Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols

Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols
Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols
Traditional Chinese	臺たい語ご方かた音おん符號ふごう
Simplified Chinese	台たい语方かた音おん符号ふごう
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Táiyǔ Fāngyīn Fúhào
Bopomofo	ㄊㄞˊ ㄩˇ ㄈㄤㄧㄣㄈㄨˊ ㄏㄠˋ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh	Tairyeu Fang'yin Fwuhaw
Wade–Giles	T'ai2-yü3 Fang1-yin1 Fu2-hao4
Tongyong Pinyin	Tái-yǔ Fang-yin Fú-hào
MPS2	Táiyǔ Fāngyīn Fúhàu
IPA	[tʰǎɪ.ỳ fáŋ.ín fǔ.xâʊ]
Hakka
Romanization	Thòi-ngî Fông-yîm Fù-ho
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ	Tâi-gí Hong-im Hû-hō
Tâi-lô	Tâi-gí Hong-im Hû-hō

Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols
Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols;
Script type	Semisyllabary (letters for onsets and rimes; diacritics for tones)
Creator	Chu Chao-hsiang, Taiwan NLC
Time period	1946 to the present, used as ruby characters in Taiwan
Languages	Hokkien, Hakka
Related scripts
Parent systems	Oracle bone script Seal script Clerical script Mandarin Phonetic Symbols Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols; ; ; ;
Sister systems	Simplified Chinese, Kanji, Hanja, Chữ Nôm, Khitan large script, Khitan small script
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Bopo (285), Bopomofo
Unicode
Unicode alias	Bopomofo
Unicode range	U+3100–U+312F, ; U+31A0–U+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 (Chinese: 臺たい語ご方かた音符おんぷ號ごう; 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]

Symbols

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)
ㄅ	ㆠ	ㄆ	ㄇ	ㄉ	ㄊ	ㄋ	ㄌ	ㄍ	ㆣ	ㄎ	ㄫ	ㄏ	ㄐ	ㆢ	ㄑ	ㄒ	ㄗ	ㆡ	ㄘ	ㄙ
[p]	[b]	[pʰ]	[m]	[t]	[tʰ]	[n]	[l]	[k]	[g]	[kʰ]	[ŋ]	[h]	[t͡ɕ]	[d͡ʑ]	[t͡ɕʰ]	[ɕ]	[t͡s]	[d͡z]	[t͡sʰ]	[s]
Final symbols (24)
ㄚ	ㆩ	ㆦ	ㆧ	ㄜ	ㆤ	ㆥ	ㄞ	ㆮ	ㄠ	ㆯ	ㆰ	ㆱ	ㆬ	ㄢ	ㄣ	ㄤ	ㆲ	ㄥ	ㆭ	ㄧ	ㆪ	ㄨ	ㆫ
[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 [p̚], ㆵ [t̚], ㆶ [k̚], 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

