''Taiwanese Southern Min Recommended Characters'' is a set of three lists of
Taiwanese Hokkien
Taiwanese Hokkien () (; Tâi-lô: ''Tâi-uân-uē''), also known as Taigi/Taigu (; Pe̍h-ōe-jī/ Tâi-lô: ''Tâi-gí / Tâi-gú''), Taiwanese, Taiwanese Minnan, Hoklo and Holo, is a variety of the Hokkien language spoken natively by about ...
characters, numbering 700 in total, which were published by the
Taiwan Ministry of Education between 2007 and 2009 recommending which
Chinese characters
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the Written Chinese, writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are ...
to use when
writing Taiwanese Hokkien with Chinese characters.
[教育部台灣閩南語推薦用字的比較分析 Comparative Analysis of The Taiwanese Southern-Min “thui-tsiàn-iōng-jī” (Recommended Words) of The Ministry of Education http://www.airitilibrary.com/Publication/alDetailedMesh?docid=U0045-2903201313494836]
Categories of characters
*Root characters (本字): Characters closest in meaning and pronunciation to ancient definitions from
rime dictionaries such as ''
Fanqie
''Fanqie'' ( zh, t= 反切, p=fǎnqiè) is a method in traditional Chinese lexicography to indicate the pronunciation of a monosyllabic character by using two other characters, one with the same initial consonant as the desired syllable and one w ...
'', for example 山 ''mountain'', 水 ''water'', 天 ''heaven''. Some Taiwanese Hokkien characters are consistent with ancient Chinese, for example 箸 ("chopsticks"; 筷子 in
Standard Mandarin
Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern standa ...
), 行 ("walk", 走 in Standard Mandarin) and 食 ("eat", 吃 in Standard Mandarin).
*Semantic reading characters (訓用字): If the root character is uncertain, then use the Standard Mandarin
Vernacular Chinese
Written vernacular Chinese, also known as Baihua () or Huawen (), is the forms of written Chinese based on the varieties of Chinese spoken throughout China, in contrast to Classical Chinese, the written standard used during imperial China up ...
equivalent that is closest in pronunciation and meaning to the Taiwanese Hokkien morpheme, for example 戇 (gōng), 挖 (óo/ué).
*Phonetic borrowing characters (借音字): If the root character is uncertain and there are no close equivalent morphemes in Standard Mandarin, characters with similar sounds that have gained widespread acceptance in literature can be used, for example 嘛 (mā, "also"), 佳哉 (ka-tsài, "fortunately"), 磅空 (pōng-khang, "tunnel").
*Orthodox characters (傳統習用字): Some morphemes have root characters, however there are also a large number of semantic reading characters or phonetic borrowing characters that are more commonly used, resulting in the root characters becoming obscure and rare. In this case, the more commonly used characters should be used rather than the orthodox characters, for example 你 (lí, "you"; equivalent root character 汝), 人 (lâng, "person"; equivalent root character 儂).
*Combined sound characters (合音字): As a result of a lack of consensus among writers regarding word use, some monosyllable Taiwanese Hokkien morphemes are still written with equivalent polysyllable phrases, for example 落去 (lueh), 佗位 (tueh), 昨昏 (tsa̋ng), 啥人 (siáng). However, some common homophonous characters have become widely adopted over the bisyllabic equivalent, for example 阮 (originally 我人), 莫 (originally 毋愛), 袂 (originally 無會).
Examples
See also
*
Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan
External links
臺灣閩南語推薦用字 700字詞by New Taipei City Department of Education
References
Hokkien writing system
{{writingsystem-stub