Text / Taiwanese Hokkien
Hokkien POJ ↔ Tâi-lô Converter: Marks and Tone Numbers
Convert Pe̍h-ōe-jī to Tâi-lô or back using spelling rules. Accepts tone numbers and composed or decomposed tone marks, with copyable output.
Hokkien POJ ↔ Tâi-lô Converter: Marks and Tone Numbers: Applies the Ministry of Education's initial and final comparison tables, including ch/chh to ts/tsh, dotted o to oo, oa/oe to ua/ue, ek/eng to ik/ing and superscript nasal n to nn. It moves tone marks to the target system's vowel and keeps separators. No dictionary or tone-sandhi model is used. Runs 100% locally in your browser with zero server file uploads.
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Enter tone numbers or tone marks. Switching direction uses the current result as the new input.
Tâi-lô result
Spelling and tone placement
| POJ | Tâi-lô |
|---|---|
| ch | ts |
| chh | tsh |
| o͘ | oo |
| oa / oe | ua / ue |
| ek / eng | ik / ing |
| aⁿ / ahⁿ | ann / annh |
| ùi | uì |
POJ marks open oa and oe on o, closed forms on the second vowel, and both iu and ui on u. Tâi-lô uses its vowel priority and marks the second vowel in iu and ui. Tones 1 and 4 have no mark; numbers make them explicit. Extended tone 6 uses a caron. Tone 9 uses a breve in POJ and a double acute in Tâi-lô.
Converts spelling and citation tones, without tone sandhi or translation. Hyphens, spacing and capitalisation are kept. Syllables outside the comparison table stay unchanged; use separators between syllables. POJ editions vary in tone placement; this tool uses the open oa/oe convention.
Source: Taiwan Ministry of Education, 2006 romanisation scheme and comparison tables
Official spelling comparison
Taiwan Ministry of Education, 臺灣閩南語羅馬字拼音方案, announced 14 October 2006. The official usage handbook gives the initial comparison on printed page 5, tone rules on pages 8–9, and all 75 common final correspondences on pages 53–54: https://language.moe.gov.tw/001/Upload/FileUpload/3677-15601/Documents/tshiutsheh_1081017.pdf . This tool uses the orthographic rules only, not the Ministry's CC BY-ND dictionary data.
Tone placement and scope
POJ placement varies by edition. The open oa/oe and u-in-ui convention is described at https://amoytainan.wordpress.com/2011/07/19/poj-tone-markings/ ; David Li-Wei Chen's Handbook of Taiwanese Romanization (2017), pages 24–28, also discusses variation and compares placement: https://taiwaneseamericanhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/1196.-Handbook-of-Taiwanese-Romanization.pdf . Extended tone 9 uses a POJ breve and a Tâi-lô double acute; tone 6 uses a caron, as documented by the POJ font project: https://github.com/aiongg/POJFonts . The tool retains the user's hyphens and capitalisation, normalises recognised marked syllables to NFC, and leaves unsupported syllables unchanged.
How to use it
- Enter POJ or Tâi-lô syllables with tone marks or numbers.
- Choose the conversion direction and the output tone style.
- Copy the result. Switching direction uses the result as the next input.
Privacy & limitations
The conversion runs entirely in your browser. No text is uploaded and no dictionary is fetched.
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Frequently asked questions
Can I use numbers instead of accents?
Yes. For example, tsiah8 png7 converts to POJ chia̍h pn̄g. Number output writes all tones, including unmarked tones 1 and 4. Both NFC and NFD tone marks are accepted.
Why do tone marks move?
POJ and Tâi-lô have different placement conventions, notably ui and oa/ua. POJ editions vary; this tool uses o in open oa/oe, the second vowel in closed oa/oe, and u in both iu and ui. Tâi-lô follows the Ministry's priority rules.
Does it translate or apply tone sandhi?
No. It converts written syllables and citation tones. Use hyphens or spaces between syllables. Tokens outside the published comparison table remain unchanged.
Is the Ministry's dictionary included?
No. This is a rule-based converter using the romanisation scheme and its comparison tables, without any MOE dictionary data.
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