聚
• 台灣母語是什麼？, 張復聚
• 地名解說集錦