Taiwanese Hokkien

Taiwanese Hokkien
臺灣話 / 臺語 Tâi-oân-oē / Tâi-gí / Tâi-gú
Pronunciation	"Tâi-gí/Tâi-gú" in different dialects  [tai˧˩ g̃i˥˩] / [tai˧˩ g̃u˥˩] (coastal) [tai˧˧ g̃i˥˩] / [tai˧˧ g̃u˥˩] (inland)
Native to	Taiwan
Native speakers	15 million (1997)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Chinese Min Southern Min Hokkien Taiwanese Hokkien
Writing system	Latin (pe̍h-ōe-jī), Hanji
Official status
Official language in	None, de facto status in Taiwan as one of the statutory languages for public transport announcements[2] and for the naturalization test[3] in Taiwan.
Regulated by	None.
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None
Proportion of residents aged 6 or older using Hokkien at home in Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen & Matsu in 2010[4]

Taiwanese Hokkien
Traditional Chinese	臺灣閩南語
Hokkien POJ	Tâi-oân Bân-lâm-gí / Tâi-oân Bân-lâm-gú
Transcriptions Southern Min Hokkien POJ Tâi-oân Bân-lâm-gí / Tâi-oân Bân-lâm-gú
Traditional Chinese	臺灣話
Hokkien POJ	Tâi-oân-oē
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Táiwān huà Wu Romanization The-uae-ho Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Toi4-waan1 waa2 Southern Min Hokkien POJ Tâi-oân-oē
Traditional Chinese	臺語
Hokkien POJ	Tâi-gí / Tâi-gú
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Tâi-yǔ Wu Romanization The-nyy Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Toi4-jyu5 Southern Min Hokkien POJ Tâi-gí / Tâi-gú

Taiwanese Hokkien (Chinese: 臺灣閩南語; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tâi-oân Bân-lâm-gú; also Taiwanese Minnan), commonly known as Taiwanese (臺灣話; Tâi-oân-oē / 臺語; Tâi-gú), is a variant of Hokkien spoken natively by about 70% of the population of Taiwan.^[5] It is spoken by the Hoklo people, who are descended from immigrants from southern Fujian during the Qing dynasty.^[6] The Pe̍h-ōe-jī (POJ) romanization is a popular orthography for this variant of Hokkien.

Taiwanese Hokkien is generally similar to the speech of Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, and Amoy, as well as their derivative forms used in Southeast Asia, but differences occur in terms of vocabulary and various pronunciations of words, in many cases significantly enough to be unintelligible among each other. However, due to the mass popularity of Hokkien entertainment media from Taiwan, Taiwanese has become a prominent variety of Hokkien, especially since the 1980s.

Classification

Taiwanese Hokkien is a variety of Hokkien, a group of Southern Min dialects. Like many Min varieties, it has distinct literary and colloquial layers of vocabulary, often associated with formal and informal registers respectively. The literary layer can be traced to the late Tang dynasty, and can thus be related to Middle Chinese. In contrast, the colloquial layers of Min varieties are believed to have branched from the mainstream of Chinese around the time of the Han dynasty.^{[7][8][9][10]}

Regional variations within Taiwanese may be traced back to Hokkien variants spoken in Southern Fujian, specifically those from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou. Taiwanese Hokkien also contains loanwords from Japanese and the Formosan languages. Recent work by scholars such as Ekki Lu, Sakai Toru, and Lí Khîn-hoāⁿ (also known as Tavokan Khîn-hoāⁿ or Chin-An Li), based on former research by scholars such as Ông Io̍k-tek, has gone so far as to associate part of the basic vocabulary of the colloquial Taiwanese with the Austronesian and Tai language families; however, such claims are controversial.

The literary form of Hokkien once flourished in Fujian and was brought to Taiwan by early emigrants. Tale of the Lychee Mirror, a manuscript for a series of plays published during the Ming dynasty in 1566, is one of the earliest known works. This form of the language is now largely extinct. However, literary readings of the numbers are used in certain contexts such as reciting telephone numbers (see Literary and colloquial readings of Chinese characters).

History and formation

Spread of Hokkien to Taiwan

During Yuan dynasty, Quanzhou became a major international port for trade with the outside world.^[11] From that period onwards, due to political and economic reasons, many people from Hokkien-speaking regions (southern Fujian) started to emigrate overseas. This included the relatively undeveloped island of Formosa, starting around 1600. They brought with them their native language, Hokkien.

During the late Ming dynasty, due to political chaos, there was increased migration from southern Fujian and eastern Guangdong to Taiwan. The earliest immigrants who were involved in the development of Taiwan included pirate-merchants Chinese Peter (顏思齊) and Zheng Zhilong. In 1621, Chinese Peter from Zhangzhou and his forces occupied Ponkan (modern-day Beigang, Yunlin) and started to develop Tirosen (modern-day Chiayi). After the death of Peter and another pirate, Li Dan of Quanzhou, Zheng sought to dominate the Taiwan Strait. By 1628, he had grown so powerful that the Ming court bestowed him the official title, "Patrolling Admiral".^[12]

In 1624, the number of Chinese in the island was about 25,000.^[13] During the reign of Chongzhen Emperor (1627–1644), there were frequent droughts in the Fujian region. Zheng and a Chinese official suggested to send victims to Taiwan and provide "for each person three taels of silver and for each three people one ox".^[14] Although this plan was never carried out, the Zheng family maintained an interest in Taiwan that would have dire consequences for the Dutch.

Development and divergence

In 1624 and 1626, the Dutch and Spanish forces occupied the Tainan and Keelung areas, respectively. During the 40 years of Dutch colonial rule of Taiwan, many Han Chinese from the Quanzhou, Zhangzhou and Hakka regions of mainland China were recruited to help develop Taiwan. Because of intermingling with Siraya people as well as Dutch colonial rule, the Hokkien dialects started to deviate from the original Hokkien spoken in mainland China.

