For example, if one wants to say SAYONARA, how to write it in Chinese characters?
That’s Japaense, isn’t it? The equivalent Chinese is “bye bye”, not sure of the characters.
formosa, I wasn’t really aware that sayonara was a word in Taiwanese. Perhaps some Taiwanese people say it but they are really speaking Japanese. (just like some English speaking people say bonjour or ciao or whatever).
the Taiwanese for good bye is chai3-chian2 or chai3-kian3. The pronunciation of the first one is very similar to the mandarin zaijian and it is also written the same way, i.e. 再見
Maybe you didn’t notice the link I posted in another thread to the webpage I created on this topic.
Writing Taiwanese using Chinese characters
If you want something more detailed have a look at these websites.
Writing Taiwanese
Written Taiwanese
Author seeks to preserve Taiwanese language through writings
thanks, wix. what i am after is this:
if i want to write the abc of a Taiwanese word or phrase, such sorry, PAI SAY PAI SAY, that’s okay. And I know there is a way to write it using Mandarin characters, just don’t know how. But it can be done. The sound of it.
So SA YO NA RA which is of course Japanese, can be written in Chinese characters, altho i don’t know how. The sounds of each syllable.
could one write GOOD BYE, as GOO BAI in Chinese letters? How? can you show me?
at a bookstore in Keelung, a man once said to me JI BOON JI BA, meaning, I think “each book just a 100 dollars” or YI PUN Yi PAI QUAI… can you write JI BOON JI BA in Mandarin letters…?
Ji
Boon
Ji
Ba
I guess he just said this:
一本一百
As for good-bye, maybe you could write: 古德拜, but this is a ridiculous form of Chinglish and has nothing to do with Chinese or Taiwanese. Although you can write bye-bye as 拜拜
ax posted something similar in this thread in the teaching in Taiwan forum.
JI BOON JI BA = 一本一百
I assume it would be written the same way in Taiwanese as in Chinese with one sound corresponding to each character. But not all words in Taiwanese and Chinese use the same characters as you can see on the webpage I linked to earlier in this thread.
formosa, why have you developed this sudden urgent need to write Taiwanese in Chinese characters when you’re not even in Taiwan?
Found on various web pages: sayonara (Japanese word meaning “good bye”) represented with Chinese characters:
[quote=“Juba”](“kongnijiwa, sayounala, sensai, aliyaduo” jiu shi wo hui shuo de quanbu Riyu), meaning “konnichiwa (hello), sayonara (good bye), sensei (teacher) and arigato (thank you) are all the Japanese I know.”
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My grandpa was educated in a Japanese school, so he can say all of above. I think most of people like my grandpa combine Janpanese with Taiwanese accent and therefore their children follow what they said…
Most of people learn Taiwanese without learning the writing. My Taiwanese is good and I never learned writing. I am a
so, JI BOON JI BA would be…?
and not this …
[quote]so, JI BOON JI BA would be…?
and not this …
一 is pronounced chit in Taiwanese. The closest sound in Mandarin is probably ji.
Try this
基本雞巴 (your girlfriend will understand the meaning of the last two characters)
I’m sorry, but it looks absolutely ridiculous.
If anyone thinks that this is a reasonable written representation of Taiwanese, than he should do himself a favor and remove the 50cent Made in China rose-colored eyeshades that are blurring his vision.
Is there any logical explanation for the use of TWO DIFFERENT (both rather complicated) characters to represent the same sound, none of which contains any visual clues relevant to the meaning? There may be some hidden joke related to the use of the chicken character, as alluded to in a previous post, which I don’t get, but I ask you, is written language supposed to be some cryptic code for the entertainment of the initiated few?
bonus question: imagine the previous paragraph translated to Taiwanese and transcribed into Mandarin characters. How long would it take you to decypher it?
There are some Chinese words your teachers won’t teach you.
Apologies to Jenny/Jenpenguin in advance.
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[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Then answering her own question
[quote]She said …
I just axed a simple question, and look at all I have learned. This has been very educational, thanks to all you Old Taiwan Hands!
As I thought: anything spoken in Minnan can be written with Mandarin characters. Learn something new every day.
Yes, it can be written…the problem now is with the standard 
I hate looking at written taiwanese text…I hate the even more if they use mixed script…taiwanese + messy romanization.
If you see subtitle on local TV featuring Taiwanese slow, they are also full of inconsistencies. Those guys doing subtitling are no linguists, they are just young taiwanese who might not be very educated in Taiwanese as well, hence they always call back to their mom and dad , mom how do you write this character again? question popped…
Example of inconsistencies:
chia mi kia chin siok
this stuff is cheap
It may be subtitled as:
這東西很便宜
這米甲真俗
這東西很俗
there are three version up there, to us its a discombobulation…but to taiwanse, it doesn’t matter how you code them, they all get the meaning, it’s “chia mikia chin siok”
ax
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