Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols

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Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols
Script type	Semisyllabary (letters for onsets and rimes; diacritics for tones)
Creator	, Taiwan NLC
Time period	1946 to the present, used as ruby characters in Taiwan
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, , ​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

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 , 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.

• 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 Standard Chinese only: , , ,
• For Taiwanese Hakka and Standard Chinese: , , , ,
• represents [x] in Standard Chinese 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[]