In the 1661 Siege of Fort Zeelandia, Koxinga expelled the Dutch and established the Kingdom of Tungning. Koxinga originated from Quanzhou. Chen Yonghua, who was in charge of establishing the education system of Tungning, also originated from Quanzhou. Because most of the soldiers he brought to Taiwan came from Quanzhou, the prestige variant of Hokkien on the island at the time was the Quanzhou dialect.

In 1683, Shi Lang attacked Taiwan in the Battle of Penghu, ending the Tungning era and beginning Qing dynasty rule (until 1895). In the following years, in order to prevent people from rebelling, the Qing court instituted a ban on migration to Taiwan, especially the migration of Hakka people from Guangdong province, which led Hokkien to become a prestige language in Taiwan.

In the first decades of the 18th century, the linguistic differences between the Qing imperial bureaucrats and the commoners was recorded by the Mandarin-speaking first Imperial High Commissioner to Taiwan (1722), Huáng Shújǐng:

“	In this place, the language is as birdcall – totally unintelligible! For example: for the surname Liú, they say ‘Lâu’; for Chén, ‘Tân’; Zhuāng, ‘Chng’; and Zhāng is ‘Tioⁿ’. My deputy’s surname Wú becomes ‘Ngô͘’. My surname Huáng does not even have a proper vowel: it is ‘N̂g’ here! It is difficult to make sense of this. (郡中鴃舌鳥語，全不可曉。如：劉呼「澇」、陳呼「澹」、莊呼「曾」、張呼「丟」。余與吳待御兩姓，吳呼作「襖」，黃則無音，厄影切，更為難省。)	”
	— Records from the mission to Taiwan and its Strait, Volume II: "On the area around Fort Provintia, Tainan" (臺海使槎錄 卷二 赤嵌筆談)

The tone of Huang's message foretells the uneasy relationships between different language communities and colonial establishments over the next few centuries.

The ban on migration to Taiwan was relaxed sometime after 1722 (and was completely removed in 1874). During the 200 years of Qing dynasty rule, thousands of immigrants from Fujian arrived yearly; the population was over one million in the middle of the 18th century.^[15] Civil unrest and armed conflicts were frequent. In addition to resistance against the government (both Chinese and later Japanese), battles between ethnic groups were also significant: the belligerents usually grouped around the language they used. History has recorded battles between Hakka speakers and Hokkien speakers; between these and the aborigines; and even between those who spoke different variants of Hokkien.

In the early 20th century, the Hoklo people in Taiwan could be categorized as originating from Xiamen, Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, and Zhangpu.^[16] People from the former two areas (Quanzhou-speaking) were dominant in the north of the island and along the west coast,^[17] whereas people from the latter two areas (Zhangzhou-speaking) were dominant in the south and perhaps the central plains as well.

Although there were conflicts between Quanzhou- and Zhangzhou-speakers in Taiwan historically, their gradual intermingling led to mixing of the two accents. Apart from Lukang and Yilan, which have preserved their original Quanzhou and Zhangzhou accents, respectively, most every region of Taiwan now speaks a mixture of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou Hokkien.^[18] A similar phenomenon occurred in Xiamen after 1842 when the mixture of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou Hokkien displaced the Quanzhou dialect to yield the modern Amoy dialect.^[19]

During the Japanese colonial rule of Taiwan, Taiwan began to hold Amoy Hokkien as its standard pronunciation; the Japanese called this mixture Taiwanese (臺灣語, Taiwango).^[20]

After 1945, Amoy Hokkien and Taiwanese Hokkien began to diverge slightly.

Modern times

Later, in the 20th century, the conceptualization of Taiwanese is more controversial than most variations of Chinese because at one time it marked a clear division between the Mainlanders who arrived in 1949 and the pre-existing majority native Taiwanese. Although the political and linguistic divisions between the two groups have blurred considerably, the political issues surrounding Taiwanese have been more controversial and sensitive than for other varieties of Chinese.

After the First Sino-Japanese War, due to military defeat to the Japanese, the Qing dynasty ceded Taiwan to Japan, causing contact with the Hokkien-speaking regions of mainland China to stop. During Japanese rule, Japanese became an official language in Taiwan, and Taiwanese Hokkien began to absorb large number of Japanese loanwords into its language. Examples of such loanwords (some which had in turn been borrowed from English) include piān-só͘ from benjo (便所, "toilet"), phêng from tsubo (坪, "pyeong", an areal measurement) (see also Taiwanese units of measurement), ga-suh from gasu (ガス, "gas"), o͘-tó͘-bái from ōtobai (オートバイ, "autobicycle”, motorcycle). All of these caused Taiwanese to deviate from Hokkien used elsewhere.

During Kōminka of the late Japanese colonial period, the Japanese language appeared in every corner of Taiwan. The Second Sino-Japanese War beginning in 1937 brought stricter measures into force, and along with the outlawing of romanized Taiwanese, various publications were prohibited and Confucian-style private schools which taught Classical Chinese with literary Southern Min pronunciation – were closed down in 1939.^[22] Taiwanese Hokkien thus was reduced to a common daily language.^[23]

After the handover of Taiwan to the Republic of China in 1945, there was brief cultural exchange with mainland China followed by further oppression. The Chinese Civil War resulted in another political separation when the Kuomintang government retreated to Taiwan following their defeat by the communists in 1949. The influx of two million soldiers and civilians caused the population of Taiwan to increase from 6 million to 8 million. The government subsequently promoted Mandarin and banned the public use of Taiwanese as part of a deliberate political repression, especially in schools and broadcast media. In 1964 use of Taiwanese in schools or official settings was forbidden,^[24] and transgression in schools punished with beatings, fines and humiliation.^[25]

Only after the lifting of martial law in 1987 and the mother tongue movement in the 1990s did Taiwan see a true revival in the Taiwanese language. Today, there are a large number of Taiwanese scholars dedicated to researching the language. Despite this, according to census data the number of people speaking Taiwanese continued to drop.^[21]

The history of Taiwanese and the interaction with Mandarin is complex and at times controversial. Even the name is somewhat controversial. Some dislike the name "Taiwanese" as they feel that it belittles other languages spoken on the island such as Mandarin, Hakka, and the aboriginal languages. Others prefer the names Southern Min, Minnan or Hokkien as this views Taiwanese as a form of the Chinese variety spoken in Fujian province in mainland China. Others dislike those names for precisely the same reason.

