Before you begin your journey into learning Penang Hokkien, you should first acquaint yourself to the spelling and pronunciation of Penang Hokkien. Although Penang Hokkien has existed for some three hundred years as a largely oral language, through this online course, a romanisation system has been created to progress Penang Hokkien into a written language. This writing system is being encouraged to everyone who is learning Penang Hokkien. The follow lessons provides you the details of the spelling and pronunciation.

  1. International Phonetic Alphabet (Pronunciation Guide)
    List of IPA symbols used that the expected spelling that they represent in Penang Hokkien.

  2. Guide to Taiji Romanisation Spelling System
    Similar to the page on IPA, this page shows example of words spelled in Penang Hokkien based on the IPA symbols used.

  3. Grammatical Terminology
    The terms used to explain the grammar of Penang Hokkien.

  4. Reading Penang Hokkien
    Information on the writing system used for teaching Penang Hokkien.

  5. Intonation of Penang Hokkien
    Introduction to the four tones of Penang Hokkien.

  6. Getting used to Penang Hokkien tones
    For the benefit of people who already speak Penang Hokkien but have difficulty mastering the tones, I create this page to provide additional examples.

  7. Penang Hokkien Phonetic Table
    This is a table showing how each syllable is pronounced in the four tones.

  8. Penang Hokkien Tone Sandhi
    Get to know the tone sandhi of Penang Hokkien.

  9. Tone Sandhi in English
    An observation of how words in English also change tones, just like in Penang Hokkien.

  10. Tone 33 Syllables
    Syllables in Penang Hokkien with a unique characteristic.

  11. Tone Sandhi affecting Subjects
    Learn when the subject is sandhied and when it is not.

  12. Spelling the Nasal Sound
    Learn how nasalized words are spelled in Penang Hokkien.

  13. Vowels and Digraphs in Penang Hokkien
    Insight into the spelling system and the used of vowels and digraphs for writing words in the language.

  14. "oh" and "or" in Penang Hokkien

  15. "c" and "ch" in Penang Hokkien

  16. The pseudo-fricative "h" in Penang Hokkien

  17. Canonical Spelling of Penang Hokkien
    Insight into the expected spelling for words in the language.

  18. Attaining Proficiency in written Penang Hokkien

  19. Pronouncing People's Names in Penang Hokkien

Comparison with other Hokkien romanization systems

The Penang Hokkien lessons on this website uses the Taiji Romanisation, created specially to help people learn the language while at the same time preserving the spelling of common words.

Learn Penang Hokkien with Memrise

Now you can use the most user-friendly tool on the web to learn Penang Hokkien. It helps you to listen, understand and memorise. Go to Memrise, and learn Penang Hokkien at your own pace.

Return to Penang Hokkien Resources

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Hello and thanks for reading this page. My name is Timothy and my hobby is in describing places so that I can share the information with the general public. My website has become the go to site for a lot of people including students, teachers, journalists, etc. whenever they seek information on places, particularly those in Malaysia and Singapore. I have been doing this since 5 January 2003, for over twenty years already. You can read about me at Discover Timothy. By now I have compiled information on thousands of places, mostly in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, and I continue to add more almost every day. My goal is to describe every street in every town in Malaysia and Singapore.

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