Transliterating Taiwanese Romanisation to Taiji for Penang Hokkien

This article is for the benefit of people who are familiar with Taiwanese Romanisation (Tâi-lô) but are only now learning Taiji Romanisation. As you see, on this FB Group, Penang Hokkien is written in Taiji, so this is a brief guide to help you understand the transliteration from the Taiwanese system to the Taiji system.

Transliterating words of one syllable

Here we look at transliteration of monosyllable words. In part two, we look at words and phrases of more than one syllable, and how we transliterate tone sandhi from Tâi-lô to Taiji.

Those of you who know Tâi-lô will know that the system has 7 tone classes. As these have to correspond to the 4 tones in Taiji, some will be collapsed and merged into one.

1) If a vowel in Tâi-lô has no diacritic marks, and the syllable does not end in -p, -t, -k or -h, it is tone 1 in Taiji. For example, ba=ba1, ta=ta1, ma=ma1, etc.

2) If a vowel in Tâi-lô has no diacritic mark, but ends with -p, -t, -k, or -h, it is tone 3 in Taiji. Example, bah=bak1, pak=park1, etc. (Yes, Tâi-lô and Taiji use different final letters.)

3) If a vowel in Tâi-lô has a grave accent as the diacritic mark, for example, à ò, etc., it is tone 3 in Taiji. Example, in lì=li3, pù=pu3, etc.

4) If a vowel in Tâi-lô has a macron as the diacritic mark, for example, a, o, etc., it is tone 33 in Taiji. Example, hiā=hia33, tsuā=cua33, etc.

5) If a vowel in Tâi-lô has a circumflex accent as the diacritic mark, for example, â, û, etc, it is tone 2 in Taiji. Example, sâ=sa2, tû=tu2, etc.

6) If a vowel in Tâi-lô has an acute accent as the diacritic mark, for example, á, é, etc., it is tone 4 in Taiji. Example, ná=na4, mó=mo4, etc.

7) And finally, if a vowel in Tâi-lô has a vertical mark as the diacritic, and is also followed by a -p, -t, -k or -h, it is tone 1 in Taiji. Example, ba̍t=bat1, ji̍p=jip1, etc.

If you observe the above closely, it would be obvious to you that the reason Tâi-lô has more tone classes than Taiji stems from its separation of syllables ending with -p, -t, -k or -h (collectively called checked tones or entering tones) into distinct classes, whereas this is not done in Taiji.

By understanding how the tone classes in Tâi-lô correspond to the tone numbers in Taiji, you can transliterate the tone from one system to the other. But of course, there are other rules governing the choice of letters used. In the above examples, we see that bah=bak1 and tsua=cua33. This is because the Taiji system avoids spellings that are likely to cause mispronunciation to those unfamiliar with how Tâi-lô is pronounced, and uses instead spellings that are likely to help Penang locals pronounce intuitively.

Transliterating words of two or more syllables

The Taiji Romanisation System is a radical departure from how romanised Hokkien has traditionally been written. We have seen that the 7 tone classes employed for centuries in traditional systems such as the Tâi-lô system and its parent, the Church Romanisation System (aka POJ), have under the Taiji system been merged to just 4 different tones. The difference between Taiji and the traditional systems become more apparent in words of two or more syllables as well as in phrases and sentences.

The building block of words in Hokkien is the morpheme. A morpheme is the smallest basic component of a word that carries a meaning. It can be a word in its own right. For example, lam2 (blue) is both a morpheme and a word, so too sna1 (shirt). In Tâi-lô, we write these as l&acir;m and sann respectively. These two words can be combined to form "blue shirt". In Taiji it is written as lam3 sna1 as well as lam3sna1. In Tâi-lô, this is written as lâm sann as well as lâm-sann. Observe that in Taiji, the original word for blue, lam2, has changed to lam3. In Tâi-lô it remains the same, lâm. Whether Taiji or Tâi-lô, both are read in the same way, but written differently.

In Taiji, the final tone in which the reader is expected to read the text is always shown whereas in Tâi-lô the reader is expected to mentally make the change as he reads. This change in tone, in Taiji and Tâi-lô, is called tone sandhi. Taiji takes a different approach to tone sandhi compared to Tâi-lô. The morphemes in Taiji undergo inflection, changing from lam2 to lam3. The morphemes in Tâi-lô do not undergo inflection, remaining lâm throughout. In Penang Hokkien (and by extension, Hokkien in general), whole phrases and sentences are affected by tone sandhi. Here's an example of a sentence.

he = ie1 (Taiji) = i (Tâi-lô)
eat = ciak1 (Taiji) = tsia̍h (Tâi-lô)
rice = pnui33 (Taiji) = pn̄g/pūinn (Tâi-lô)

He eats rice.
Ie1 ciak3 pnui33. (Taiji) I tsia̍h pūinn. (Tâi-lô)

Note that the word ciak1 in Taiji has changed to ciak3 within the sentence, whereas in the Tâi-lô sentence, it remains the same, tsia̍h.

By showing the reader the tone expected, it is possible to show emphasis.

He eats rice. (He eats it, he doesn't play with it) Ie1 ciak1 pnui33.

To show emphasis, the writer reverts back to the original tone, ciak1, instead of ciak3. This cannot be shown in Tâi-lô, except perhaps to write "I tsia̍h--pūinn".

Due to the possibility of various ways to intone a sentence, the Taiji system provides the reader a speedy method of reading and understanding what the writer means. For this, Taiji uses a selection of heterographs to bring precise meaning.

He eats till finish.
Ie1 ciak3 leow4.

He has eaten./He ate already.
Ie1 ciak1 liau4.

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