Taiwanese is referred to as "Formosan" on the United States Census and the American Community Survey.^[26]

Phonology

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Taiwanese pronunciation.

Phonologically, Hokkien is a tonal language with extensive tone sandhi rules. Syllables consist maximally of an initial consonant, a vowel, a final consonant, and a tone.

Consonants

Initials

		Bilabial		Alveolar		Alveolo -palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		[m]	m ㄇ	[n]	n ㄋ			[ŋ]	ng ㄫ
Stop	plain	[p] p ㄅ	[b] b ㆠ	[t] t ㄉ				[k] k ㄍ	[g] g ㆣ
	aspirated	[pʰ]	ph ㄆ	[tʰ]	th ㄊ			[kʰ]	kh ㄎ
Affricate	plain			[ts] ch,ts ㄗ	[dz] j ㆡ	[tɕ] ch(i),ts(i) ㄐ	[dʑ] j(i) ㆢ
	aspirated			[tsʰ]	chh,tsh ㄘ	[tɕʰ]	chh(i),tsh(i) ㄑ
Fricative				[s]	s ㄙ	[ɕ]	si ㄒ			[h]	h ㄏ
Lateral				[l]	l ㄌ

Finals

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	[m] -m	[n] -n	[ŋ] -ng	[◌̃] -ⁿ,-N
Plosive	[p̚] -p ㆴ	[t̚] -t ㆵ	[k̚] -k ㆶ	[ʔ] -h ㆷ

Unlike many other varieties of Chinese such as Mandarin and Cantonese, there are no native labiodental phonemes (i.e., [f]).

1. Coronal affricates and fricatives become alveolo-palatal before /i/, that is, /dzi/, /tsi/, /tsʰi/, and /si/ are pronounced [dʑi], [tɕi], [tɕʰi], and [ɕi].
2. The consonant /dz/ may be realized as a fricative; that is, as [z] in most environments and [ʑ] before /i/.
3. The voiced plosives (/b/ and /ɡ/) become the corresponding fricatives ([β] and [ɣ]) in some phonetic contexts.

Vowels

Taiwanese has the following vowels:

	Front		Central	Back			Syllabic consonant
	Oral	Nasal	Oral	Oral	Nasal
Close	[i] i ㄧ	[ĩ] iⁿ ㆪ		[u] u ㄨ	[ũ] uⁿ ㆫ		[m̩] m ㆬ	[ŋ̍] ng ㆭ
Mid	[e] e ㆤ	[ẽ] eⁿ ㆥ	[ə], [o] o ㄜㄛ	[ɔ] o͘ ㆦ	[ɔ̃] oⁿ ㆧ
Open	[a] a ㄚ	[ã] aⁿ ㆩ

The vowel ⟨o⟩ is akin to a schwa; in contrast, ⟨o͘⟩ (with dot) is more open. In addition, there are several diphthongs and triphthongs (for example, ⟨iau⟩). The consonants ⟨m⟩ and ⟨ng⟩ can function as a syllabic nucleus and are therefore included here as vowels. The vowels may be either plain or nasal: ⟨a⟩ is non-nasal, and ⟨aⁿ⟩ is the same vowel with concurrent nasal articulation. This is similar to French, Portuguese, and many other languages.

There are two pronunciations of vowel ⟨o⟩. In the south (e.g., Tainan and Kaohsiung) it is [ə]; in the north (e.g., Taipei) it is [o]. Due to development of transportation and communication, both pronunciations are common and acceptable throughout the island.

Tones

In the traditional analysis, there are eight “tones”, numbered from 1 to 8. Strictly speaking, there are only five tonal contours. But as in other Chinese varieties, the two kinds of stopped syllables are considered also to be tones and assigned numbers 4 and 8. In Taiwanese tones 2 and 6 are the same, and thus duplicated in the count. Here the eight tones are shown, following the traditional tone class categorization, named after the tones of Middle Chinese:

Taiwanese tones^[27]

Tone number	Name	POJ accent	Pitch in Taipei	Description	Pitch in Tainan	Description
1	yin level (陰平)	a	˥ (55)	high	˦ (44)	high
2 (6)	rising (上聲)	á	˥˩ (51)	falling	˥˧ (53)	high falling
3	yin departing (陰去)	à	˧˩ to ˨˩ (31~21)	low falling	˩ (11)	low
4	yin entering (陰入)	ah	˧˨ʔ (32)	mid stopped	˨˩ʔ (21)	low stopped
5	yang level (陽平)	â	˩˦ to ˨˦ (14~24)	rising	˨˦ (25)	rising
7	yang departing (陽去)	ā	˧ (33)	mid	˨ (22)	mid
8	yang entering (陽入)	a̍h	˦ʔ (4)	high stopped	˥ʔ (5)	high stopped

	Eight tones of Taiwanese Demonstration of the tones of Taiwanese: 衫 saⁿ, 短 té, 褲, khò͘, 闊 khoah, 人 lâng, 矮 é, 鼻 phīⁿ, 直 ti̍t. Tone sandhi rules do not apply in this sentence.
Problems playing this file? See media help.

See (for one example) the modern phonological analysis in Chiung (2003), which challenges these notions.

For tones 4 and 8, a final consonant ⟨p⟩, ⟨t⟩, or ⟨k⟩ may appear. When this happens, it is impossible for the syllable to be nasal. Indeed, these are the counterpart to the nasal final consonants ⟨m⟩, ⟨n⟩, and ⟨ng⟩, respectively, in other tones. However, it is possible to have a nasal 4th or 8th tone syllable such as ⟨siaⁿh⟩, as long as there is no final consonant other than ⟨h⟩.

