Pe̍h-ōe-jī

Pe̍h-ōe-jī (白话字, pronounced "peʔ˩ ue˩ dzi˨", abbreviated POJ, literally vernacular writing, also known as Church Romanization) is an orthography used to write variants of Southern Min, a Sinitic language, particularly Taiwanese Southern Min and Amoy Hokkien. Developed by Western missionaries working among the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia in the 19th century and refined by missionaries working in Xiamen and Tainan, it uses a modified Latin alphabet and some diacritics to represent the spoken language. After initial success in Fujian, POJ became most widespread in Taiwan, 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, including Taiwan's first newspaper, the Taiwan Church News.

The orthography was suppressed during the Japanese era in Taiwan (1895–1945), and faced further countermeasures during the Kuomintang martial law period (1947–1987). In Fujian, use declined after the establishment of the People's Republic of China (1949) and in the early 21st century the system was not in general use there. Taiwanese Christians, non-native learners of the language, and native-speaker enthusiasts in Taiwan are among those that continue to use Pe̍h-ōe-jī. Full native computer support was developed in 2004, and users can now call on fonts, input methods, and extensive online dictionaries. Rival writing systems have evolved, and there is ongoing debate within the Taiwanese mother tongue movement as to which system should be used. Versions of pe̍h-ōe-jī have been devised for other languages, including Hakka and Teochew.

Name

Template:Chinese The name pe̍h-ōe-jī (Template:Zh) means "vernacular writing", that is, written characters representing everyday spoken language.Template:Sfnp Though the name vernacular writing could be applied to many kinds of writing, romanized and character-based, the term pe̍h-ōe-jī is commonly restricted to the Southern Min romanization system developed by Presbyterian missionaries in the 19th century.Template:Sfnp

The missionaries who invented and refined the system didn't use the name pe̍h-ōe-jī, however, instead using various terms such as "Romanized Amoy Vernacular" and "Romanized Amoy Colloquial".Template:Sfnp The origins of the system and its extensive use in the Christian community has led to it being known by some modern-day writers as "Church Romanization" (Template:Zh; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Kàu-hōe Lô-má-jī); often abbreviated in POJ itself to "Kàu-lô" (Template:Zh).Template:Sfnp There is some debate as to whether "pe̍h-ōe-jī" or "Church Romanization" is the more appropriate name.

Objections raised to "pe̍h-ōe-jī" include that the surface meaning of the word itself is more generic than one specific system, and that both literary and colloquial register Southern Min appear in the system (meaning that describing it as "vernacular" writing might be inaccurate).Template:Sfnp Opposition to the name "Church Romanization" is based on the identification with the church, as the writing is used by a wider community than just Christians, and for secular as well as sacred writing.Template:Sfnp One commentator observes that POJ "today is largely disassociated from its former religious purposes".Template:Sfnp The term "romanization" is also disliked by some, who see it as belittling the status of pe̍h-ōe-jī by identifying it as a supplementary phonetic system, rather than a fully-fledged orthography.Template:Sfnp Sources disagree on which represents the more commonly used name of the two.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

History

File:Pa-khek-le Kau-hoe.jpg

Pe̍h-ōe-jī inscription at a church in Tainan (Tâi-lâm) commemorating Thomas Barclay

The history of Peh-oe-ji 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 educating Christian converts.Template:Sfnp

Early development

The first people to use a romanized script to write Southern Min were Spanish missionaries in Manila in the 16th century.Template:Sfnp However, it was used mainly as a teaching aid for Spanish learners of the language, and seems not to have had any influence on the development of pe̍h-ōe-jī.Template:Sfnp In the early 19th century, China was closed to Christian missionaries, who instead proselytized to overseas Chinese communities in South East Asia.Template:Sfnp The earliest origins of the system are found in a small vocabulary first printed in 1820 by Walter Henry Medhurst,Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp who went on to publish the Dictionary of the Hok-këèn Dialect of the Chinese Language, According to the Reading and Colloquial Idioms in 1832.Template:Sfnp

This dictionary represents the first major reference work in POJ, although the romanization within was quite different from the modern system, and has been dubbed Early Church Romanization by one scholar of the subject.Template:Sfnp Medhurst, who was stationed in Malacca, was influenced by Robert Morrison's romanization of Mandarin Chinese, but had to innovate in several areas to reflect major differences between Mandarin and Southern Min.Template:Sfnp Several important developments occurred in Medhurst's work, especially the application of consistent tone markings (influenced by contemporary linguistic studies of Sanskrit, which was becoming of more mainstream interest to Western scholars).Template:Sfnp Medhurst was convinced that accurate representation and reproduction of the tonal structure of Southern Min was vital to comprehension: Template:Blockquote

