Taiwanese language learning resources

Many scanned dictionaries and other materials
http://ip194097.ntcu.edu.tw/memory/tgb/main.asp?Page=1&pai=9

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Here’s a educational youtube channel with a list of children story videos in Taigi.

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I found a podcast called Bite-size Taiwanese. It’s mostly English but teaches Taigi phrases. I think it’s pretty cool that we even have a podcast like this.

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I’ve been listening to them for a while. Great podcast!
Also, the different levels are a nice thing to get only the content you are interested.

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This is such a great resource, thanks for sharing!

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For those who like to test their Romanization reading skills, I’ve found a test online.

I’m not fluent in Taigi, but I self taught through reading Tailo and POJ, so I found the test pretty manageable. I imagine people who actually speak the language would find the test way too easy if they spent a little time learning Romanization. Sadly, most fluent speakers don’t put in the effort.

Despite some odd ideas about tonal relationships from the creator :slight_smile: (just kidding) these videos are really a great listening resource, highly impressive! Going to work my way through all of them

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Where can I find a full Christian bible in Taiwanese (both romanisation and Chinese characters)?

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If I remember correctly, it’s available in the Gideon Bible App.

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Thanks mate, will check it out.

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You can also try FHL

https://bible.fhl.net/new/read.php?VERSION8=kjv&VERSION80=ttvhl2021&VERSION79=ttvcl2021&strongflag=0&TABFLAG=1&chineses=詩&chap=75&submit1=閱讀

Or use their app

They probably have an ios app as well.

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For those interested in full immersion, here’s a great YouTube channel for Taiwanese language learning. Speaking is all in Taiwanese and she does subtitles in 台文 and 中文 and you can turn English on with CC. She also has a podcast.

Her latest video goes through the history of 白話字。

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I love this guy’s videos. I think he has a degree in something related to biology, and used to work at Pingdong’s Museum of Marine Biology.

His videos are him teaching his daughter about Taiwan’s fauna in Taigi. It’s just brilliant.

I think every summer he goes back to MMB to give a couple of tours in Taigi as well.

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Here’s a pronunciation cheat sheet I’ve found helpful when first learning 台羅 (Tâi-lô)。 台羅 seems to have more learning resources and more commonly used vs. 白話字(Pe̍h-ōe-jī)due to promotion by the MOE.

There really isn’t much difference between the two. Learn either one and spent 5 seconds and you’ve learned the other one as well.

The benefit of Tailo for me is that it’s more consistent and if someone wants to emphasize differences in accents they can. The benefit of POJ of course is plenty literature have been written in it, even if most of the users were related to the church.

The point was to give people a pronunciation guide and not to argue one is better than the other. If one is starting out it can be confusing. For the more modern resources I see Tai Luo more often, but then there are also other learning resources where authors seem to make up their own version which is frustrating.

Here’s an equivalent chart:

That chart is incomplete

IPA TL POJ
t͡s ts ch
t͡sʰ tsh chh
ɔ oo
ua ua oa
uai uai oai
ue ue oe
i̯əŋ ing eng
ing ing
ɛŋ eng -
i̯ək̚ ik ek
ik̚ ik ik
ɛk̚ ek -
◌̃ nn
ɨ ir -
ə er -
ɛ ee -

I think i̯əŋ/iŋ/ɛŋ and i̯ək̚/ik̚/ɛk̚ are dialectal differences. There are some tonal marker differences, such as the 9th tone is marked as a̋ in TL and ă in POJ.

As for which vowel to place the tonal markers on, TL doesn’t have exceptions, it’s always a > oo > (e = o) > (i = u) and on the vowel letter not the glide. For POJ it’s o>e>a>u>i>ng>m but for oai, oan, oat, and oah the tonal mark is on the a, and for oeh it’s on the e.

Yes I’m aware. That’s from the cover of POJ dictionary.

The other helpful thing on the pronunciation chart is the tone changes. I found myself referring back to that until I got used to them.

I’m compiling a list of words combinations such as those on the bottom right of the chart for pronunciation practice. I’ll start a thread here for that.

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Yeah, tonal sandhi is the toughest part of learning Taigi for me as well. I like the repeating words examples on your cheat sheet. I first learned that trick from @greves youtube videos. Much more intuitive than the tonal chart.

My version:

I only used words with slightly negative connotations.

I’ve watched all his videos as well.

I have a text book with a list of the repeated word for each of the sandhi combinations, and I’d like to compile a list here of the most useful/common ones you hear in everyday conversation.

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