In the dialect spoken near the northern coast of Taiwan, there is no distinction between tones number 8 and number 4 – both are pronounced as if they follow the tone sandhi rules of tone number 4.

Tone number 0, typically written with two consecutive hyphens ⟨--⟩ before the syllable with this tone, is used to mark enclitics denoting the extent of a verb action, the end of a noun phrase, etc. A frequent use of this tone is to denote a question, such as in “Chia̍h-pá--bē?”, literally meaning ‘Have you eaten yet?’. This is realized by speaking the syllable with either a low-falling tone (3) or a low stop (4). The syllable prior to the ⟨--⟩ maintains its original tone.

Syllabic structure

A syllable requires a vowel (or diphthong or triphthong) to appear in the middle. All consonants can appear at the initial position. The consonants ⟨p, t, k⟩ and ⟨m, n, ng⟩ (and some consider ⟨h⟩) may appear at the end of a syllable. Therefore, it is possible to have syllables such as ⟨ngiau⟩ (“(to) tickle”) and ⟨thng⟩ (“soup”). Incidentally, both of these example syllables are nasal: the first has a nasal initial consonant; the second a nasal vowel. Compare with hangul.

Tone sandhi

Taiwanese has extremely extensive tone sandhi (tone-changing) rules: in an utterance, only the last syllable pronounced is not affected by the rules. What an ‘utterance’ (or ‘intonational phrase’) is, in the context of this language, is an ongoing topic for linguistic research, but some general rules apply:^[28]

The following syllables are unaffected by tone sandhi:

• The final syllable in a sentence, noun (including single syllable nouns, but not pronouns), number, time phrase (i.e., today, tomorrow, etc.), spatial preposition (i.e., on, under), or question word (i.e., who, what, how).
• The syllable immediately preceding the possessive particle 的 (ê) or a neutralized tone. In POJ, this is the syllable before a double hyphen, e.g., 王先生 (Ông--sian-siⁿ)
• Some common aspect markers: 了 (liáu), 好 (hó), 完 (oân), 煞 (soah)

The following rules, listed in the traditional pedagogical mnemonic order, govern the pronunciation of tone on each of the syllables affected (that is, all but those described according to the rules listed above):

• If the original tone number is 5, pronounce it as tone number 3 (Quanzhou/Taipei speech) or 7 (Zhangzhou/Tainan speech).
• If the original tone number is 7, pronounce it as tone number 3.
• If the original tone number is 3, pronounce it as tone number 2.
• If the original tone number is 2, pronounce it as tone number 1.
• If the original tone number is 1, pronounce it as tone number 7.
• If the original tone number is 8 and the final consonant is not h (that is, it is p, t, or k), pronounce it as tone number 4.
• If the original tone number is 4 and the final consonant is not h (that is, it is p, t, or k), pronounce it as tone number 8.
• If the original tone number is 8 and the final consonant is h, pronounce it as tone number 3.
• If the original tone number is 4 and the final consonant is h, pronounce it as tone number 2.

Double tone sandhi

There are a number of a single syllable words that undergo double tone sandhi, that is, they follow the tone change rule twice and are pronounced according to the second tone change. These syllables are almost always a 4th tone ending in -h, and include the words 欲 (beh), 佮 (kah), 閣 (koh), 才 (chiah), as well as the 3rd tone verb 去 khì. As a result of following the tone change rule twice, these syllables are all pronounced as tone number 1.

Before á (仔) suffix)

Apart from the normal tone sandhi rules described above, there are two special cases where a different set of tone sandhi apply.^[29] In a noun with the noun suffix 仔 (á), the penultimate syllable is governed by the following rules:

• If the original tone number is 5, pronounce it as tone number 7.
• If the original tone number is 7, pronounce it as tone number 7.
• If the original tone number is 2 or 3, pronounce it as tone number 1.
• If the original tone number is 1, pronounce it as tone number 7.(same as normal)
• If the original tone number is 8 and final consonant is not h (that is, it is p, t, or k), pronounce it as tone number 4.(same as normal)
• If the original tone number is 4 and final consonant is not h (that is, it is p, t, or k), pronounce it as tone number 8.(same as normal)
• If the original tone number is 8 and final consonant is h, pronounce it as tone number 7.
• If the original tone number is 4 and final consonant is h, pronounce it as tone number 1. (same as double)

Triple tone sandhi

Finally, in the case of single-syllable adjective triplication (for added emphasis), the first syllable is governed by the following rules (the second syllable follows the normal tone sandhi rules above):

• If the original tone number is 5, pronounce it as tone number 5.
• If the original tone number is 7, pronounce it as tone number 1.
• If the original tone number is 3, pronounce it as tone number 2.
• If the original tone number is 2, pronounce it as tone number 1.
• If the original tone number is 1, pronounce it as tone number 7.
• If the original tone number is 8 and the final consonant is not h (that is, it is p, t, or k), pronounce it as tone number 4.
• If the original tone number is 4 and the final consonant is not h (that is, it is p, t, or k), pronounce it as tone number 8.
• If the original tone number is 8 and the final consonant is h, pronounce it as tone number 5.
• If the original tone number is 4 and the final consonant is h, pronounce it as tone number 2.

See Tiuⁿ (2001), Chiung (2003) and the work of Robert L. Cheng (鄭良偉; Tēⁿ Liông-úi)^[30] for modern linguistic approaches to tones and tone sandhi in Taiwanese.

Lexicon

Modern linguistic studies (by Robert L. Cheng and Chin-An Li, for example) estimate that most (75% to 90%) Taiwanese words have cognates in other Chinese varieties. False friends do exist; for example, cháu means "to run" in Taiwanese, whereas the Mandarin cognate, zǒu, means "to walk". Moreover, cognates may have different lexical categories; for example, the morpheme phīⁿ  means not only "nose" (a noun, as in Mandarin bí) but also "to smell" (a verb, unlike Mandarin).

