| Pe̍h-ōe-jī Church Romanization | |
|---|---|
 A sample ofPe̍h-ōe-jī text | |
| Script type | |
| Creator | |
Period | since the 1830s |
| Languages | Southern Min |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
Child systems | |
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | BCP 47 variant subtag:pehoeji[1] |
| This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. | |
Pe̍h-ōe-jī (/peɪweɪˈdʒiː/pay-way-JEE;Taiwanese Hokkien:白話字,pronounced[pe˩ˀo̯e̞˩d͡ʑi˧]ⓘ,lit. 'vernacular writing';POJ), also known asChurch Romanization, is anorthography used to write variants ofHokkienSouthern Min,[2] particularlyTaiwanese andAmoy Hokkien, and it is widely employed as one of the writing systems for Southern Min. During its peak, it had hundreds of thousands of readers.[3]
Developed by Westernmissionaries working among theChinese diaspora inSoutheast Asia in the 19th century and refined by missionaries working inXiamen andTainan, it uses a modifiedLatin alphabet and somediacritics to represent the spoken language. After initial success inFujian, POJ became most widespread inTaiwan and, in the mid-20th century, there were over 100,000 people literate in POJ. A large amount of printed material, religious and secular, has been produced in the script, includingTaiwan's first newspaper, theTaiwan Church News.
DuringJapanese rule (1895–1945), the use ofPe̍h-ōe-jī was suppressed andTaiwanese kana encouraged; it faced further suppression during theKuomintangmartial law period (1947–1987). In Fujian, use declined after the establishment of thePeople's Republic of China (1949) and by the early 21st century the system was not in general use there. However, TaiwaneseChristians, non-native learners of Southern Min, and native-speaker enthusiasts in Taiwan are among those that continue to usePe̍h-ōe-jī. Full computer support was achieved in 2004 with the release ofUnicode 4.1.0, and POJ is now implemented in manyfonts,input methods, and is used in extensive online dictionaries.
Versions ofPe̍h-ōe-jī have been devised for other SouthernChinese varieties, includingHakka andTeochew Southern Min. Other related scripts includePha̍k-fa-sṳ forHakka,Bǽh-oe-tu forHainanese,Bàng-uâ-cê forFuzhou,Pe̍h-ūe-jī forTeochew,Gṳ̿ing-nǎing Lô̤-mǎ-cī forNorthern Min, andHing-hua̍ báⁿ-uā-ci̍ forPu-Xian Min.
In 2006, theTaiwanese Romanization System (Tâi-lô), a government-sponsored successor based onPe̍h-ōe-jī, was released. Despite this, native language education, and writing systems for Taiwanese, have remained a fiercely debated topic in Taiwan.
POJ laid the foundation for the creation of new literature in Taiwan. Before the 1920s, many people had already written literary works in POJ,[4] contributing significantly to the preservation of Southern Min vocabulary since the late 19th century. On October 14, 2006, the Ministry of Education in Taiwan announced the Taiwanese Romanization System orTâi-lô based on POJ as the standard spelling system for Southern Min.
| Pe̍h-ōe-jī | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 白話字 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 白话字 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HokkienPOJ | Pe̍h-ōe-jī, Pe̍h-ōe-lī, Pe̍͘h-ōa-jī | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | Vernacular writing | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The namePe̍h-ōe-jī (Chinese:白話字;pinyin:Báihuà zì) means "vernacular writing", written characters representing everyday spoken language.[5] The namevernacular writing could be applied to many kinds of writing, romanized and character-based, but the termPe̍h-ōe-jī is commonly restricted to theSouthern Min romanization system developed byPresbyterian missionaries in the 19th century.[6]
The missionaries who invented and refined the system used, instead of the namePe̍h-ōe-jī, various other terms, such as "RomanizedAmoy Vernacular" and "Romanized Amoy Colloquial."[5] The origins of the system and its extensive use in the Christian community have led to it being known by some modern writers as "Church Romanization" (教會羅馬字;Kàu-hōe Lô-má-jī;Jiàohuì Luōmǎzì) and is often abbreviated in POJ itself toKàu-lô. (教羅;Jiàoluō)[7] There is some debate on whether "Pe̍h-ōe-jī" or "Church Romanization" is the more appropriate name.
