Taiwanese Hokkien

Taiwanese Hokkien
臺語 Tâi-gí / Tâi-gú[I]
Native to	Taiwan
Ethnicity	Hoklo Taiwanese
Native speakers	13.5 million (2017)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Proto-Sino-Tibetan Old Chinese[a] Proto-Min Southern Min Hokkien
Tâi-lô, Pe̍h-ōe-jī), Kana
Official status
Official language in	Taiwan [b]
Regulated by	Ministry of Education in Taiwan
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nan
Glottolog	taib1242  Taibei Hokkien
Linguasphere	79-AAA-jh
Proportion of residents aged 6 or older using Hokkien at home in Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen & Matsu in 2010[10]
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Taiwanese Minnan
Traditional Chinese	臺灣閩南語
Hokkien POJ	Tâi-oân Bân-lâm-gí / Bân-lâm-gú
Transcriptions Tâi-lô Tâi-uân Bân-lâm-gí / Bân-lâm-gú
Taiwanese dialect
Traditional Chinese	臺灣話
Hokkien POJ	Tâi-oân-ōe
Transcriptions Tâi-lô Tâi-uân-uē
Taiwanese
Traditional Chinese	臺語
Hokkien POJ	Tâi-gí / Tâi-gú
Transcriptions Tâi-lô Tâi-gí / Tâi-gú

Taiwanese Hokkien (

.

Taiwanese is generally similar to Hokkien spoken in

to the Taiwanese variety of Hokkien, especially since the 1980s.

Classification

Taiwanese Hokkien is a variety of

Regional variations within the Taiwanese variant may be traced back to Hokkien variants spoken in Southern Fujian, specifically those from

language families; however, such claims are controversial.

The literary form of Hokkien once flourished in

]

History and formation

Spread of Hokkien to Taiwan

During the Yuan dynasty, Quanzhou became a major international port for trade with the outside world.^[24] From that period onwards, many people from the Hokkien-speaking regions (southern Fujian) started to emigrate overseas due to political and economic reasons. One of the destinations for the emigrants was the island of Taiwan (formerly Formosa), starting around 1600. They brought with their native Hokkien language with them.

During the late

In 1624, the number of Chinese on the island was about 25,000.

at the time.

Development and divergence

In 1624 and 1626, the Dutch and Spanish forces occupied the Tainan and Keelung areas, respectively. During the 40 years of Dutch colonial rule of Taiwan, the Dutch recruited many Chinese from the regions around Quanzhou and Zhangzhou in southern Fujian to help develop Taiwan.

In the 1661

.

In 1683, Chinese admiral

(until 1895).

In the first decades of the 18th century, the linguistic differences between the Qing imperial bureaucrats and the commoners were recorded by the Mandarin-speaking first Imperial High Commissioner to Taiwan (1722), Huang Shujing:

In this place, the language is as

birdcall – totally unintelligible! For example: for the surname Liú, they say 'Lâu'; for Chén, 'Tân'; Zhuāng, 'Chng'; and Zhāng is 'Tioⁿ'. My deputy's surname Wú becomes 'Ngô͘'. My surname Huáng

does not even have a proper vowel: it is 'N̂g' here! It is difficult to make sense of this.
(郡中鴃舌鳥語，全不可曉。如：劉呼「澇」、陳呼「澹」、莊呼「曾」、張呼「丟」。余與吳待御兩姓，吳呼作「襖」，黃則無音，厄影切，更為難省。)

— Records from the mission to Taiwan and its Strait, Volume II: "On the area around Fort Provintia, Tainan" (臺海使槎錄 卷二 赤嵌筆談)

The tone of Huang's message

and colonial establishments over the next few centuries.

During the 200 years of Qing dynasty rule, thousands of immigrants from

aborigines

, and even between those who spoke different variants of Hokkien.

In the early 20th century, the

Zhangzhou

-speaking) were dominant in the south and perhaps the central plains as well.

Although there were conflicts between Quanzhou- and Zhangzhou speakers in Taiwan historically, their gradual

During the Japanese colonial rule of Taiwan, Taiwan began to hold Amoy Hokkien as its standard pronunciation; the Japanese called this mixture Taiwanese (臺灣語, Taiwango).^[33]

Due to the influx of Japanese loanwords before 1945 and the political separation after 1949,^[

slightly.

Modern times

Later, in the 20th century, the conceptualization of Taiwanese was more controversial than most variations of Chinese because, at one time, it marked a clear division between the

arrived in 1949 and the pre-existing majority native Taiwanese. Although the political and linguistic divisions between the two groups have blurred considerably, the political issues surrounding the Taiwanese have been more controversial and sensitive than for other varieties of Chinese

.

After the

, "autobicycle", motorcycle). All of these caused the Taiwanese to deviate from Hokkien used elsewhere.

During Kōminka of the late Japanese colonial period, the Japanese language appeared in every corner of Taiwan. The Second Sino-Japanese War beginning in 1937 brought stricter measures into force, and along with the outlawing of romanized Taiwanese, various publications were prohibited and Confucian-style private schools which taught Classical Chinese with literary Southern Min pronunciation – was closed down in 1939.^[35] Taiwanese thus was reduced to a common daily language.^[36] In 1937 the colonial government introduced a concept called "National Language Family" (国語の家), which meant that families that proved that they adopted Japanese as their daily language enjoyed benefits such as greater access to education.^[37]

After the handover of Taiwan to the

Only after the lifting of

The history of the Taiwanese variety of Hokkien and its interaction with Mandarin is complex and, at times, controversial, even regarding its name. The language has no official name in Taiwan.[40] Some dislike the name "Taiwanese" as they feel that it belittles other languages spoken on the island such as Mandarin, Hakka, and the indigenous languages. Others prefer the names Southern Min, Minnan or Hokkien as this views Taiwanese as a form of the Chinese variety spoken in Fujian province in mainland China. Others dislike those names for precisely the same reason.^{[citation needed]} In the American Community Survey run by the United States Census Bureau, Taiwanese was referred to as "Formosan" from 2012 to 2015 and as "Min Nan Chinese" since 2016.^[41]

Phonology

, a final consonant, and a tone.

