2

I know Taiwanese abbreviate Instagram as IG. I have noticed that at least some people pronounce this G like 居 (jū), rather than any tone variant of ji. If I remember correctly, I think I have actually seen it written with this Chinese character.

However, this contradicts what the accepted answer to this question claims. I have also checked this Wikipedia article but 居 is not listed there, either. So I’m wondering if they use a different set of characters to represent the pronunciation of the English alphabet in Taiwan.

I would appreciate it if anyone could point me to a complete table.

aguijonazo
  • 438
  • 2
  • 13
  • 1
    Note that a huge number of Taiwanese do not know English, also their regional accent has resulted in distorted pronunciations of many English letters/words. Sometimes, in order to benefit ALL people (easy to pronounce/remember), or for fun, the Chinese word with the same pronunciation as the distorted English word was adopted instead of the correct word normally would be. – r13 May 24 '22 at 12:35
  • 1
    Ya, sometime taiwanese used '哀居' to represent IG. When they say 'LINE', they will say 'Lai`' – Clay Hsu May 29 '22 at 01:11
  • 1
    @ClayHsu - Is the use of 居, or the “u” sound, specific to IG for Instagram? Is it meant to be wordplay, calling it "sorrowful residence"? – aguijonazo May 29 '22 at 04:53

2 Answers2

5

I think 'G' is pronounced as "jū" exclusively.

The biggest difference to the list given in this answer about China is the tone. If the English syllable is open (not ending in a consonant) the tone will be the first.

An approximation by pinyin would be as follows ("iu" is always just "i" and "u", not "iou"):

Letter Pronunciation
a ēi
b bī
c xī
d dī
e ī
f ef (*)
g jū
h ech (*)
i āi
j zhēi
k kēi
l elóu
m em (*)
n ēn (like 恩)
o ōu
p pī
q kiū
r ár
s es (*)
t tī
u iū
v vī
w dabuyū/dabiū (not as high as first tone)
x ex (*)
y wāi
z zī / zì (the yi vowel)

(*)The pronunciation of the closed syllables "F", "H", "M", "S", "X" is harder to describe. The vowel "e" is ​open (ɛ) and short. After the consonant a vowel sounding close to "u" can be heard, a lot like the Japanese "u".

"D" is pronounced 'zhū (豬)' when checking answers, since "B", "C" and "E" sound similar. (di is the Taiwanese pronunciation of 豬)

Older people might use a pronunciation that sounds closer to Japanese, for example "buī" (no e sound, just u and i) for "V", "ekusu" for "X".

Dodezv
  • 372
  • 1
  • 8
1

When I was a student, we used to use kk phonetic symbol for pronouncing alphabet.

Some people use homophonic, for example: “哀居” that is IG aka Instragram.

And there also a few people use natural pronunciation to communicate in English.

jackson
  • 144
  • 5