Modern Literal Taiwanese

Orthography for Taiwanese in the Latin alphabet

Modern Literal Taiwanese (MLT), also known as Modern Taiwanese Language (MTL), is an orthography in the Latin alphabet for Taiwanese based on the Taiwanese Modern Spelling System (TMSS). MLT is able to use the ASCII character set to indicate the proper variation of pitch without any subsidiary scripts or diacritic symbols.

MLT Translation RemarksCiaqpar`bøe? Greetings. ("Have you eaten?")Sitlea! Sorry for my impoliteness! (lit., "Disrespect")Goar thviaf bøo. I don't understand. (lit., "I hear not")Piexnsor ti tøfui? Where's the bathroom? (lit., "bathroom is where?")Loflat! Kafmsia!Thank you Ho taf `laq! Cheers! (lit., Let it [the cup/glass] be dry [empty]! )Lie karm korng Engguo?Do you speak English? Siensvy korng, hagsefng tiaxmtiam thviaf. The teacher talks, the students quietly listen. Kin'afjit hit'ee zabor gyn'ar laai goarn taw khvoax goar. Today that girl came to my house to see me. Kin'axm larn beq khix Suxliim Iaxchi'ar. Tonight, we want to go to Shilin Night Market.

Not only consonants and vowel sounds, but also tones are represented by letters in the MLT system. Certain letters have no sound of their own and are merely used as tone indicators. Others letters represent vowels or vowel combinations which have certain tones. For example, "f", "r", and "x" are tone indicators only, and have no sound of their own in MLT. "Af" represents the "a" sound with a "high" tone, "ar" represents the same vowel sound but with a "shouting" tone, "ax" is the "a" sound with the low falling tone. A "y" or "w" indicates a high tone "i" and "u", respectively, while certain diphthongs, such as "ie" and "uo", are treated as "shouting" tones. The basic tone is represented by a normal, simple vowel (or voiced consonant—e. g. the nasals, "m" or "ng") without any special spelling modification.

A high tone is derived by raising the pitch of the voice to a level somewhat above the basic tone and is normally represented by adding the tone indicator "f" after a vowel, with the exception of the "i" and "u" sounds in a syllable. A high tone "i" and a high tone "u" are denoted by "y" and "w", respectively. (The high tone would be near the top of one's normal speaking register. It may possibly be compared to the sort of high intonation used by English speakers when imitating a singer warming up with a high but level "mi, mi, mi, mi, mi".)

A shouting out (or just "shouting") tone is derived from shouting out a basic tone, and is normally represented by adding a tone indicator "r" after a vowel. When compound vowels are present in the shouting tone, however, sounds which by the normal rule would otherwise be written "air", "ir", "ur", "er", and "aur" are instead spelled "ae", "ie", "uo", "ea", and "ao", respectively. Exceptions occur when this rule overlaps with other rules. For example, the shouting tone of "lin" is written "lirn", not "lien" (interpreted as a compound vowel in basic tone) even though "lie" is the "shouting" counterpart to "li". (Note that the so called "shouting" tone is not literally a shout, but refers to the sort of quick, falling tone used, e. g., in shouting out a single syllable word. It may be understood by English speakers by comparing the neutral tone in the normal pronunciation of the vowel in the name "Bob" with the quick, falling tone used when shouting the name (or saying the name quietly but with urgency), "Bob!" Similarly, saying "No!" achieves the same quick, downward tone in English.)

The low falling tone is always marked by appending an "x" to the rearmost vowel. (Think of the low, almost guttural tone used in muttering a flat "Huh." or "Hmph." in English.)

The low stopping tones are indicated by switching the final stops with the high stopping tones' as follows: h >q, t >d, p >b, k >g.

The apostrophe (', typewriter apostrophe) is used to demarcate syllables when there is ambiguity. A hyphen ( ) is used to join two or more isolated words to make a new compound word with its own meaning. When a word contains a grave accent (`), all the syllables after this mark are accented in the low tone (low falling for the long tones, and low short for short tones).

The Pe̍h ōe jī (POJ) system, introduced in the 19th century, provides a basis for phonetic transcription of the Taiwanese language using the Latin alphabet. It initially developed a significant user base, but the number of users declined during the period of Japanese colonization of Taiwan, when the use of POJ was suppressed in preference to katakana, and also during the era of martial law, during which Mandarin Chinese was promoted. Prof. Liim Keahioong, formerly of the National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, Taiwan, pioneered the Taiwanese Modern Spelling System (TMSS) in 1943, with the intent to avoid the diacritical markings of POJ as well as the cumbersome difficulty of inputting Chinese characters with the available technology. TMSS served as the basis for Modern Literal Taiwanese (MLT). Other variants of MLT exist, such as Phofsit Daibuun and Simplified MLT (SMLT).