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

Initials
Group	Symbol	IPA	POJ	TL	BP	Notes	Example
Bilabial	ㄅ	[p]	p		b	Same value as in Mandarin	邊あたり (ㄅㄧㄢ pian)
	ㆠ	[b]	b		bb	Derived from ㄅ as a voiced counterpart	文ぶん (ㆠㄨㄣˊ bûn)
	ㄆ	[pʰ]	ph		p	Same value as in Mandarin	波なみ (ㄆㄜ pho)
	ㄇ	[m]	m		bbn	Same value as in Mandarin	毛もう (ㄇㆦ mo͘ )
Alveolar	ㄉ	[t]	t		d	Same value as in Mandarin	地ち (ㄉㆤ˫ tē)
	ㄊ	[tʰ]	th		t	Same value as in Mandarin	他た (ㄊㆩ thaⁿ)
	ㄋ	[n]	n		ln	Same value as in Mandarin	耐たい (ㄋㄞ˫ nāi)
	ㄌ	[l]	l		l	Same value as in Mandarin	柳やなぎ (ㄌㄧㄨˋ liú)
Velar	ㄍ	[k]	k		g	Same value as in Mandarin	求もとむ (ㄍㄧㄨˊ kiû)
	ㆣ	[g]	g		gg	Derived from ㄍ as a voiced counterpart	語かたり (ㆣㄧˋ gí)
	ㄎ	[kʰ]	kh		k	Same value as in Mandarin	去さ (ㄎㄧ˪ khì)
	ㄫ	[ŋ]	ng		ggn	Once appeared in old Mandarin	雅みやび (ㄫㄚˋ ngá)
Glottal	ㄏ	[h]	h		h	Different value to Mandarin, in Mandarin [x]	喜き (ㄏㄧˋ hí)
Alveolo- palatal	ㄐ	[t͡ɕ]	chi	tsi	zi	Same value as in Mandarin	尖とんが(ㄐㄧㆰ tsiam)
	ㆢ	[d͡ʑ]	ji		zzi	Derived from ㄐ as a voiced counterpart	入いれ (ㆢㄧㆴ. ji̍p)
	ㄑ	[t͡ɕʰ]	chhi	tshi	ci	Same value as in Mandarin	手て (ㄑㄧㄨˋ tshiú)
	ㄒ	[ɕ]	si		si	Same value as in Mandarin	寫うつし (ㄒㄧㄚˋ siá)
Alveolar	ㄗ	[t͡s]	ch	ts	z	Same value as in Mandarin	曾 (ㄗㄢ chan)
	ㆡ	[d͡z]	j		zz	Derived from ㄗ as a voiced counterpart	熱ねつ (ㆡㄨㄚㆷ. jua̍h)
	ㄘ	[t͡sʰ]	chh	tsh	c	Same value as in Mandarin	出で (ㄘㄨㆵ chhut)
	ㄙ	[s]	s		s	Same value as in Mandarin	衫 (ㄙㆩ saⁿ)

Rhymes and medials
Group	Symbol	IPA	POJ	TL	BP	Notes	Example
Vowels	ㄚ	[a]	a		a	Same value as in Mandarin	查 (ㄘㄚ cha)
	ㆩ	[ã]	aⁿ	ann	na	Derived from ㄚ as a nasalized counterpart	衫 (ㄙㆩ saⁿ)
	ㆦ	[ɔ]	o͘	oo	oo	New symbol solely used in Taiwanese, derived from ㄛ	烏がらす (ㆦ o͘ )
	ㆧ	[ɔ̃]	oⁿ	onn	noo	Derived from ㆦ as a nasalized counterpart	翁おう (ㆧ oⁿ)
	ㄜ	[ə]	o		o	Different value from Mandarin, in Mandarin [ɰɤ]. May written as ㄛ and pronounced [o] in some dialects	高こう (ㄍㄜ ko)
	ㆤ	[e]	e		e	New symbol solely used in Taiwanese	禮れい (ㄌㆤˋ lé)
	ㆥ	[ẽ]	eⁿ	enn	ne	Derived from ㆤ as a nasalized counterpart	生せい (ㄙㆥ seⁿ)
Diph- thongs	ㄞ	[ai]	ai		ai	Same value as in Mandarin
	ㆮ	[ãĩ]	aiⁿ	ainn	nai	Derived from ㄞ as a nasalized counterpart
	ㄠ	[ɑu]	au		ao	Same value as in Mandarin	𠢕 (ㆣㄠˊ gâu)
	ㆯ	[ɑ̃ũ]	auⁿ	aunn	nao	Derived from ㄠ as a nasalized counterpart, rarely used
M finals	ㆰ	[am]	am		am	A combination of ㄚ and ㄇ	暗くら (ㆰ˪ ām)
	ㆱ	[ɔm]	om		om	A combination of ㆦ and ㄇ, rarely used	掩 (ㆱ om)
	ㆬ	[m̩]	m		m	Derived from ㄇ. May be used as a final bilabial nasal or a syllabic consonant	姆 (ㆬˋ ḿ)
N finals	ㄢ	[an]	an		an	Same value as in Mandarin
N finals	ㄣ	[n]	-n		-n	Only used in the finals ㄧㄣ, ㄨㄣ. ㄧㄣ has same value as in Mandarin. ㄨㄣ is pronounced as [un] unlike [wən] in Mandarin	因いん (ㄧㄣ in)
Ng finals	ㄤ	[aŋ]	ang		ang	Same value as in Mandarin	人ひと (ㄌㄤˊ lâng)
	ㆲ	[ɔŋ]	ong		ong	New symbol solely used in Taiwanese	王おう (ㆲˊ ông)
	ㄥ	[əŋ]	-ng		-ng	Only used in the final ㄧㄥ.	英えい (ㄧㄥ eng)
	ㆭ	[ŋ̍]	ng		ng	Derived from ㄫ. May be used as a final velar nasal or a syllabic consonant	酸さん (ㄙㆭ sng)
Medial vowels	ㄧ	[i]	i		i	Same value as in Mandarin	衣ころも (ㄧ i)
	ㆪ	[ĩ]	iⁿ	inn	ni	Derived from ㄧ as a nasalized counterpart	圓えん (ㆪˊ îⁿ)
	ㄨ	[u]	u/o^[a]	u	u	Same value as in Mandarin	污 (ㄨ u)
	ㆫ	[ũ]	uⁿ	unn	nu	Derived from ㄨ as a nasalized counterpart. Only used in the final ㄧㆫ [ĩũ]	張ちょう (ㄉㄧㆫ tiuⁿ)

