There exist in Taishanese literary and colloquial sub-strata of speech. Certain words have two pronunciations. The colloquial forms are usually monosyllable, and the literal forms typically pair up with other syllables to create literal or abstract multisyllabic words. For example, 平 is [piaŋ22] when the price is low, but [pein22] in 和平(peace). 声 is [siaŋ33] in 好声(good voice), but [sein33] in 声音(sound).

The following is a tentative list, with the colloquial followed by literal pronunciations.

The list is subdivided into four groups. The first group is with æŋ/ein vowel shift.  The second group has æk/ɛt difference. The third group is differentiated by the initial consonants (i.e. aspirated/unaspirated or glottal fricative/plosive) and tones. The four group shows tone or other misc. difference. The fifth group lists characters with different semantic meanings when pronounced differently -- unlike characters in all previous groups. Personally I consider characters in the fifth group borderline cases.

	Colloquial	Literary
惊	gæŋ33	gein33
平	pæŋ22	pein22
精	dæŋ33	dein33
晴	tæŋ22	tein55
请	tæŋ55	tein55
青	tæŋ33	tein33
灵	læŋ22	lein22
零	læŋ22	lein22
城	sæŋ22	sein33
声	sæŋ33	sein33
轻	hæŋ33	hein33
星	ɬæŋ32	ɬein33
听	hæŋ33	hein33
影	yæŋ55	yein55
正	dzæŋ33	dzein33
领	læŋ21	lein21
岭	læŋ21	lein21
净	dæŋ32	dein32
井	dæŋ55	dein55
赤	tsæk33	tsɛt55
亦	yæk32	yɛt32
席	dæk32	dɛt32
滴	?æk33	?ɛt55
锡	ɬæk33	ɬɛt55
近	kin33	gin32
奇	ki22	gi33
重	tsǝŋ33	dzǝŋ32
淡	ham33	?am32
弹	han22	?an32
断	hɔn33	?ɔn32
坐	tɔ33	dɔ32
伴	pɔn21	bɔn32
盖	kɔi33	gɔi21
伏	fǝk32	bǝk32
斧	fu55	bu55
孵	fu22	bu32
藏	tɔŋ22	dɔŋ32
我	ŋɔi33/21	ŋɔ21
鱼	ŋui21	ŋui22
暖	nɔn21	nɔn33
上	sæŋ32	sæŋ33
行	haŋ22	hɔŋ22
调	hiau22	?iau32

The first and second groups are similar. Their marker is the æ/ɛ difference. I'm showing the Taicheng (台城) accent. In the Taicheng area, I believe [ɛŋ] has morphed to [ein], and [ɛk] to [ɛt]. [ɛŋ] and [ɛk] are still the norm in some Taishanese speaking regions.

Most of the characters on the list also have dual pronunciations in Cantonese. For example, 城 in Cantonese can be either /sang4/ or /sing4/ (in Jyutping notation). In Cantonese, the colloquial pronunciation is called 白读, and the literal 文读.