Category Archives: Taiwanese

A nose for foreign food?

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Imagine some white guys in a fairly large U.S. city open a restaurant named “Mr. Taiwan Slant-Eyes Asian Cuisine.” And imagine that this restaurant specializes in distinctly Americanized dishes such as egg foo yong, fortune cookies, and California wraps. Now imagine the response. Isn’t this fun?

OK, now imagine a different situation: In Taiwan’s fifth-largest city some locals open a place specializing in Taiwanized Western food and dub their restaurant “Miss UK Cafe Pointy-Nose Foreign Food.”

As you’ve probably guessed, the second scenario is real. The “Miss UK Cafe ㄚ度仔 異國美食” (Miss UK Cafe a-tok-a yìguó měishí) recently opened not far from my apartment in Banqiao.

A-tok-a (ㄚ度仔) is Taiwanese for “pointy nose” (i.e., Westerner), though perhaps the common translation of “big nose” conveys the spirit a little better. As Tempo Gain explains in the Forumosa thread on this word, “the initial ‘a’ often preceds names, and the final ‘a’ often is attached to nouns like the Mandarin ‘zi’ haizi, chezi, etc.”

Although most foreigners I know in Taiwan find the use of a-tok-a offensive to some degree, reactions are usually tempered by the knowledge that the word is very seldom used intentionally as a pejorative. It’s just the word most Hoklo speakers would use for “Westerner,” and they mean nothing bad by this and perhaps even see it as “cute” in a favorable way. So since I’m certain the restaurateurs didn’t intend any insult in choosing this name, I’m not going to carp about this any more than I already have — which is not to say that I will ever buy anything from that restaurant.

It’s still an interesting name, though. (Actually, this is probably two names: the standard one (ㄚ度仔 異國美食), which is for most people, and the English one (Miss UK Cafe), which is probably there in an attempt to look modern/foreign/cool.)

For those keeping count, that’s three scripts and as many languages on just one sign.

  • Miss UK Cafe: English, in the Roman alphabet
  • ㄚ度仔: Taiwanese, in a mixed script of zhuyin (ㄚ) and Chinese characters
  • 異國美食: Mandarin, in Chinese characters

The mixing of scripts in “ㄚ度仔” is representative of the sad fact that most people in Taiwan are unsure how to write Taiwanese. Here are some of the ways this word gets written, along with the number of Google results and Baidu results for that exact phrase.

  • ㄚ度仔 Google 555 / Baidu doesn’t recognize the ㄚ
  • 阿凸仔 3,440 / Baidu 1,320
  • 阿多仔 6,730/ Baidu 13,400
  • 阿卓仔 11,300 / Baidu 2,810
  • 阿荳仔 12,500 / Baidu 24,700
  • 阿豆仔 12,500 / Baidu 24,700 (Google and Baidu apparently refuse to differentiate 荳 and 豆)

Also interesting is the use of yìguó (異國) instead of the more common wàiguó (外國), for “foreign.”

  • “異國” Google 1,510,000 / Baidu 14,700,000
  • “外國” Google 6,420,000 / Baidu 46,500,000

Yìguó měishí, however, is more common than wàiguó měishí.

  • “外國美食” Google 41,100 / Baidu 26,400
  • “異國美食” Google 114,000 / Baidu 152,000

This, I suspect, is because yìguó měishí “sounds fancier” because of how relatively common the word waiguo is.

photo of the storefront of the restaurant discussed in this post

further reading:

blog: Talking Taiwanese

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Talking Taiwanese is a great new blog featuring long, detailed posts that often compare and contrast Taiwan’s linguistic situation with that of other places (e.g., Catalonia, Friesland, Galicia). Taiwan’s failure to institute meaningful language programs in Taiwanese is another frequent topic.

Talking Taiwanese started so strong, with a torrent of posts, that I more than half expected the author, Johan, to burn out. But although the rate of new posts there has slowed a little, Talking Taiwanese is still going strong. Check it out.

My only excuse for not mentioning this earlier is that I’m behind on everything lately. I first heard about this blog from David of David on Formosa, who often puts up great links.

linguistic nationalism and Hoklo (Taiwanese, Minnan)

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Sino-Platonic Papers has rereleased its August 1991 issue: Linguistic Nationalism: The Case of Southern Min.