^ Written as ⟨o⟩ when followed by an ⟨a⟩ (ㄚ) or ⟨e⟩ (ㆤ), as in the finals ⟨oa⟩, ⟨oe⟩ and ⟨oai⟩ (ㄨㄞ). Written as ⟨u⟩ elsewhere.

Other features

Combined rhymes

Vowel(s)	Open syllables		Nasal			Plosive
Vowel(s)	Open syllables		[m]	[n]	[ŋ]	[p̚]	[t̚]	[k̚]	[ʔ]
[a]	ㄚ	ㆩ	ㆰ	ㄢ	ㄤ	ㄚㆴ	ㄚㆵ	ㄚㆻ	ㄚㆷ	ㆩㆷ
[ai]	ㄞ	ㆮ							ㄞㆷ	ㆮㆷ
[au]	ㄠ								ㄠㆷ
[e]	ㆤ	ㆥ							ㆤㆷ	ㆥㆷ
[i]	ㄧ	ㆪ	ㄧㆬ	ㄧㄣ	ㄧㄥ	ㄧㆴ	ㄧㆵ	ㄧㆻ	ㄧㆷ	ㆪㆷ
[ia]	ㄧㄚ	ㄧㆩ	ㄧㆰ	ㄧㄢ	ㄧㄤ	ㄧㄚㆴ	ㄧㄚㆵ	ㄧㄚㆻ	ㄧㄚㆷ	ㄧㆩㆷ
[iau]	ㄧㄠ	ㄧㆯ							ㄧㄠㆷ
[iə]	ㄧㄜ								ㄧㄜㆷ
[iɔ]					ㄧㆲ			ㄧㆦㆻ
[iu]	ㄧㄨ	ㄧㆫ							ㄧㄨㆷ	ㄧㆫㆷ

Vowel(s)	Open syllables		Nasal			Plosive
Vowel(s)	Open syllables		[m]	[n]	[ŋ]	[p̚]	[t̚]	[k̚]	[ʔ]
[ə]	ㄛ								ㄛㆷ
[ɔ]	ㆦ	ㆧ	ㆱ		ㆲ	ㆦㆴ		ㆦㆻ	ㆦㆷ	ㆧㆷ
[u]	ㄨ			ㄨㄣ			ㄨㆵ		ㄨㆷ
[ua]	ㄨㄚ	ㄨㆩ		ㄨㄢ			ㄨㄚㆵ		ㄨㄚㆷ
[uai]	ㄨㄞ	ㄨㆮ
[ue]	ㄨㆤ								ㄨㆤㆷ
[ui]	ㄨㄧ
[m̩]	ㆬ		－						ㆬㆷ
[ŋ̍]	ㆭ		－						ㆭㆷ

