The official romanisation system for Taiwanese Hokkien in Taiwan is locally known as Tâi-uân Lô-má-jī Phing-im Hong-àn or Taiwan Minnanyu Luomazi Pinyin Fang'an,Template:Efn native lang[1] often referred to as Tâi-lô. It is derived from Pe̍h-ōe-jī and since 2006 has been one of the officially promoted phonetic notation system by Taiwan's Ministry of Education.[2] The system is used in the MoE's Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan. It is nearly identical to Pe̍h-ōe-jī apart from using ts tsh j instead of ch chh j for the fricatives /ts tsʰ dz/, the substitution of o for u in vowel combinations such as oa and oe, the substitution of e for i in eng, using oo instead of o͘, and the substitution of nn for n in nasalized vowels like an and on.
Taiwanese Romanization System uses 16 basic Latin letters (A, B, E, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, S, T, U), 7 digraphs (Kh, Ng, nn, Oo, Ph, Th, Ts) and a trigraph (Tsh). In addition, it uses 6 diacritics to represent tones.
"nn" is only used after a vowel to express nasalization, so it only appears capitalised in all-caps texts.
Palatalization occurs when "j, s, ts, tsh" are followed by "i", so "ji, si, tsi, tshi" are sometimes governed as trigraphs and tetragraphs.
Of the 10 unused basic Latin letters, "R" is sometimes used to express dialectal vowels (somewhat similar to erhua), while the others (C, D, F, Q, V, W, X, Y, Z) are only used in loanwords.
Sample texts
Tâi-lô
Pe̍h-uē-jī (PUJ) sī 1 khuán iōng Latin (Lô-má) phìng-im hē-thóng lâi siá Tâi-uân ê gí-giân ê su-bīn bûn-jī. In-uī tong-tshoo sī thuân-kàu-sū ín--jı̍p-lâi ê, sóo-í ia̍h-ū-lâng kā PUJ kiò-tsò Kàu-huē Lô-má-jī, he̍k-tsiá sī kán-tshing Kàu-lô. Put-jî-kò hiān-tāi ê sú-iōng-tsiá bē-tsió m̄-sī kàu-tôo, kàu-tôo mā tsin tsē bē-hiáu PUJ.
Pe̍h-ōe-jī
Pe̍h-ōe-jī (POJ) sī 1 khoán iōng Latin (Lô-má) phèng-im hē-thóng lâi siá Tâi-ôan ê gí-giân ê su-bīn bûn-jī. In-ūi tong-chho͘ sī thôan-kàu-sū ín--jı̍p-lâi ê, só͘-í ia̍h-ū-lâng kā POJ kiò-chò Kàu-hōe Lô-má-jī, he̍k-chiá sī kán-chheng Kàu-lô. Put-jî-kò hiān-tāi ê sú-iōng-chiá bē-chió m̄-sī kàu-tô͘, kàu-tô͘ mā chin chē bē-hiáu POJ.
o pronounced [ə] ㄜ in general dialect in Kaohsiung and Tainan, [o] ㄛ in Taipei.
-nn forms the nasal vowels
There is also syllabic m and ng.
Vowel(s)
Open syllabus
Nasal
Plosive
[m]
[n]
[ŋ]
[p̚]
[t̚]
[k̚]
[ʔ]
[a]
a
ann
am
an
ang
ap
at
ak
ah
annh
[ai]
ai
ainn
aih
ainnh
[au]
au
auh
[e]
e
enn
eh
ennh
[i]
i
inn
im
in
ing
ip
it
ik
ih
innh
[ia]
ia
iann
iam
ian
iang
iap
iat
iak
iah
iannh
[iau]
iau
iaunn
iauh
[iə]
io
ioh
[iɔ]
iong
iok
[iu]
iu
iunn
iuh
iunnh
Vowel(s)
Open syllabus
Nasal
Plosive
[m]
[n]
[ŋ]
[p̚]
[t̚]
[k̚]
[ʔ]
[ə]
o
oh
[ɔ]
oo
onn
om
ong
op
ok
ooh
onnh
[u]
u
un
ut
uh
[ua]
ua
uann
uan
uat
uah
[uai]
uai
uainn
[ue]
ue
ueh
[ui]
ui
[m̩]
m
-
mh
[ŋ̍]
ng
-
ngh
ing pronounced [ɪəŋ], ik pronounced [ɪək̚].
Tones
Tone No.
1
2 (= 6)
3
4
5
7
8
Name
陰平
上聲
陰去
陰入
陽平
陽去
陽入
im-pîng
siōng-siann
im-khì
im-ji̍p
iông-pîng
iông-khì
iông-ji̍p
Symbol
None
Acute
Grave
None (-p, -t, -k, -h)
Circumflex
macron
Vertical line above (-p, -t, -k, -h)
´
`
ˆ
ˉ
̍
Pitch
˥
˥˩
˧˩
˧ʔ
˨˦
˧
˥ʔ
55
51
31
3ʔ
24
33
5ʔ
Example
tong (東)
tóng (黨)
tòng (棟)
tok (督)
tông (同)
tōng (洞)
to̍k (毒)
A hyphen links elements of a compound word. A double hyphen indicates that the following syllable has a neutral tone and therefore that the preceding syllable does not undergo tone sandhi.