Romanization Writing System - Gene M Chin

In this blog, I won’t go over the constants and vowels of Toisanese in depth. If you already have a background in learning Cantonese or English, you would probably pick this up easily. Furthermore, Toisanese word creation, like the Cantonese and Mandarin language, is split between beginning and ending sounds. Gene M. Chin uses the sophisticated term, phonemes, which are the smallest linguistic units of a word. A Toisanese word may not necessarily have an initial phoneme or a beginning sound, but must have a final phoneme or a final sound.

For example, the Toisanese word, ang1, which means, “to wait” does not have an initial phoneme since “ang” is already a final phoneme (as seen on the chart found on the Siyi Genalogy website below).

Please review the following sections of the Siyi Genealogy website where we will use the Gene M Chin Romanization created by Gene M. Chin:

Initial Phonemes

Final Phonemes

Table of Possible Combinations of Initial and Final Phonemes

While I will not go over these topics in depth, I will, however, write some interesting notes on these topics.

Initial Phonemes – Toisan Descendant Notes:

Please note that the pronunciations are basically the same as Jyutping Cantonese with the exception of J, V, and Y.

V, J and Y – are pronounced using the American V, J, and Y sounds.

In Toisanese, the letter X is pronounced differently. In the pinyin Mandarin system, the letter X is pronounced “Ssi” and the letter X is nonexistent in the jyutping Cantonese Romanization system. In Toisanese, however, the X pronunciation sounds like “thl.” The tip or the front of the tongue touches the roof of the mouth behind the two front teeth to produce the “thl” sound. The “thl” sound sounds more like a “theul” sound, only faster.  The thl sound will be easy to make as long as you keep the tip or front of your tongue in place, keeping the sides of your tongue free.

The other consonant letters are pronounced the American English way.

Please note the “ng” sound is the same as the Cantonese jyutping “ng” sound. It sounds like the ending in the English word, “ring.” I would explain the “ng” sound as placing the back of your tongue at the back roof of your mouth to produce the “ng” sound.

Final Phonemes – Toisan Descendant Notes:

 Basic vowel ending sounds based on American English pronunciation:

A  as in “ahh!”

Eh  as in “ehh”

Note: In notation, there are no Toisanese words that are solely spelled with “e,” but there are words that are spelled, “eh” even though “e” and “eh” are the same sounds. Always use “eh” when writing the sound.

I as in “ee” (rhymes with the English word, me)

O as in “aw”

U as in “oo” (rhymes with the English word, food)

Vowel Combinations / Diphthongs:

Now that we learned the basic vowel sounds. How do you think these vowel combinations / diphthongs will sound?

ai

ao

ei

eo

oi

iu

ui

ANSWER:

ai as in “eye” or ah + ee

ao as in “ow” or ah + aw

ei as in “the pronunciation of the American letter, ‘A.’” or eh + ee

eo – Sadly, there are no English words I can think of as an example, but it does rhyme with the term, “AWOL” to mean “absent without official leave” or eh + aw

oi as in “oy” (rhymes with the English word, boy) or aw + ee

iu as in “ew” or ee + oo

ui as in “ooey” (rhymes with the English word, gooey) or oo + ee

Special Toisanese/Cantonese Ending Consonant Sounds:

It’s good to note that the K, P, or T ending sounds are not fully spoken just like the endings are not fully spoken in the Cantonese language. Koreans would call the unstressed sounds “unaspirated” sounds such as G, B, D as opposed to “aspirated” sounds such as K, P, or T.

If we actually approach the topic from a Korean perspective, it might be more understandable though this rule only applies for the Cantonese and Toisanese languages. The aspirated K ending sound would become an unaspirated G sound. The P aspirated ending sound would become an unaspirated B sound and the T aspirated ending sound would become a D unaspirated sound.

K à G

P à B

T à D

Do these sounds sound familiar? All you need to do is make a mental note of the change, but this change only pertains to ending sounds or final phonemes. Any word that begins with a K, P, or T would be pronounced as it is normally pronounced in the American alphabet.

For example: nek is pronounced, “neg.”

In English terms, the word, nek, is not pronounced “neck,” but “neg” as in “negative.” Remember to keep all words short with one syllable. Do not add in another syllable like “neck-uh” or “neg-ah.”

Okay, let’s practice more:

Pronounce “dip.”

Remember, the “I” sound is more like the “ee” sound.

ANSWER: dib. Pronounced: deeb. Not deeb-uh.

And lastly:

Pronounce “pot.”

Remember the “o” sound is more like the “aw” sound like in the word, “office.”

ANSWER: pod. Pronounced: pawd. Not pawd-uh or bad or pahd.

Because the letter “P” is at the beginning, “P” is pronounced with a regular “P” sound instead of a “B” sound. The pronunciation, bod (pronounced, bahd), would be wrong.

I will probably be focusing more on pronunciation when we learn actual vocabulary, but the Siyi Generalogy is still a great guide for reference.

