Pe̍h-ōe-jī

Template:Short description Template:Good article Template:Italic title Template:Template other (Template:IPAc-en ; Template:Langx, , Template:Lit; POJ), also known as Church Romanization, is an orthography used to write variants of Hokkien Southern Min, particularly Taiwanese and Amoy Hokkien, and it is widely employed as one of the writing systems for Southern Min. During its peak, it had hundreds of thousands of readers.

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.

During Japanese rule (1895–1945), the use of was suppressed and Taiwanese kana encouraged; it faced further suppression during the Kuomintang martial law period (1947–1987). In Fujian, use declined after the establishment of the People's Republic of China (1949) and by the early 21st century the system was not in general use there. However, Taiwanese Christians, non-native learners of Southern Min, and native-speaker enthusiasts in Taiwan are among those that continue to use . Full computer support was achieved in 2004 with the release of Unicode 4.1.0, and POJ is now implemented in many fonts, input methods, and is used in extensive online dictionaries.

Versions of have been devised for other Southern Chinese varieties, including Hakka and Teochew Southern Min. Other related scripts include for Hakka, for Hainanese, for Fuzhou, for Teochew, for Northern Min, and for Pu-Xian Min.

In 2006, the Taiwanese Romanization System (), a government-sponsored successor based on , was released. Despite this, native language education, and writing systems for Taiwanese, have remained a fiercely debated topic in Taiwan.

POJ laid the foundation for the creation of new literature in Taiwan. Before the 1920s, many people had already written literary works in POJ, contributing significantly to the preservation of Southern Min vocabulary since the late 19th century. On October 14, 2006, the Ministry of Education in Taiwan announced the Taiwanese Romanization System or based on POJ as the standard spelling system for Southern Min.

Name

The name (Template:Lang-zh) means "vernacular writing", written characters representing everyday spoken language.Template:Sfnp The name vernacular writing could be applied to many kinds of writing, romanized and character-based, but the term 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 used, instead of the name , various other 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 have led to it being known by some modern writers as "Church Romanization" (Template:Lang-zh; Template:Lang-zh) and is often abbreviated in POJ itself to . (Template:Lang-zh)Template:Sfnp There is some debate on whether "" or "Church Romanization" is the more appropriate name.

Objections to the name are that it can refer to more than one system and that both literary and colloquial register Southern Min appear in the system and so describing it as "vernacular" writing might be inaccurate.Template:Sfnp Objections to "Church Romanization" are that some non-Christians and some secular writing use it.Template:Sfnp POJ today is largely disassociated from its former religious purpose.Template:Sfnp The term "romanization" is also disliked by some, who see it as belittling the status of by identifying it as a supplementary phonetic system instead of a standalone orthography.Template:Sfnp

History

See caption

inscription at a church in Tainan (), commemorating Thomas Barclay

The history of 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 Southern Min, and seems not to have had any influence on the development of .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 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:

Respecting these tones of the Chinese language, some difference of opinion has been obtained, and while some have considered them of first importance, others have paid them little or no intention. The author inclines decidedly to the former opinion; having found, from uniform experience, that without strict attention to tones, it is impossible for a person to make himself understood in .

— Template:Comma separated entries

Frontispiece of the Anglo Chinese Manual

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

Because the characters in your country are so difficult only a few people are literate. Therefore, we have striven to print books in to help you to read... don't think that if you know Chinese characters you needn't learn this script, nor should you regard it as a childish thing.

Thomas Barclay, , Issue 1

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:

Soon after my arrival in Formosa I became firmly convinced of three things, and more than fifty years experience has strengthened my conviction. The first was that if you are to have a healthy, living Church it is necessary that all the members, men and women, read the Scriptures for themselves; second, that this end can never be attained by the use of the Chinese character; third, that it can be attained by the use of the alphabetic script, this Romanised Vernacular.

— Template:Comma separated entries

A great boon to the promotion of POJ in Taiwan came in 1880 when James Laidlaw Maxwell, a medical missionary based in Tainan, started promoting POJ for writing the Bible, hymns, newspapers, and magazines. He 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 marking the establishment of POJ in Taiwan, giving rise to numerous literary works written in POJ.