File:Doty frontispiece.png

Frontispiece of Doty's Anglo Chinese Manual of the Amoy Dialect (1853)

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.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp 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 in The Chinese Repository a consensus was arrived at for the new version of POJ, although Williams' suggestions were largely not followed.Template:Sfnp

The first major work to represent this new orthography was Elihu Doty's Anglo-Chinese Manual with Romanized Colloquial in the Amoy Dialect,Template:Sfnp 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.Template:Sfnp From this point on various authors adjusted some of the consonants and vowels, but the system of tone marks from Doty's Manual survives intact in modern POJ.Template:Sfnp 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.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

In 1842 the Treaty of Nanking was concluded, which included among its provisions the creation of treaty ports in which Christian missionaries would be free to preach.Template:Sfnp 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 of Gulangyu, created reference works and religious tracts, including a bible translation.Template:Sfnp 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 Hokkien Sprachraum, most notably Taiwan.Template:Sfnp The 1858 Treaty 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.Template:Sfnp

Maturity

Template:Quote box Quanzhou and Zhangzhou 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 as Amoy Dialect or Amoy Chinese.Template:Sfnp 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 of Tainan differed from the Xiamen blend, it was close enough that the missionaries could ignore the differences and import their system wholesale.Template:Sfnp

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.Template:Sfnp 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 in Chinese 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.Template:Sfnp Taking the other side, Thomas Barclay believed that literacy in POJ should be a goal rather than a waypoint: Template:Blockquote A great boon to the promotion of POJ in Taiwan came in 1880 when James Laidlaw Maxwell, a medical missionary based in Tainan, donated a small printing press to the local church, which Thomas Barclay learned how to operate in 1881 before founding the Presbyterian Church Press in 1884. Subsequently the Taiwan Prefectural City Church News, which first appeared in 1885 and was produced by Barclay's Presbyterian Church of Taiwan Press, became the first printed newspaper in Taiwan.Template:Sfnp

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.Template:Sfnp 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 of pe̍h-ōe-jī:

Evolution of pe̍h-ōe-jī, 1832–1934

Year	Author	pe̍h-ōe-jī spellings comparison									Source
		Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA/Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA
1832	Medhurst	ch		gn	ëen	ëet	ek	eng	oe	’h	Template:Sfnp
1853	Doty	ch		ng	ian	iat	iek	ieng	o͘	’	Template:Sfnp
1869	MacGowan	ts		ng	ien	iet	ek	eng	o͘	h	Template:Sfnp
1873	Douglas	ch	ts	ng	ien	iet	ek	eng	ɵ͘	h	Template:Sfnp
1894	Van Nest Talmage	ch		ng	ian	iat	ek	eng	o͘	h	Template:Sfnp
1911	Warnshuis & de Pree	ch		ng	ian	iat	ek	eng	o͘	h	Template:Sfnp
1913	Campbell	ch	ts	ng	ian	iat	ek	eng	o͘	h	Template:Sfnp
1923	Barclay	ch	ts	ng	ian	iet	ek	eng	o͘	h	Template:Sfnp
1934	Tipson	ch		ng	ian	iat	ek	eng	o͘	h	Template:Sfnp

File:Taiwanese kana.png

Taiwanese kana used as ruby characters

Competition for POJ was introduced during the Japanese era in Taiwan (1895–1945) in the form of Taiwanese kana, a system designed as a teaching aid and pronunciation guide, rather than an independent orthography like POJ.Template:Sfnp From the 1930s onwards, with the increasing militarization of Japan and the Kōminka movement encouraging Taiwanese people to "Japanize", there were a raft of measures taken against native languages, including Taiwanese.Template:Sfnp 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 of Taiwanese kana".Template:Sfnp

The Second 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-style shobō (Template:Zh) – private schools which taught Classical Chinese with literary Southern Min pronunciation – were closed down in 1939.Template:Sfnp 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".Template:Sfnp In the climate of the ongoing war the government banned the Taiwan Church News in 1942 as it was written in POJ.Template:Sfnp

After World War II

File:Banning of POJ.gif

A decree (1955) banning Pe̍h-ōe-jī.

