臺灣是一個移民的社會，新移民總會變更或加添加新地名，臺灣歷經多次殖民者更替，殖民統治者也都喜歡變更殖民的地名。在臺灣歷史上地名之變更，以日治時期的大正九年(1920)那次地名變更最多、隨之產生的地名語音變化也最大，其中許多地名延續使用至今。本文僅就一九二○年日本殖民政府變更臺灣地名其語音變化做探討，以便瞭解臺灣地名變更如何影響地名的語音變化。

Some of Taiwan’s towns and villages, whatever their size, had their names altered during the colonial days—from 1895 to 1945. Like it or not, Taiwanese had to suffer the change, which the colonialist tended to do to better suit their Japanese taste. More often then not colonialists came and went, having left one town with a new name or sometimes even with two. 1920 topped all other years in its rather forceful cause of name changes. This peculiar job of name change, however, naturally gave rise to some confusion on the part of the dwellers between the original name of a place and the newly acquired name with more Japanese flavor. People were very often in the dark about how the new name came about, as is history itself today. This study looks into the origin of the town name and its change, with a special emphasis on the phonetic connotation of the time, which was characteristic of the two languages—more often than not, with one Chinese character pronounced in Taiwanese ways and in Japanese way.