Among the apparently cognate-less words are many basic words with properties that contrast with similar-meaning words of pan-Chinese derivation. Often the former group lacks a standard Han character, and the words are variously considered colloquial, intimate, vulgar, uncultured, or more concrete in meaning than the pan-Chinese synonym. Some examples: lâng (person, concrete) vs. jîn (人, person, abstract); cha-bó͘ (查某, woman) vs. lú-jîn (女人, woman, literary). Unlike the English Germanic/Latin contrast, however, the two groups of Taiwanese words cannot be as strongly attributed to the influences of two disparate linguistic sources.

Extensive contact with the Japanese language has left a legacy of Japanese loanwords (172 are recorded in the Ministry of Education's Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan).^[31] Although a very small percentage of the vocabulary, their usage tends to be high-frequency because of their relevance to modern society and popular culture. Examples are: o͘-tó͘-bái from ōtobai (オートバイ, "autobike"/motorcycle) and pháng from pan (パン, "bread", itself a loanword from Portuguese). Grammatical particles borrowed from Japanese, notably te̍k from teki (的) and ka from ka (か), show up in the Taiwanese of older speakers.

Whereas Mandarin attaches a syllabic suffix to the singular pronoun to make a collective form, Taiwanese pronouns are collectivized through nasalization. For example, i (he/she/it) and goá (I) become in (they) and goán (we), respectively. The -n thus represents a subsyllabic morpheme. Like all other varieties of Chinese, Taiwanese does not have true grammatical plurals.

Unlike English, Taiwanese has two first-person plural pronouns. This distinction is called inclusive, which includes the addressee, and exclusive, which excludes the addressee. Thus, goán means we excluding you, while lán means we including you (similar to pluralis auctoris). The inclusive lán may be used to express politeness or solidarity, as in the example of a speaker asking a stranger "Where do we live?", but meaning "Where do you live?".

Syntax

	‘Kin-á-jit hit-ê cha-bó͘ gín-á lâi góan tau khòaⁿ góa.’ An audio sample for a simple sentence, meaning “Today that little girl came to my house to see me”.
Problems playing this file? See media help.

The syntax of Taiwanese is similar to southern Chinese varieties such as Hakka and Yue. The subject–verb–object sequence is typical as in, for example, Mandarin, but subject–object–verb or the passive voice (with the sequence object–subject–verb) is possible with particles. Take a simple sentence for example: ‘I hold you.’ The words involved are: goá (‘I’ or ‘me’), phō (‘to hold’), lí (‘you’).

• Subject–verb–object (typical sequence): The sentence in the typical sequence would be: Goá phō lí. (‘I hold you.’)
• Subject–kā–object–verb: Another sentence of roughly equivalent meaning is Goá kā lí phō, with the slight connotation of ‘I take you and hold’ or ‘I get to you and hold’.
• Object hō͘ subject–verb (the passive voice): Then, Lí hō͘ goá phō means the same thing but in the passive voice, with the connotation of ‘You allow yourself to be held by me’ or ‘You make yourself available for my holding’.

With this, more complicated sentences can be constructed: Goá kā chúi hō͘ lí lim (‘I give water for you to drink’: chúi means ‘water’; lim is ‘to drink’).

This article can only give a few very simple examples on the syntax, for flavour. Linguistic work on the syntax of Taiwanese is still a (quite nascent) scholarly topic being explored.

Scripts and orthographies

Taiwanese does not have a strong written tradition. Until the late 19th century, Taiwanese speakers wrote mostly in Classical Chinese. Among many systems of writing Taiwanese using Latin characters, the most used is called pe̍h-oē-jī (POJ) and was developed in the 19th century, while the Taiwanese Romanization System has been officially promoted since 2006 by Taiwan's Ministry of Education. (For additional romanized systems, see references in "Orthography in Latin characters", below.) Nonetheless, Taiwanese speakers nowadays most commonly write in Standard Chinese (Mandarin), though many of the same characters are also used to write Taiwanese.

Han characters

In most cases, Taiwanese speakers write using the script called Han characters as in Mandarin, although there are a number of special characters which are unique to Taiwanese and which are sometimes used in informal writing. Where Han characters are used, they are not always etymological or genetic; the borrowing of similar-sounding or similar-meaning characters is a common practice. Mandarin-Taiwanese bilingual speakers sometimes attempt to represent the sounds by adopting similar-sounding Mandarin Han characters. For example, the Han characters of the vulgar slang ‘khoàⁿ sáⁿ-siâu’ (看三小, substituted for the etymologically correct 看啥潲, meaning ‘What the hell are you looking at?’) has very little meaning in Mandarin and may not be readily understood by a Taiwanese monolingual, as knowledge of Mandarin character readings is required to fully decipher it.

In 2007, the Ministry of Education in Taiwan published a list of 300 Han characters standardized for the use of writing Taiwanese and implemented the teaching of them in schools.^[32] In 2008, the ministry published a second list of 100 characters, and in 2009 added 300 more, giving a total of 700 standardized characters used to write uniquely Taiwanese Hokkien words. With increasing literacy in Taiwanese, there are currently more Taiwanese online bloggers who write Taiwanese Hokkien online using these standardized Chinese characters. Han characters are also used by Taiwan’s Hokkien literary circle for Hokkien poets and writers to write literature or poetry in Taiwanese Hokkien.

Orthography in Latin characters

There are several Latin-based orthographies, the oldest being Pe̍h-oē-jī (POJ, meaning “vernacular writing”), developed in the 19th century. Taiwanese Romanization System (Tâi-ôan Lô-má-jī, Tâi-Lô) and Taiwanese Language Phonetic Alphabet (TLPA) are two later adaptations of POJ. Other 20th-century innovations include Daighi tongiong pingim (DT), Ganvsig daiuuan bhanlam ghiw tongiong pingimv (GDT), Modern Literal Taiwanese (MLT), Simplified MLT (SMLT), Phofsit Daibuun (PSDB). The last four employ tonal spelling to indicate tone without use of diacritic symbols, but letters instead.