Tones

Tone No.	1	2(6)	3	4	5	7	8
Name	陰平かげひら	上聲じょうせい	陰かげ去さ	陰かげ入いれ	陽平ようへい	陽ひ去さ	陽ひ入いれ
Name	im-pîng	siōng-siann	im-khì	im-ji̍p	iông-pîng	iông-khì	iông-ji̍p
Symbol	none	ˋ	˪	ㄅ, ㄉ, ㄍ, ㄏ	ˊ	˫	ㄅ̇, ㄉ̇, ㄍ̇, ㄏ̇
Pitch	˥	˥˩	˧˩	˧ʔ	˨˦	˧	˥ʔ
Pitch	55	51	31	3ʔ	24	33	5ʔ
Example	ㄉㆲ (東ひがし)	ㄉㆲˋ (黨とう)	ㄉㆲ˪ (棟むね)	ㄉㆦㆻ (督とく)	ㄉㆲˊ (同どう)	ㄉㆲ˫ (洞ほら)	ㄉㆦㆻ̇ (毒どく)

Example

Audio File:	Sound file^ⓘ
Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols:	ㄒㄧㄢㄒㆪ ㄍㆲˋ, ㄏㄚㆻ̇ ㄒㄧㄥㄉㄧㆰ˫ 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:	先生せんせい講こう、學生がくせい恬恬聽。
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 (台灣たいわん話ばなし). Synonyms would be 安靜あんせい or 靜靜しずしず. 先生せんせい, 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)
	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A	B	C	D	E	F
U+310x						ㄅ	ㄆ	ㄇ	ㄈ	ㄉ	ㄊ	ㄋ	ㄌ	ㄍ	ㄎ	ㄏ
U+311x	ㄐ	ㄑ	ㄒ	ㄓ	ㄔ	ㄕ	ㄖ	ㄗ	ㄘ	ㄙ	ㄚ	ㄛ	ㄜ	ㄝ	ㄞ	ㄟ
U+312x	ㄠ	ㄡ	ㄢ	ㄣ	ㄤ	ㄥ	ㄦ	ㄧ	ㄨ	ㄩ	ㄪ	ㄫ	ㄬ	ㄭ	ㄮ	ㄯ
Notes 1.^ As of Unicode version 15.1 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)
	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A	B	C	D	E	F
U+31Ax	ㆠ	ㆡ	ㆢ	ㆣ	ㆤ	ㆥ	ㆦ	ㆧ	ㆨ	ㆩ	ㆪ	ㆫ	ㆬ	ㆭ	ㆮ	ㆯ
U+31Bx	ㆰ	ㆱ	ㆲ	ㆳ	ㆴ	ㆵ	ㆶ	ㆷ	ㆸ	ㆹ	ㆺ	ㆻ	ㆼ	ㆽ	ㆾ	ㆿ
Notes 1.^ As of Unicode version 15.1

Font support

The Academia Sinica of Taiwan has released three sets of fonts for Taiwanese Hokkien: "吳ご守まもる禮れい標しるべ楷台語ご注ちゅう音字おんじ型がた", "吳ご守まもる禮れい細ほそ明あかり台だい語ご注ちゅう音字おんじ型がた", and "吳ご守まもる禮れい台だい語ご注ちゅう音字おんじ型がた".^[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 "破やぶ音おと" fonts to find the desired pronunciation. The user manual can be downloaded here.^[9]

