Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols

Although normally used to represent Mandarin Chinese, Chu-im has also been adapted to serve as an orthography for Taiwanese. Known in Mandarin as Zhùyīn fúhào (注音符號), these phonetic characters trace their origin to the period of Kuomintang rule in China before the civil war. Of the standard 37 symbols used for Mandarin, the Taiwanese version drops eight, and adds twenty-five (good evidence of the complexity of Taiwanese phonology vis-a-vis Mandarin).

The full extended range of Chu-im, including characters for Mandarin, Taiwanese and Hakka:

Full range of chu-im sounds

In order to view and use the supplementary characters for Taiwanese Chu-im on a computer, a special font is needed, such as the fonts created by Arphic.