Pe̍h-ōe-jī 白話字 (白话字)

Pe̍h-ōe-jī · from Taiwanese Hokkien

What is Pe̍h-ōe-jī?

Pe̍h-ōe-jī (POJ) is a Latin-based script for Hokkien, created by 19th-century Presbyterian missionaries and still used for Taiwanese.

Missionaries in Xiamen and Taiwan developed it to teach literacy quickly; it was widely used in church publications such as the Taiwan Church News. Taiwan's Ministry of Education now promotes Tâi-lô, a system closely based on POJ. It marks tones with diacritics.

Examples

台灣 Tâi-oân (Taiwan); 白話字 Pe̍h-ōe-jī (vernacular writing); 歹勢 pháiⁿ-sè (sorry, embarrassed)

Kungfucius says: Taiwanese Hokkien in Latin letters with more diacritics than a French menu.