Consonants

Initials

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Alveolo -palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		/m/ m ㄇ	/ n / n ㄋ		/ŋ/ ng ㄫ
Stop	voiced	/b/ b ㆠ			/ɡ/ g ㆣ
	tenuis	/p/ p ㄅ	/ t / t ㄉ		/k/ k ㄍ
	aspirated	/pʰ/ ph ㄆ	/tʰ/ th ㄊ		/kʰ/ kh ㄎ
Affricate	voiced		/dz/ j ㆡ	/dʑ/ j(i) ㆢ
	tenuis		/ts/ ch, ts ㄗ	/tɕ/ ch(i), ts(i) ㄐ
	aspirated		/tsʰ/ chh, tsh ㄘ	/tɕʰ/ chh(i), tsh(i) ㄑ
Fricative			/s/ s ㄙ	/ɕ/ si ㄒ		/h/ h ㄏ
Liquid			/ l/~/ɾ / l ㄌ

Finals

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	/m/ -m	/ n / -n	/ŋ/ -ng	/◌̃/ -ⁿ
Plosive	/p̚/ -p ㆴ	/t̚/ -t ㆵ	/k̚/ -k ㆻ	/ʔ/ -h ㆷ

Unlike many other varieties of Chinese such as Mandarin and

/).

1. Coronal affricates and fricatives become alveolo-palatal before /i/, that is, /dzi/, /tsi/, /tsʰi/, and /si/ are pronounced [dʑi], [tɕi], [tɕʰi], and [ɕi].
2. The consonant /dz/ may be realized as a fricative; that is, as [z] in most environments and [ʑ] before /i/.
3. The
   plosive consonants and their fricatives in Spanish
   .

Vowels

Taiwanese has the following vowels:

	Front		Central		Back			Syllabic consonant
	Oral	Nasal	Oral	Nasal	Oral	Nasal
Close	/i/ i ㄧ	/ĩ/ iⁿ ㆪ			/u/ u ㄨ	/ũ/ uⁿ ㆫ		/m̩/ m ㆬ	/ŋ̍/ ng ㆭ
Mid	/e/ e ㆤ	/ẽ/ eⁿ ㆥ	/ə/ ~ /o/ o ㄜ, ㄛ		/ɔ/ o͘ ㆦ	/ɔ̃/ oⁿ ㆧ
Open			/a/ a ㄚ	/ã/ aⁿ ㆩ

The vowel ⟨o⟩ is akin to a

, and many other languages.

There are two pronunciations of vowel ⟨o⟩. In the south (e.g., Tainan and Kaohsiung) it is [ə]; in the north (e.g., Taipei) it is [o]. Due to the development of transportation and communication, both pronunciations are common and acceptable throughout the country.

/i/ is a diphthong [iə] before -k or -ng (POJ: ek, eng), and is slightly shortened and retracted before -p or -t to something more like [í̞]. Similarly, /u/ is slightly shortened and retracted before -t or -n to something more like [ʊ].^[42]

Tones

In the traditional analysis, there are eight "tones", numbered from 1 to 8. Strictly speaking, there are only five tonal contours. But as in other Sinitic languages, the two kinds of stopped syllables are also considered to be tones and assigned numbers 4 and 8. Words of tone 6 merge into tone seven in most Taiwanese variants, and thus duplicated in the count. Here the eight tones are shown, following the traditional tone class categorization, named after the tones of Middle Chinese:

Taiwanese tones^[43]

Tone number	Name	POJ accent	Pitch in Taipei	Description	Pitch in Tainan	Description
1	Yin Level (陰平)	a	/á/ = /a˥/ (55)	High	/á/ = /a˦/ (44)	High
2 (6)	Rising (上聲)	á	/â/ = /a˥˩/ (51)	Falling	/â/ = /a˥˧/ (53)	High Falling
3	Yin Departing (陰去)	à	/à/ = /a˧˩/ to /˨˩/ (21)	Low Falling	/à/ = /a˩/ (11)	Low
4	Yin Entering (陰入)	ah	/āʔ/ = /aʔ˧˨/ (32)	Mid Stopped	/àʔ/ = /aʔ˨˩/ (21)	Low Stopped
5	Yang Level (陽平)	â	/ǎ/= /a˩˦ ~ a˨˦/ (24)	Rising	/ǎ/ = /a˨˦/ (25)	Rising
7	Yang Departing (陽去)	ā	/ā/ = /a˧/ (33)	Mid	/ā/ = /a˨/ (22)	Mid
8	Yang Entering (陽入)	a̍h	/áʔ/ = /aʔ˦/ (4)	High Stopped	/áʔ/ = /aʔ˥/ (5)	High Stopped

See (for one example) the modern phonological analysis in Chiung (2003), which challenges these notions.

For tones 4 and 8, a final consonant ⟨p⟩, ⟨t⟩, or ⟨k⟩ may appear. When this happens, it is impossible for the syllable to be nasal. Indeed, these are the counterpart to the nasal final consonants ⟨m⟩, ⟨n⟩, and ⟨ng⟩, respectively, in other tones. However, it is possible to have a nasal 4th or 8th tone syllable such as ⟨siahⁿ⟩, as long as there is no final consonant other than ⟨h⟩.

In the dialect spoken near the northern coast of Taiwan, there is no distinction between tones number 8 and number 4 – both are pronounced as if they follow the tone sandhi rules of tone number 4.

Tone number 0, typically written with two consecutive hyphens (--a) or a point (·a) before the syllable with this tone, is used to mark

denoting the extent of a verb action, the end of a noun phrase, etc. A frequent use of this tone is to denote a question, such as in "Chia̍h-pá--bōe?", literally meaning 'Have you eaten yet?'. This is realized by speaking the syllable with either a low-falling tone (3) or a low stop (4). The syllable prior to the ⟨--⟩ maintains its original tone.

Syllabic structure

A syllable requires a vowel (or diphthong or triphthong) to appear in the middle. All consonants can appear at the initial position. The consonants ⟨p, t, k⟩ and ⟨m, n, ng⟩ (and some consider ⟨h⟩) may appear at the end of a syllable. Therefore, it is possible to have syllables such as ⟨ngiau⟩ ("(to) tickle") and ⟨thng⟩ ("soup").

