Pha̍k-fa-sṳ

Pha̍k-fa-sṳ (白話はくわ字じ) is an orthography similar to Pe̍h-ōe-jī and used to write Hakka, a variety of Chinese. Hakka is a whole branch of Chinese, and Hakka dialects are not necessarily mutually intelligible with each other, considering the large geographical region. This article discusses a specific variety of Hakka. The orthography was invented by the Presbyterian church in the 19th century. The Hakka New Testament published in 1924 is written in this system.

Writing system

Pha̍k-fa-sṳ uses a modified Latin alphabet (an additional double-dotted ṳ for the close central unrounded vowel /ɨ/) and some diacritics for tones. A single hyphen is added to indicate a compound.

History

Shortly after the missionaries of the Basel Missionary Society, Reverend Theodore Hamberg and Rudolf Lechler arrived in China in 1847, Hamberg and his colleagues began compiling the Hakka to English to Hakka to German dictionaries. Lechler was initially allocated the evangelizing work amongst the Shantou population, but because of opposition from the local authorities there, the Shantou mission was abandoned and he joined Hamberg in the mission work with the Hakka in 1852. After Hamberg died unexpectedly in 1854, Lechler continued with the dictionary work together with fellow missionary colleagues for over fifty years. During that time, Reverend Charles Piton also made several revisions to the dictionary.^[1]

The first publication of Romanized Hakka in Pha̍k-fa-sṳ was done by Donald MacIver (1852-1910) in 1905 at Shantou and was titled A Chinese-English dictionary : Hakka-dialect, as spoken in Kwang-tung province. He noted that some of the content was based on the dictionaries compiled by the previous Basel missionaries. However, the latter had used the Lepsius romanization, which was different from Pha̍k-fa-sṳ.^[2] MacIver made the changes to the dictionary, but he realised that Hakka vocabulary written by the Basel missionaries belonged to the Hakka dialects of southwestern Guangdong Province: Haifeng County, Lufeng County, Jiexi County and Wuhua County. On the other hand, MacIver's Hakka vocabulary was extracted from the northeastern part of Guangdong Province such as Jiaying Prefecture (now Meizhou).

Current system

Letters

Capital letters	A	Ch	Chh	E	F	H	I	K	Kh	L	M	N	Ng	O	P	Ph	S	T	Th	U	Ṳ	V	Y
Lowercase letters	a	ch	chh	e	f	h	i	k	kh	l	m	n	ng	o	p	ph	s	t	th	u	ṳ	v	y
Letter names	a	chi	chhi	e	fi	hi	i	ki	khi	li	mi	ni	ngi	o	pi	phi	si	ti	thi	u	ṳ	vi	yi

Consonants

Pha̍k-fa-sṳ	Extended bopomofo	IPA	Examples
p	ㄅ	p	pak-kûng 伯はく公こう
ph	ㄆ	pʰ	pha̍k-fa 白話はくわ
m	ㄇ	m	Mî-koet 美國びくに
f	ㄈ	f	fî-kî 飛ひ機き
v	ㄪ	ʋ	vùn-sṳ 文字もじ
t	ㄉ	t	tú-sṳ́ 肚笥
th	ㄊ	tʰ	thai-ngìn 大人おとな
n	ㄋ	n	nài-sâ 泥沙でいさ
l	ㄌ	l	lî-mà 鯉こい嬤
k	ㄍ	k	kâ-yèn 家か園えん
kh	ㄎ	kʰ	khiung-ha 共ども下か
ng(i)	ㄫ	ŋ/ɲ	ngiù-ngiuk 牛肉ぎゅうにく
h	ㄏ	h	heu-sâng 後生ごしょう
ch(i)	ㄗ/ㄐ	ts/tɕ	cho-tet 做得
chh(i)	ㄘ/ㄑ	tsʰ/tɕʰ	chhâ-é 車しゃ仔こ
s(i)	ㄙ/ㄒ	s/ɕ	se-ngìn 細ほそ人じん

Vowels

Pha̍k-fa-sṳ	Extended bopomofo	IPA
a	ㄚ	a
i	ㄧ	i
u	ㄨ	u
e	ㄝ	e
o	ㄛ	o
ṳ	ㄭ	ɨ
er	ㄜ	ɤ/ə
-p	ㆴ	p̚
-t	ㆵ	t̚
-k	ㆶ	k̚

Tone marks

Listed below are tone marks of Pha̍k-fa-sṳ with tone value of Sixian and Hailu dialects of Taiwanese Hakka:^[3]