An excerpt from the introduction:

In this paper, I will explore aspects of the social value of Southern Min. I draw on data collected in three Southern Min-speaking communities in which I have done participant-observation fieldwork: Penang, Malaysia; Tainan, Taiwan, and Xiamen (Amoy), the People’s Republic of China, focusing in particular on the political importance of Southern Min in Tainan. I take as one goal that of drawing attention to the importance of regional identities and differences in Chinese society, differences all too often disregarded by those who seek to reify ‘Chinese culture’ as a monolithic entity.

Also, the color scheme of the online catalog for Sino-Platonic Papers has been adjusted a little in order to make clearer which issues are presently available for free download.

Taike — trademarking a partially reclaimed pejorative

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台客 -- the trademark image of the Chinese characters for 'taike', which shows simply the characters in an ordinary font in black text against a white backgroundThe term taike (táikè, 台客 — with “tai” as in “Taiwan” and “ke” as in “guest”) has historically been used predominantly by mainlanders in Taiwan as a pejorative for ethnic Taiwanese they view as unsophisticated and crude.

In recent years some Taiwanese have attempted to reclaim the word for themselves as “an expression of strong national consciousness and Taiwanese cultural elements,” as the Taipei Times puts it. Whether they’ve been particularly successful in this could be debated. For example, more than a few of the giggling, empty-headed entertainment figures on Taiwan television will often jokingly accuse someone on their show of being “hǎo tái,” where tai is a short form for taike and meant as synonymous with dījí (低級, vulgar). It makes me want to slap those media celebrities upside their damn-fool heads. But watching TV here often brings out such feelings in me. Anyway, I digress.

Neuron Innovations (Zhōngzǐ Chuàngxīn / 中子創新), organizers of the TK Rock Concert, has been granted a trademark here in Taiwan for 台客 (taike). It’s a bit as if a company in the States running a gay-rights-themed rock festival named “Fag Fest” had been given the trademark on not just “Fag Fest” but the word “fag” itself.

The illustration in this post is the submitted trademark. As is obvious, there’s nothing whatsoever special about the design; it’s just the plain characters.

Some politicians and academic figures have called for the trademark to be repealed, including Legislator Lin Shu-fen of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.

Lin said that taike should be regarded as a kind of “public good” or “cultural good” and no one should be allowed to monopolize the usage of the term.

“Making taike a registered trademark is detrimental to popular culture,” Lin said.

She said that members of the public might face an infringement lawsuit if they used the term in symposiums, music competitions, or film festivals or in the names of their published books or magazines, among other things.

Hung Shu-ming (洪淑敏 [Hóng Shūmǐn), the head of the trademark division at the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), did not think it improper that the bureau had granted Neuron Innovations the trademark.

“The application for taike registration was approved because Neuron Innovations has a leading position in hosting taike Rock concerts in recent years,” Hung said.

Lin responded by saying that “first come, first served” was not a good reason for Neuron Innovations to get the trademark, as LTK (濁水溪公社 [Zhuóshuǐ Xī Gōngshè), a local band which released an album titled Revenge of the Taike ten years ago, would have owned the trademark.

Lee Ming-tsung (李明聰 [Lǐ Míngcōng), an associate professor of sociology at National Taiwan University, urged the IPO to repeal the taike trademark as it is integral to the popular culture.

sources and further reading:

Shanghai metro told to end language service

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This week’s news provides a good example of how petty China’s language police can be.

Workers in Shanghai’s metro service must often deal with Chinese who do not speak either Shanghainese or standard Mandarin, so they began to collect useful phrases so staff members could better understand and answer some questions. They focused on Cantonese, Hoklo (a.k.a. Minnan, Southern Fujianese, Taiwanese, etc.), Wenzhouhua (although this is generally classified as part of the same language that contains Shanghainese, it is largely incomprehensible to most people in Shanghai), Wuhanhua (although classified as a Mandarin dialect, it is far removed from standard Mandarin), and Changsha (a dialect of Hunanese). More than fifty metro employees are to study the phrases.

This caught the attention of Shanghai’s Spoken and Written Language Work Committee (Yǔyán Wénzì Gōngzuò Wěiyuánhuì). On Tuesday, Zhu Lei (朱蕾), a committee official, reported that her office had “contacted the Metro management …, stating that the program could violate the country’s language policy to promote the use of Putonghua [i.e., Mandarin].”

