Maoshan Lee - Taiwanese Hits Vol. 1
I posted one of his Mandarin compilations earlier, so you can find it under the "Maoshan Lee" tag if you missed it.
Recently, I've probably been watching too much Taiwanese TV. XD A couple of the shows I watch have quite a bit of Taiwanese/Hokkien in them: "百万大歌星" and "王牌大明星." The former is a contest in which various singers try to remember lyrics to various songs under 10 different categories, usually including a Taiwanese/Hokkien category. The latter is hosted by Patty Hou and Jacky Wu and they interview different celebrities, including ones who sing in dialect. As a result of watching these shows, I've heard more and more Hokkien songs and singers and want to buy some albums because the Taiwanese oldies are really hard to find to download. That being said, I want to buy some Hong Ronghong in the future because I've mostly only found his newer songs for download. I like oldies and I really, really like the way Taiwanese sounds.
I've gotten a little better at recognizing unfamiliar characters used in the Taiwanese dialect. Here are a few quick tips on reading Taiwanese (assuming you can already read Chinese) in Simplified only for the sake of consistency (because I usually type Simplified because it's what I'm better with, even though this will obviously be Traditional in any practical situation because it's Taiwanese, after all):
- 咱/阮: Both are "我们" (we/us), but the former includes the listener and the latter doesn't. You may have seen "咱们" while learning Mandarin, but it isn't very common. The only instance I can recall seeing that in Mandarin is in the lyrics to Zhou Xuan's "天涯歌女," but it's common in Taiwanese because there is no "我们." You can also tell when a Mandarin-speaker doesn't know Taiwanese very well by the way they say "阮" and "我," which should be "gun" or "goan" and "goa" respectively. If you listen to Jay Chou sing in Taiwanese, for example, he pronounces "我" more like "wa," which is closer to the Mandarin pronunciation.
- ㄟ: Comes from the Zhuyin phonetic system. Sometimes, this simply represents the sound "ei," but when used in writing Taiwanese, it often replaces "的" because it better represents the pronunciation. I've never seen Mayday's Ashin do this, but Jay Chou's songs have a lot of this.
- 叨位: Replaces "哪里" for "where." "叼" is sometimes used instead of "叨."
爱人叨位去 => 爱人去哪里
- 伊: Replaces "他," "她," and "它" for "he," "she," and "it."
Remembering these quick tips, you should be able to read the lyrics to the songs on this album more easily.* Learning Taiwanese, though, would be hard because there's not a lot of useful info in English and it has a lot of tones. However, I don't think it would be too hard to learn to sing a few simple songs in Taiwanese. (I can sing a few lines already!)
Here's a live video of Maoshan Lee singing in Taiwanese. Unfortunately, it has no subtitles for you to put the above tips into practice with, but it's still really pretty:
Download the compilation here
Buy it here
Tracklist:
01. 今夜又搁块落雨
02. 惜别的晚暝
03. 保重再会啦
04. 我是辜不章
05. 哀愁的夜港边
06. 天公疼好人
07. 不通越头看过去
08. 悲恋的酒杯
09. 过暝的咖啡
10. 我的心情
11. 不愿放你走
12. 爱着坦白讲
13. 有骨气的男性
14. 飘浪的旅行
15. 离开你我真後悔
16. 希望你回心转意
* The lyrics on the page at the link are incomplete. If you need lyrics that you can't find posted in their original Chinese, don't hesitate to request them because I do have the full lyrics, but just on paper. I may also be able to translate them into English, but I can't promise that I can do that.
Recently, I've probably been watching too much Taiwanese TV. XD A couple of the shows I watch have quite a bit of Taiwanese/Hokkien in them: "百万大歌星" and "王牌大明星." The former is a contest in which various singers try to remember lyrics to various songs under 10 different categories, usually including a Taiwanese/Hokkien category. The latter is hosted by Patty Hou and Jacky Wu and they interview different celebrities, including ones who sing in dialect. As a result of watching these shows, I've heard more and more Hokkien songs and singers and want to buy some albums because the Taiwanese oldies are really hard to find to download. That being said, I want to buy some Hong Ronghong in the future because I've mostly only found his newer songs for download. I like oldies and I really, really like the way Taiwanese sounds.
I've gotten a little better at recognizing unfamiliar characters used in the Taiwanese dialect. Here are a few quick tips on reading Taiwanese (assuming you can already read Chinese) in Simplified only for the sake of consistency (because I usually type Simplified because it's what I'm better with, even though this will obviously be Traditional in any practical situation because it's Taiwanese, after all):
- 咱/阮: Both are "我们" (we/us), but the former includes the listener and the latter doesn't. You may have seen "咱们" while learning Mandarin, but it isn't very common. The only instance I can recall seeing that in Mandarin is in the lyrics to Zhou Xuan's "天涯歌女," but it's common in Taiwanese because there is no "我们." You can also tell when a Mandarin-speaker doesn't know Taiwanese very well by the way they say "阮" and "我," which should be "gun" or "goan" and "goa" respectively. If you listen to Jay Chou sing in Taiwanese, for example, he pronounces "我" more like "wa," which is closer to the Mandarin pronunciation.
- ㄟ: Comes from the Zhuyin phonetic system. Sometimes, this simply represents the sound "ei," but when used in writing Taiwanese, it often replaces "的" because it better represents the pronunciation. I've never seen Mayday's Ashin do this, but Jay Chou's songs have a lot of this.
- 叨位: Replaces "哪里" for "where." "叼" is sometimes used instead of "叨."
爱人叨位去 => 爱人去哪里
- 伊: Replaces "他," "她," and "它" for "he," "she," and "it."
Remembering these quick tips, you should be able to read the lyrics to the songs on this album more easily.* Learning Taiwanese, though, would be hard because there's not a lot of useful info in English and it has a lot of tones. However, I don't think it would be too hard to learn to sing a few simple songs in Taiwanese. (I can sing a few lines already!)
Here's a live video of Maoshan Lee singing in Taiwanese. Unfortunately, it has no subtitles for you to put the above tips into practice with, but it's still really pretty:
Click to viewDownload the compilation here
Buy it here
Tracklist:
01. 今夜又搁块落雨
02. 惜别的晚暝
03. 保重再会啦
04. 我是辜不章
05. 哀愁的夜港边
06. 天公疼好人
07. 不通越头看过去
08. 悲恋的酒杯
09. 过暝的咖啡
10. 我的心情
11. 不愿放你走
12. 爱着坦白讲
13. 有骨气的男性
14. 飘浪的旅行
15. 离开你我真後悔
16. 希望你回心转意
* The lyrics on the page at the link are incomplete. If you need lyrics that you can't find posted in their original Chinese, don't hesitate to request them because I do have the full lyrics, but just on paper. I may also be able to translate them into English, but I can't promise that I can do that.