Initially the Kuomintang government in Taiwan had a liberal attitude towards "local dialects" (i.e. non-Mandarin varieties of Chinese). The Mandarin Promotion Council produced booklets outlining versions of Mandarin Phonetic Symbols ("Bopomofo") for writing the Taiwanese tongue, these being intended for newly arrived government officials from outside Taiwan as well as local Taiwanese.Template:Sfnp The first government action against native languages came in 1953, when the use of Taiwanese or Japanese for instruction was forbidden.Template:Sfnp The next move to suppress the movement came in 1955, when the use of POJ for proselytizing was outlawed.Template:Sfnp At that point in time there were 115,000 people literate in POJ in Taiwan, Fujian, and southeast Asia.Template:Sfnp

Two years later, missionaries were banned from using romanized bibles, and the use of "native languages" (i.e. Taiwanese, Hakka, and the Aboriginal languages) in church work became illegal.Template:Sfnp The ban on POJ bibles was overturned in 1959, but churches were "encouraged" to use character bibles instead.Template:Sfnp 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,Template:Sfnp and transgression in schools punished with beatings, fines and humiliation.Template:Sfnp The Taiwan Church News (printed in POJ) was banned in 1969, and only allowed to return a year later when the publishers agreed to print it in Chinese characters.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

In 1974, the Government Information Office banned A 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." Also in the 1970s, a POJ New Testament translation known as the "Red Cover Bible" was confiscated and banned by the Nationalist regime.Template:Sfnp 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.Template:Sfnp

With the ending of martial law in 1987, the restrictions on "local languages" were quietly lifted,Template:Sfnp resulting in growing interest in Taiwanese writing during the 1990s.Template:Sfnp For the first time since the 1950s, Taiwanese language and literature was discussed and debated openly in newspapers and journals.Template:Sfnp There was also support from the then opposition party, the Democratic Progressive Party, for writing in the language.Template:Sfnp 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 Zhuyin fuhao and two Hangul-like systems.Template:Sfnp 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 promoting Taiwanese Language Phonetic Alphabet (TLPA), an alternative to POJ,Template:Sfnp which was at the time the choice of the majority inside the nativization movement.Template:Sfnp Native language education has remained a fiercely debated topic in Taiwan into the 21st century, and is the subject of much political wrangling.

Current system

Template:See also The current system of pe̍h-ōe-jī has been stable since the 1930s, with a few minor exceptions (detailed below).Template:Sfnp There is a fair degree of similarity with the Vietnamese orthography Quốc Ngữ, including the Template:Angle bracket distinction and the use of Template:Angle bracket in Quốc Ngữ compared with Template:Angle bracket in POJ.Template:Sfnp POJ uses the following letters and combinations:Template:Sfnp

Capital Letters	A	B	Ch	Chh	E	G	H	I	J	K	Kh	L	M	N		Ng	O	O͘	P	Ph	S	T	Th	U
Small 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

Chinese phonology traditionally divides syllables in Chinese languages into three parts; firstly the initial, a consonant or consonant blend which appears at the beginning of the syllable, secondly the final, consisting of a medial vowel (optional), a nucleus vowel, and an optional ending; and finally the tone, which is applied to the whole syllable.Template:Sfnp In terms of the non-tonal (i.e. phonemic) features, the nucleus vowel is the only required part of a licit consonant in Chinese languages.Template:Sfnp Unlike Mandarin but like other southern varieties of Chinese, Taiwanese has final plosives, which have no audible release, a feature that has been preserved from Middle Chinese.Template:Sfnp There is some debate as to whether these stops are a tonal feature or a phonemic one, with some authorities distinguishing between Template:Angle bracket as a tonal feature, and Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket, and Template:Angle bracket as phonemic features.Template:Sfnp Southern Min dialects also have an optional nasal property, which is written with a superscript Template:Angle bracket and usually identified as being part of the vowel.Template:Sfnp

A legitimate syllable in Hokkien takes the form (initial) + (medial vowel) + nucleus + (stop) + tone, where items in parenthesis indicate optional components.Template:Sfnp

