Gourt Home::Gourt :: Pe̍h-ōe-jī
Peh-ōe-jī (POJ) () is an orthography in the Latin alphabet created and introduced to Taiwan by Presbyterian missionaries in the 19th century. POJ is a popular orthography for the Taiwanese language, and Min Nan in general. A version called phak-fa-sṳ exists for Hakka and is particularly well-suited for the Siyen dialect; the counterpart for Min Dong is bàng-uâ-cê.
The current system
In POJ, the traditional list of letters is
- a b ch chh e g h i j k kh l m n ng o o· p ph s t th (ts) u
Peh-ōe-jī in its present form has 17 initials, 18 finals and 7 tones.
Initials
b, ch, chh, g, h, j, k, kh, l, m, n, ng, p, ph, s, t, th
Finals
- Vowels: a, i, u, e, o, o·
- Diphthongs: ai, au, ia, iu, io, ui, oa, oe
- Triphthongs: iau, oai
- Nasals: m, n, ng
The nasals m, n, and ng can be appended to any of the vowels and some of the diphthongs. In addition, m and ng can function as independent syllables by themselves.
The stops h, k, p and t can appear as the last letter in a syllable, in which case they are pronounced as unreleased stops. (The final h in POJ stands for a glottal stop.)
Tones
Tones are expressed by diacritics; checked syllables are followed by the letter h.
Examples for the seven tones: chhiū 象 (elephant), pà 豹 (leopard), bé 馬 (horse), ti 豬 (pig), chôa 蛇 (snake), ah 鴨 (duck), lok 鹿 (deer)
Comparison chart
| Revised TLPA | a | i | u | e | o | oo | ua | ue | uai | uan | ing | ik | aN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TLPA | a | i | u | e | o | oo | ua | ue | uai | uan | ing | ik | ann |
| Missionary POJ | a | i | u | e | o | o. | oa | oe | oai | oan | eng | ek | an |
| Pumindian (普閩典) | a | i | u | e | o | oo | ua | ue | uai | uan | ing | ik | na |
| Revised TLPA | p | ph | b | m | t | th | l | n | k | kh | h | g | ng | z | c | s | j |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TLPA | p | ph | b | m | t | th | l | n | k | kh | h | g | ng | c | ch | s | j |
| Missionary POJ | p | ph | b | m | t | th | l | n | k | kh | h | g | ng | ch | chh | s | j |
| Pumindian (普閩典) | b | p | bb | m | d | t | l | n | g | k | h | gg | ggn | z | c | s |
| Revised TLPA TLPA | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6=2 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Missionary POJ | / | \ | ^ | / | - | |||
| Pumindian (普閩典) | - | v | \ | - | / | v | ^ | / |
Origins of the Name
According to Tiu Hak-khiam (張學謙), the name Peh-ōe-jī, which literally means "script for the spoken language", is used to discriminate it from the other major written forms of the Chinese language, namely Literary Chinese and Vernacular Chinese. Literary Chinese, was used in poems and essays throughout Chinese history prior to the May 4 Movement. Since then, Vernacular Chinese, is now used widely in China and other places where Chinese migrants have settled. Both Vernacular Chinese and Peh-ōe-jī corresponds to some form of spoken Chinese, the former being Mandarin, and the latter being Taiwanese.
Peh-ōe-jī is also called the Church Romanization, but advocates of Peh-ōe-jī do not support the use of this name. This is chiefly because it implies the Church, where in fact, usage of Peh-ōe-jī is often out of the context of the Church.
History of Peh-ōe-jī
Peh-ōe-jī, as a romanization system in Taiwan, was preceded by the script found in the Sinckan Manuscripts (which literally means "Language of the New Port"), which originated in the 17th century during when Taiwan was under Dutch influence/colonial rule. Sinckan scripts were used up till the 19th century. Peh-ōe-jī, as a romanization system, can be applied not only to the aboriginal languages of Taiwan, but also to the Hoklo and Hakka languages.
In 1860, under the Tianjin Treaty, foreign missionaries were allowed to preach in China. Catholic and Protestant missionaries flocked to Taiwan soon after. Churches, most prominently the Presbyterian Church, began advocating the use of Peh-ōe-jī. In 1865, Dr James L. Maxwell (1836-1921) spearheaded the missionary movement, setting up a missionary base in Tainan.