As for writing the actual Chinese characters, I read that not all Toisanese characters have a Chinese character equivalent. I will have to look more into that in the future. To be honest, I would like to approach Toisanese education more from a Cantonese and American English perspective so I will try to include traditional Chinese characters and English with my translations.

From this point on, my posts will become more random since we have covered the overall “structural part” of Toisanese besides grammar though I will not be focusing on it at the moment. I believe Toisanese grammar follows Chinese grammar, but if there are any exceptions, I’ll will write about it.

I hope you enjoyed the mini Toisanese introduction so far. Hopefully, my notes helped you understand Toisanese a little better. It certainly helped me so far.

The Five Toisanese Tones

According to Wikipedia, there are five basic tones when speaking Toisanese. The tonal system is similar to the Jyutping or Pinyin system used for Cantonese or Mandarin, respectively. Toisanese is a language based on tones so if you are not careful in speaking the right tone, your words may end up sounding like another word instead.

I suggest you check out the Siyi Genealogy website where they go into depth on the pronunciation of the tones.

I created a chart of the five Toisanese tones below. The American attitude section is just a guide for your voice. You do not need to act it out when speaking Toisanese, but you do have to remember the range of the tone created with your voice. Use a calm tone of voice for each tone regardless of the attitude.

Tone Number	Description	Explanation and Examples of an American Tone and American Attitude	Jyutping Tone Comparison
1	High Even →	This sound is the same for the Pinyin 1st tone and the Jyutping 1st tone. An element of surprise or strong feeling: Hey, you! Stop! (You say while running after a robber who just stole your belongings. Remember this tone of voice as opposed to the way these words are normally spoken.) Remember, in Chinese, this tone is not normally stressed – just remember how high it sounds.	1
2	Mid Even →	This sound is about the same as the Jyutping 3rd tone or the Pinyin 5th tone that is drawn out. An element of hesitation or neutrality: Umm…Ahh…Eh…E.T. go-home. (You say while in thought. Voice never fluctuates. Or you can try robot speak where everything is monotone. Either way, your natural tone is your 3rd tone.)	3
3	Low Even →	This sound is about the same as the Jyutping 6th tone. An element of creepiness: Hm… (You don’t have to be creepy as long as you speak in a low-pitched voice. Can you speak in a monotone low voice like Darth Vader, a mummy, or a zombie?)	6
4	Start Mid, End Low →↘→	This tone is about the same as Jyutping 4th tone except the tone starts higher, starting from the mid-tone. It is similar to the Pinyin 4th except the tone starts lower from the mid-tone and the tone does not have to sound harsh. An element of using connection or matter-of-fact speech: Also, neither, whether (I’m aware that you can probably say these words in different tones, but in this case, say them slowly and feel your voice going downwards during the second syllable. AL-SO, NEI-THER, WHE-THER)	High 4th
5	Start Low, End Lower →↘→	This tone matches the Jyutping 4th tone. An element of dramatic creepiness: Ugh. Low. (This one is a bit hard to explain since there aren’t many low sounds in English. Actually, Toisanese words do not need dramatic creepiness, but do keep in mind the tone of voice you are using when speaking the fifth tone. Feel your voice going lower in the second syllable, created when you speak slowly: U-gh, Lo-w.)	4

Toisanese Tone Changes ↗

Now that we covered the five basic tones, I will introduce an extra tone change. Did you notice that none of the original five tones go upwards in range? Some Toisanese words have an additional rising tone after the original tone.

Second tone + Rising tone →↗ (Similar to a Pinyin 2nd tone or a Jyutping 2nd tone)

American Tone Example: Huh?

Third tone + Rising tone →↗ (Sounds like the Jyutping 5^th tone)

American Tone Example: What?

Fourth tone + Rising tone →↘→↗

American Tone Example: Imply. IM →↘ - P → LY ↗.

Fifth tone + Rising tone →↘→ ↗ (Sounds like a Pinyin 3^rd tone)

American Tone Example: Unfree. UN →↘ - FR → - EE ↗.

Note: The first tone is an exception where the tone does not change.

My American tone examples are approximations, but I hope you can understand the basic idea.

How to Notate the Toisanese Tones:

Each Toisanese word will either have a diacritical mark above the first vowel or a number after the word to indicate which tone number you should use while reading a word. There are exceptions as to where to put the diacritical mark when there is more than one vowel such as when the vowels are “iu” and “ui.” In those cases, the diacritical mark is placed on the second vowel instead.

An example chart:

Tone Number	1	2	3	4	5
Diacritical Mark	hēo	hëo	hẽo	hèo	hêo
Number Mark	heo1	heo2	heo3	heo4	heo5

I tend to like to use numbers after a word just to be clear with my readers and numbers are easier to type than diacritical marks. You can definitely check the Siyi Genealogy's website for more info on diacritical marks. I don’t believe diacritical marks are widely used for the Toisanese language so even if you are not exposed to it, it will not be much of a problem. In fact, a lot of people still refer to the Jyutping system to explain the Toisanese language. I was going to go that route too, but since I found out about the Gene M Chin Romanization method, I will try using it on my blog. A lot of people who are exposed to Toisanese most likely already have a background in Cantonese. If this is not the case, I would invite you to my future Cantonese blog so you can at least learn Jyutping Romanization, but unfortunately, my Cantonese blog has not started yet. I will post up a link when it is ready.