As other authors made their own alterations to the conventions laid down by Medhurst and Doty, 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 :

Evolution of , 1832–1934

Year	Author	spellings comparison									Source
		Template:IPAblink	Template:IPAblink	Template:IPAblink	/				Template:IPAblink	Template:IPAblink
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.svg

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

During the Japanese rule period, the Japanese government began suppressing POJ, banning classes, and forcing the cessation of publications like the Taiwan Church News. From the 1930s onwards, with the increasing militarization of Japan and the 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 (Template:Lang-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 .

Initially the Kuomintang government in Taiwan had a liberal attitude towards "local dialects" (i.e. non-Mandarin varieties of Chinese). The National Languages Committee produced booklets outlining versions of Zhuyin fuhao 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 Hokkien, Hakka, and the non-Sinitic Formosan 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 was 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 the 1970s, the Nationalist government in Taiwan completely prohibited the use of POJ, causing it to decline.

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

It was not until the late 1980s, with the lifting of martial law, that POJ slowly regained momentum under the influence of the native language movement. 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 bopomofo 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 within 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

The current system of 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 alphabet, including the Template:Angle bracket distinction and the use of Template:Angle bracket in Vietnamese 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	Template:Not a typo	NG	O	O͘	P	PH	S	T	TH	U
Lowercase letters	a	b	ch	chh	e	g	h	i	j	k	kh	l	m	n	Template:Not a typo	ng	o	o͘	p	ph	s	t	th	u
Letter names	a	be	che	chhe	e	ge	ha	i	ji̍t	ka	kha	é-luh	é-muh	é-nuh	Template:Not a typo	ng	o	o͘	pe	phe	e-suh	te	the	u

Chinese phonology traditionally divides syllables in Chinese 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 syllable in Chinese varieties.Template:Sfnp Unlike Mandarin but like other southern varieties of Chinese, Taiwanese has final stop consonants with 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 Vowel nasalisation also occurs in words that have nasal initials (⟨m-⟩, ⟨n-⟩, ⟨ng-⟩), however in this case superscript Template:Angle bracket is not written, e.g. Template:Zhi ().Template:Sfnp The letter appears at the end of a word except in some interjections, such as (), however more conservative users of Pe̍h-ōe-jī write such words as .

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

The initials are:Template:Sfnp

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Alveolo-palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m ㄇ 毛 ()	n ㄋ 耐 ()		ng ㄫ 雅 ()
Stop	Unaspirated	p ㄅ 邊 ()	t ㄉ 地 ()		k ㄍ 求 ()
	Aspirated	ph ㄆ 波 ()	th ㄊ 他 ()		kh ㄎ 去 ()
	Voiced	b ㆠ 文 ()			g ㆣ 語 ()
Affricate	Unaspirated		ch ㄗ 曾 ()	chi ㄐ 尖 ()
	Aspirated		chh ㄘ 出 ()	chhi ㄑ 手 ()
	Voiced		j ㆡ 熱 ()	ji ㆢ 入 ()
Fricative			s ㄙ 衫 ()	si ㄒ 寫 ()		h ㄏ 喜 ()
Lateral			l ㄌ 柳 ()

Vowels:Template:Sfnp

Monophthongs Front Central Back Oral Nasal Oral Nasal Close i ㄧ 衣 () iⁿ ㆪ 圓 () u ㄨ 污 () uⁿ ㆫ 張 () Mid e ㆤ 禮 () eⁿ ㆥ 生 () o ㄜ 高 (ko) o͘ ㆦ 烏 () oⁿ ㆧ 翁 () Open a ㄚ 查 () aⁿ ㆩ 衫 ()

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

Coda endings:

Bilabial Alveolar Velar Glottal Nasal consonant -m ㆬ -n ㄣ -ng ㆭ Stop consonant -p ㆴ -t ㆵ -k ㆶ -h ㆷ

Syllabic consonant Bilabial Velar Nasal m ㆬ 姆 () ng ㆭ 酸 ()

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
∅ 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 miuTemplate:Efn 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 hoang 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 ∅ 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

No.	Diacritic	Chinese tone name	Example Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handler
1	—	Template:Linktext () dark level	Template:Linktext foot; leg
2	acute	Template:Linktext () rising	Template:Linktext water
3	grave	Template:Linktext () dark departing	Template:Linktext arrive
4	—	Template:Linktext () dark entering	Template:Linktext meat
5	circumflex	Template:Linktext () light level	Template:Linktext king
7	macron	Template:Linktext () light departing	Template:Linktext heavy
8	vertical line above	Template:Linktext () light entering	Template:Linktext hot

POJ tone markings

The five tone markings used in , 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 7 or 2 depending on lexical register). 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 dialects 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 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 Southern Min 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 (except when rule 4 applies); 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

File:Sam-tiông Koe-bah-pn̄g 2.jpg

A sign over a chicken rice restaurant in Sanchong, Taiwan, reading with no diacritics or hyphens. It would be correctly written as , or in the local pronunciation.

