Taiwanese Romanization System

The Taiwanese Romanization System (TL, Chinese: 台灣閩南語羅馬字拼音方案; pinyin: Táiwān Mǐnnányǔ Luōmǎzì Pīnyīn Fāng'àn; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tâi-ôan Lô-má-jī Peng-im Hong-àn; often referred to as Tâi-lô) is a transcription system for Taiwanese Hokkien. It is derived from Pe̍h-ōe-jī and since 2006 has been officially promoted by Taiwan's Ministry of Education. In is nearly identical to TLPA apart from using ts tsh j instead of c ch j for the fricatives /ts tsʰ dz/.

Values

Consonants

Initials

		Bilabial		Alveolar		Alveolo-palatal		Velar		Glottal
		Voiceless	Voiced	Voiceless	Voiced	Voiceless	Voiced	Voiceless	Voiced	Voiceless
Nasal			m [m] ㄇ 毛(moo)		n [n] ㄋ 耐(nāi)				ng [ŋ] ㄫ 雅(ngá)
Plosive	Unaspirated	p [p] ㄅ 邊(pian)	b [b] ㆠ 文(bûn)	t [t] ㄉ 地(tē)				k [k] ㄍ 求(kiû)	g [g] ㆣ 語(gí)
	Aspirated	ph [pʰ] ㄆ 波(pho)		th [tʰ] ㄊ 他(thann)				kh [kʰ] ㄎ 去(khì)
Affricate	Unaspirated			ts [ts] ㄗ 曾(tsan)	j [dz] ㆡ 熱(jua̍h)	tsi [tɕ] ㄐ 尖(tsiam)	ji [dʑ] ㆢ 入(ji̍p)
	Aspirated			tsh [tsʰ] ㄘ 出(tshut)		tshi [tɕʰ] ㄑ 手(tshiú)
Fricative				s [s] ㄙ 衫(sann)		si [ɕ] ㄒ 寫(siá)				h [h] ㄏ 喜(hí)
Lateral					l [l] ㄌ 柳(liú)

Finals Bilabial Alveolar Velar Glottal Nasal -m [m] ㆬ -n [n] ㄣ -ng [ŋ] ㆭ Plosive -p [p̚] ㆴ -t [t̚] ㆵ -k [k̚] ㆶ -h [ʔ] ㆷ

Syllabic consonant Bilabial Velar Nasal m [m̩] ㆬ ng [ŋ̍] ㆭ

Vowels

Simple & Nasal	Dialect
Front Central Back Simple Nasal Simple Simple Nasal Close i [i] ㄧ inn [ĩ] ㆪ u [u] ㄨ unn [ũ] ㆫ Mid e [e] ㆤ enn [ẽ] ㆥ o [ə] ㄜ, [o] ㄛ oo [ɔ] ㆦ onn [ɔ̃] ㆧ Open a [a] ㄚ ann [ã] ㆩ	Tâi-lô IPA Bopomofo ir [ɨ] ㆨ er [ə] ㄜ ee [ɛ] ㄝ ere [əe]

There is also syllabic m and ng. -nn forms the nasal vowels ann enn inn onn unn ainn aunn [ã ẽ ĩ ɔ̃ ũ ãĩ ãũ]. i and u may also form the diphthonɡs ai au and the medials in ia iann iau iaunn io ionn iu iunn and ua uann uai uainn ue ui uinn.

The vowel [ɔ] is spelled oo in isolation and in ooh [ɔʔ]. Elsewhere it is spelled o (op ok om ong onn). [ɤ] only occurs as o, oh [ɤ, ɤʔ].

The only coda found after diphthongs, nasal vowels, and syllabic nasals is h: auh, annh, ainnh, aunnh, ennh, innh, onnh, unnh, mh, ngh [auʔ ãʔ ãĩʔ ãũʔ ẽʔ ĩʔ ɔ̃ʔ ũʔ mʔ ŋʔ], as in phngh [pʰŋʔ].

Tones

	Tâi-lô	IPA		Tâi-lô	IPA
陰平	tong	tɔ́ŋ	陽平	tông	tɔ̌ŋ
上	tóng	tɔ̂ŋ
陰去	tòng	tɔ̀ŋ	陽去	tōng	tɔ̄ŋ
陰入	tok	tɔ̀k	陽入	to̍k	tɔ́k

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.

External links

• 臺灣閩南語羅馬拼音及其發音學習網, Taiwanese Romanization System (Tai-lo) learning site by Ministry of Education, Taiwan