Tone sandhi

Taiwanese has extremely extensive

The following syllables are unaffected by tone sandhi:

• The final syllable in a
  question word
  (i.e., who, what, how).
• The syllable immediately preceding the
  possessive particle
  的 (ê) or a neutralized tone. In POJ, this is the syllable before a double hyphen, e.g., 王先生 (Ông--sian-siⁿ)
• Some common aspect markers: 了 (liáu), 好 (hó), 完 (oân), 煞 (soah)

Normal tone sandhi

The following rules, listed in the traditional pedagogical mnemonic order, govern the pronunciation of tone on each of the syllables affected (that is, all but those described according to the rules listed above):

• If the original tone number is 5, pronounce it as tone number 3 (Quanzhou/Taipei speech) or 7 (Zhangzhou/Tainan speech).
• If the original tone number is 7, pronounce it as tone number 3.
• If the original tone number is 3, pronounce it as tone number 2.
• If the original tone number is 2, pronounce it as tone number 1.
• If the original tone number is 1, pronounce it as tone number 7.
• If the original tone number is 8 and the final consonant is not h (that is, it is p, t, or k), pronounce it as tone number 4.
• If the original tone number is 4 and the final consonant is not h (that is, it is p, t, or k), pronounce it as tone number 8.
• If the original tone number is 8 and the final consonant is h, pronounce it as tone number 3.
• If the original tone number is 4 and the final consonant is h, pronounce it as tone number 2.

An example of the normal tone sandhi rule is:

老老 lao lao: 7 + 7 = 7 + 3

拍拍 phah phah: 4 + 4 = 2 + 4

Normal tone sandhi (IPA)

Tone number	Sandhi	Taipei	Tainan
5	tang5⁻3 / tang5⁻7	[taŋ˨˦꜔꜖]	[taŋ˨˦꜕]
7	tang7⁻3	[taŋ˧꜔꜖]	[taŋ˨꜖]
3	tang3⁻2	[taŋ˧˩꜒꜖]	[taŋ˩꜒꜔]
2	tang2⁻1	[taŋ˥˩꜒]	[taŋ˥˧꜓]
1	tang1⁻7	[taŋ˥꜔]	[taŋ˦꜕]
8	tak8⁻4	[tak˦꜔꜕]	[tak˥꜕꜖]
	tah8⁻3	[taʔ˦꜔꜖]	[taʔ˥꜖]
4	tak4⁻8	[tak˧˨꜓]	[tak˨˩꜒]
	tah4⁻2	[taʔ˧˨꜒꜖]	[taʔ˨˩꜒꜔]

Double tone sandhi

There are a number of a single syllable words that undergo double tone sandhi, that is, they follow the tone change rule twice and are pronounced according to the second tone change. These syllables are almost always a 4th tone ending in -h, and include the words 欲 (beh), 佮 (kah), 閣 (koh), 才 (chiah), as well as the 3rd tone verb 去 khì. As a result of following the tone change rule twice, these syllables are all pronounced as tone number 1.

Double tone sandhi (IPA)

Tone number	Sandhi	Taipei	Tainan
4	kah⁴⁻¹	[kaʔ˧˨꜒]	[kaʔ˨˩꜓]
3	khi³⁻¹	[kʰi˧˩꜒]	[kʰi˩꜓]

Before the -á suffix

Apart from the normal tone sandhi rules described above, there are two special cases where a different set of tone sandhi apply.^[46] In a noun with the noun suffix '仔' (á), the penultimate syllable is governed by the following rules:

• If the original tone number is 5, pronounce it as tone number 7.
• If the original tone number is 7, pronounce it as tone number 7.
• If the original tone number is 2 or 3, pronounce it as tone number 1.
• If the original tone number is 1, pronounce it as tone number 7.(same as normal)
• If the original tone number is 8 and final consonant is not h (that is, it is p, t, or k), pronounce it as tone number 4.(same as normal)
• If the original tone number is 4 and final consonant is not h (that is, it is p, t, or k), pronounce it as tone number 8.(same as normal)
• If the original tone number is 8 and final consonant is h, pronounce it as tone number 7.
• If the original tone number is 4 and final consonant is h, pronounce it as tone number 1. (same as double)

Tone sandhi before -á (IPA)

Tone number	Sandhi	Taipei	Tainan
5	tang⁵⁻⁷	[taŋ˨˦꜔]	[taŋ˨˦꜕]
7	tang⁷⁻⁷	[taŋ˧꜔]	[taŋ˨꜕]
3	tang³⁻¹	[taŋ˧˩꜒]	[taŋ˩꜓]
2	tang²⁻¹	[taŋ˥˩꜒]	[taŋ˥˧꜓]
1	tang¹⁻⁷	[taŋ˥꜔]	[taŋ˦꜕]
8	tak⁸⁻⁴	[tak˦꜔꜕]	[tak˥꜕꜖]
	tah⁸⁻⁷	[taʔ˦꜔]	[taʔ˥꜕]
4	tak⁴⁻⁸	[tak˧˨꜓]	[tak˨˩꜒]
	tah⁴⁻¹	[taʔ˧˨꜒]	[taʔ˨˩꜓]

In triplicated adjectives

Finally, in the case of a single-syllable adjective

(for added emphasis), the first syllable is governed by the following rules (the second syllable follows the normal tone sandhi rules above):

• If the original tone number is 5, pronounce it as tone number 5.
• If the original tone number is 7, pronounce it as tone number 1.
• If the original tone number is 3, pronounce it as tone number 2 (same as normal).
• If the original tone number is 2, pronounce it as tone number 1 (same as normal).
• If the original tone number is 1, pronounce it as tone number 5.
• If the original tone number is 8 and the final consonant is not h (that is, it is p, t, or k), pronounce it as tone number 4 (same as normal).
• If the original tone number is 4 and the final consonant is not h (that is, it is p, t, or k), pronounce it as tone number 8 (same as normal).
• If the original tone number is 8 and the final consonant is h, pronounce it as tone number 5.
• If the original tone number is 4 and the final consonant is h, pronounce it as tone number 2 (same as normal).