Notating the Extra Rising Tone:

I will adopt the Siyi Genealogy’s approach to tonal changes by using a “/” forward slash after the tone.  Let’s use their example.

Toisanese Example: oi4/   (a bag)

Can you guess how this word would sound?

ANSWER:  Ooi. O (falling tone - 4) - oi (rising tone - /). Almost rhymes with the word, Ahoy! (Uh-hoy! Feel your voice going down during the “Uh-“ part and feel your voice rising in “hoy.”)

O… →↘ ↗ I… → (If Toisanese were music and each letter gets a beat, oi4/ would be notated: Oooi.)

I really broke down the word as if it was said slowly with exaggeration. I recommend that you quicken the pace after you have mastered the correct tones. Otherwise, I recommend speaking at turtle speed at first. Eventually, you won’t have to think of the tones at all after you mastered the word just like when you would not think of the tones at all when you say, “Ahoy!” The word would sound weird if you used any other tone combination.

If you are completely new to the language of Toisanese, it may be difficult to learn Toisanese without listening to somebody speak Toisanese. I encourage you all to look up some Youtube videos where natives speak Toisanese. I think that the majority of us stumbled upon this page because we already have some background in Toisanese. I would find it strange that anyone would voluntarily want to learn Toisanese as a completely new language, but if you are one of those people, I’d like to hear from you and hear your thoughts about why you would like to learn Toisanese and what you would like to learn so I can have a better idea on what kinds of topics to write in the future. I am still learning and writing down the language myself so there is still a lot I do not know.

Where is Toisan and what is Toisanese?

Synonyms: Toisanese/Toishanese/Taishanese/Hoisanese/Toishaanese

For the purposes of this Toisan Descendant blog, I will refer to the language as the Toisanese language. I will also use Jyutping pronunciations to pronounce the Toisanese language. I will rarely use pinyin for Mandarin speakers.

臺山話 – In Cantonese, traditional characters (toi4 saan1 waa2)

The spelling of Toisanese/Toishanese/Toishaanese is derived from Cantonese pronounciations.

The spelling of “Toishan” is recognized by the United States Post Office, the Defence Language Institute, and the U.S. Census Bureau.

In Toisanese (hoi4 saan3 waa2)

The spelling of Hoisanese was derived from the local pronunciation by locals, but this term is not used in literature.

台山话  - In Mandarin, simplified characters (tai2 shan1 hua4)

The spelling, Taishanese, is derived from Mandarin pronunciation. This particular term is the most popular and widely-used term used in literature.

台山話 – I am more familiar with this character combination to describe Toisanese and will adopt this term instead for my Toisan Descendant blog.

Toisanese is spoken in Southern China areas like Guangzhou, Guangdong, Peral River Delta, Hainan, Toisan, Hong Kong, popular U.S> metro locations in California, New York City, Canada, and Vietnam. Wikipedia estimates that 1-2 million people speak Toisanese.

Source: wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taishanese

The Toisanese language is a Chinese dialect that has similarities to both Cantonese and Mandarin, though more Cantonese than Mandarin. However, Toisanese is not an official language of any country, which is why you are less likely to encounter the language. Many Chinese immigrated to the United States especially from the mid 19^th century to the late 20^th century. Personally, I know that my grandma and parents came to New York in the 1960’s after a brief stay in Canada.

Unless You’re From Guangzhou…

While sitting in on my first Cantonese I class, I got to know some of the students. One student, an older woman, introduced herself and told the class that she spoke Toisanese  and wanted to learn Cantonese because everybody seems to be speaking it around her. I was puzzled by her statement because in my family, we all understand both Cantonese and Toisanese.

Later that day, I returned to my grandma’s apartment to ask my grandma if all Toisanese people knew how to speak Cantonese. My grandma replied, “no.”

Then, I wondered out loud in Cantonese. How come we understand Cantonese so easily then?

My grandma simply replied, “Because we are from Guangzhou.”

Slowly, this information sunk into my mind. Why did I assume that everybody lived in Toisan? Of course, my roots are there, but that didn’t mean that nobody traveled to other parts of China. I slowly began to imagine what it would be like to make the great journey from Toisan to Guangzhou.

To sum up my experience, do not assume that all Toisanese people can understand Cantonese!

Even though Mandarin is the national language of China and Mandarin is taught and spoken in schools, Toisanese people in Toisan still regard Mandarin as a foreign language since they do not primarily speak Mandarin. On the other hand, Cantonese still remains an influential language for Toisanese people due to its geographical influence.

I hope you enjoyed my little introduction to Toisanese. I am still in the middle of researching more information!