The initials are:Template:Sfnp

		Bilabial		Alveolar		Alveolo-palatal		Velar		Glottal
		Voiceless	Voiced	Voiceless	Voiced	Voiceless	Voiced	Voiceless	Voiced	Voiceless
Nasal			[[Bilabial nasal|m Template:IPA]] ㄇ 毛 (mo͘ )		[[Alveolar nasal|n Template:IPA]] ㄋ 耐 (nāi)				[[Velar nasal|ng Template:IPA]] ㄫ 雅 (ngá)
Plosive	Unaspirated	[[Voiceless bilabial plosive|p Template:IPA]] ㄅ 邊 (pian)	[[Voiced bilabial plosive|b Template:IPA]] ㆠ 文 (bûn)	[[Voiceless alveolar plosive|t Template:IPA]] ㄉ 地 (tē)				[[Voiceless velar plosive|k Template:IPA]] ㄍ 求 (kiû)	[[Voiced velar plosive|g Template:IPA]] ㆣ 語 (gí)
	Aspirated	[[Voiceless bilabial plosive|ph Template:IPA]] ㄆ 波 (pho)		[[Voiceless alveolar plosive|th Template:IPA]] ㄊ 他 (thaⁿ)				[[Voiceless velar plosive|kh Template:IPA]] ㄎ 去 (khì)
Affricate	Unaspirated			[[Voiceless alveolar affricate|ch Template:IPA]] ㄗ 曾 (chan)	[[Voiced alveolar affricate|j Template:IPA]] ㆡ 熱 (joa̍h)	[[Voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate|chi Template:IPA]] ㄐ 尖 (chiam)	[[Voiced alveolo-palatal affricate|ji Template:IPA]] ㆢ 入 (ji̍p)
	Aspirated			[[Voiceless alveolar affricate|chh Template:IPA]] ㄘ 出 (chhut)		[[Voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate|chhi Template:IPA]] ㄑ 手 (chhiú)
Fricative				[[Voiceless alveolar sibilant|s Template:IPA]] ㄙ 衫 (saⁿ)		[[Voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant|si Template:IPA]] ㄒ 寫 (siá)				[[Voiceless glottal fricative|h Template:IPA]] ㄏ 喜 (hí)
Lateral					[[Alveolar lateral approximant|l Template:IPA]] ㄌ 柳 (liú)

Vowels:Template:Sfnp

Monophthongs Front Central Back Simple Nasal Simple Simple Nasal Close [[Close front unrounded vowel|i Template:IPA]] ㄧ 衣 (i) [[Close front unrounded vowel|iⁿ Template:IPA]] ㆪ 圓 (îⁿ) [[Close back rounded vowel|u Template:IPA]] ㄨ 污 (u) [[Close back rounded vowel|uⁿ Template:IPA]] ㆫ 張 (tiuⁿ) Mid [[Close-mid front unrounded vowel|e Template:IPA]] ㆤ 禮 (lé) [[Close-mid front unrounded vowel|eⁿ Template:IPA]] ㆥ 生 (seⁿ) [[Mid-central vowel|o Template:IPA]] ㄜ 高 (ko) [[Open-mid back rounded vowel|o͘ Template:IPA]] ㆦ 烏 (o͘ ) [[Open-mid back rounded vowel|oⁿ Template:IPA]] ㆧ 翁 (oⁿ) Open [[Open front unrounded vowel|a Template:IPA]] ㄚ 查 (cha) [[Open front unrounded vowel|aⁿ Template:IPA]] ㆩ 衫 (saⁿ)

Diphthongs & Triphthongs Diphthongs ai Template:IPA ㄞ au Template:IPA ㄠ ia Template:IPA ㄧㄚ io Template:IPA ㄧㄜ iu Template:IPA ㄧㄨ oa Template:IPA ㄨㄚ oe Template:IPA ㄨㆤ ui Template:IPA ㄨㄧ Triphthongs iau Template:IPA ㄧㄠ oai Template:IPA ㄨㄞ

Coda endings:

Bilabial Alveolar Velar Glottal Nasal consonant [[Bilabial nasal|-m Template:IPA]] ㆬ [[Alveolar nasal|-n Template:IPA]] ㄣ [[Velar nasal|-ng Template:IPA]] ㆭ Stop consonant -p Template:IPA ㆴ -t Template:IPA ㆵ -k Template:IPA ㆶ [[Glottal stop|-h Template:IPA]] ㆷ

Syllabic consonant Bilabial Velar Nasal m Template:IPA ㆬ 姆 (ḿ) ng Template:IPA ㆭ 酸 (sng)