Triplicated tone sandhi (IPA)

Tone number	Sandhi	Taipei	Tainan
5	tang⁵⁻⁵	[taŋ˨˦꜕꜓]	[taŋ˨˦꜕꜓]
7	tang⁷⁻¹	[taŋ˧꜒]	[taŋ˨꜓]
3	tang³⁻²	[taŋ˧˩꜒꜖]	[taŋ˩꜒꜔]
2	tang²⁻¹	[taŋ˥˩꜒]	[taŋ˥˧꜓]
1	tang¹⁻⁵	[taŋ˥꜕꜓]	[taŋ˦꜕꜓]
8	tak⁸⁻⁴	[tak˦꜔꜕]	[tak˥꜕꜖]
	tah⁸⁻⁵	[taʔ˦꜕꜓]	[taʔ˥꜕꜓]
4	tak⁴⁻⁸	[tak˧˨꜓]	[tak˨˩꜒]
	tah⁴⁻²	[taʔ˧˨꜒꜖]	[taʔ˨˩꜒꜔]

See Tiuⁿ (2001), Chiung (2003) and the work of Robert L. Cheng (鄭良偉; Tēⁿ Liông-úi)^[47] for modern linguistic approaches to tones and tone sandhi in Taiwanese.

Watch this video by 阿勇台語 (Aiong Taigi) for a more in depth look at the triplicated tone sandhi with examples.

Lexicon

Modern linguistic studies (by Robert L. Cheng and Chin-An Li, for example) estimate that most (75% to 90%) Taiwanese words have cognates in other Sinitic languages. False friends do exist; for example, cháu (走) means "to run" in Taiwanese, whereas the Mandarin cognate, zǒu, means "to walk". Moreover, cognates may have different lexical categories; for example, the morpheme phīⁿ (鼻) means not only "nose" (a noun, as in Mandarin bí) but also "to smell" (a verb, unlike Mandarin).

Among the apparently cognate-less words are many basic words with properties that contrast with similar-meaning words of pan-Chinese derivation. Often the former group lacks a standard Han character, and the words are variously considered colloquial, intimate, vulgar, uncultured, or more concrete in meaning than the pan-Chinese synonym. Some examples: lâng (人 or 儂, person, concrete) vs. jîn (人, person, abstract); cha-bó͘ (查某, woman) vs. lú-jîn (女人, woman, literary). Unlike the English Germanic/Latin contrast, however, the two groups of Taiwanese words cannot be as strongly attributed to the influences of two disparate linguistic sources.

Extensive contact with the

borrowed from Japanese, notably te̍k from teki (的) and ka from ka (か), show up in the Taiwanese of older speakers.

Whereas Mandarin attaches a syllabic suffix to the singular pronoun to make a collective form, Taiwanese pronouns are collectivized through nasalization. For example, i (he/she/it) and goá (I) become in (they) and goán (we), respectively. The -n thus represents a subsyllabic morpheme. Like all other varieties of Chinese, Taiwanese does not have true grammatical plurals.

Unlike English, Taiwanese has two

). The inclusive lán may be used to express politeness or solidarity, as in the example of a speaker asking a stranger "Where do we live?" while implicitly asking "Where do you live?".

Syntax

The

) is possible with particles. Take a simple sentence for example: 'I hold you.' The words involved are: goá ('I' or 'me'), phō ('to hold'), lí ('you').

• Subject–verb–object (typical sequence): The sentence in the typical sequence would be: Goá phō lí. ('I hold you.')
• Subject–kā–object–verb: Another sentence of roughly equivalent meaning is Goá kā lí phō, with the slight connotation of 'I take you and hold' or 'I get to you and hold'.
• Object hō͘ subject–verb (the passive voice): Then, Lí hō͘ goá phō means the same thing but in the passive voice, with the connotation of 'You allow yourself to be held by me' or 'You make yourself available for my holding'.

With this, more complicated sentences can be constructed: Goá kā chúi hō͘ lí lim ('I give water for you to drink': chúi means 'water'; lim is 'to drink').

This article can only give a few very simple examples on the syntax, for flavour. Linguistic work on the syntax of Taiwanese is still a (quite nascent) scholarly topic being explored.

Scripts and orthographies

Until the late 19th century, Taiwanese speakers wrote mostly in

. (For additional romanized systems, see references in "Orthography in Latin characters", below.) Nonetheless, Taiwanese speakers nowadays most commonly write in Mandarin, though many of the same characters are also used to write Taiwanese.

Han characters

In most cases, Taiwanese speakers write using the

, meaning 'What the hell are you looking at?') has very little meaning in Mandarin and may not be readily understood by a Taiwanese monolingual, as knowledge of Mandarin character readings is required to fully decipher it.

In 2007, the

In 2008, the ministry published a second list of 100 characters, and in 2009 added 300 more, giving a total of 700 standardized characters used to write uniquely Taiwanese words. With increasing literacy in Taiwanese, there are currently more Taiwanese online bloggers who write Taiwanese online using these standardized Chinese characters. Han characters are also used by Taiwan's Hokkien literary circle for Hokkien poets and writers to write literature or poetry in Taiwanese.

Orthography in Latin characters

There are several Latin-based orthographies, the oldest being

symbols, but letters instead.

In POJ, the traditional list of letters is

a b ch chh e g h i j k kh l m n ng o o͘ p ph s t th (ts) u

Twenty-four in all, including the obsolete ⟨ts⟩, which was used to represent the modern ⟨ch⟩ at some places. The additional necessities are the nasal symbol ⟨ⁿ⟩  (superscript ⟨n⟩; the uppercase form ⟨^N⟩ is sometimes used in all caps texts,^[52] such as book titles or section headings), and the tonal diacritics. POJ was developed first by

; they have been active in promoting the language since the late 19th century. Recently there has been an increase in texts using a mixed orthography of Han characters and romanization, although these texts remain uncommon.

In 2006, the

It is unclear whether the community will adopt this new agreement.

Orthographies in kana and in bopomofo

There was an orthography of Taiwanese based on the Japanese kana during Japanese rule. The Kuomintang government also tried to introduce an orthography in bopomofo.

