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 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]

Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols

Semisyllabary

(letters for onsets and rimes; diacritics for tones)

Chu Chao-hsiang, Taiwan NLC

1946 to the present, used as ruby characters in Taiwan

Hokkien, Hakka

Oracle bone script

Seal script
- Clerical script
  - Mandarin Phonetic Symbols
    - Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols

Simplified Chinese, Kanji, Hanja, Chữ Nôm, Khitan large script, Khitan small script

Bopo (285), Bopomofo

Bopomofo

U+3100–U+312F,
U+31A0–U+31BF

臺語方音符號

台语方音符号

Táiyǔ Fāngyīn Fúhào

ㄊㄞˊ ㄩˇ ㄈㄤㄧㄣㄈㄨˊ ㄏㄠˋ

Tairyeu Fang'yin Fwuhaw

T'ai²-yü³ Fang¹-yin¹ Fu²-hao⁴

Tái-yǔ Fang-yin Fú-hào

Táiyǔ Fāngyīn Fúhàu

[tʰǎɪ.ỳ fáŋ.ín fǔ.xâʊ]

Thòi-ngî Fông-yîm Fù-ho

Tâi-gí Hong-im Hû-hō

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 [], 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]

p̚

Some extra symbols are used in other Taiwanese dialects: ㄬ [], ㄛ [o], ㄝ [ɛ], ㆨ [ɨ].

ɲ

Font support[edit]

The Academia Sinica of Taiwan has released three sets of fonts for Taiwanese Hokkien: "吳守禮標楷台語注音字型", "吳守禮細明台語注音字型", and "吳守禮台語注音字型".^[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 "破音" fonts to find the desired pronunciation. The user manual can be downloaded here.^[9]

Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols