臺

Translingual

Etymology

Originally probably a man (士) on a tower (高) from which he can shoot an arrow (至), hence meaning "watchtower"

Han character

臺 (radical 133 至+8, 14 strokes, cangjie input 土口月土 (GRBG), four-corner 4010₄, composition ⿳吉冖至)

References

• KangXi: page 1002, character 5
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 30161
• Dae Jaweon: page 1459, character 3
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 4, page 2817, character 6
• Unihan data for U+81FA

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Chinese

		-
trad.		臺/台
simp.		台

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): tái (tai²)

  (Zhuyin): ㄊㄞˊ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): toi⁴, ji⁴
• Min Nan (POJ): tâi
• Wu (WT Romanisation): de (T3)

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese, Beijing)⁺
    • Pinyin: tái
    • Zhuyin: ㄊㄞˊ
    • Wade-Giles: t'ai²
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: tair
    • IPA ^(key): /tʰaɪ̯³⁵/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou)⁺
    • Jyutping: toi⁴, ji⁴
    • Yale: tòih, yìh
    • Cantonese Pinyin: toi⁴, ji⁴
    • IPA ^(key): /tʰɔːi̯²¹/, /jiː²¹/
• Min Nan
  • (Hokkien)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: tâi
    • Tâi-lô: tâi
    • IPA (Taipei): /taɪ²³/
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /taɪ¹³/
• Wu
  • (Shanghainese)
    • WT Romanisation: de (T3)
    • IPA ^(key): /d̻ᴇ²³/

Middle Chinese pronunciation (臺, reconstructed)
Character (臺), Pronunciation 1/1
Initial: 定 (7) Final: 咍 Division: I			Openness: Open Tone: Level (Ø)			Fanqie: 徒哀切
Zhengzhang Shangfang	Bernard Karlgren	Li Rong	Pan Wuyun	Edwin Pulleyblank	Wang Li	Shao Rongfen
/dʌi/	/dʱɑ̆i/	/dᴀi/	/dəi/	/dəj/	/dɒi/	/dɒi/

Old Chinese pronunciation (臺, reconstructed)
Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character								Modern Beijing (Pinyin)								Middle Chinese								Old Chinese								English
臺								tái								‹ doj ›								/*lˤə/								tower
Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter-Sagart system: Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence; Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p; Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix; Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary; Period "." indicates syllable boundary.
Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character					No.					Phonetic component					Rime group					Rime subdivision					Corresponding MC rime					Old Chinese					Notes
臺					12306					臺					之					0					臺					/*dɯː/					室高省，小徐之聲

Definitions

臺

1. tower, lookout
2. stage, platform
3. abbr. Taiwan

Compounds

Derived terms

• 天臺／天台

• 平臺／平台

• 臺中／台中

• 臺北／台北

• 臺南／台南

• 臺灣／台灣／台湾

• 臺燈／台灯

• 舞臺／舞台

Usage notes

• Although use of the full traditional form 臺 is encouraged by the ROC Ministry of Education, the alternate form 台 is now more commonly used.

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Japanese

Kanji

臺

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

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Readings

• On: たい (tai), だい (dai)
• Kun: うてな (utena), よろこぶ (yorokobu)

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Korean

Hanja

臺 (dae) (hangeul 대, revised dae, McCune-Reischauer tae, Yale tay)

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Compounds

• 寢臺 (침대, chimdae)

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Vietnamese

Han character

臺 (đài, đười, thai)

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