MLT is able to use the ASCII character set plus ⟨ø⟩ to indicate the proper variation of pitch without any subsidiary scripts or diacritic symbols.
Tøe-id tiaau Langlaang svilai zuxiuu, zai zungiaam kab khoanli siong itlut pengterng.
Yn huoiuo lysexng kab liongsym, peng irnie hviati koanhe ee cviasiin hoxsiong tuiethai.
Each syllable in MLT follows either one of the two underlying patterns (phonemes inside the bracket [] are optional): The nasals m, n, and ng can be appended to any of the vowels and some of the diphthongs.
TMSS originally prescribed two special characters: the Greek letter ν and an o crossed by a backslash.
Because mixing numbers into words is problematic for spell checkers, 0 was subsequently replaced by ø.
When compound vowels are present in the shouting tone, however, sounds which by the normal rule would otherwise be written "air", "ir", "ur", "er", and "aur" are instead spelled "ae", "ie", "uo", "ea", and "ao", respectively.
The Pe̍h-ōe-jī (POJ) system, introduced in the 19th century, provides a basis for phonetic transcription of the Taiwanese language using the Latin alphabet.
It initially developed a significant user base, but the number of users declined during the period of Japanese colonization of Taiwan, when the use of POJ was suppressed in preference to katakana, and also during the era of martial law, during which Mandarin Chinese was promoted.
Prof. Liim Keahioong, formerly of the National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, Taiwan, pioneered the Taiwanese Modern Spelling System (TMSS) in 1943, with the intent to avoid the diacritical markings of POJ as well as the cumbersome difficulty of inputting Chinese characters with the available technology.