Actually, before these missionaries went to Taiwan, they had already been in South-eastern China and in the migrant Chinese communities in South-east Asia for a long time, and had begun romanizing the Min-nan and Hakka languages. Many dictionaries have been published. One, Rev. William Campbell's A Dictionary of the Amoy Vernacular, spoken throughout the prefectures of Chin-chiu, Chiang-chiu and Formosa 廈門音新字典, Ē-MNG IM Ê JĪ-TIÁN), published 1913, is still in use today in Taiwan.
While Peh-ōe-jī was originally a missionary tool for Christian missions, it also has the practical benefits of being easy to read, learn and write. According to Tiu Hak-khiam, Peh-ōe-jī even helps the learning of Chinese characters.
Books in Peh-ōe-jī
Due to its Christian origins, Christian works make up a significant proportion of all works in Peh-ōe-jī. The first New Testament in Peh-ōe-jī (Lán ê Kiù-chú Iâ-so• Ki-tok ê Sin-iok) was published in 1873. The Old Testament (Kū-iok ê Sèng Keng) was published later in 1884. The publication of these books was a driving force for the spread of the Church. The first of the Prefecture of Taiwan Church Newsletter, published 1885, was also written in Peh-ōe-jī.Apart from Christianity, works in such areas as Literature, Mathematics, Medicine have also been published in Peh-ōe-jī.
Suppression under Japanese rule
The 1880s was the peak period of Peh-ōe-jī's development, with ten thousands of users. An important contributing factor was that the Qing government did not suppress its usage. So great was its growth was that at the end of Qing rule, usage of Peh-ōe-jī was not limited to the Presbyterians only, but also attained much usage in the general population.Nevertheless, as Taiwan became a Japanese colony, the use of Peh-ōe-jī was suppressed in preference to Katakana. In 1922, anti-Japanese movements led to the establishment of the Taiwanese Cultural Association. Following which, Chhoà Poê-hoé enthusiastically proposed to the association to designate promoting of Peh-ōe-jī as one of its main tasks, which it took up in 1924. The associate decided to publish books in Peh-ōe-jī. However, Chhoà met a setback when he went up to the Japanese colonial government to apply for a permit start study classes on Peh-ōe-jī. Not only was the proposal overthrown by the Japanese, but the Japanese police undertook violent measures to silence and ban it.
Since then, the Japanese attitude toward the Taiwanese tongue became all too obvious. The Taiwan Church Newsletter (台灣教會公報, formerly Prefecture of Taiwan Church Newsletter Kàu-hōe-pò; 台灣府城教會報), written in Peh-ōe-jī, was banned during World War Two. This is because the spread of Japanese was hampered by the use of Peh-ōe-jī. When World War Two broke out, Japan finally took greater steps to suppress the use of even the Taiwanese tongue itself.
When the KMT took over China, it took similar steps to enforce use of the national language, Mandarin, while suppressing use of Peh-ōe-jī. Numerous examples illustrate the KMT's attack on the use of Peh-ōe-jī. In 1969, it forbade its use in the Church Newsletter. In 1973, copies of Embree's Taiwanese-English Dictionary were confiscated and banned. In 1975, new translations of the Bible into Peh-ōe-jī were also banned. In 1984 the Ministry of Education wrote a letter to Internal Affairs to prohibit its use when preaching. Other material in Peh-ōe-jī was soon outlawed too.
Development since the 1990s
After the lifting of martial law, Peh-ōe-jī began to experience a revival as a result of efforts made by supporters of the "Mother Tongue Movement." In 1990 a few counties governed by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) began to use texts written in Peh-ōe-jī for teach elementary school children Taiwanese. This represented the first official instance of Peh-ōe-jī entering the public schools. At this time, the KMT changed its strategy against Peh-ōe-jī, and the Kuomintang-supported Mandarin Promotion Council promoted an alternate romanization scheme, the Taiwanese Language Phonetic Alphabet (TLPA) in direct opposition to Peh-ōe-jī. The result was internal conflict among Taiwanese language supporters.However, the mother tongue movement continued to experiment with Taiwanese writing utilizing different romanization schemes, including Peh-ōe-jī, printing various items including the news. Moreover, as digital text became more and more important, Taiwanese supporters began a push to modernize Taiwanese and make it more suitable for digital use. For instance, there are already a number of software packages related to Peh-ōe-jī, and additionally there is an online Peh-ōe-jī dictionary and encyclopedia. In June of 2004, the International Standards Organization (ISO) inserted all of the symbols of Peh-ōe-jī into Unicode following an application by Tè Khái-sū, Tân Pek-tiong, and Tân-Tē Hông-giâu.
"Pe̍h-ōe-jī"