“The right way to solve communication barrier is to speak Putonghua,” she is quoted as saying.
sources:

university Web site on Taiwanese

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National Taichung University (Guólì Táizhōng Jiàoyù Dàxué / 國立台中教育大學) has a new Web site on Taiwanese. Unfortunately, parts of it — especially the sound files — appear to require the use of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Web browser and ActiveX. But it’s still a useful resource.

further reading: Mǐnnányǔ Luómǎzì pīnyīn fāng’àn jí fāyīn xuéxí wǎng jiàn zhì wánchéng (閩南語羅馬字拼音方案及發音學習網建置完成), CNA, June 15, 2007

Chinese characters for Taiwanese–a new list from Taiwan’s MOE

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Taiwan’s Ministry of Education has released a list of Chinese characters that can be used for writing common words in Taiwanese. (Note: PDF file.) I’ve provided a few examples at the end of this post.

The minister of education stated last week that students will not be tested on Chinese characters for Taiwanese, so I doubt there will be a widespread effort to learn these. Moreover, some of these characters are not presently in Unicode, making their use in practical applications at best difficult. (And even if they were in Unicode, that doesn’t mean fonts would include them or that a significant number of people would have such fonts.)

More characters and readings are to be released later. But since this list of just three hundred entries took the ministry four years to compile (not counting the many years various scholars worked on this before then), I don’t think anyone should be expecting much more to be released soon.

Here is the ministry’s press release on this.

關於臺灣閩南語用字整理工作，本會自民國84年至92年已委託多位學者進行「閩南語本字研究計畫」，計得成果《閩南語字彙》8冊。又自民國90年至93年組織編輯委員會，編輯《臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典》。民國92年本會鄭前主任委員良偉並主持「臺灣閩南語常用300詞用字計畫小組」（95年奉部長指示更名為「整理臺灣閩南語基本字詞工作計畫小組」），聘請專家學者研議用字問題。本表所定用字，係綜合上述成果，並由「整理臺灣閩南語基本字詞工作計畫小組」召開多次會議訂定。
本表針對臺灣閩南語用字紛歧之語詞，秉持易教易學精神，尊重傳統習用漢字並兼顧音字系統性，推薦適用漢字。其原則分述如下：

  1. 傳統習用原則：本表所選用之漢字多為民間傳統習用之通俗用字，不論其為本字、訓用字、借音字或臺閩地區創用之漢字均屬之。如：
    1. 本字：
      臺灣傳統閩南語文所用漢字多為傳統用字，如：「山」（suann）註、「水」（tsuí）、「天」（thinn）等。部分詞語雖然在現代中文語義或用法已不盡相同，如：「箸」（tī，筷子）、「沃」（ak，澆）、「行」（kiânn，走）、「走」（tsáu，跑）、「倩」（tshiànn，僱用）、「晏」（uànn，晚）、「青盲」（tshenn-mê，失明）、「才調」（tsâi-tiāu，本事）等古漢語詞，保存在臺灣閩南語中，其漢字亦習用已久，本表基於尊重傳統，亦加以採用。
      另外，臺閩地區為因應閩南語文書寫之需，亦常使用臺閩特殊漢字，本表將此種「臺閩字」視同「本字」。其中部分用字如：「囝」（kiánn，孩子）、「粿」（kué）等早已收入漢字典中，自然方便使用，但部分用字如：「亻因」[webmaster’s note: written together as one character] （in，他們）、「**」[webmaster’s note: see PDF for these characters] （tshit-thô，遊玩）等因尚未收入漢語字典中，Unicode亦尚未設定字碼，或尚無字型支援，可暫時使用本表推薦之「異用字」，或以臺灣閩南語羅馬字拼音方案（臺羅）書寫。
    2. 訓用字：
      借用中文漢字之意義，而讀為閩南語音者，如：「穿衫」（tshīng sann，穿衣服）的「穿」、「仔」（á）、「無」（bô）、 「瘦」（sán）、「戇」（gōng）、「挖」（óo/ué）、「會」（ē）等均非本字，是為「訓用字」，亦列為推薦用字。
    3. 借音字：
      借用漢字之音或接近之音，而賦與閩南語意義者，如：「嘛」（mā，也）、「佳哉」（ka-tsài，幸虧）、「膨」（phòng，鼓起）、「磅空」（pōng-khang，山洞）的「磅」等均非本字，是為「借音字」，亦列為推薦用字。
  2. 音字系統性原則：如無傳統習用漢字或一字多音、一音多字情形，容易產生混淆，造成閱讀障礙或學習困難時，本表採用兩個解決辦法，分述如下：
    1. 若傳統通俗用字容易產生混淆，則改用華文習見之訓讀字。如所有格ê及單位詞ê，傳統用字均寫成「个」，造成「一个」可以讀為tsi̍t-ê，也可以讀為it–ê。故本表已將「个」字定為單位詞，如：tsi̍t-ê寫成「一个」，而所有格則訓用華文之「的」，如：it–ê則寫成「一的」、guá-ê寫成「我的」。
    2. 如以上通俗用字仍可能發生混淆時，則建議採用古漢字。如：「毋」（m̄，不）、「佇」（tī，在）、「媠」（suí，美）、「囥」（khǹg，放）、「跤」（kha，腳）、「蠓」（báng，蚊子）、「濟」（tsē，多）以及「吼」（háu，哭）、「誠」（tsiânn，很）、「冗」（līng，鬆）等。