Comparison of orthographies

Here the different orthographies are compared:

Vowels

IPA

a

ap

at

ak

aʔ

ã

ɔ

ɔk

ɔ̃

ə

o

e

ẽ

i

iɛn

iəŋ

Pe̍h-ōe-jī

a

ap

at

ak

ah

aⁿ

o͘

ok

oⁿ

o

o

e

eⁿ

i

ian

eng

Revised TLPA

a

ap

at

ak

ah

aN

oo

ok

ooN

o

o

e

eN

i

ian

ing

TLPA

a

ap

at

ak

ah

ann

oo

ok

oonn

o

o

e

enn

i

ian

ing

BP

a

ap

at

ak

ah

na

oo

ok

noo

o

o

e

ne

i

ian

ing

MLT

a

ab/ap

ad/at

ag/ak

aq/ah

va

o

og/ok

vo

ø

ø

e

ve

i

ien

eng

DT

a

āp/ap

āt/at

āk/ak

āh/ah

ann/aⁿ

o

ok

onn/oⁿ

or

or

e

enn/eⁿ

i

ian/en

ing

Taiwanese kana

アア

アㇷ゚

アッ

アㇰ

アァ

アア

オオ

オㇰ

オオ

オオ

ヲヲ

エエ

エエ

イイ

イェヌ

イェン

Extended bopomofo

ㄚ

ㄚㆴ

ㄚㆵ

ㄚㆶ

ㄚㆷ

ㆩ

ㆦ

ㆦㆶ

ㆧ

ㄜ

ㄛ

ㆤ

ㆥ

ㄧ

ㄧㄢ

ㄧㄥ

Tâi-lô

a

ap

at

ak

ah

ann

oo

ok

onn

o

o

e

enn

i

ian

ing

Example (traditional Chinese)

亞 洲

壓 力

警 察

沃 水

牛 肉

三 十

烏 色

中 國

澳 洲

澳 洲

下 晡

醫 學

鉛 筆

英 國

Example (simplified Chinese)

亚 洲

压 力

警 察

沃 水

牛 肉

三 十

乌 色

中 国

澳 洲

澳 洲

下 晡

医 学

铅 笔

英 国

Vowels

IPA

iək

ĩ

ai

aĩ

au

am

ɔm

m̩

ɔŋ

ŋ̍

u

ua

ue

uai

uan

ɨ

(i)ũ

Pe̍h-ōe-jī

ek

iⁿ

ai

aiⁿ

au

am

om

m

ong

ng

u

oa

oe

oai

oan

i

(i)uⁿ

Revised TLPA

ik

iN

ai

aiN

au

am

om

m

ong

ng

u

ua

ue

uai

uan

ir

(i)uN

TLPA

ik

inn

ai

ainn

au

am

om

m

ong

ng

u

ua

ue

uai

uan

ir

(i)unn

BP

ik

ni

ai

nai

au

am

om

m

ong

ng

u

ua

ue

uai

uan

i

n(i)u

MLT

eg/ek

vi

ai

vai

au

am

om

m

ong

ng

u

oa

oe

oai

oan

i

v(i)u

DT

ik

inn/iⁿ

ai

ainn/aiⁿ

au

am

om

m

ong

ng

u

ua

ue

uai

uan

i

(i)unn/uⁿ

Taiwanese kana

イェㇰ

イイ

アイ

アイ

アウ

アム

オム

ム

オン

ン

ウウ

ヲア

ヲエ

ヲァイ

ヲァヌ

ウウ

ウウ

Extended bopomofo

ㄧㆶ

ㆪ

ㄞ

ㆮ

ㆯ

ㆰ

ㆱ

ㆬ

ㆲ

ㆭ

ㄨ

ㄨㄚ

ㄨㆤ

ㄨㄞ

ㄨㄢ

ㆨ

ㆫ

Tâi-lô

ik

inn

ai

ainn

au

am

om

m

ong

ng

u

ua

ue

uai

uan

ir

(i)unn

Example (traditional Chinese)

翻 譯

病 院

愛 情

歐 洲

暗 時

阿 姆

王 梨

黃 色

有 無

歌 曲

講 話

奇 怪

人 員

豬 肉

舀 水

Example (simplified Chinese)

翻 译

病 院

爱 情

欧 洲

暗 时

阿 姆

王 梨

黄 色

有 无

歌 曲

讲 话

奇 怪

人 员

猪 肉

舀 水

Consonants

IPA

p

b

pʰ

m

t

tʰ

n

nŋ

l

k

ɡ

kʰ

h

tɕi

ʑi

tɕʰi

ɕi

ts

dz

tsʰ

s

Pe̍h-ōe-jī

p

b

ph

m

t

th

n

nng

l

k

g

kh

h

chi

ji

chhi

si

ch

j

chh

s

Revised TLPA

p

b

ph

m

t

th

n

nng

l

k

g

kh

h

zi

ji

ci

si

z

j

c

s

TLPA

p

b

ph

m

t

th

n

nng

l

k

g

kh

h

zi

ji

ci

si

z

j

c

s

BP

b

bb

p

bb

d

t

n

lng

l

g

gg

k

h

zi

li

ci

si

z

l

c

s

MLT

p

b

ph

m

t

th

n

nng

l

k

g

kh

h

ci

ji

chi

si

z

j

zh

s

DT

b

bh

p

m

d

t

n

nng

l

g

gh

k

h

zi

r

ci

si

z

r

c

s

Taiwanese kana

パア

バア

パ̣ア

マア

タア

タ̣ア

ナア

ヌン

ラア

カア

ガア

カ̣ア

ハア

チイ

ジイ

チ̣イ

シイ

サア

ザア

サ̣ア

サア

Extended bopomofo

ㄅ

ㆠ

ㄆ

ㄇ

ㄉ

ㄊ

ㄋ

ㄋㆭ

ㄌ

ㄍ

ㆣ

ㄎ

ㄏ

ㄐ

ㆢ

ㄑ

ㄒ

ㄗ

ㆡ

ㄘ

ㄙ

Tâi-lô

p

b

ph

m

t

th

n

nng

l

k

g

kh

h

tsi

ji

tshi

si

ts

j

tsh

s

Example (traditional Chinese)

報 紙

閩 南

普 通

請 問

豬 肉

普 通

過 年

雞 卵

樂 觀

價 值

牛 奶

客 廳

煩 惱

支 持

漢 字

支 持

是 否

報 紙

熱 天

參 加

司 法

Example (simplified Chinese)