References

^ 吳ご守まもる禮れい, 吳ご昭あきら新しん. 華はな、台たい語ご注ちゅう音符おんぷ號ごう溯源さくげん.
^ 方ほう音符おんぷ號ごう系統けいとう(Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols) 臺たい語ご方かた音符おんぷ號ごう拼音方案ほうあん使用しよう手しゅ冊さつ(閩南語ご音標おとしべ系統けいとう) [Practical Manual for the Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols] (in Chinese). ROC Ministry of Education. 2001.
^ ^a ^b Bopomofo Extended (Version 13.0). Unicode Version-Specific Code Charts. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
^ "Taiwanese Hakka Romanization System" (臺灣たいわん客きゃく家か語ご拼音方案ほうあん). 2009. Ministry of Education, Taiwan.
^ ^a ^b "Hakka Romanization System" (客きゃく家か語ご拼音方案ほうあん使用しよう手しゅ冊さつ). 2012. Ministry of Education, Taiwan.
^ Yang, B., & Chan, E. (2019). L2/19-177R Proposal to encode Cantonese Bopomofo Characters.
^ Tung, B., Ko, B., Wei, S. (2018). L2/18-255 Proposal to fix glyphs in Bopomofo Extended block and encode one Bopomofo letter.
^ 吳ご守まもる禮れい台だい語ご注ちゅう音字おんじ型がた。中央ちゅうおう研究けんきゅう院いん。
^ 中研ちゅうけん院いん資し訊所。(2013)。吳ご守まもる禮れい台だい語ご注ちゅう音字おんじ型がた說明せつめい。

External links

教育きょういく部ぶ方かた音符おんぷ號ごう系統けいとう^{[dead link]}
吳ご守まもる禮れい, 吳ご昭あきら新しん. "華はな、台たい語ご注ちゅう音符おんぷ號ごう總そう表ひょう"
吳ご守まもる禮れい, 吳ご昭あきら新しん. "台たい語ご七なな種しゅ拼音法ほう對照たいしょう表ひょう"
吳ご昭あきら新しん. "台たい語ご注ちゅう音符おんぷ號ごう二に式しき"

[6] Written as ⟨o⟩ when followed by an ⟨a⟩ (ㄚ) or ⟨e⟩ (ㆤ), as in the finals ⟨oa⟩, ⟨oe⟩ and ⟨oai⟩ (ㄨㄞ). Written as ⟨u⟩ elsewhere.

[1] 吳ご守まもる禮れい, 吳ご昭あきら新しん. 華はな、台たい語ご注ちゅう音符おんぷ號ごう溯源さくげん.

[2] 方ほう音符おんぷ號ごう系統けいとう(Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols) 臺たい語ご方かた音符おんぷ號ごう拼音方案ほうあん使用しよう手しゅ冊さつ(閩南語ご音標おとしべ系統けいとう) [Practical Manual for the Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols] (in Chinese). ROC Ministry of Education. 2001.

[Bopomofo13.0-3] Bopomofo Extended (Version 13.0). Unicode Version-Specific Code Charts. Retrieved 12 March 2020.

[Hakka98-4] "Taiwanese Hakka Romanization System" (臺灣たいわん客きゃく家か語ご拼音方案ほうあん). 2009. Ministry of Education, Taiwan.

[Hakka101-5] "Hakka Romanization System" (客きゃく家か語ご拼音方案ほうあん使用しよう手しゅ冊さつ). 2012. Ministry of Education, Taiwan.

[7] Yang, B., & Chan, E. (2019). L2/19-177R Proposal to encode Cantonese Bopomofo Characters.

[8] Tung, B., Ko, B., Wei, S. (2018). L2/18-255 Proposal to fix glyphs in Bopomofo Extended block and encode one Bopomofo letter.

[9] 吳ご守まもる禮れい台だい語ご注ちゅう音字おんじ型がた。中央ちゅうおう研究けんきゅう院いん。

[10] 中研ちゅうけん院いん資し訊所。(2013)。吳ご守まもる禮れい台だい語ご注ちゅう音字おんじ型がた說明せつめい。

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