Here are nine entries from the list of three hundred.

建議用字 音讀 又音 對應華語 用例 異用字
recommended character pronunciation alternate reading corresponding Mandarin example different wording
目 ba̍k   眼 目鏡、目眉  
蠓 bang   蚊子 蠓仔、蠓罩 蚊
蠻皮 bân-phuê bân-phê, bân-phêr 頑強不化 你真蠻皮 慢皮
捌 bat pat 認識、曾經 捌字、捌去  
欲 beh bueh, berh 要、如果、快要 欲食飯、欲知、強欲 要、卜
微 bî   微、細小、輕微 風微微仔吹、微微仔笑  
面 bīn   臉、面 面色、面熟  
明仔載 bîn-á-tsài miâ-á-tsài, bîn-nà-tsài 明天、明日 明仔載會好天 明仔再、明旦載
無 bô   無、沒有 無錢、無閒  

sources:

Taiwan gov’t releases booklet on Hoklo romanization

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Taiwan’s Ministry of Procrastination Education has finally released a handbook on the use of romanization for Taiwanese: “Táiwān Mǐnnányǔ Luómǎzì pīnyīn fāng’àn shǐyòng shǒucè” (《臺灣閩南語羅馬字拼音方案使用手冊》).

Most of the pages in this are devoted to a list of the syllables of Taiwanese. Without counting tones Taiwanese has nearly twice as many unique syllables as Mandarin (797 vs. about 410, respectively).

Here’s the list of Taiwanese syllables, as given in Taiwan’s current official romanization system for Hoklo:

a, ah, ai, ainn, ak, am, an, ang, ann, ap, at, au, ba, bah, bai, bak, ban, bang, bat, bau, be, beh, bi, bian, biat, biau, bih, bik, bin, bing, bio, bit, biu, bo, bok, bong, boo, bu, bua, buah, buan, buat, bue, bueh, bui, bun, but, e, eh, enn, ga, gai, gak, gam, gan, gang, gau, ge, gi, gia, giah, giam, gian, giang, giap, giat, giau, gik, gim, gin, ging, gio, gioh, giok, giong, giu, go, gok, gong, goo, gu, gua, guan, guat, gue, gueh, gui, ha, hah, hai, hainn, hak, ham, han, hang, hann, hannh, hap, hat, hau, he, heh, henn, hennh, hi, hia, hiah, hiam, hian, hiang, hiann, hiannh, hiap, hiat, hiau, hiauh, hik, him, hin, hing, hinn, hio, hioh, hiok, hiong, hip, hit, hiu, hiunn, hiunnh, hm, hmh, hng, hngh, ho, hoh, hok, hong, honn, honnh, hoo, hu, hua, huah, huai, huainn, huan, huann, huat, hue, hueh, hui, hun, hut, i, ia, iah, iam, ian, iang, iann, iap, iat, iau, iaunn, ik, im, in, ing, inn, io, ioh, iok, iong, ip, it, iu, iunn, ji, jia, jiam, jian, jiang, jiap, jiat, jiau, jim, jin, jio, jiok, jiong, jip, jit, jiu, ju, juah, jue, jun, ka, kah, kai, kainn, kak, kam, kan, kang, kann, kap, kat, kau, kauh, ke, keh, kenn, kha, khah, khai, khainn, khak, kham, khan, khang, khann, khap, khat, khau, khe, kheh, khenn, khennh, khi, khia, khiah, khiak, khiam, khian, khiang, khiap, khiat, khiau, khiauh, khih, khik, khim, khin, khing, khinn, khio, khioh, khiok, khiong, khip, khit, khiu, khiunn, khng, kho, khok, khong, khoo, khu, khua, khuah, khuai, khuan, khuann, khuat, khue, khueh, khuh, khui, khun, khut, ki, kia, kiah, kiam, kian, kiann, kiap, kiat, kiau, kik, kim, kin, king, kinn, kio, kioh, kiok, kiong, kip, kit, kiu, kiunn, kng, ko, koh, kok, kong, konn, koo, ku, kua, kuah, kuai, kuainn, kuan, kuann, kuat, kue, kueh, kui, kun, kut, la, lah, lai, lak, lam, lan, lang, lap, lat, lau, lauh, le, leh, li, liah, liam, lian, liang, liap, liat, liau, lih, lik, lim, lin, ling, lio, lioh, liok, liong, lip, liu, lo, loh, lok, long, loo, lu, lua, luah, luan, luat, lue, lui, lun, lut, m, ma, mai, mau, mauh, me, meh, mi, mia, miau, mih, mng, moo, mooh, mua, mui, na, nah, nai, nau, nauh, ne, neh, ng, nga, ngai, ngau, nge, ngeh, ngia, ngiau, ngiauh, ngoo, ni, nia, niau, nih, niu, nng, noo, nua, o, oh, ok, om, ong, onn, oo, pa, pah, pai, pak, pan, pang, pat, pau, pe, peh, penn, pha, phah, phai, phainn, phak, phan, phang, phann, phau, phauh, phe, phenn, phi, phiah, phiak, phian, phiang, phiann, phiat, phiau, phih, phik, phin, phing, phinn, phio, phit, phngh, pho, phoh, phok, phong, phoo, phu, phua, phuah, phuan, phuann, phuat, phue, phueh, phuh, phui, phun, phut, pi, piah, piak, pian, piang, piann, piat, piau, pih, pik, pin, ping, pinn, pio, pit, piu, png, po, poh, pok, pong, poo, pu, pua, puah, puan, puann, puat, pue, pueh, puh, pui, pun, put, sa, sah, sai, sak, sam, san, sang, sann, sannh, sap, sat, sau, se, seh, senn, si, sia, siah, siak, siam, sian, siang, siann, siap, siat, siau, sih, sik, sim, sin, sing, sinn, sio, sioh, siok, siong, sip, sit, siu, siunn, sng, sngh, so, soh, sok, som, song, soo, su, sua, suah, suai, suainn, suan, suann, suat, sue, sueh, suh, sui, sun, sut, ta, tah, tai, tainn, tak, tam, tan, tang, tann, tap, tat, tau, tauh, te, teh, tenn, tha, thah, thai, thak, tham, than, thang, thann, thap, that, thau, the, theh, thenn, thi, thiah, thiam, thian, thiann, thiap, thiat, thiau, thih, thik, thim, thin, thing, thinn, thio, thiok, thiong, thiu, thng, tho, thoh, thok, thong, thoo, thu, thua, thuah, thuan, thuann, thuat, thuh, thui, thun, thut, ti, tia, tiah, tiak, tiam, tian, tiann, tiap, tiat, tiau, tih, tik, tim, tin, ting, tinn, tinnh, tio, tioh, tiok, tiong, tit, tiu, tiuh, tiunn, tng, to, toh, tok, tom, tong, too, tsa, tsah, tsai, tsainn, tsak, tsam, tsan, tsang, tsann, tsap, tsat, tsau, tse, tseh, tsenn, tsha, tshah, tshai, tshak, tsham, tshan, tshang, tshann, tshap, tshat, tshau, tshauh, tshe, tsheh, tshenn, tshi, tshia, tshiah, tshiak, tshiam, tshian, tshiang, tshiann, tshiap, tshiat, tshiau, tshih, tshik, tshim, tshin, tshing, tshinn, tshio, tshioh, tshiok, tshiong, tship, tshit, tshiu, tshiunn, tshng, tshngh, tsho, tshoh, tshok, tshong, tshoo, tshu, tshua, tshuah, tshuan, tshuang, tshuann, tshue, tshuh, tshui, tshun, tshut, tsi, tsia, tsiah, tsiam, tsian, tsiang, tsiann, tsiap, tsiat, tsiau, tsih, tsik, tsim, tsin, tsing, tsinn, tsio, tsioh, tsiok, tsiong, tsip, tsit, tsiu, tsiunn, tsng, tso, tsoh, tsok, tsong, tsoo, tsu, tsua, tsuah, tsuainn, tsuan, tsuann, tsuat, tsue, tsuh, tsui, tsun, tsut, tu, tua, tuan, tuann, tuat, tue, tuh, tui, tun, tut, u, ua, uah, uai, uainn, uan, uang, uann, uat, ue, ueh, uh, ui, un, ut