Pha̍k-fa-sṳ () is an orthography similar to Pe̍h-ōe-jī and used to write Hakka, a variety of Chinese. Hakka is a whole branch of Chinese, and Hakka dialects are not necessarily mutually intelligible with each other, considering the large geographical region. This article discusses a specific variety of Hakka. The orthography was invented by the Presbyterian church in the 19th century. The Hakka New Testament published in 1924 is written in this system.

Writing system Pha̍k-fa-sṳ uses a modified Latin alphabet, with an additional double-dotted ṳ for the close central unrounded vowel // (also realised as /ɹ̩/) and some diacritics for tones. A single hyphen is added to indicate a compound.

History Shortly after the missionaries of the Basel Missionary Society, Reverend Theodore Hamberg and Rudolf Lechler arrived in China in 1847, Hamberg and his colleagues began compiling the Hakka to English to Hakka to German dictionaries. Lechler was initially allocated the evangelizing work amongst the Shantou population, but because of opposition from the local authorities there, the Shantou mission was abandoned and he joined Hamberg in the mission work with the Hakka in 1852. After Hamberg died unexpectedly in 1854, Lechler continued with the dictionary work together with fellow missionary colleagues for over fifty years. During that time, Reverend Charles Piton also made several revisions to the dictionary.An Insight into the Composition of the Hakka-English Dictionary (《客英大辭典》海陸成份初探)

The first publication of Romanized Hakka in Pha̍k-fa-sṳ was done by Donald MacIver (1852–1910) in 1905 at Shantou and was titled A Chinese-English dictionary : Hakka-dialect, as spoken in Kwang-tung province. He noted that some of the content was based on the dictionaries compiled by the previous Basel missionaries. However, the latter had used the Lepsius romanization, which was different from Pha̍k-fa-sṳ.A Hakka index to the Chinese-English dictionary MacIver made the changes to the dictionary, but he realised that Hakka vocabulary written by the Basel missionaries belonged to the Hakka dialects of southeastern Guangdong Province: Haifeng County, Lufeng County, Jiexi County and Wuhua County. On the other hand, MacIver's Hakka vocabulary was extracted from the northeastern part of Guangdong Province such as Jiaying Prefecture (now Meizhou).

Current system

Letters Capital lettersAChChhEFHIKKhLMNNgOPPhSTThUṲVYLowercase lettersachchhefhikkhlmnngopphstthuṳvyLetter namesachichhiefihiikikhiliminingiopiphisitithiuṳviyi

Consonants Pha̍k-fa-sṳ Extended bopomofo IPA Examples p ㄅ p pak-kûng 伯公 ph ㄆ pʰ pha̍k-fa 白話 m ㄇ m Mî-koet 美國 f ㄈ f fî-kî 飛機 v ㄪ ʋ vùn-sṳ 文字 t ㄉ t tú-sṳ́ 肚笥 th ㄊ tʰ thai-ngìn 大人 n ㄋ n nài-sâ 泥沙 l ㄌ l lî-mà 鯉嬤 k ㄍ k kâ-yèn 家園 kh ㄎ kʰ khiung-ha 共下 ng(i) ㄫ ŋ/ɲ ngiù-ngiuk 牛肉 h ㄏ h heu-sâng 後生 ch(i) ㄗ/ㄐ ts/tɕ cho-tet 做得 chh(i) ㄘ/ㄑ tsʰ/tɕʰ chhâ-é 車仔 s(i) ㄙ/ㄒ s/ɕ se-ngìn 細人

Semivowel Pha̍k-fa-sṳExtended bopomofoIPAExamplesyㄧjyîm-ngo̍k

Vowels Pha̍k-fa-sṳ Extended bopomofo IPA a ㄚ a i ㄧ i u ㄨ u e ㄝ e o ㄛ o ṳ ㄭ ɨ/ɹ̩ er ㄜ ɤ/ə

Tone marks Listed below are tone marks of Pha̍k-fa-sṳ with tone value of Sixian and Hailu dialects of Taiwanese Hakka:客家語拼音聲調表。收錄於客家委員會。(2019)。客語能力認證基本詞彙－初級四縣腔(頁24)。

Chinese Tone Name Tone Mark Diacritics Examples Sixian Hailu陰平 yīnpíng◌̂circumflex夫 fû2453陽平 yángpíng◌̀grave accent扶 fù1155上聲 shǎngshēng◌́acute accent府 fú3124陰去 yīnqù(no mark)富 fu5511陽去 yángqù◌̊ring護 fů33陰入 yīnrù(no mark)福 fuk25陽入 yángrù◌̍vertical line服 fu̍k52

Comparison of Chinese and Taiwanese Pha̍k-fa-sṳ Comparisons were made between The Hakka New Testament (1924) and the Hakka Bible: Today's Taiwan Hakka Version (2012). The former was published in Shantou, China, while the latter was published in Taiwan.

Initials Below are rules for switching between Chinese and Taiwanese Pha̍k-fa-sṳ:劉敏貞. (2011). 比較兩種客語聖經譯本底背ke語音差異—用汕頭客語聖經譯本lâu現代客語聖經譯本底背ke約翰福音為例.

+ Comparison of Initials Rules Character Chinese PFS Taiwanese PFS ny→ng 源 nyên ngièn sh→s 水 shúi súi ts→ch 做 tsò cho tsh→chh 自 tshṳ̀ chhṳ kw→k 光 kwong kông

Tone marks The table below compares the tone marks of Chinese Pha̍k-fa-sṳ, Taiwanese Pha̍k-fa-sṳ, and Pe̍h-ōe-jī of Southern Min.

+ Comparison of Tone Marks of Pha̍k-fa-sṳ and Pe̍h-ōe-jī Tone Name Chinese PFS Taiwanese PFS Taiwanese POJ陰平 a â a陽平 â à â陰上 á á á陽上 (ǎ)陰去 à a à陽去 (å) ā陰入 ap ap ap陽入 a̍p a̍p a̍p Notes: Taiwanese Hakka does not differentiate between 陰上 (yīnshǎng) and 陽上 (yángshǎng). Certain dialects (but not the standard) of Taiwanese Hokkien does have yángshǎng (ǎ). Sixian Hakka does not differentiate between 陰去 (yīnqù) and 陽去 (yángqù), but Hailu does have yángqù (å).

See also Pe̍h-ōe-jī Hagfa Pinyim Hakka Pinyin System Pinfa Hakka Bible: Today's Taiwan Hakka Version

References

External links Chinese to Hakka Dictionary Online (in the Siyen dialect) English to Hakka Dictionary Online