In POJ, the traditional list of letters is

a b ch chh e g h i j k kh l m n ng o o͘ p ph s t th (ts) u

Twenty-four in all, including the obsolete ⟨ts⟩, which was used to represent the modern ⟨ch⟩ at some places. The additional necessities are the nasal symbol ⟨ⁿ⟩  (superscript ⟨n⟩; the uppercase form ⟨^N⟩ is sometimes used in all caps texts,^[33] such as book titles or section headings), and the tonal diacritics. POJ was developed first by Presbyterian missionaries and later by the indigenous Presbyterian Church in Taiwan; they have been active in promoting the language since the late 19th century. Recently there has been an increase in texts using a mixed orthography of Han characters and romanization, although these texts remain uncommon.

In 2006, the National Languages Committee (Ministry of Education, Republic of China) proposed an alphabet called ‘Tâi-ôan Lô-má-jī’ (‘Tâi-lô’, literally ‘romanized orthography for Taiwanese’). This alphabet reconciles two of the more senior orthographies, TLPA and POJ.^[34] The changes for the consonants involved using ⟨ts⟩ for POJ's ⟨ch⟩ (reverting to the orthography in the 19th century), and ⟨tsh⟩ for ⟨chh⟩. For the vowels, ⟨o͘⟩ could optionally represented as ⟨oo⟩. The nasal mark ⟨ⁿ⟩ could also be represented optionally as ⟨nn⟩. The rest of the alphabet, most notably the use of diacritics to mark the tones, appeared to keep to the POJ tradition. One of the aims of this compromise was to curb any increase of ‘market share’ for Daighi tongiong pingim/Tongyong Pinyin.^[35] It is unclear whether the community will adopt this new agreement.

Orthographies in kana and in bopomofo

There was an orthography of Taiwanese based on the Japanese kana during Japanese rule. The Kuomintang government also tried to introduce an orthography in bopomofo.

Comparison of orthographies

Here the different orthographies are compared:

Vowels

IPA

a

ap

at

ak

aʔ

ã

ɔ

ɔk

ɔ̃

ə

o

e

ẽ

i

ien

iəŋ

Pe̍h-ōe-jī

a

ap

at

ak

ah

aⁿ

o͘

ok

oⁿ

o

o

e

eⁿ

i

ian

eng

Revised TLPA

a

ap

at

ak

ah

aN

oo

ok

ooN

o

o

e

eN

i

ian

ing

TLPA

a

ap

at

ak

ah

ann

oo

ok

oonn

o

o

e

enn

i

ian

ing

BP

a

ap

at

ak

ah

na

oo

ok

noo

o

o

e

ne

i

ian

ing

MLT

a

ab/ap

ad/at

ag/ak

aq/ah

va

o

og/ok

vo

ø

ø

e

ve

i

ien

eng

DT

a

āp/ap

āt/at

āk/ak

āh/ah

ann/aⁿ

o

ok

onn/oⁿ

or

or

e

enn/eⁿ

i

ian/en

ing

Taiwanese kana

アア

アㇷ゚

アッ

アㇰ

アァ

アア

オオ

オㇰ

オオ

オオ

ヲヲ

エエ

エエ

イイ

イェヌ

イェン

Extended bopomofo

ㄚ

ㄚㆴ

ㄚㆵ

ㄚㆶ

ㄚㆷ

ㆩ

ㆦ

ㆦㆶ

ㆧ

ㄜ

ㄛ

ㆤ

ㆥ

ㄧ

ㄧㄢ

ㄧㄥ

Tâi-lô

a

ap

at

ak

ah

ann

oo

ok

onn

o

o

e

enn

i

ian

ing

Example (traditional Chinese)

亞 洲

壓 力

警 察

沃 水

牛 肉

三 十

烏 色

中 國

澳 洲

澳 洲

下 晡

醫 學

鉛 筆

英 國

Example (simplified Chinese)

亚 洲

压 力

警 察

沃 水

牛 肉

三 十

乌 色

中 国

澳 洲

澳 洲

下 晡

医 学

铅 笔

英 国

Vowels

IPA

iək

ĩ

ai

aĩ

au

am

ɔm

m̩

ɔŋ

ŋ̍

u

ua

ue

uai

uan

ɨ

(i)ũ

Pe̍h-ōe-jī

ek

iⁿ

ai

aiⁿ

au

am

om

m

ong

ng

u

oa

oe

oai

oan

i

(i)uⁿ

Revised TLPA

ik

iN

ai

aiN

au

am

om

m

ong

ng

u

ua

ue

uai

uan

ir

(i)uN

TLPA

ik

inn

ai

ainn

au

am

om

m

ong

ng

u

ua

ue

uai

uan

ir

(i)unn

BP

ik

ni

ai

nai

au

am

om

m

ong

ng

u

ua

ue

uai

uan

i

n(i)u

MLT

eg/ek

vi

ai

vai

au

am

om

m

ong

ng

u

oa

oe

oai

oan

i

v(i)u

DT

ik

inn/iⁿ

ai

ainn/aiⁿ

au

am

om

m

ong

ng

u

ua

ue

uai

uan

i

(i)unn/uⁿ

Taiwanese kana

イェㇰ

イイ

アイ

アイ

アウ

アム

オム

ム

オン

ン

ウウ

ヲア

ヲエ

ヲァイ

ヲァヌ

ウウ

ウウ

Extended bopomofo

ㄧㆶ

ㆪ

ㄞ

ㆮ

ㆯ

ㆰ

ㆱ

ㆬ

ㆲ

ㆭ

ㄨ

ㄨㄚ

ㄨㆤ

ㄨㄞ

ㄨㄢ

ㆨ

ㆫ

Tâi-lô

ik

inn

ai

ainn

au

am

om

m

ong

ng

u

ua

ue

uai

uan

ir

(i)unn

Example (traditional Chinese)

翻 譯

病 院

愛 情

歐 洲

暗 時

阿 姆

王 梨

黃 色

有 無

歌 曲

講 話

奇 怪

人 員

豬 肉

舀 水

Example (simplified Chinese)