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

	Ø	b	ch	chh	g	h	j	k	kh	l	m	n	ng	p	ph	s	t	th
a	a	ba	cha	chha	ga	ha		ka	kha	la	ma	na	nga	pa	pha	sa	ta	tha	a
aⁿ	aⁿ		chaⁿ	chhaⁿ		haⁿ		kaⁿ	khaⁿ						phaⁿ	saⁿ	taⁿ	thaⁿ	aⁿ
ah	ah	bah	chah	chhah		hah		kah	khah	lah		nah		pah	phah	sah	tah	thah	ah
ahⁿ						hahⁿ										sahⁿ			ahⁿ
ai	ai	bai	chai	chhai	gai	hai		kai	khai	lai	mai	nai	ngai	pai	phai	sai	tai	thai	ai
aiⁿ	aiⁿ		chaiⁿ			haiⁿ		kaiⁿ	khaiⁿ						phaiⁿ		taiⁿ		aiⁿ
ak	ak	bak	chak	chhak	gak	hak		kak	khak	lak				pak	phak	sak	tak	thak	ak
am	am		cham	chham	gam	ham		kam	kham	lam						sam	tam	tham	am
an	an	ban	chan	chhan	gan	han		kan	khan	lan				pan	phan	san	tan	than	an
ang	ang	bang	chang	chhang	gang	hang		kang	khang	lang				pang	phang	sang	tang	thang	ang
ap	ap		chap	chhap		hap		kap	khap	lap						sap	tap	thap	ap
at	at	bat	chat	chhat		hat		kat	khat	lat				pat		sat	tat	that	at
au	au	bau	chau	chhau	gau	hau		kau	khau	lau	mau	nau	ngau	pau	phau	sau	tau	thau	au
auh				chhauh				kauh		lauh	mauh	nauh			phauh		tauh		auh
e	e	be	che	chhe	ge	he		ke	khe	le	me	ne	nge	pe	phe	se	te	the	e
eⁿ	eⁿ		cheⁿ	chheⁿ		heⁿ		keⁿ	kheⁿ					peⁿ	pheⁿ	seⁿ	teⁿ	theⁿ	eⁿ
eh	eh	beh	cheh	chheh		heh		keh	kheh	leh	meh	neh	ngeh	peh		Template:Not a typo	teh	Template:Not a typo	eh
ehⁿ						hehⁿ			khehⁿ										ehⁿ
ek	ek	bek	chek	chhek	gek	hek		kek		lek				pek	phek	sek	tek	thek	ek
eng	eng	Template:Not a typo	cheng	chheng	geng	heng		keng	kheng	leng				peng	pheng	seng	teng	theng	eng
i	i	bi	chi	chhi	gi	hi	ji	ki	khi	li	mi	ni		pi	phi	si	ti	thi	i
iⁿ	iⁿ		chiⁿ	chhiⁿ		hiⁿ		kiⁿ	khiⁿ							siⁿ	tiⁿ	thiⁿ	iⁿ
ia	ia		chia	chhia	gia	hia	jia	kia	khia		mia	nia	ngia			sia	tia		ia
iaⁿ	iaⁿ		chiaⁿ	chhiaⁿ		hiaⁿ		kiaⁿ						piaⁿ		siaⁿ	tiaⁿ	thiaⁿ	iaⁿ
iah	iah		chiah	chhiah	giah	hiah		kiah	khiah	liah				piah	phiah	siah	tiah	thiah	iah
iahⁿ						hiahⁿ													iahⁿ
iak				chhiak					khiak					piak	phiak	siak	tiak		iak
iam	iam		chiam	chhiam	giam	hiam	jiam	kiam	khiam	liam						siam	tiam	thiam	iam
ian	ian	bian	chian	chhian	gian	hian	jian	kian	khian	lian				pian	phian	sian	tian	thian	ian
iang	iang		chiang	chhiang	giang	hiang	jiang		khiang	liang				piang	phiang	siang			iang
iap	iap		chiap	chhiap	giap	hiap	jiap	kiap	khiap	liap						siap	tiap	thiap	iap
iat	iat	biat	chiat	chhiat	giat	hiat	jiat	kiat	khiat	liat				piat	phiat	siat	tiat	thiat	iat
iau	iau	biau	chiau	chhiau	giau	hiau	jiau	kiau	khiau	liau	miau	niau	ngiau	piau	phiau	siau	tiau	thiau	iau
iauⁿ	iauⁿ																		iauⁿ
iauh						hiauh			khiauh				ngiauh						iauh