报 纸

闽 南

普 通

请 问

猪 肉

普 通

过 年

鸡 卵

乐 观

价 值

牛 奶

客 厅

烦 恼

支 持

汉 字

支 持

是 否

报 纸

热 天

参 加

司 法

Tones

Tone name	Yin level 陰平(1)	Yin rising 陰上(2)	Yin departing 陰去(3)	Yin entering 陰入(4)	Yang level 陽平(5)	Yang rising 陽上(6)	Yang departing 陽去(7)	Yang entering 陽入(8)	High rising (9)	Neutral tone (0)
IPA	a˥	a˥˧	a˨˩	ap˩ at˩ ak˩ aʔ˩	a˧˥		a˧	ap˥ at˥ ak˥ aʔ˥	a˥˥	a˨
Pe̍h-ōe-jī	a	á	à	ap at ak ah	â		ā	a̍p a̍t a̍k a̍h		--a
TLPA (and Revised TLPA)	a1	a2	a3	ap4 at4 ak4 ah4	a5	a6	a7	ap8 at8 ak8 ah8	a9	a0
BP	ā	ǎ	à	āp āt āk āh	á		â	áp át ák áh
MLT	af	ar	ax	ab ad ag aq	aa	aar	a	ap at ak ah		~a
DT	a	à	â	āp āt āk āh	ǎ		ā	ap at ak ah	á	å
Taiwanese kana (normal vowels)	アア	アア	アア	アㇷ゚ アッ アㇰ アァ	アア		アア	アㇷ゚ アッ アㇰ アァ
Taiwanese kana (nasal vowels)	アア	アア	アア	アㇷ゚ アッ アㇰ アァ	アア		アア	アㇷ゚ アッ アㇰ アァ
Extended bopomofo	ㄚ	ㄚˋ	ㄚ˪	ㄚㆴ ㄚㆵ ㄚㆶ ㄚㆷ	ㄚˊ		ㄚ˫	ㄚㆴ˙ ㄚㆵ˙ ㄚㆶ˙ ㄚㆷ˙
Tâi-lô	a	á	à	ah	â	ǎ	ā	a̍h	a̋	--ah
Example (traditional Chinese)	公司	報紙	興趣	血壓 警察 中國 牛肉	人員		草地	配合 法律 文學 歇熱	昨昏	入去
Example (simplified Chinese)	公司	报纸	兴趣	血压 警察 中国 牛肉	人员		草地	配合 法律 文学 歇热	昨昏	入去

• Note: The bopomofo extended characters in the zhuyin row require a UTF-8 font capable of displaying Unicode values 31A0–31B7 (ex. Code2000 true type font).

Computing

Many

for entering either Latin or Han characters in Taiwanese are available. Some of them are free of charge, and some are commercial.

The

Taiwanese Min Nan can be represented as 'zh-min-nan-TW'.

When writing Taiwanese in Han characters, some writers create 'new' characters when they consider it is impossible to use directly or borrow existing ones; this corresponds to similar practices in character usage in

Universal Character Set

), thus creating problems in computer processing.

All Latin characters required by Pe̍h-ōe-jī can be represented using

Universal character set

), using precomposed or combining (diacritics) characters.

Prior to June 2004, the vowel [ɔ] akin to but more open than ⟨o⟩, written with a 'dot above right', was not encoded. The usual workaround was to use the (stand-alone; spacing) character 'middle dot' (U+00B7, ⟨·⟩) or, less commonly, the combining character 'dot above' (U+0307). As these are far from ideal, since 1997, proposals have been submitted to the ISO/IEC working group in charge of ISO/IEC 10646 – namely, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 – to encode a new combining character 'dot above right'. This is now officially assigned to U+0358 (see documents N1593, N2507, N2628, N2699, and N2770). Font support has followed: for example, in Charis SIL.

Sociolinguistics

Regional variations

The

).

The distinguishing feature of the coastal speech is the use of the vowel ⟨uiⁿ⟩ in place of ⟨ng⟩. The northern speech is distinguished by the absence of the 8th tone, and some vowel exchanges (for example, ⟨i⟩ and ⟨u⟩, ⟨e⟩ and ⟨oe⟩). The central speech has an additional vowel [ɨ] or [ø] between ⟨i⟩ and ⟨u⟩, which may be represented as ⟨ö⟩. There are also a number of other pronunciation and lexical differences between the Taiwanese variants; the online Ministry of Education dictionary specifies these to a resolution of eight regions on Taiwan proper, in addition to Kinmen and Penghu.^[57][58]

Concerning the fifth (rising) tone in normal sandhi patterns, the Quanzhou/Coastal/Northern dialects change to the seventh (mid-level) tone, whereas the Zhangzhou/"Mixed"/Southern dialects change to the third (low falling) tone.

Certain new north–south distinctions have appeared in recent decades.^[

]

Quanzhou–Zhangzhou inclinations

Hokkien immigrants to Taiwan originated from Quanzhou prefecture (44.8%) and Zhangzhou prefecture (35.2%).^{[citation needed]} The original phonology from these regions was spread around Taiwan during the immigration process. With the advanced development of transportation and greater mobility of the Taiwanese population, Taiwanese speech has steered itself towards a mixture of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou speech, known as Chiang–Chôan-lām (漳泉濫, in Mandarin Zhāng–Quán làn).^[31] Due to different proportions of the mixture, some regions are inclined more towards the Quanzhou accent, while others are inclined more towards the Zhangzhou accent.

In general, the Quanzhou accent is more common along the coastal region and is known as the hái-kháu accent; the Zhangzhou accent is more common within the mountainous region of Taiwan and is known as the lāi-po͘ accent. The regional variation within Taiwanese may be attributed to variations in the mixture of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou accents and/or lexicons. It ranges from Lukang accent (based on Quanzhou accent) on one end to the northern coastal Yilan accent (based on Zhangzhou accent) on another end. Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Taitung accents, on the other hand, are closest to the prestige accent.