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 non-final syllables of a compound typically undergo tone sandhi, but exact rules have not been clearly identified 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 Some authors use an interpunct Template:Angle bracket in place of the second hyphen.

Audio examples

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

Regional differences

In addition to the standard syllables detailed above, there are several regional variations of Hokkien which can be represented with non-standard or semi-standard spellings. In the Zhangzhou-type varieties, spoken in Zhangzhou, parts of Taiwan (particularly the northeastern coast around Yilan City), and parts of Malaysia (particularly in Penang), there is a final Template:Angle bracket, for example in "egg" Template:Angle bracket and "cooked rice" Template:Angle bracket, which has merged with Template:Angle bracket in mainstream Taiwanese.Template:Sfnp Zhangzhou-type varieties may also have the vowel /ɛ/, written as Template:Angle bracket or Template:Angle bracket (with a dot above right, by analogy with Template:Angle bracket), which has merged with Template:Angle bracket in Taiwanese.

Texts

Genesis 1:1–5Template:Sfnp

Due to POJ's origins in the Christian 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.

• (1873 translation of the New Testament)
• , by George Gushue-Taylor, 1917
• Chinese–English dictionary of the vernacular or spoken language of Amoy, by Carstairs Douglas, 1873
• , 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 (macOS and Microsoft 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 character Template:Unichar 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 characters.

Unicode codepoints

The following are tone characters and their respective Unicode codepoints used in POJ. The tones used by POJ should use Combining Diacritical Marks instead of Spacing Modifier Letters used by bopomofo. As POJ is not encoded in Big5, the prevalent encoding used in Traditional Chinese, some POJ letters are not directly encoded in Unicode, instead should be typed using combining diacritical marks officially.

POJ tone diacritics^[1]

Base letter/Tone 1		Tone 2	Tone 3	Tone 4	Tone 5	Tone 7	Tone 8	Variant
Combining mark		́ (U+0301)	̀ (U+0300)	h	̂ (U+0302)	̄ (U+0304)	̍h (U+030D)	˘ (U+0306)
One mark
Uppercase	A	Á (U+00C1)	À (U+00C0)	AH	Â (U+00C2)	Ā (U+0100)	A̍H (U+0041 U+030D)	Ă (U+0102)
	E	É (U+00C9)	È (U+00C8)	EH	Ê (U+00CA)	Ē (U+0112)	E̍H (U+0045 U+030D)	Ĕ (U+0114)
	I	Í (U+00CD)	Ì (U+00CC)	IH	Î (U+00CE)	Ī (U+012A)	I̍H (U+0049 U+030D)	Ĭ (U+012C)
	O	Ó (U+00D3)	Ò (U+00D2)	OH	Ô (U+00D4)	Ō (U+014C)	O̍H (U+004F U+030D)	Ŏ (U+014E)
	U	Ú (U+00DA)	Ù (U+00D9)	UH	Û (U+00DB)	Ū (U+016A)	U̍H (U+0055 U+030D)	Ŭ (U+016C)
	M	Ḿ (U+1E3E)	M̀ (U+004D U+0300)	MH	M̂ (U+004D U+0302)	M̄ (U+004D U+0304)	M̍H (U+004D U+030D)	M̆ (U+004D U+0306)
	N	Ń (U+0143)	Ǹ (U+01F8)	NH	N̂ (U+004E U+0302)	N̄ (U+004E U+0304)	N̍H (U+004E U+030D)	N̆ (U+004E U+0306)
Lowercase	a	á (U+00E1)	à (U+00E0)	ah	â (U+00E2)	ā (U+0101)	a̍h (U+0061 U+030D)	ă (U+0103)
	e	é (U+00E9)	è (U+00E8)	eh	ê (U+00EA)	ē (U+0113)	e̍h (U+0065 U+030D)	ĕ (U+0115)
	i	í (U+00ED)	ì (U+00EC)	ih	î (U+00EE)	ī (U+012B)	i̍h (U+0069 U+030D)	ĭ (U+012D)
	o	ó (U+00F3)	ò (U+00F2)	oh	ô (U+00F4)	ō (U+014D)	o̍h (U+006F U+030D)	ŏ (U+014F)
	u	ú (U+00FA)	ù (U+00F9)	uh	û (U+00FB)	ū (U+016B)	u̍h (U+0075 U+030D)	ŭ (U+016D)
	m	ḿ (U+1E3F)	m̀ (U+006D U+0300)	mh	m̂ (U+006D U+0302)	m̄ (U+006D U+0304)	m̍h (U+006D U+030D)	m̆ (U+006D U+0306)
	n	ń (U+0144)	ǹ (U+01F9)	nh	n̂ (U+006E U+0302)	n̄ (U+006E U+0304)	n̍h (U+006E U+030D)	n̆ (U+006E U+0306)
Two tones [2]
Uppercase	O͘ (U+004F U+0358)	Ó͘	Ò͘	O͘H	Ô͘	Ō͘	O̍͘H	Ŏ͘
Lowercase	o͘ (U+006F U+0358)	ó͘	ò͘	o͘h	ô͘	ō͘	o̍͘h	ŏ͘
Notes 1.^ Yellow cells indicate that there are no single Unicode character for that letter; the character shown here uses Combining Diacritical Mark characters to display the letter. 2.^ O͘ series may be typed with 3 different permutation: letter O + right dot (͘ , U+0358) + tones; letter O + tones + right dot (͘ , U+0358); letter O with combined tones + right dot (͘ , U+0358). The Unicode combinations are omitted here.

