Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols

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Script type (letters for onsets and rimes; diacritics for tones)
Period
1946 to the present, used as ruby characters in Taiwan
Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols
Script type (letters for onsets and rimes; diacritics for tones)
CreatorChu Chao-hsiang, Taiwan NLC
Period
1946 to the present, used as ruby characters in Taiwan
LanguagesTaiwanese Hokkien, Hakka
Related scripts
Parent systems
Sister systems
Simplified Chinese, Kanji, Hanja, Chữ Nôm, Khitan large script, Khitan small script
ISO 15924
ISO 15924Bopo (285), Bopomofo
Unicode
Unicode alias
Bopomofo
U+3100U+312F,
U+31A0U+31BF
 This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and  , see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols
Traditional Chinese臺語方音符號
Simplified Chinese台语方音符号
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinTáiyǔ Fāngyīn Fúhào
Bopomofoㄊㄞˊ ㄩˇ ㄈㄤ ㄧㄣ ㄈㄨˊ ㄏㄠˋ
Gwoyeu RomatzyhTairyeu Fang'yin Fwuhaw
Wade–GilesT'ai2-yü3 Fang1-yin1 Fu2-hao4
Tongyong PinyinTái-yǔ Fang-yin Fú-hào
MPS2Táiyǔ Fāngyīn Fúhàu
IPA[tʰǎɪ.ỳ fáŋ.ín fǔ.xâʊ]
Hakka
RomanizationThòi-ngî Fông-yîm Fù-ho
Southern Min
Hokkien POJTâi-gí Hong-im Hû-hō
Tâi-lôTâi-gí Hong-im Hû-hō
Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols

Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols (Chinese: 臺語方音符號; TPS: ㄉㄞˊ ㆣ丨ˋ ㄏㆲ 丨ㆬ ㄏㄨˊ ㄏㄜ˫) constitute a system of phonetic notation for the transcription of Taiwanese languages, especially Taiwanese Hokkien. The system was designed by Professor Chu Chao-hsiang, a member of the National Languages Committee in Taiwan, in 1946.[1] The system is derived from Mandarin Phonetic Symbols by creating additional symbols for the sounds that do not appear in Mandarin phonology. It is one of the phonetic notation systems officially promoted by Taiwan's Ministry of Education.[2]

Images

There are 49 symbols used in standard Taiwanese Hokkien. Of these 49 symbols, 26 are from the original Mandarin Phonetic Symbols, while 23 are additional, created for Taiwanese languages.

Initial symbols (21)
[p][b][pʰ][m][t][tʰ][n][l][k][ɡ][kʰ][ŋ][h][t͡ɕ][d͡ʑ][t͡ɕʰ][ɕ][t͡s][d͡z][t͡sʰ][s]
Final symbols (24)
[a][ã][ɔ][ɔ̃][ə][e][ẽ][ai][ãĩ][ɑu][ɑ̃ũ][am][ɔm][m̩][an][ən][aŋ][ɔŋ][əŋ][ŋ̍][i][ĩ][u][ũ]
  • The symbols in blue do not exist in Mandarin phonology.
  • Four voiceless consonants ㄅ, ㄉ, ㄍ, ㄏ may be written in small form to represent the unreleased coda, as in ㆴ [], ㆵ [], ㆶ [], ㆷ [ʔ]. However, due to technical errors, the coda symbol for ㄍ was mistaken as ㄎ. Unicode encoded ㆻ (31BB) in its version 13.0, and added a note under ㆶ (31B6), indicating 31BB is preferred.[3]
  • Some extra symbols are used in other Taiwanese dialects: ㄬ [ɲ], ㄛ [o], ㄝ [ɛ], ㆨ [ɨ].

Images below are a collection of Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols:

  • For Taiwanese Hokkien and Taiwanese Hakka: , , , , , , ,
  • For Taiwanese Hakka only: ,
  • For Taiwanese Hokkien only: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
  • For Mandarin only: , , ,
  • For Taiwanese Hakka and Mandarin: , , , ,
  • represents [x] in Mandarin and [h] in Taiwanese Hokkien and Taiwanese Hakka.
  • / represent [ɛ]/[e] in Taiwanese Hokkien respectively, but they represent [e]/[ɛ] in Taiwanese Hakka.[4][5]
  • Vowel [ɨ] is represented with in Hokkien and in Hakka.[5]