Variations in Taiwanese Hokkien accents

Quanzhou accent
Lukang
Penghu, Taixi, Dajia—Budai coastal region (hái-kháu)
Taipei, Hsinchu (very similar to Tong'an accent)
Chiayi—Kaohsiung surrounding area, Taitung (similar to Amoy accent)
Changhua—Yunlin inland area, North Taoyuan (lāi-po͘)
Yilan
Zhangzhou accent

Recent terminological distinctions

Recent research has found a need for new terminology of Taiwanese dialects, mainly because the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects in Taiwan developed independently from those in Fujian. Thus, some scholars (i.e., Klöter, following 董忠司) have divided Taiwanese into five subdialects, based on geographic region:^[61]

1. hái-kháu (海口腔): west coast, based on what was formerly referred to as Quanzhou dialect (represented by the Lukang accent)
2. phian-hái (偏海腔): coastal (represented by the Nanliao (南寮) accent)
3. lāi-po͘ (內埔腔): western inner plain, mountain regions, based on the Zhangzhou dialect (represented by the Yilan accent)
4. phian-lāi (偏內腔): interior (represented by the Taibao accent)
5. thong-hêng (通行腔): common accents (represented by the Taipei (spec. Datong) accent in the north and the Tainan accent in the south)

Both phian-hái and phian-lāi are intermediate dialects between hái-kháu and lāi-po͘, these also known as thong-hêng (通行腔) or "不泉不漳". In some ways this mixed dialect is similar to the Amoy dialect, which itself is a blend of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou speech. The common dialect refers to that which can be heard on radio, television, official announcements, etc.^{[citation needed]}

Fluency

A great majority of people in Taiwan can speak both

bloodlines. There is, however, a large percentage of people in Taiwan, regardless of their background, whose ability to understand and read written Taiwanese is greater than their ability to speak it. This is the case with some singers who can sing Taiwanese songs with native-like proficiency but can neither speak nor understand the language.

Which variant is used depends strongly on the context, and in general, people will use Mandarin in more formal situations and Taiwanese in more informal situations. Taiwanese tends to get used more in

, and even some news programs can also be found in Taiwanese.

Special literary and art forms

Chhit-jī-á (literally, "that which has seven syllables") is a

meter

where each verse has 7 syllables.

There is a special form of musical/dramatic performance koa-á-hì: the Taiwanese opera; the subject matter is usually a historical event. A similar form pò͘-tē-hì (glove puppetry) is also unique and has been elaborated in the past two decades into impressive televised spectacles.

See Taiwanese cuisine for names of several local dishes.

Bible translations

As with many other languages, the

in Taiwan marked milestones in the standardization attempts of the language and its orthography.

The first translation of the Bible in Amoy or Taiwanese in the Pe̍h-ōe-jī orthography was by the first missionary to Taiwan, James Laidlaw Maxwell, with the New Testament Lán ê Kiù-chú Iâ-so͘ Ki-tok ê Sin-iok published in 1873 and the Old Testament Kū-iok ê Sèng Keng in 1884.

The next translation of the Bible in Taiwanese or Amoy was by the missionary to Taiwan, Thomas Barclay, carried out in Fujian and Taiwan.^[62][63] A New Testament translation was completed and published in 1916. The resulting work containing the Old and the New Testaments, in the Pe̍h-ōe-jī orthography, was completed in 1930 and published in 1933 as the Amoy Romanized Bible [nan] (Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Sin-kū-iok ê Sèng-keng). 2000 copies of the Amoy Romanized Bible were confiscated by the Taiwan Garrison from the Bible Society of Taiwan in 1975. This edition was later transliterated into Han characters and published as Sèng-keng Tâi-gí Hàn-jī Pún [nan] (聖經台語漢字本) in 1996.^[64]

The Ko-Tân (Kerygma) Colloquial Taiwanese Version of the New Testament (Sin-iok) in Pe̍h-ōe-jī, also known as the Red Cover Bible [nan] (Âng-phoê Sèng-keng), was published in 1973 as an ecumenical effort between the Protestant Presbyterian Church in Taiwan and the Roman Catholic mission Maryknoll. This translation used a more modern vocabulary (somewhat influenced by Mandarin), and reflected the central Taiwan dialect, as the Maryknoll mission was based near Tâi-tiong. It was soon confiscated by the Kuomintang government (which objected to the use of Latin orthography) in 1975.

A translation using the principle of

Another translation using the principle of functional equivalence, "Common Taiwanese Bible" (Choân-bîn Tâi-gí Sèng-keng), with versions of Pe̍h-ōe-jī, Han characters and Ruby version (both Han characters and Pe̍h-ōe-jī) was published in 2015, available in printed and online.^[citation needed]

Politics

Until the 1980s, the use of Taiwanese Hokkien, along with all

.

Although the use of Taiwanese Hokkien over Mandarin was historically part of the Taiwan independence movement, the linkage between politics and language is not as strong as it once was. Some fluency in Taiwanese Hokkien is desirable for political office in Taiwan for both independence and unificationist politicians. At the same time, even some supporters of Taiwan's independence have played down its connection with the Taiwanese in order to gain the support of the Mainlanders and Hakka people.

.

In the early 21st century, there are few differences in language usage between the

In 2002, the Taiwan Solidarity Union, a party with about 10% of the Legislative Yuan seats at the time, suggested making Taiwanese Hokkien a second official language.^[72] This proposal encountered strong opposition not only from Mainlander groups but also from Hakka and aboriginal groups who felt that it would slight their home languages, as well as others including Hoklo who objected to the proposal on logistical grounds and on the grounds that it would increase ethnic tensions. Because of these objections, support for this measure is lukewarm among moderate Taiwan independence supporters, and the proposal did not pass.

In 2003, there was a controversy when parts of the civil service examination for judges were written in characters used only in Taiwanese Hokkien.^[73] After strong objections, these questions were not used in scoring. As with the official-language controversy, objections to the use of Taiwanese came not only from Mainlander groups but also Hoklo, Hakka, and aborigines. The Control Yuan later created a rule that only allowed Standard Mandarin characters on civil service exams. According to public opinion surveys in 2008, more people supported making English a second official language than Taiwanese.^[74]

In 2017, indigenous languages were given official status in Taiwan,^[75] as was the Hakka language.^[76] As of 2018^[update], English was planned to become an official language in Taiwan,^[77] although this has not happened ever since. Taiwanese Hokkien is required for some activities but not others. For further information, see Languages of Taiwan.

Mother tongue movement

whereby Hokkien poets and writers compose poetry and literature in Taiwanese on a regular basis.