Objections to the namePe̍h-ōe-jī are that it can refer to more than one system and that bothliterary and colloquial register Southern Min appear in the system and so describing it as "vernacular" writing might be inaccurate.[5] Objections to "Church Romanization" are that some non-Christians and some secular writing use it.[8] POJ today is largely disassociated from its former religious purpose.[9] The term "romanization" is also disliked by some, who see it as belittling the status ofPe̍h-ōe-jī by identifying it as a supplementary phonetic system instead of a standalone orthography.[8]
The history ofPe̍h-ōe-jī has been heavily influenced by official attitudes towards the Southern Min vernaculars and the Christian organizations that propagated it. Early documents point to the purpose of the creation of POJ as being pedagogical in nature, closely allied to educatingChristian converts.[10]
The first people to use a romanized script to write Southern Min were Spanish missionaries inManila in the 16th century.[6] However, it was used mainly as a teaching aid for Spanish learners of Southern Min, and seems not to have had any influence on the development ofPe̍h-ōe-jī.[11] In the early 19th century, China was closed toChristian missionaries, who instead proselytized tooverseas Chinese communities inSouth East Asia.[12] The earliest origins of the system are found in a small vocabulary first printed in 1820 byWalter Henry Medhurst,[13][14] who went on to publish theDictionary of theHok-këèn Dialect of the Chinese Language, According to the Reading and Colloquial Idioms in 1832.[13]
This dictionary represents the first major reference work in POJ, although the romanization within was quite different from the modern system, and has been dubbedEarly Church Romanization by one scholar of the subject.[7] Medhurst, who was stationed inMalacca, was influenced byRobert Morrison's romanization ofMandarin Chinese, but had to innovate in several areas to reflect major differences between Mandarin and Southern Min.[15] Several important developments occurred in Medhurst's work, especially the application of consistent tone markings (influenced by contemporary linguistic studies ofSanskrit, which was becoming of more mainstream interest to Western scholars).[16] Medhurst was convinced that accurate representation and reproduction of the tonal structure of Southern Min was vital to comprehension:
Respecting these tones of the Chinese language, some difference of opinion has been obtained, and while some have considered them of first importance, others have paid them little or no intention. The author inclines decidedly to the former opinion; having found, from uniform experience, that without strict attention to tones, it is impossible for a person to make himself understood inHok-këèn.
— W. H. Medhurst[17]
The system expounded by Medhurst influenced later dictionary compilers with regard to tonal notation and initials, but both his complicated vowel system and his emphasis on the literary register of Southern Min were dropped by later writers.[18][19] Following on from Medhurst's work,Samuel Wells Williams became the chief proponent of major changes in the orthography devised by Morrison and adapted by Medhurst. Through personal communication and letters and articles printed inThe Chinese Repository a consensus was arrived at for the new version of POJ, although Williams' suggestions were largely not followed.[20]
The first major work to represent this new orthography wasElihu Doty'sAnglo-Chinese Manual with Romanized Colloquial in the Amoy Dialect,[20] published in 1853. The manual can therefore be regarded as the first presentation of a pre-modern POJ, a significant step onwards from Medhurst's orthography and different from today's system in only a few details.[21] From this point on various authors adjusted some of the consonants and vowels, but the system of tone marks from Doty'sManual survives intact in modern POJ.[22]John Van Nest Talmage has traditionally been regarded as the founder of POJ among the community which uses the orthography, although it now seems that he was an early promoter of the system, rather than its inventor.[14][20]
In 1842 theTreaty of Nanking was concluded, which included among its provisions the creation oftreaty ports in which Christian missionaries would be free to preach.[10]Xiamen (then known as Amoy) was one of these treaty ports, and British, Canadian and American missionaries moved in to start preaching to the local inhabitants. These missionaries, housed in the cantonment ofGulangyu, created reference works and religious tracts, including abible translation.[10] Naturally, they based the pronunciation of their romanization on the speech of Xiamen, which became the de facto standard when they eventually moved into other areas of the HokkienSprachraum, most notably Taiwan.[23] The 1858Treaty of Tianjin officially opened Taiwan to western missionaries, and missionary societies were quick to send men to work in the field, usually after a sojourn in Xiamen to acquire the rudiments of the language.[23]
Khó-sioh lín pún-kok ê jī chin oh, chió chió lâng khòaⁿ ē hiáu-tit. Só͘-í góan ū siat pa̍t-mih ê hoat-tō͘, ēng Pe̍h-ōe-jī lâi ìn-chheh, hō͘ lín chèng-lâng khòaⁿ khah khòai bat... Lâng m̄-thang phah-sǹg in-ūi i bat Khóng-chú-jī só͘-í m̄-bián o̍h chit-hō ê jī; iā m̄-thang khòaⁿ-khin i, kóng sī gín-á só͘-tha̍k--ê.
Because the characters in your country are so difficult only a few people are literate. Therefore, we have striven to print books inPe̍h-ōe-jī to help you to read... don't think that if you knowChinese characters you needn't learn this script, nor should you regard it as a childish thing.
Quanzhou andZhangzhou are two major varieties of Southern Min, and in Xiamen they combined to form something "not Quan, not Zhang" – i.e. not one or the other, but rather a fusion, which became known asAmoy Dialect orAmoy Chinese.[24] In Taiwan, with its mixture of migrants from both Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, the linguistic situation was similar; although the resulting blend in the southern city ofTainan differed from the Xiamen blend, it was close enough that the missionaries could ignore the differences and import their system wholesale.[23]
The fact that religious tracts, dictionaries, and teaching guides already existed in the Xiamen tongue meant that the missionaries in Taiwan could begin proselytizing immediately, without the intervening time needed to write those materials.[25]
Missionary opinion was divided on whether POJ was desirable as an end in itself as a full-fledged orthography, or as a means to literacy inChinese characters.William Campbell described POJ as a step on the road to reading and writing the characters, claiming that to promote it as an independent writing system would inflame nationalist passions in China, where characters were considered a sacred part of Chinese culture.[26] Taking the other side,Thomas Barclay believed that literacy in POJ should be a goal rather than awaypoint:
Soon after my arrival in Formosa I became firmly convinced of three things, and more than fifty years experience has strengthened my conviction. The first was that if you are to have a healthy, living Church it is necessary that all the members, men and women, read the Scriptures for themselves; second, that this end can never be attained by the use of the Chinese character; third, that it can be attained by the use of the alphabetic script, this Romanised Vernacular.
— Thomas Barclay[27]
A great boon to the promotion of POJ in Taiwan came in 1880 whenJames Laidlaw Maxwell, a medical missionary based inTainan, started promoting POJ for writing the Bible, hymns, newspapers, and magazines. He donated a small printing press to the local church,[28] whichThomas Barclay learned how to operate in 1881 before founding the Presbyterian Church Press in 1884. Subsequently, theTaiwan Prefectural City Church News, which first appeared in 1885 and was produced by Barclay's Presbyterian Church of Taiwan Press,[28] became the first printed newspaper in Taiwan,[29] marking the establishment of POJ in Taiwan, giving rise to numerous literary works written in POJ.[2]
As other authors made their own alterations to the conventions laid down by Medhurst and Doty,Pe̍h-ōe-jī evolved and eventually settled into its current form.Ernest Tipson's 1934 pocket dictionary was the first reference work to reflect this modern spelling.[30] Between Medhurst's dictionary of 1832 and the standardization of POJ in Tipson's time, there were a number of works published, which can be used to chart the change over time ofPe̍h-ōe-jī:[31]
| Year | Author | Pe̍h-ōe-jī spellings comparison | Source | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [tɕ] | [ts] | [ŋ] | [ɪɛn]/[ɛn] | [iɛt̚] | [ɪk] | [iŋ] | [ɔ] | [◌ʰ] | |||
| 1832 | Medhurst | ch | gn | ëen | ëet | ek | eng | oe | 'h | [32] | |
| 1853 | Doty | ch | ng | ian | iat | iek | ieng | o͘ | ' | [33] | |
| 1869 | MacGowan | ts | ng | ien | iet | ek | eng | o͘ | h | [34] | |
| 1873 | Douglas | ch | ts | ng | ien | iet | ek | eng | ɵ͘ | h | [35] |
| 1894 | Van Nest Talmage | ch | ng | ian | iat | ek | eng | o͘ | h | [36] | |
| 1911 | Warnshuis & de Pree | ch | ng | ian | iat | ek | eng | o͘ | h | [37] | |
| 1913 | Campbell | ch | ts | ng | ian | iat | ek | eng | o͘ | h | [38] |
| 1923 | Barclay | ch | ts | ng | ian | iet | ek | eng | o͘ | h | [39] |
| 1934 | Tipson | ch | ng | ian | iat | ek | eng | o͘ | h | [40] | |
Competition for POJ was introduced during theJapanese era in Taiwan (1895–1945) in the form ofTaiwanese kana, a system designed as a teaching aid and pronunciation guide, rather than an independent orthography like POJ.[41]
During the Japanese rule period, the Japanese government began suppressing POJ, banning classes,[3] and forcing the cessation of publications like theTaiwan Church News. From the 1930s onwards, with the increasing militarization of Japan and theKōminka movement encouraging Taiwanese people to "Japanize", there were a raft of measures taken against native languages, including Taiwanese.[42] While these moves resulted in a suppression of POJ, they were "a logical consequence of increasing the amount of education in Japanese, rather than an explicit attempt to ban a particular Taiwanese orthography in favor ofTaiwanese kana".[43]
TheSecond 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-styleshobō (Chinese:書房;pinyin:shūfáng;Pe̍h-ōe-jī:su-pâng) – private schools which taughtClassical Chinese with literary Southern Min pronunciation – were closed down in 1939.[44] The Japanese authorities came to perceive POJ as an obstacle to Japanization and also suspected that POJ was being used to hide "concealed codes and secret revolutionary messages".[45] In the climate of the ongoing war the government banned theTaiwan Church News in 1942 as it was written in POJ.[46]
Initially theKuomintang government in Taiwan had a liberal attitude towards "local dialects" (i.e. non-Mandarin varieties of Chinese). TheNational Languages Committee produced booklets outlining versions ofZhuyin fuhao for writing the Taiwanese tongue, these being intended for newly arrived government officials from outside Taiwan as well as local Taiwanese.[47] The first government action against native languages came in 1953, when the use of Taiwanese or Japanese for instruction was forbidden.[48] The next move to suppress the movement came in 1955, when the use of POJ for proselytizing was outlawed.[46] At that point in time there were 115,000 people literate in POJ in Taiwan, Fujian, and southeast Asia.[49]
Two years later, missionaries were banned from using romanized bibles, and the use of "native languages" (i.e. Taiwanese Hokkien, Hakka, and the non-SiniticFormosan languages) in church work became illegal.[46] The ban on POJ bibles was overturned in 1959, but churches were "encouraged" to use character bibles instead.[46] Government activities against POJ intensified in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when several publications were banned or seized in an effort to prevent the spread of the romanization. In 1964, use of Taiwanese in schools or official settings was forbidden,[48] and transgression in schools was punished with beatings, fines and humiliation.[50] TheTaiwan Church News (printed in POJ) was banned in 1969, and only allowed to return a year later when the publishers agreed to print it inChinese characters.[46][51] In the 1970s, the Nationalist government in Taiwan completely prohibited the use of POJ, causing it to decline.[52]
In 1974, theGovernment Information Office bannedA Dictionary of Southern Min, with a government official saying: "We have no objection to the dictionary being used by foreigners. They could use it in mimeographed form. But we don't want it published as a book and sold publicly because of the Romanization it contains. Chinese should not be learning Chinese through Romanization."[53] Also in the 1970s, a POJNew Testament translation known as the "Red Cover Bible" (Âng-phoê Sèng-keng) was confiscated and banned by the Nationalist regime.[54] Official moves against native languages continued into the 1980s, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of the Interior decided in 1984 to forbid missionaries to use "local dialects" and romanizations in their work.[46]
It was not until the late 1980s, with the lifting of martial law, that POJ slowly regained momentum under the influence of the native language movement. With the ending of martial law in 1987, the restrictions on "local languages" were quietly lifted,[55] resulting in growing interest in Taiwanese writing during the 1990s.[56] For the first time since the 1950s, Taiwanese language and literature was discussed and debated openly in newspapers and journals.[57] There was also support from the then opposition party, theDemocratic Progressive Party, for writing in the language.[48] From a total of 26 documented orthographies for Taiwanese in 1987 (including defunct systems), there were a further 38 invented from 1987 to 1999, including 30 different romanizations, six adaptations of bopomofo and twohangul-like systems.[58] Some commentators believe that the Kuomintang, while steering clear of outright banning of the native language movements after the end of martial law, took a "divide and conquer" approach by promotingTaiwanese Language Phonetic Alphabet (TLPA), an alternative to POJ,[59] which was at the time the choice of the majority within the nativization movement.[60]
Native language education has remained a fiercely debated topic in Taiwan into the 21st century and is the subject of much political wrangling.[61][62]
The current system ofPe̍h-ōe-jī has been stable since the 1930s, with a few minor exceptions (detailed below).[63] There is a fair degree of similarity with theVietnamese alphabet, including the⟨b/p/ph⟩ distinction and the use of⟨ơ⟩ in Vietnamese compared with⟨o͘⟩ in POJ.[64] POJ uses the following letters and combinations:[65]
| Capital letters | A | B | CH | CHH | E | G | H | I | J | K | KH | L | M | N | ᴺ | NG | O | O͘ | P | PH | S | T | TH | U |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lowercase letters | a | b | ch | chh | e | g | h | i | j | k | kh | l | m | n | ⁿ | ng | o | o͘ | p | ph | s | t | th | u |
| Letter names | a | be | che | chhe | e | ge | ha | i | ji̍t | ka | kha | é-luh | é-muh | é-nuh | iⁿ | ng | o | o͘ | pe | phe | e-suh | te | the | u |
Chinese phonology traditionally divides syllables in Chinese into three parts; firstly theinitial, a consonant or consonant blend which appears at the beginning of the syllable, secondly thefinal, consisting of amedial vowel (optional), anucleus vowel, and an optionalending; and finally the tone, which is applied to the whole syllable.[66] In terms of the non-tonal (i.e. phonemic) features, thenucleus vowel is the only required part of a licit syllable in Chinese varieties.[66] Unlike Mandarin but like other southern varieties of Chinese, Taiwanese has finalstop consonants withno audible release, a feature that has been preserved fromMiddle Chinese.[67] There is some debate as to whether these stops are a tonal feature or a phonemic one, with some authorities distinguishing between⟨-h⟩ as a tonal feature, and⟨-p⟩,⟨-t⟩, and⟨-k⟩ as phonemic features.[68] Southern Min dialects also have an optional nasal property, which is written with a superscript⟨ⁿ⟩ and usually identified as being part of the vowel.[69] Vowel nasalisation also occurs in words that have nasal initials (⟨m-⟩, ⟨n-⟩, ⟨ng-⟩),[70] however in this case superscript⟨ⁿ⟩ is not written, e.g.卵nūi ([nuĩ]).[65] The letterⁿ appears at the end of a word except in some interjections, such ashaⁿh ([hãʔ]), however more conservative users of Pe̍h-ōe-jī write such words ashahⁿ.
A valid syllable in Hokkien takes the form(initial) + (medial vowel) + nucleus + (stop) + tone, where items in parentheses indicate optional components.[71]
The initials are:[72]
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Alveolo-palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m[m] ㄇ 毛 (mo͘) | n[n] ㄋ 耐 (nāi) | ng[ŋ] ㄫ 雅 (ngá) | |||
| Stop | Unaspirated | p[p] ㄅ 邊 (pian) | t[t] ㄉ 地 (tē) | k[k] ㄍ 求 (kiû) | ||
| Aspirated | ph[pʰ] ㄆ 波 (pho) | th[tʰ] ㄊ 他 (thaⁿ) | kh[kʰ] ㄎ 去 (khì) | |||
| Voiced | b[b] ㆠ 文 (bûn) | g[ɡ] ㆣ 語 (gí) | ||||
| Affricate | Unaspirated | ch[ts] ㄗ 曾 (chan) | chi[tɕ] ㄐ 尖 (chiam) | |||
| Aspirated | chh[tsʰ] ㄘ 出 (chhut) | chhi[tɕʰ] ㄑ 手 (chhiú) | ||||
| Voiced | j[dz] ㆡ 熱 (joa̍h) | ji[dʑ] ㆢ 入 (ji̍p) | ||||
| Fricative | s[s] ㄙ 衫 (saⁿ) | si[ɕ] ㄒ 寫 (siá) | h[h] ㄏ 喜 (hí) | |||
| Lateral | l[ɭ/ɾ] ㄌ 柳 (liú) | |||||
Vowels:[73]
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Coda endings:
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POJ has a limited amount of legitimate syllables, although sources disagree on some particular instances of these syllables. The following table contains all the licit spellings of POJ syllables, based on a number of sources:
| Licit POJ syllables | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sources: Campbell,[74] Embree,[75] Kì.[76] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| No. | Diacritic | Chinesetone name | Example listenⓘ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | — | 陰平 (yīnpíng) dark level | kha跤 foot; leg |
| 2 | acute | 上聲 (shǎngshēng) rising | chúi水 water |
| 3 | grave | 陰去 (yīnqù) dark departing | kàu到 arrive |
| 4 | — | 陰入 (yīnrù) dark entering | bah肉 meat |
| 5 | circumflex | 陽平 (yángpíng) light level | ông王 king |
| 7 | macron | 陽去 (yángqù) light departing | tiōng重 heavy |
| 8 | vertical line above | 陽入 (yángrù) light entering | joa̍h熱 hot |
In standard Amoy or Taiwanese Hokkien there are seven distincttones, which by convention are numbered 1–8, with number 6 omitted (tone 6 used to be a distinct tone, but has long since merged with tone 7 or 2 depending on lexical register). Tones 1 and 4 are both represented without adiacritic, and can be distinguished from each other by the syllable ending, which is a vowel,⟨-n⟩,⟨-m⟩, or⟨-ng⟩ for tone 1, and⟨-h⟩,⟨-k⟩,⟨-p⟩, and⟨-t⟩ for tone 4.
Southern Min dialects undergo considerabletone sandhi, i.e. changes to the tone depending on the position of the syllable in any given sentence or utterance.[71] However, likepinyin forMandarin Chinese, POJ always marks the citation tone (i.e. the original, pre-sandhi tone) rather than the tone which is actually spoken.[77] This means that when reading aloud the reader must adjust the tone markings on the page to account for sandhi. Some textbooks for learners of Southern Min mark both the citation tone and the sandhi tone to assist the learner.[78]
There is some debate as to the correct placement of tone marks in the case ofdiphthongs andtriphthongs, particularly those which include⟨oa⟩ and⟨oe⟩.[79] Most modern writers follow six rules:[80]
A single hyphen is used to indicate a compound. What constitutes a compound is controversial, with some authors equating it to a "word" in English, and others not willing to limit it to the English concept of a word.[79] Examples from POJ include⟨sì-cha̍p⟩ "forty",⟨bé-hì-thôan⟩ "circus", and⟨hôe-ho̍k⟩ "recover (from illness)". The non-final syllables of a compound typically undergo tone sandhi, but exact rules have not been clearly identified by linguists.[81]
A double hyphen⟨--⟩ is used when POJ is deployed as an orthography (rather than as a transcription system) to indicate that the following syllable should be pronounced in the neutral tone.[82] It also marks to the reader that the preceding syllable does not undergo tone sandhi, as it would were the following syllable non-neutral.Morphemes following a double hyphen are often (but not always) grammatical function words.[83] Some authors use aninterpunct⟨·⟩ in place of the second hyphen.
| POJ | Translation | Audio File |
|---|---|---|
| Sian-siⁿ kóng, ha̍k-seng tiām-tiām thiaⁿ. | A teacher/master speaks, students quietly listen. | listenⓘ |
| Kin-á-jit hit-ê cha-bó͘ gín-á lâi góan tau khòaⁿ góa. | Today that girl came to my house to see me. | listenⓘ |
| Thài-khong pêng-iú, lín-hó. Lín chia̍h-pá--bē? Ū-êng, to̍h lâi gún chia chē--ô͘! | Space friends, how are you? Have you eaten yet? When you have the time, you must come over and visit! | Listen (fromNASAVoyager Golden Record) |
In addition to the standard syllables detailed above, there are several regional variations of Hokkien which can be represented with non-standard or semi-standard spellings. In theZhangzhou-type varieties, spoken inZhangzhou, parts of Taiwan (particularly the northeastern coast aroundYilan City), and parts ofMalaysia (particularly inPenang), there is a final⟨-uiⁿ⟩, for example in "egg"⟨nūi⟩ and "cooked rice"⟨pūiⁿ⟩, which hasmerged with⟨-ng⟩ in mainstream Taiwanese.[84] Zhangzhou-type varieties may also have the vowel /ɛ/, written as⟨ɛ⟩[85][86][87] or⟨e͘ ⟩ (with a dot above right, by analogy with⟨o͘ ⟩),[87] which has merged with⟨e⟩ in Taiwanese.
Goân-khí-thâu Siōng-tè chhòng-chō thiⁿ kap tōe. Tōe sī khang-khang hūn-tūn; chhim-ian ê bin-chiūⁿ o͘-àm; Siōng-tè ê Sîn ūn-tōng tī chúi-bīn. Siōng-tè kóng, Tio̍h ū kng, chiū ū kng. Siōng-tè khòaⁿ kng, sī hó; Siōng-tè chiong kng àm pun-khui. Siōng-tè kiò hit ê kng chòe Ji̍t, kiò àm chòe Mî. Ū ê-hng ū chá-khísī thâu chi̍t-ji̍t.
Due to POJ's origins in the Christian church, much of the material in the script is religious in nature, including several Bible translations, books of hymns, and guides to morality. The Tainan Church Press, established in 1884, has been printing POJ materials ever since, with periods of quiet when POJ was suppressed in the early 1940s and from around 1955 to 1987. In the period to 1955, over 2.3 million volumes of POJ books were printed,[89] and one study in 2002 catalogued 840 different POJ texts in existence.[90] Besidesa Southern Min version of Wikipedia in the orthography,[91] there are teaching materials, religious texts, and books about linguistics, medicine and geography.
POJ was initially not well supported by word-processing applications due to the special diacritics needed to write it. Support has now improved and there are now sufficient resources to both enter and display POJ correctly. Severalinput methods exist to enterUnicode-compliant POJ, includingOpenVanilla (macOS andMicrosoft Windows), thecross-platform Tai-lo Input Method released by the TaiwaneseMinistry of Education, and theFirefox add-on Transliterator, which allows in-browser POJ input.[92] When POJ was first used in word-processing applications it was not fully supported by the Unicode standard, thus necessitating work-arounds. One employed was encoding the necessary characters in the "Private Use" section of Unicode, but this required both the writer and the reader to have the correct custom font installed.[93] Another solution was to replace troublesome characters with near equivalents, for example substituting⟨ä⟩ for⟨ā⟩ or using a standard⟨o⟩ followed by aninterpunct to represent⟨o͘⟩.[93] With the introduction into Unicode 4.1.0 of thecombining characterU+0358 ◌͘COMBINING DOT ABOVE RIGHT in 2004, all the necessary characters were present to write regular POJ without the need for workarounds.[94][95] However, even after the addition of these characters, there are still relatively few fonts which are able to properly render the script, including the combining characters.
The following are tone characters and their respective Unicode codepoints used in POJ. The tones used by POJ should useCombining Diacritical Marks instead ofSpacing Modifier Letters used bybopomofo.[96][97] As POJ is not encoded inBig5, the prevalent encoding used in Traditional Chinese, some POJ letters are not directly encoded in Unicode, instead should be typed using combining diacritical marks officially.[98]
| Base letter/Tone 1 | Tone 2 | Tone 3 | Tone 4 | Tone 5 | Tone 7 | Tone 8 | Variant | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Combining mark | ́ (U+0301) | ̀ (U+0300) | h | ̂ (U+0302) | ̄ (U+0304) | ̍h (U+030D) | ˘ (U+0306) | |||||||||
| One mark | ||||||||||||||||
| Uppercase | A | Á (U+00C1) | À (U+00C0) | AH | Â (U+00C2) | Ā (U+0100) | A̍H (U+0041 U+030D) | Ă (U+0102) | ||||||||
| E | É (U+00C9) | È (U+00C8) | EH | Ê (U+00CA) | Ē (U+0112) | E̍H (U+0045 U+030D) | Ĕ (U+0114) | |||||||||
| I | Í (U+00CD) | Ì (U+00CC) | IH | Î (U+00CE) | Ī (U+012A) | I̍H (U+0049 U+030D) | Ĭ (U+012C) | |||||||||
| O | Ó (U+00D3) | Ò (U+00D2) | OH | Ô (U+00D4) | Ō (U+014C) | O̍H (U+004F U+030D) | Ŏ (U+014E) | |||||||||
| U | Ú (U+00DA) | Ù (U+00D9) | UH | Û (U+00DB) | Ū (U+016A) | U̍H (U+0055 U+030D) | Ŭ (U+016C) | |||||||||
| M | Ḿ (U+1E3E) | M̀ (U+004D U+0300) | MH | M̂ (U+004D U+0302) | M̄ (U+004D U+0304) | M̍H (U+004D U+030D) | M̆ (U+004D U+0306) | |||||||||
| N | Ń (U+0143) | Ǹ (U+01F8) | NH | N̂ (U+004E U+0302) | N̄ (U+004E U+0304) | N̍H (U+004E U+030D) | N̆ (U+004E U+0306) | |||||||||
| Lowercase | a | á (U+00E1) | à (U+00E0) | ah | â (U+00E2) | ā (U+0101) | a̍h (U+0061 U+030D) | ă (U+0103) | ||||||||
| e | é (U+00E9) | è (U+00E8) | eh | ê (U+00EA) | ē (U+0113) | e̍h (U+0065 U+030D) | ĕ (U+0115) | |||||||||
| i | í (U+00ED) | ì (U+00EC) | ih | î (U+00EE) | ī (U+012B) | i̍h (U+0069 U+030D) | ĭ (U+012D) | |||||||||
| o | ó (U+00F3) | ò (U+00F2) | oh | ô (U+00F4) | ō (U+014D) | o̍h (U+006F U+030D) | ŏ (U+014F) | |||||||||
| u | ú (U+00FA) | ù (U+00F9) | uh | û (U+00FB) | ū (U+016B) | u̍h (U+0075 U+030D) | ŭ (U+016D) | |||||||||
| m | ḿ (U+1E3F) | m̀ (U+006D U+0300) | mh | m̂ (U+006D U+0302) | m̄ (U+006D U+0304) | m̍h (U+006D U+030D) | m̆ (U+006D U+0306) | |||||||||
| n | ń (U+0144) | ǹ (U+01F9) | nh | n̂ (U+006E U+0302) | n̄ (U+006E U+0304) | n̍h (U+006E U+030D) | n̆ (U+006E U+0306) | |||||||||
| Two diacritics[2] | ||||||||||||||||
| Uppercase | O͘ (U+004F U+0358) | Ó͘ | Ò͘ | O͘H | Ô͘ | Ō͘ | O̍͘H | Ŏ͘ | ||||||||
| Lowercase | o͘ (U+006F U+0358) | ó͘ | ò͘ | o͘h | ô͘ | ō͘ | o̍͘h | ŏ͘ | ||||||||
Notes
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Superscript n is also required for POJ to indicate nasalisation:
| Character | Unicode codepoint |
|---|---|
| ⁿ | U+207F |
| ᴺ | U+1D3A |
Characters not directly encoded in Unicode (especially O͘ series which has 3 different permutations) requires premade glyphs in fonts in order for applications to correctly display the characters.[97]
Fonts that currently support POJ includes:
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翻 tńg 工，我 koh hap i tī Hotel ê 餐廳食西式 ê chái 起，我講 beh tò 去稅厝 ê 所在，i beh 送我去，我 kā 拒絕，mā 無 beh hō͘ i 知我 ê 地址、電話番，講若有緣就會 koh 再相會。I 講人海茫茫，我若無 tī hit 間跳舞、唱歌，i beh 去 toh 位 chhōe--我？「就是 án-ni m̄-chiah 講是緣」，我嘴是 án-ni 應，心肝內知影 kap i 自細漢到這時 ê 牽連、綿纏無 hiah 簡單就煞。