翻 译

病 院

爱 情

欧 洲

暗 时

阿 姆

王 梨

黄 色

有 无

歌 曲

讲 话

奇 怪

人 员

猪 肉

舀 水

Consonants

IPA

p

b

pʰ

m

t

tʰ

n

nŋ

l

k

ɡ

kʰ

h

tɕi

ʑi

tɕʰi

ɕi

ts

dz

tsʰ

s

Pe̍h-ōe-jī

p

b

ph

m

t

th

n

nng

l

k

g

kh

h

chi

ji

chhi

si

ch

j

chh

s

Revised TLPA

p

b

ph

m

t

th

n

nng

l

k

g

kh

h

zi

ji

ci

si

z

j

c

s

TLPA

p

b

ph

m

t

th

n

nng

l

k

g

kh

h

zi

ji

ci

si

z

j

c

s

BP

b

bb

p

bb

d

t

n

lng

l

g

gg

k

h

zi

li

ci

si

z

l

c

s

MLT

p

b

ph

m

t

th

n

nng

l

k

g

kh

h

ci

ji

chi

si

z

j

zh

s

DT

b

bh

p

m

d

t

n

nng

l

g

gh

k

h

zi

r

ci

si

z

r

c

s

Taiwanese kana

パア

バア

パ̣ア

マア

タア

タ̣ア

ナア

ヌン

ラア

カア

ガア

カ̣ア

ハア

チイ

ジイ

チ̣イ

シイ

サア

ザア

サ̣ア

サア

Extended bopomofo

ㄅ

ㆠ

ㄆ

ㄇ

ㄉ

ㄊ

ㄋ

ㄋㆭ

ㄌ

ㄍ

ㆣ

ㄎ

ㄏ

ㄐ

ㆢ

ㄑ

ㄒ

ㄗ

ㆡ

ㄘ

ㄙ

Tâi-lô

p

b

ph

m

t

th

n

nng

l

k

g

kh

h

tsi

ji

tshi

si

ts

j

tsh

s

Example (traditional Chinese)

報 紙

閩 南

普 通

請 問

豬 肉

普 通

過 年

雞 卵

樂 觀

價 值

牛 奶

客 廳

煩 惱

支 持

漢 字

支 持

是 否

報 紙

熱 天

參 加

司 法

Example (simplified Chinese)

报 纸

闽 南

普 通

请 问

猪 肉

普 通

过 年

鸡 卵

乐 观

价 值

牛 奶

客 厅

烦 恼

支 持

汉 字

支 持

是 否

报 纸

热 天

参 加

司 法

Tones

Tone name	Yin level 陰平(1)	Yin rising 陰上(2)	Yin departing 陰去(3)	Yin entering 陰入(4)	Yang level 陽平(5)	Yang rising 陽上(6)	Yang departing 陽去(7)	Yang entering 陽入(8)	High rising (9)	Neutral tone (0)
IPA	a˥	a˥˧	a˨˩	ap˩ at˩ ak˩ aʔ˩	a˧˥	a˥˧	a˧	ap˥ at˥ ak˥ aʔ˥	a˥˥	a˨
Pe̍h-ōe-jī	a	á	à	ap at ak ah	â	á	ā	a̍p a̍t a̍k a̍h		--a
Revised TLPA, TLPA	a1	a2	a3	ap4 at4 ak4 ah4	a5	a2 (6=2)	a7	ap8 at8 ak8 ah8	a9	a0
BP	ā	ǎ	à	āp āt āk āh	á	ǎ	â	áp át ák áh
MLT	af	ar	ax	ab ad ag aq	aa	aar	a	ap at ak ah		~a
DT	a	à	â	āp āt āk āh	ǎ	à	ā	ap at ak ah	á	å
Taiwanese kana (normal vowels)	アア	アア	アア	アㇷ゚ アッ アㇰ アァ	アア	アア	アア	アㇷ゚ アッ アㇰ アァ
Taiwanese kana (nasal vowels)	アア	アア	アア	アㇷ゚ アッ アㇰ アァ	アア	アア	アア	アㇷ゚ アッ アㇰ アァ
Extended bopomofo	ㄚ	ㄚˋ	ㄚ˪	ㄚㆴ ㄚㆵ ㄚㆶ ㄚㆷ	ㄚˊ	ㄚˋ	ㄚ˫	ㄚㆴ˙ ㄚㆵ˙ ㄚㆶ˙ ㄚㆷ˙
Tâi-lô	a	á	à	ah	â	á (ǎ)	ā	a̍h	a̋	--a
Example (traditional Chinese)	公司	報紙	興趣	血壓 警察 中國 牛肉	人員		草地	配合 法律 文學 歇熱	社子	進去
Example (simplified Chinese)	公司	报纸	兴趣	血压 警察 中国 牛肉	人员		草地	配合 法律 文学 歇热	社子	进去

• Note: The bopomofo extended characters in the zhuyin row require a UTF-8 font capable of displaying Unicode values 31A0–31B7 (ex. Code2000 true type font).

Computing

Many keyboard layouts and input methods for entering either Latin or Han characters in Taiwanese are available. Some of them are free-of-charge, some commercial.

The Min Nan dialect group is registered per RFC 3066 as zh-min-nan.^[36] Taiwanese can be represented as ‘zh-min-nan-TW’.

When writing Taiwanese in Han characters, some writers create ‘new’ characters when they consider it is impossible to use directly or borrow existing ones; this corresponds to similar practices in character usage in Cantonese, Vietnamese chữ nôm, Korean hanja and Japanese kanji. These are usually not encoded in Unicode (or the corresponding ISO/IEC 10646: Universal Character Set), thus creating problems in computer processing.

All Latin characters required by pe̍h-oē-jī can be represented using Unicode (or the corresponding ISO/IEC 10646: Universal character set), using precomposed or combining (diacritics) characters.

