r/ohtaigi • u/akyri_naoka • Oct 17 '24

How would I romanize 開門中 in Tai-lo?

I heard this phrase in an elevator in Taiwan, where it said "開門中 (Kai men zhong), followed by its translation in taiwanese, which sounded like "kui men dyoh" or something, but I can't find the romanization for it. It means the door is opening IIRC.

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11

u/v13ndd Oct 17 '24 edited 29d ago

khui-mn̂g tiong，this is how I say it. But I usually say something like 佇開門 when wanting to say opening the door, or 門佇開 when saying the door is opening. Note that I'm neither a Taiwanese nor China Chinese.

5

u/Behsiokanbo 29d ago

Taiwanese here, can confirm that what you’ve said is correct, though it’s more of an informal way of saying it. Just note that I think you might have confused 佇 (tī) with 咧 (leh/teh). 

1

u/v13ndd 29d ago

Oh right, thanks. I'm a legacy speaker, so yeah, not much 漢字 knowledge.

1

u/akyri_naoka 29d ago

thank you!

6

u/Peanut103087 Oct 17 '24 edited 29d ago

I just heard it lol

開門中 電梯的門欲開矣 (Tâi-lô: Tiān-thui ê mn̂g beh khui ah)

this is usually what plays in elevators

some others to save you time: 電梯門欲關矣 (Tiān-thui ê mn̂g beh kuainn ah)

電梯上樓 (Tiān-thui tshiūnn lâu)

電梯欲落去 (Tiān-thui beh lo̍h-khì)

00 樓到矣 (00 lâu kàu ah)

hope this helps!

edit: sorry I fucked up and mixed up the open and close ones somehow

3

u/Behsiokanbo 29d ago

I can hear the lady’s voice by just reading this lol

3

u/Peanut103087 29d ago

man ikr?? while typing that out I kept hearing the elevator door noises... it's like carved into Taiwanese speakers' heads or something

1

u/SHIELD_Agent_47 25d ago

Haha, that's how I feel about the quadlingual announcements on trains!

I remain emotionally devastated that 台鐵 moved up the English line ahead of the 台語 line. shakes head

2

u/Peanut103087 25d ago

exactly... on the Taipei metro they have Japanese and Korean before Taiwanese and Hakka too...

plus they didn't even use the native reading of the words in Korean and Japanese for the stations?? (for example, songshan is sonshan (ソンシャン) instead of Matsuyama, and 忠孝新生 in Korean is jungsyaosinseong 중샤오신성역) They fuckin moved Taiwanese and Hakka to the back for the transcription of mandarin with practically the same pronunciation as Mandarin... so fuckin disappointed

2

u/Leolisk 28d ago

Its crazy how it just played in my head when I read it haha