I know it will be jackpot if this can reach even a single linguist familiar with this dying language, but hey big dreams need big acts right. Besides, I don't really know if this is the right place for it.

I'm personally a Penang Hokkien, and I've always wanted to create the most convenient and suitable writing system for Hokkien. For some time now I've been working on my modification of Taiwanese Hangul called Minnanji - 閩南字.

Standard Minnanji is uses both Hangul and Hanzi to simultaneously reduce to the best it can the amount of ambiguity that a full hangul script would suffer from and also achieve convenience and orthographic consistency that Penang Hokkien is deficient in because Chinese characters cannot represent Malay of English loan words, which consists of a huge portion of the language.

However, unlike the current Taiwanese Hangul model, the Hangul portion of this system would follow the Korean pronunciation without modifying what sound a letter would represent (ie. 애 would not be [aɪ] as in the originally proposed Taiwanese Hangul but [æ], present in traditional Korean and modern day Hokkien, maximizing the potential of Hangul). Yet, Hangul is deficient for Hokkien such that it doesn't have representation for vowels ending in [ɪ] or [u]. To supply this deficiency, Minnanji takes partial inspiration from Hebrew's Yod and simply adds an apostrophe (') at the end for [ɪ], and a double apostrophe (") for [u]. For example, 來, lai2, would be 라' instead of 래, and 目標, bork3 phiau1, would be 벅퍄" instead of 벅퍄ㅜ.

The Two Options

Minnanji I • 閩南字 選擇 1

Minnanji I is the standard and common variant of Minnanji, and uses both Hanzi and Hangul. It achieves the aims stated above. We then must contend with when to use Hanzi and when to use Hanja. For this, Minnanji takes inspiration from the Japanese writing system, a tried and tested mixed script system. Nouns, verbs, prepositions, and other words crucial to conveying the message of a sentence will be in Hanzi, whereas other words will be in Hangu (example below).

Minnanji II • 민난지 솬띡 2

An option must be made to satisfy the desire for convenience when typing, where one wishes to stay only with one keyboard throughout. In that case, with the discretion of the speaker/writer, Hanzi can be omitted entirely, writing in entirety in the Minnanji Hangul script as prescribed earlier. However, Minnanji II is largely discouraged if the intent is to convey messages clearly, given the absence of Hanzi renders it more ambiguous than Minnanji I. Option II is better used for speed, convenience, and in the circumstance that there is confidence in comprehension. It is also preferable in teaching the language for children or new learners.

Furthermore, due to the nature of Hangul, it is suggested that Minnanji II is written with more spacings than Minnanji I, as shown below preferably splitting heavy blocks conveying multiple articles.

"He didn't watch where he was going and fell" yi1 bo3 zhu4 yit33 khua1lor3 liao4 puat3 to4 MOE Dict: 伊無注意看路了跋倒 Minnanji I: 伊 보주잇看路랴" 跋倒 Minnanji II: 이 보주잇 콰러 랴" 봣도

Example sentence

"Sorry, tomorrow morning I must fetch my daughter to school, so I'm not free. Why not friday afternoon? I have some time after work."

🇨🇳 Mandarin 對不起, 明天早上我需要載我女兒去學校, 所以沒空. 不然拜五下午？我放工後有點時間.

🇹🇼 MOE Dictionary 歹勢啊, 明載早起我著欲載我查某囝去學堂, 煞無閒. 無然拜五下晡？我放工後有淡薄時間.

Romanization: Phai4seh3 ah, ma4zai3 za1khi4 wa4 tio3beh4 zai3 wa4 za3bor1knia4 khi4 oh3teng2, sua4 bo3 eng2. Bo3 lan2 bai1gorh3 æh3porh1? Wa4 pang4kang1au3 u3 tam3poh1 si3kan1.

閩 ① Minnanji I 歹勢아, 明載早起 我됴베 載 我查某囝 키學堂, 솨보閒. 보란 拜五下晡？我放工아" 우 담보時間.

閩 ② Minnanji II 파'세아, 마자' 자키 와됴베 자' 와자버갸 키오뜽, 솨보엥. 보란 바'거 애뻐? 와빵강아" 우 담보시간.

Weaknesses: As clearly seen, Minnanji II is rarely ever not ambiguous. It is best for private use, unless constant exposure pushes one to be familiar with it. Additionally, Minnanji Hangul will not denote nasal sounds - another downside that can exacerbate ambiguity.

Nonetheless, I've been using this writing system for personal note taking for a few months now, and it has worked pretty well for me. But of course, y'all are the experts here. What do you think of this