ih		bih	chih	chhih					khih		mih	nih		pih	phih	sih	tih	thih	ih
im	im		chim	chhim	gim	him	jim	kim	khim	lim						sim	tim	thim	im
in	in	bin	chin	chhin	gin	hin	jin	kin	khin	lin				pin	phin	sin	tin	thin	in
io	io	bio	chio	chhio	gio	hio	jio	kio	khio	lio				pio	phio	sio	tio	thio	io
ioh	ioh		chioh	chhioh	gioh	hioh		kioh	khioh	lioh						sioh	tioh		ioh
iok	iok		chiok	chhiok	giok	hiok	jiok	kiok	khiok	liok						siok	tiok	thiok	iok
iong	iong		chiong	chhiong	giong	hiong	jiong	kiong	khiong	liong						siong	tiong	thiong	iong
ip	ip		chip	chhip		hip	jip	kip	khip	lip						sip			ip
it	it	bit	chit	chhit		hit	jit	kit	khit					pit	phit	sit	tit		it
iu	iu	biu	chiu	chhiu	giu	hiu	jiu	kiu	khiu	liu		niu		piu		siu	tiu	thiu	iu
iuⁿ	iuⁿ		chiuⁿ	chhiuⁿ		hiuⁿ		kiuⁿ	khiuⁿ							siuⁿ	tiuⁿ		iuⁿ
iuhⁿ	iuhⁿ					hiuhⁿ													iuhⁿ
m	m					hm													m
mh						hmh													mh
ng	ng		chng	chhng		hng		kng	khng		mng	nng		png		sng	tng	thng	ng
ngh				chhngh		hngh									phngh	sngh			ngh
o	o	bo	cho	chho	go	ho		ko	kho	lo				po	pho	so	to	tho	o
oⁿ	oⁿ					hoⁿ		koⁿ											oⁿ
o͘	o͘	bo͘	cho͘	chho͘	go͘	ho͘		ko͘	kho͘	lo͘	mo͘	no͘	ngo͘	po͘	pho͘	so͘	to͘	tho͘	o͘
oa	oa	boa	choa	chhoa	goa	hoa		koa	khoa	loa	moa	noa		poa	phoa	soa	toa	thoa	oa
oaⁿ	oaⁿ			chhoaⁿ		hoaⁿ		koaⁿ	khoaⁿ					poaⁿ	phoaⁿ	soaⁿ	toaⁿ	thoaⁿ	oaⁿ
oah	oah	boah	choah	chhoah		hoah	joah	koah	khoah	loah				poah	phoah	soah		thoah	oah
oai	oai					hoai		koai	khoai							soai			oai
oaiⁿ	oaiⁿ		choaiⁿ			hoaiⁿ		koaiⁿ								soaiⁿ			oaiⁿ
oan	oan	boan	choan	chhoan	goan	hoan		koan	khoan	loan				poan	phoan	soan	toan	thoan	oan
oang	oang			chhoang															oang
oat	oat	boat	choat		goat	hoat		koat	khoat	loat				poat	phoat	soat	toat	thoat	oat
oe	oe	boe	choe	chhoe	goe	hoe	joe	koe	khoe	loe				poe	phoe	soe	toe		oe
oeh	oeh	boeh			goeh	hoeh		koeh	khoeh					poeh	phoeh	soeh			oeh
oh	oh		choh	chhoh		hoh		koh		loh				poh	phoh	soh	toh	thoh	oh
o͘h											mo͘h								o͘h
ohⁿ	ohⁿ					hohⁿ													ohⁿ
ok	ok	bok	chok	chhok	gok	hok		kok	khok	lok				pok	phok	sok	tok	thok	ok
om	om															som	tom		om
ong	ong	bong	chong	chhong	gong	hong		kong	khong	long				pong	phong	song	tong	thong	ong
u	u	bu	chu	chhu	gu	hu	ju	ku	khu	lu				pu	phu	su	tu	thu	u
uh	uh		chuh	chhuh					khuh					puh	phuh		tuh	thuh	uh
ui	ui	bui	chui	chhui	gui	hui		kui	khui	lui	mui			pui	phui	sui	tui	thui	ui
un	un	bun	chun	chhun	gun	hun	jun	kun	khun	lun				pun	phun	sun	tun	thun	un
ut	ut	but	chut	chhut		hut		kut	khut	lut				put	phut	sut	tut	thut	ut
	Ø	b	ch	chh	g	h	j	k	kh	l	m	n	ng	p	ph	s	t	th