One of the most popular modern ways of writing Taiwanese is by using a mixed orthography[102] calledHàn-lô[103] (simplified Chinese:汉罗;traditional Chinese:漢羅;pinyin:Hàn-Luó;lit. 'Chinese-Roman'), and sometimesHan-Romanization mixed script, a style not unlike writtenJapanese or (historically)Korean.[104] In fact, the termHàn-lô does not describe one specific system, but covers any kind of writing in Southern Min which features both Chinese characters and romanization.[102] That romanization is usually POJ, although recently some texts have begun appearing withTaiwanese Romanization System (Tâi-lô) spellings too. The problem with using only Chinese characters to write Southern Min is that there are many morphemes (estimated to be around 15 percent of running text)[105] which are not definitively associated with a particular character. Various strategies have been developed to deal with the issue, including creating new characters, allocating Chinese characters used in written Mandarin with similar meanings (but dissimilar etymology) to represent the missing characters, or using romanization for the "missing 15%".[106] There are two rationales for using mixed orthography writing, with two different aims. The first is to allow native speakers (almost all of whom can already write Chinese characters) to make use of their knowledge of characters, while replacing the missing 15% with romanization.[102] The second is to wean character literates off using them gradually, to be replaced eventually by fully romanized text.[107]Examples of modern texts inHàn-lô include religious, pedagogical, scholarly, and literary works, such as:
POJ has been adapted for several othervarieties of Chinese, with varying degrees of success. ForHakka, missionaries and others have produced a Bible translation, hymn book, textbooks, and dictionaries.[110] Materials produced in the orthography, calledPha̍k-fa-sṳ, include:
A modified version of POJ has also been created forTeochew.[111]
Most native Southern Min speakers in Taiwan are unfamiliar with POJ or any other writing system,[112] commonly asserting that "Taiwanese has no writing",[113] or, if they are made aware of POJ, considering romanization as the "low" form of writing, in contrast with the "high" form (Chinese characters).[114] For those who are introduced to POJ alongsideHàn-lô and completely Chinese character-based systems, a clear preference has been shown for all-character systems, with all-romanization systems at the bottom of the preference list, likely because of the preexisting familiarity of readers with Chinese characters.[115]
POJ remains the Taiwanese orthography "with the richest inventory of written work, including dictionaries, textbooks, literature [...] and other publications in many areas".[116] A 1999 estimate put the number of literate POJ users at around 100,000,[117] and secular organizations have been formed to promote the use of romanization among Taiwanese speakers.[118]
Outside Taiwan, POJ is rarely used. For example, in Fujian,Xiamen University uses a romanization known asBbánlám pìngyīm, based onPinyin. In other areas where Hokkien is spoken, such asSingapore, theSpeak Mandarin Campaign is underway to actively discourage people from speaking Hokkien or other non-Mandarin varieties in favour of switching to Mandarin instead.[119]
In 2006, Taiwan'sMinistry of Education chose an official romanization for use in teaching Southern Min in the state school system.[120] POJ was one of the candidate systems, along withDaī-ghî tōng-iōng pīng-im, but a compromise system, theTaiwanese Romanization System orTâi-lô, was chosen in the end.[121] Tâi-Lô retains most of the orthographic standards of POJ, including the tone marks, while changing the troublesome⟨o͘⟩ character for⟨oo⟩, swapping⟨ts⟩ for⟨ch⟩, and replacing⟨o⟩ indiphthongs with⟨u⟩.[122] Supporters of Taiwanese writing are in general deeply suspicious of government involvement, given the history of official suppression of native languages,[9] making it unclear whetherTâi-lô or POJ will become the dominant system in the future.
| Transliteration of Chinese |
|---|
| Mandarin |
| Wu |
| Yue |
| Min |
| Gan |
| Hakka |
| Xiang |
| Polylectal |
| See also |
Media related toPe̍h-ōe-jī at Wikimedia Commons
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