Chinese Tone Name	Tone Mark	Diacritics	Examples	Sixian	Hailu
陰平かげひら yīnpíng	◌̂	circumflex	夫おっと fû	24	53
陽平ようへい yángpíng	◌̀	grave accent	扶 fù	11	55
上聲じょうせい shǎngshēng	◌́	acute accent	府ふ fú	31	24
陰かげ去さ yīnqù	(no mark)		富とみ fu	55	11
陽ひ去さ yángqù	◌̊	ring	護まもる fů	55	33
陰かげ入にゅう yīnrù	(no mark)		福ぶく fuk	2	5
陽ひ入にゅう yángrù	◌̍	vertical line	服ふく fu̍k	5	2

Comparison of Chinese and Taiwanese Pha̍k-fa-sṳ

Comparisons were made between The Hakka New Testament (1924) and the Hakka Bible: Today's Taiwan Hakka Version (2012). The former was published in Shantou, China, while the latter was published in Taiwan.

Initials

Below are rules for switching between Chinese and Taiwanese Pha̍k-fa-sṳ:^[4]

Comparison of Initials
Rules	Character	Chinese PFS	Taiwanese PFS
ny→ng	源みなもと	nyên	ngièn
sh→s	聖きよし	shìn	sṳn
ts→ch	做	tsò	cho
tsh→chh	自じ	tshṳ̀	chhṳ
kw→k	光ひかり	kwong	kông

Tone marks

The table below compares the tone marks of Chinese Pha̍k-fa-sṳ, Taiwanese Pha̍k-fa-sṳ, and Pe̍h-ōe-jī of Southern Min.

Comparison of Tone Marks of Pha̍k-fa-sṳ and Pe̍h-ōe-jī
Tone Name	Chinese PFS	Taiwanese PFS	Taiwanese POJ
陰平かげひら	a	â	a
陽平ようへい	â	à	â
陰かげ上じょう	á	á	á
陽ひ上じょう	á	á	(ǎ)
陰かげ去さ	à	a	à
陽ひ去さ	à	(å)	ā
陰かげ入いれ	ap	ap	ap
陽ひ入いれ	a̍p	a̍p	a̍p

Notes:

Taiwanese Hakka does not differentiate between 陰かげ上じょう (yīnshǎng) and 陽ひ上じょう (yángshǎng). Certain dialects (but not the standard) of Taiwanese Hokkien does have yángshǎng (ǎ).
Sixian Hakka does not differentiate between 陰かげ去さ (yīnqù) and 陽ひ去さ (yángqù), but Hailu does have yángqù (å).

References

^ An Insight into the Composition of the Hakka-English Dictionary (《客きゃく英えい大だい辭典じてん》海陸かいりく成なり份初探さがせ)
^ A Hakka index to the Chinese-English dictionary
^ 客きゃく家か語ご拼音聲調せいちょう表ひょう。收錄しゅうろく於客家か委員いいん會かい。(2019)。客語かくご能力のうりょく認證にんしょう基本きほん詞し彙－初級しょきゅう四よん縣けん腔(頁ぺーじ24)。
^ 劉りゅう敏さとし貞さだ. (2011). 比較ひかく兩りょう種たね客語かくご聖せい經けい譯本やくほん底そこ背せke語ご音おん差異さい—用よう汕頭客語かくご聖せい經けい譯本やくほんlâu現代げんだい客語かくご聖せい經けい譯本やくほん底そこ背せke約やく翰福音おん為ため例れい.

External links

[1] An Insight into the Composition of the Hakka-English Dictionary (《客きゃく英えい大だい辭典じてん》海陸かいりく成なり份初探さがせ)

[2] A Hakka index to the Chinese-English dictionary

[3] 客きゃく家か語ご拼音聲調せいちょう表ひょう。收錄しゅうろく於客家か委員いいん會かい。(2019)。客語かくご能力のうりょく認證にんしょう基本きほん詞し彙－初級しょきゅう四よん縣けん腔(頁ぺーじ24)。

[4] 劉りゅう敏さとし貞さだ. (2011). 比較ひかく兩りょう種たね客語かくご聖せい經けい譯本やくほん底そこ背せke語ご音おん差異さい—用よう汕頭客語かくご聖せい經けい譯本やくほんlâu現代げんだい客語かくご聖せい經けい譯本やくほん底そこ背せke約やく翰福音おん為ため例れい.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

Writing system

History

Current system

Letters

Consonants

Vowels

Tone marks

Comparison of Chinese and Taiwanese Pha̍k-fa-sṳ

Initials

Tone marks

See also

References

External links