Sources: Campbell,Template:Sfnp Embree,Template:Sfnp Kì.Template:Sfnp

Tone markings

Number	Diacritic	Chinese tone name	Example Template:Audio
1	none	陰平 (yinping) dark level	kha foot; leg
2	acute	上聲 (shangsheng) rising	chúi water
3	grave	陰去 (yinqu) dark departing	kàu arrive
4	none	陰入 (yinru) dark entering	bah meat
5	circumflex	陽平 (yangping) light level	ông king
7	macron	陽去 (yangqu) light departing	tiōng heavy
8	vertical line above	陽入 (yangru) light entering	jo̍ah hot

File:POJ tone marks.png

The five tone markings used in pe̍h-ōe-jī, representing tones 2, 3, 5, 7, and 8

In standard Amoy or Taiwanese Hokkien there are seven distinct tones, 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 2). Tones 1 and 4 are both represented without a diacritic, and can be distinguished from each other by the syllable ending, which is a vowel, Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket, or Template:Angle bracket for tone 1, and Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket, and Template:Angle bracket for tone 4.

Southern Min languages undergo considerable tone sandhi, i.e. changes to the tone depending on the position of the syllable in any given sentence or utterance.Template:Sfnp However, like Hanyu Pinyin for Mandarin Chinese, POJ always marks the citation tone (i.e. the original, pre-sandhi tone) rather than the tone which is actually spoken.Template:Sfnp 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 the language mark both the citation tone and the sandhi tone to assist the learner.Template:Sfnp

There is some debate as to the correct placement of tone marks in the case of diphthongs and triphthongs, particularly those which include Template:Angle bracket and Template:Angle bracket.Template:Sfnp Most modern writers follow six rules:Template:Sfnp

1. If the syllable has one vowel, that vowel should be tone-marked; viz. Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket
2. If a diphthong contains Template:Angle bracket or Template:Angle bracket, the tone mark goes above the other vowel; viz. Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket
3. If a diphthong includes both Template:Angle bracket and Template:Angle bracket, mark the Template:Angle bracket; viz. Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket
4. If the final is made up of three or more letters, mark the second vowel (except when rules 2 and 3 apply); viz. Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket
5. If Template:Angle bracket occurs with Template:Angle bracket or Template:Angle bracket, mark the Template:Angle bracket; viz. Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket
6. If the syllable has no vowel, mark the nasal consonant; viz. Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket

Hyphens

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.Template:Sfnp Examples from POJ include Template:Angle bracket "forty", Template:Angle bracket "circus", and Template:Angle bracket "recover (from illness)". The rule-based sandhi behaviour of tones in compounds has not yet been clearly defined by linguists.Template:Sfnp A double hyphen Template:Angle bracket 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.Template:Sfnp 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.Template:Sfnp

Audio examples

POJ	Translation	Audio File
Template:Lang	A teacher/master speaks, students quietly listen.	Template:Audio
Template:Lang	Today that girl came to my house to see me.	Template:Audio
Template:Lang	Space friends, how are you? Have you eaten yet? When you have the time, come on over to eat.	Listen (from NASA Voyager Golden Record)

Regional differences

In addition to the standard syllables detailed above, there are several regional variations of Hokkien speech which can be represented with non-standard or semi-standard spellings. In Zhangzhou and parts of Taiwan which are closely related to the Zhangzhou dialect (particularly the northeastern coast around Yilan), the final Template:Angle bracket is replaced with Template:Angle bracket, for example in "egg" Template:Angle bracket and "cooked rice" Template:Angle bracket.Template:Sfnp

Texts

Template:Quote box Due to POJ's origins in the 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,Template:Sfnp and one study in 2002 catalogued 840 different POJ texts in existence.Template:Sfnp Besides a Southern Min version of Wikipedia in the orthography,Template:Sfnp there are teaching materials, religious texts, and books about linguistics, medicine and geography.

• Lán ê Kiù-chú Iâ-so͘ Ki-tok ê Sin-iok (1873 translation of the New Testament)
• Lāi-goā-kho Khàn-hō͘-ha̍k, by George Gushue-Taylor, 1917
• Chinese–English dictionary of the vernacular or spoken language of Amoy, by Carstairs Douglas , 1873
• Lear Ông, translation of King Lear by Tē Hūi-hun

Computing

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. Several input methods exist to enter Unicode-compliant POJ, including OpenVanilla (Mac OS X and Windows), the cross-platform Tai-lo Input Method released by the Taiwanese Ministry of Education, and the Firefox add-on Transliterator, which allows in-browser POJ input.Template:Sfnp 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.Template:Sfnp Another solution was to replace troublesome characters with near equivalents, for example substituting Template:Angle bracket for Template:Angle bracket or using a standard Template:Angle bracket followed by an interpunct to represent Template:Angle bracket.Template:Sfnp With the introduction into Unicode 4.1.0 of the combining diacritic COMBINING DOT ABOVE RIGHT (U+0358) in 2004, all the necessary characters were present to write regular POJ without the need for workarounds.Template:Sfnp 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 diacritics. Some of those which can are Charis SIL, DejaVu, Doulos SIL, Linux Libertine, and Taigi Unicode.Template:Sfnp

