3: Learn Romanisation!

What makes up a syllable?

Chinese characters almost always represent one syllable. This syllable, in Chinese phonetics, is typically broken up into two parts: 1) the initial 声母, and 2) the final 韵母 (also refered to as rime). 

In general, the inital refers to the consonant that the syllable starts in, whereas the final refers to whatever else that comes after the initial. Here are some examples in Mandarin: 

Character	Pronunciation	Initial	Final
红	hong	h	ong
黄	huang	h	uang
绿	l	l	ü
鸟	niao	n	iao
猫	mao	m	ao
狗	gou	g	ou

Here are the same characters, in Hokkien and Teochew:

Character	Pronunciation	Initial	Final
红	ang	(zero-initial)	ang
黄	ng	(zero-initial)	ng
绿	lek	l	ek
鸟	ziao	z	iao
猫	ngiao (TC)/niao (HK)	ng/n	iao
狗	gao	g	ao

*romanisation follows the Singlor system in the charts below.

Syllables without initials are known as zero-initials 零声母.

If you have noticed, the finals for 鸟 and 猫, -iao, are the same in Hokkien and Teochew. This is because these characters are in the same rime group in Hokkien and Teochew. 

Finals in Hokkien and Teochew are made up from various different rimes. More about rimes and rime groups can be found in Rimes & Accents.

With this settled, let's move on to the...

Romanisation Chart

For now, I am leaving rimes, diphtongs, and triphtongs out of the romanisation chart... This just leaves us with:
    1) Initial Consonants,
    2) Vowels, 
    3) End Consonants, and
    4) Tones.

This chart includes and compares:
    1) Hanyu Pinyin, 汉语拼音,
    2) Peh-oe-ji, 白话字,
    3) Tai-lo, 台湾闽南语罗马字拼音方案,
    4) Guangdong Peng'im, 潮州话拼音方案,
    5) GGN Peng'im, (for my gaginangs 👲),
    6) Singlor Pengim, 新罗拼音, an experimental system I came up with, and
    7) IPA, 国际音标.

Initial Consonants - Learn Here!

IPA	Singlor Pengim	Hanyu Pinyin	Teochew Peng’im	GGN Peng’im	POJ	Tai-lo
/pʰ/	p	p	p	p	ph	ph
/p/	b	b	b	b	p	p
/b/	bh	❌	bh	bh	b	b
/kʰ/	k	k	k	k	kh	kh
/k/	g	g	g	g	k	k
/g/	gh	❌	gh	gh	g	g
/tʰ/	t	t	t	t	th	th
/t/	d	d	d	d	t	t
/d/, /ɾ/	dh	❌	❌	❌	l	l
/tsʰ/	c	c/q	c	ch	chh	tsh
/ts/	z	z/j	z	j	ch	ts
/dz/	dz	❌	r	y	j	j
/dʒ/	j	❌	❌	❌	j	j
/m/	m	m	m	m	m	m
/n/	n	n	n	n	n	n
/ŋ/	ng	❌	ng	ng	ng	ng
/l/	l	l	l	l	l	l
/h/	h	h	h	h	h	h
/s/	s	s/x	s	s	s	s
/w/	w	w	u	u	o	u
/j/	y	y	i	i	i	i

Vowels - Learn Here!

IPA	Singlor Pengim	Hanyu Pinyin	Teochew Peng’im	GGN Peng’im	POJ	Tai-lo
/a/	a	a	a	a	a	a
/o/	o	❌	❌	❌	o	o
/ɔ/	or	o	o	o	o͘	oo
/ɔ/, /o/ (medial)	o	o	o	o	o	o
/e/	ei	e	❌	❌	e	e
/ɛ/	e	e	ê	e	e͘	❌
/ə/	er	e	e	eu	er	er
/e/, /ɛ/, /ə/ (medial)	e	❌	ê/e	e	e	e
/ɨ/, /ɯ/	ir	i	e	eu	ir	ir
/i/	i	i	i	i	i	i
/u/	u	u	u	u	u	u

 

/◌̃/	~	❌	n	n	ⁿ	nn
/ʔ/	‘	❌	h	h	h	h

End Consonants - Learn Here!

IPA	Singlor Pengim	Hanyu Pinyin	Teochew Peng’im	GGN Peng’im	POJ	Tai-lo
/p/	p	❌	b	p	p	p
/t/	t	❌	❌	❌	t	t
/k/	k	❌	g	k	k	k
/m/	m	❌	m	m	m	m
/n/	n	n	❌	❌	n	n
/ŋ/	ng	ng	ng	ng	ng	ng

Tones - Learn Here!

In Mandarin, there are 4 tones. However, Hokkien has 7 tones, and Teochew has 8. Tones in Hokkien and Teochew also undergo tone change (known as tone sandhi).

IPA + Tonal Values	Description	Singlor Pengim	Tone Change	Hanyu Pinyin	Teochew Peng’im	POJ/Tailo	Trad (HK)	Trad (TC)
a˧ (33/44)	Middle Flat	a¹	a¹	❌	a¹	a	阴平/1	阴平/1
a˧˥ (24)	Rising	á²	ǎ²⁷	á	a⁶	â	阳平/5	阳上/6
a˨˩ (21)	Low Falling	ǎ³	à³⁴	ǎ	a³	à	阴去/3	阴去/3
a˥˧ (42)	High Falling	à⁴	á⁴² a⁴¹ *ǎ⁴⁷	à	a²	á	阴上/2	阴上/2
a˥ (55)	High Flat	ā⁵	ǎ⁵⁷	ā	a⁵	ã*	❌	阳平/5
a˦ (43)	Falling Checked	à⁶	ǎ⁶⁸	❌	a⁸	a̍	阳入/8	阳入/8
a˨˩ (21)	Low Falling	ǎ⁷	ǎ⁷	❌	a⁷	ā	阳去/7	阳去/7
a˨ (2)	Low Checked	ǎ⁸	à⁸⁶	❌	a⁴	a	阴入/4	阴入/4

More detailed information can be found in the dedicated subsections! Happy learning!

~桂壱 🥱