Etymology

Other features

Combined rhymes

Vowel(s)Open syllablesNasalPlosive
[m][n][ŋ][p̚][t̚][k̚][ʔ]
[a] ㄚㆴㄚㆵㄚㆻㄚㆷㆩㆷ
[ai] ㄞㆷㆮㆷ
[au] ㄠㆷ
[e] ㆤㆷㆥㆷ
[i] ㄧㆬㄧㄣㄧㄥㄧㆴㄧㆵㄧㆻㄧㆷㆪㆷ
[ia] ㄧㄚㄧㆩㄧㆰㄧㄢㄧㄤㄧㄚㆴㄧㄚㆵㄧㄚㆻㄧㄚㆷㄧㆩㆷ
[iau] ㄧㄠㄧㆯㄧㄠㆷ
[iə] ㄧㄜㄧㄜㆷ
[iɔ] ㄧㆲㄧㆦㆻ
[iu] ㄧㄨㄧㆫㄧㄨㆷㄧㆫㆷ
Vowel(s)Open syllablesNasalPlosive
[m][n][ŋ][p̚][t̚][k̚][ʔ]
[ə] ㄜㆷ
[ɔ] ㆦㆴㆦㆻㆦㆷㆧㆷ
[u] ㄨㄣㄨㆵㄨㆷ
[ua] ㄨㄚㄨㆩㄨㄢㄨㄚㆵㄨㄚㆷ
[uai] ㄨㄞㄨㆮ
[ue] ㄨㆤㄨㆤㆷ
[ui] ㄨㄧ
[m̩] ㆬㆷ
[ŋ̍] ㆭㆷ

Tones

Tone No. 12(6)34578
Name 陰平陰上陰去陰入陽平陽去陽入
im-piânnim-siōngim-khìim-ji̍piông-piânniông-khìiông-ji̍p
Symbol noneˋ˪, , , ˊ˫ㄅ̇, ㄉ̇, ㄍ̇, ㄏ̇
Pitch ˥˥˩˧˩˧ʔ˨˦˧˥ʔ
4451312433
Example ㄉㆲ ()ㄉㆲˋ ()ㄉㆲ˪ ()ㄉㆦㆻ ()ㄉㆲˊ ()ㄉㆲ˫ ()ㄉㆦㆻ̇ ()

Example

Audio File:Sound file
Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols: ㄒㄧㄢ ㄒㆪ ㄍㆲˋ, ㄏㄚㆻ̇ ㄒㄧㄥ ㄉㄧㆰ˫ ㄉㄧㆰ˫ ㄊㄧㆩ
IPA:[ ɕɪɛn˧ ɕĩ˥ kɔŋ˥˩ hak̚˧ ɕiəŋ˥ tɪam˧ tɪam˧ tʰĩã˥ ]
Pe̍h-ōe-jī:Sian-siⁿ kóng, ha̍k-seng tiām-tiām thiaⁿ.
Tâi-lô:Sian-sinn kóng, ha̍k-sing tiām-tiām thiann.
Traditional Chinese:先生講、學生恬恬聽。
Hanyu Pinyin:Xiān shēng jiǎng, xué shēng tián tián tīng.
Translation:A teacher is speaking. Students are quietly listening.

Note: 恬恬 is Taiwanese Hokkien (台灣話). Synonyms would be 安靜 or 靜靜. 先生, in this context, means "teacher".

Unicode support

The Mandarin Phonetic Symbols were added to the Unicode Standard in October 1991 with the release of version 1.0. The Unicode block for Mandarin Phonetic Symbols is U+3100 ... U+312F.

Bopomofo[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)
 0123456789ABCDEF
U+310x
U+311x
U+312x
Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 17.0
2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

The extended phonetic symbols were added to the Unicode Standard in September 1999 with the release of version 3.0. The Unicode block for the extended symbols is U+31A0 ... U+31BF. Four symbols for Cantonese and one for Minnan and Hakka coda were released in 2020 with the publication of version 13.0.[3] One can learn more information from the proposals.[6][7]

Bopomofo Extended[1]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)
 0123456789ABCDEF
U+31Ax
U+31Bx
Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 17.0

Font support

The Academia Sinica of Taiwan has released three sets of fonts for Taiwanese Hokkien: "吳守禮標楷台語注音字型", "吳守禮細明台語注音字型", and "吳守禮台語注音字型".[8] When the above fonts are used (to Chinese characters), the Bopomofo Phonetic Symbols will automatically appear. For words with more than one pronunciation, user can choose "破音" fonts to find the desired pronunciation. The user manual can be downloaded here.[9]

See also

References

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