Superscript n is also required for POJ to indicate nasalisation:

POJ superscript

Character	Unicode codepoint
Template:Not a typo	U+207F
Template:Not a typo	U+1D3A

Characters not directly encoded in Unicode (especially O͘ series which has 3 different permutations) requires premade glyphs in fonts in order for applications to correctly display the characters.

Font support

Fonts that currently support POJ includes:

• Charis SIL
• DejaVu
• Doulos SIL
• Linux Libertine
• Taigi Unicode
• Source Sans ProTemplate:Sfnp
• I.Ming (8.00 onwards) from Ichiten Font Project
• Fonts made by justfont foundry
• Fonts modified and release in GitHub repository POJFonts : POJ Phiaute, Gochi Hand POJ, Nunito POJ, POJ Vibes, and POJ Garamond.
• Fonts modified and released by But Ko based on Source Han Sans: Genyog, Genseki, Gensen ; based on Source Han Serif: Genyo, Genwan, Genryu.

Han-Romanization mixed script

File:Example of Taigi article in Hanlo (Hanzi-Latin mixture).jpg

an essay about software localization in Hàn-lô style published on a Taigi magazine. Note: The orthography of the Latin part is in Tâi-lô, similar to POJ.

Sample mixed orthography textTemplate:Sfnp

One of the most popular modern ways of writing Taiwanese is by using a mixed orthographyTemplate:Sfnp called Template:Sfnp (Template:Lang-zh), and sometimes Han-Romanization mixed script, a style not unlike written Japanese or (historically) Korean.Template:Sfnp In fact, the term 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 Taiwanese Romanization System (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 include religious, pedagogical, scholarly, and literary works, such as:

• Template:Sfnp
• Template:Sfnp

Adaptations for other Chinese varieties

POJ has been adapted for several other varieties of Chinese, 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 , include:

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 , 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,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 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 , 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 non-Mandarin varieties in favour of switching to Mandarin instead.

In 2006, Taiwan's Ministry of Education chose an official romanization for use in teaching Southern Min in the state school system.Template:Sfnp POJ was one of the candidate systems, along with , but a compromise system, the Taiwanese Romanization System or , 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 or POJ will become the dominant system in the future.

References

Works cited

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External links

• Template:Sister-inline
• – information on Unicode encodings for POJ text
• – group dedicated to the promotion of Taiwanese and Hakka romanization
• – cross-platform input method released by Taiwan's Ministry of Education.