As a result of the mother tongue movement, Taiwan has emerged as a significant cultural hub for Hokkien in the world in the 21st century. It also plans to be the major export center for Hokkien culture worldwide in the 21st century.^[81]

Television

You can help expand this section with text translated from the corresponding article in Chinese. (August 2020) Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 341 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Chinese Wikipedia article at [[:zh:臺灣話]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|zh|臺灣話}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

• Cartoon Network Taiwan used Taiwanese Hokkien for Li Hanfei
  (李涵菲)

Scholarship

Klöter's Written Taiwanese (cited below) has been described as "the most comprehensive English-language study of written Taiwanese".[82]

See also

• Languages of Taiwan
• Min Nan Wikipedia
• Speak Hokkien Campaign
• Taiwanese literature movement
• Bân-lâm-gí Gí-giân Lêng-le̍k Jīn-chèng (Taiwanese Hokkien Test) (in Min Nan Chinese)

Notes

Words in native languages

References

Citations

Cited sources

• OCLC 813713530
  .
• Chiung, Wi-vun Taiffalo (2003). "Tone Change in Taiwanese: Age and Geographic Factors" (PDF). University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics. 8 (1). Archived from the original on 3 March 2012.
• OL 6931635M
  .
• Klöter, Henning (2005). Written Taiwanese. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
  ISBN 9783447050937
  .
• Snow, D. (2004). Cantonese as Written Language: The Growth of a Written Chinese Vernacular. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
  ISBN 9789622097094
  .
• Tiuⁿ, Jū-hông (2001). 白話字基本論 : 臺語文對應&相關的議題淺說 [Principles of Pe̍h-ōe-jī or the Taiwanese Orthography: an introduction to its sound-symbol correspondences and related issues] (in Chinese). Taipei: Crane.
  ISBN 957-2053-07-8
  .
• OCLC 45990089
  .

Further reading

Books and other material

(As English language material on Taiwanese learning is limited, Japanese and German books are also listed here.)

English textbooks & dictionaries

• 李勤岸 (2005). 哈佛臺語101 [Harvard Taiwanese 101] (paperback & CD) (in English and Chinese). Translated by Yeh, Chieh-Ting; Lee, Marian. Tainan: 開朗.
  ISBN 9789868160811
  .
• Su-chu Wu, Bodman, Nicholas C.: Spoken Taiwanese with cassette(s), 1980/2001,
  ISBN 0-87950-462-5
• OCLC 867068660
  .
  • Campbell, William (1923) [1913]. A Dictionary of the Amoy Vernacular, spoken throughout the prefectures of Chin-chiu, Chiang-chiu and Formosa. Preface by Thomas Barclay (2nd ed.). Yokohama: Fukuin Print. Co.
    OCLC 43655590
    .
• Iâu Chèng-to: Cheng-soán Pe̍h-ōe-jī (Concise Colloquial Writing). Tainan, Taiwan: Jîn-kong (an imprint of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan). 1992.
• Tân, K. T: A Chinese-English Dictionary: Taiwan Dialect. Taipei: Southern Materials Center. 1978.
• Maryknoll Language Service Center: English-Amoy Dictionary. Taichung, Taiwan: Maryknoll Fathers. 1979.

Japanese publications

• Higuchi, Yasushi (樋口 靖 Higuchi Yasushi): 台湾語会話, 2000,
  ISBN 4-497-20006-X
  )
• Zhao, Yihua (趙 怡華 Zhào Yíhuá): はじめての台湾語, 2003,
  ISBN 4-7569-0665-6
  (Introduction to Taiwanese [and Mandarin]; in Japanese).
• Zheng, Zhenghao (鄭 正浩 Zhèng Zhènghào): 台湾語基本単語2000, 1996,
  ISBN 4-87615-697-2
  (Basic vocabulary in Taiwanese 2000; in Japanese).
• Zhao, Yihua (趙 怡華 Zhào Yíhuá), Chen Fenghui (陳 豐惠 Chén Fēnghuì), Kaori Takao (たかお かおり Takao Kaori), 2006, 絵でわかる台湾語会話.
  ISBN 978-4-7569-0991-6
  (Conversations in Taiwanese [and Mandarin] with illustrations; in Japanese).

Others

• Katharina Sommer, Xie Shu-Kai: Taiwanisch Wort für Wort, 2004,
  ISBN 3-8317-6094-2
  )

Articles and other resources

• LÎM, Chùn-io̍k (2014). "The Common Taiwanese Bible: A Means of Seeking to Affirm the Selfhood and Integrity of Taiwanese and Their Language". Journal of Taiwanese Vernacular. 6 (2): 106–9.
  doi:10.6621/JTV.2014.0602.05
  .
• Tan-Tenn, Henry H. (2001). "Taiwanese learning resources" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 April 2005.

External links

Minnan edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

On the language

• Cannings, Michael. "Introducing the Taiwanese Language". Tailingua.
• Blog on the Taiwanese language and language education in Taiwan
• Mair, Victor H. (2003). "How to Forget Your Mother Tongue and Remember Your National Language". University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 2 July 2011.
• Sino-Tibetan Swadesh lists

Dictionaries

• 臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan] (in Chinese). Ministry of Education, R.O.C. 2011.
• Iûⁿ, Ún-giân. 台語-華語線頂辭典 [Taiwanese-Mandarin Online Dictionary] (in Taiwanese Hokkien, Chinese, and English).
• Iûⁿ, Ún-giân. 台語線頂字典 [Taiwanese Online Character Dictionary] (in Chinese).
• 臺灣本土語言互譯及語音合成系統 [Taiwanese languages translation and speech synthesis system] (in Chinese, Taiwanese Hokkien, and Hakka Chinese). Archived from the original on 8 October 2006.
• "Maryknoll Taiwanese-English Dictionary and English-Amoy Dictionary". Maryknoll Language Service Center. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019.

Learning aids

• Intermediate Taiwanese grammar (as a blog)
• Taiwanese vocabulary: word of the day (blog)
• Taiwanese teaching material: Nursery rhymes and songs in Han characters and romanization w/ recordings in MP3
• Travlang (language resources for travellers): Hō-ló-oē Archived 18 May 2017 at the Wayback Machine
• Spoken Hokkien - a beginner's e-textbook, with audio, for English-speaking learners of conversational Taiwanese.
• "Daiwanway - Tutorial, dictionary, and stories in Taiwanese. Uses a unique romanization system, different from Pe̍h-ōe-jī. Includes sound files". Archived from the original on 29 April 2007.

Other

• Open Directory (dmoz): World: Taiwanese