Han-Romanization mixed script

Template:Quote box One of the most popular modern ways of writing Taiwanese is by using a mixed orthographyTemplate:Sfnp called Hàn-lôTemplate:Sfnp (Template:Zh; literally Chinese-Roman), and sometimes Han-Romanization mixed script, a style not unlike written Japanese or (historically) Korean.Template:Sfnp In fact, the term Hàn-lô does not describe one specific system, but covers any kind of writing in Southern Min which features both Chinese characters and romanization.Template:Sfnp That romanization is usually POJ, although recently some texts have begun appearing with 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)Template:Sfnp 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%".Template:Sfnp 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.Template:Sfnp The second is to wean character literates off using them gradually, to be replaced eventually by fully romanized text.Template:Sfnp Examples of modern texts in Hàn-lô include religious, pedagogical, scholarly, and literary works, such as:

• Template:Cite bookTemplate:Sfnp
• Template:Cite bookTemplate:Sfnp

Adaptations for other languages or dialects

POJ has been adapted for several other languages and dialects, with varying degrees of success. For Hakka, missionaries and others have produced a Bible translation, hymn book, textbooks, and dictionaries.Template:Sfnp Materials produced in the orthography, called Pha̍k-fa-sṳ, include:

• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book

A modified version of POJ has also been created for Teochew.

Current status

File:Books which use the Pe̍h-ōe-jī romanisation system for Southern Min-Taiwanese.jpg

Some books which use pe̍h-ōe-jī, including textbooks, dictionaries, a bible, poetry, and academic works

Most native Southern Min speakers in Taiwan are unfamiliar with POJ or any other writing system for the language,Template:Sfnp commonly asserting that "Taiwanese has no writing",Template:Sfnp or, if they are made aware of POJ, considering romanization as the "low" form of writing, in contrast with the "high" form (Chinese characters).Template:Sfnp For those who are introduced to POJ alongside Han-lo 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.Template:Sfnp

POJ remains the Taiwanese orthography "with the richest inventory of written work, including dictionaries, textbooks, literature [...] and other publications in many areas".Template:Sfnp A 1999 estimate put the number of literate POJ users at around 100,000,Template:Sfnp and secular organizations have been formed to promote the use of romanization among Taiwanese speakers.Template:Sfnp

Outside Taiwan, POJ is rarely used. For example, in Fujian, Xiamen University uses a romanization known as Bbánlám pìngyīm, based on Pinyin. In other areas where Hokkien is spoken, such as Singapore, the Speak Mandarin Campaign is underway to actively discourage people from speaking Hokkien or other Chinese dialects in favour of switching to Mandarin instead.

In 2006, Taiwan's Ministry of Education chose an official romanization for use in teaching the language in the state school system.Template:Sfnp POJ was one of the candidate systems, along with Daighi tongiong pingim, but a compromise system, the Taiwanese Romanization System or Tâi-Lô, was chosen in the end. Tâi-Lô retains most of the orthographic standards of POJ, including the tone marks, while changing the troublesome Template:Angle bracket character for Template:Angle bracket, swapping Template:Angle bracket for Template:Angle bracket, and replacing Template:Angle bracket in diphthongs with Template:Angle bracket.Template:Sfnp Supporters of Taiwanese writing are in general deeply suspicious of government involvement, given the history of official suppression of native languages,Template:Sfnp making it unclear whether Tâi-Lô or POJ will become the dominant system in the future.

References

Notes

Bibliography

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• Template:Cite web Template:Dead link
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External links

General

• Template:Cite web – Google group for Taiwanese language enthusiasts – uses POJ and Chinese characters.
• Template:Cite web – information on Unicode encodings for POJ text
• Template:Cite web – group dedicated to the promotion of Taiwanese and Hakka romanization

Input methods

• Template:Cite web – open source input method for both Windows and Mac OS X.
• Template:Cite web – Windows-based input method for both Hokkien and Hakka variants.
• Template:Cite web – cross-platform input method released by Taiwan's Ministry of Education.
• Template:Cite web – extension for the Firefox browser which allows POJ input in-browser.

POJ-compliant fonts

• Template:Cite web – serif font in regular, bold, italic, and bold italic.
• Template:Cite web – available in serif, sans-serif, and monospace.
• Template:Cite web – Times New Roman-style serif.
• Template:Cite web – open source serif.
• Template:Cite web – GPL and OPL-licensed serif.
• Template:Cite web – serif font specifically designed for POJ.

Texts and dictionaries

• Template:Cite web – list of books in Taiwanese, including those written in POJ.
• Template:Cite web – collection of Taiwanese texts in various orthographies, including many in POJ.
• Template:Cite web – dictionary which includes POJ, Taiwanese in Chinese characters, and Mandarin characters. Some English definitions also available.
• Template:Citation – sample images of various older POJ texts.