Prior to June 2004, the vowel [ɔ] akin to but more open than ⟨o⟩, written with a ‘dot above right’, was not encoded. The usual workaround was to use the (stand-alone; spacing) character ‘middle dot’ (U+00B7, ⟨·⟩) or less commonly the combining character ‘dot above’ (U+0307). As these are far from ideal, since 1997 proposals have been submitted to the ISO/IEC working group in charge of ISO/IEC 10646 – namely, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 – to encode a new combining character ‘dot above right’. This is now officially assigned to U+0358 (see documents N1593, N2507, N2628, N2699, and N2770). Font support has followed: for example, in Charis SIL.

Sociolinguistics

Regional variations

The prestige variant of Taiwanese Hokkien is the southern speech found in Tainan and Kaohsiung. Other major variants are the northern speech, the central speech (near Taichung and the port town of Lukang), and the northern (northeastern) coastal speech (dominant in Yilan).

The distinguishing feature of the coastal speech is the use of the vowel ⟨uiⁿ⟩ in place of ⟨ng⟩. The northern speech is distinguished by the absence of the 8th tone, and some vowel exchanges (for example, ⟨i⟩ and ⟨u⟩, ⟨e⟩ and ⟨oe⟩). The central speech has an additional vowel [ɨ] or [ø] between ⟨i⟩ and ⟨u⟩, which may be represented as ⟨ö⟩. There are also a number of other pronunciation and lexical differences between the Taiwanese variants; the online Ministry of Education dictionary specifies these to a resolution of eight regions on Taiwan proper, in addition to Kinmen and Penghu.^[38][39]

Concerning the fifth (rising) tone in normal sandhi patterns, the Quanzhou/Coastal/Northern dialects change to seventh (mid level) tone, whereas the Zhangzhou/"Mixed"/Southern dialects change to third (low falling) tone.

Certain new North/South distinctions have appeared in recent decades. The fourth and eighth tones tend to be reversed in the north and south.^[40]

Quanzhou–Zhangzhou inclinations

Hokkien immigrants to Taiwan originated from Quanzhou prefecture (44.8%) and Zhangzhou prefecture (35.2%). The original phonology from these regions was spread around Taiwan during the immigration process. With the advanced development of transportation and greater mobility of the Taiwanese population, Taiwanese Hokkien speech has steered itself towards a mixture of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou speech, known as Chiang–Chôan-lām (漳泉濫, in Mandarin Zhāng–Quán làn).^[18] Due to different proportion of mixture, some regions are inclined more towards Quanzhou accent, while others are inclined more towards Zhangzhou accent.

In general, Quanzhou accent is more common along the coastal region and is known as the hái-kháu accent; Zhangzhou accent is more common within the mountainous region of Taiwan and is known as the lāi-po͘ accent. The regional variation within Taiwanese Hokkien may be attributed to variations in the mixture of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou accents and/or lexicons. It ranges from Lukang accent (based on Quanzhou accent) on one end, to the northern coastal Yilan accent (based on Zhangzhou accent) on another end. Tainan, Kaohsiung and Taitung accents, on the other hand, are closest to the prestige accent.

Variations in Taiwanese Hokkien accents

Quanzhou accent
Lukang
Penghu, Taixi, Dajia coastal region (hái-kháu)
Taipei, Hsinchu (very similar to Amoy accent)
Tainan, Kaohsiung and Taitung (prestige accent)
Taichung, Changhua and Chiayi (lāi-po͘)
Yilan
Zhangzhou accent

Recent Terminological Distinctions

Recent research has found a need for new terminology of Taiwanese dialects, mainly because the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects in Taiwan developed independently from those in Fujian. Thus, some scholars (i.e., Klöter, following 董忠司) have divided Taiwanese into five subdialects, based on geographic region:^[41]

1. hái-kháu (海口腔): west coast, based on what was formerly referred to as Quanzhou dialect (represented by the Lukang accent)
2. phian-hái (偏海腔): coastal (represented by the Nanliao (南寮) accent)
3. lāi-po͘ (內埔腔): western inner plain, mountain regions, based on the Zhangzhou dialect (represented by the Yilan accent)
4. phian-lāi (偏內腔): interior (represented by the Taibao accent)
5. thong-hêng (通行腔): common accents (represented by the Taipei (spec. Datong) accent in the north and the Tainan accent in the south)

Both phian-hái and phian-lāi are intermediate dialects between hái-kháu and lāi-po͘, these also known as thong-hêng (通行腔) or "不泉不漳". In some ways this mixed dialect is similar to the Amoy dialect, which itself is a blend of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou speech. The common dialect refers to that which can be heard on radio, television, official announcements, etc.

Fluency

A great majority of people in Taiwan can speak both Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese although the degree of fluency varies widely. There are however small but significant numbers of people in Taiwan, mainly but not exclusively Hakka and Mainlanders, who cannot speak Taiwanese fluently. A shrinking percentage of the population, mainly people born before the 1950s, cannot speak Mandarin at all, or learned to speak Mandarin later in life, though some of these speak Japanese fluently. Urban, working-class Hakkas as well as younger, southern-Taiwan Mainlanders tend to have better, even native-like fluency. Approximately half of the Hakka in Taiwan do speak Taiwanese. There are many families of mixed Hakka, Hoklo, and Aboriginal bloodlines. There is, however, a large percentage of people in Taiwan, regardless of their background, whose ability to understand and read written Taiwanese is greater than their ability to speak it. This is the case with some singers who can sing Taiwanese songs with native-like proficiency, but can neither speak nor understand the language.

Which variant is used depends strongly on the context, and in general people will use Mandarin in more formal situations and Taiwanese in more informal situations. Taiwanese tends to get used more in rural areas, while Mandarin is used more in urban settings. Older people tend to use Taiwanese, while younger people tend to use Mandarin. In the broadcast media where Mandarin is used in many genres, soap opera, variety shows, and even some news programs can also be found in Taiwanese.

Sociolinguistics and gender

Taiwanese is also perceived by some to have a slight masculine leaning, making it more popular among the males of the younger population. It is sometimes perceived as "unladylike" when spoken by the females of the younger population.

Special literary and art forms

Chhit-jī-á (literally, "that which has seven syllables") is a poetic meter where each verse has 7 syllables.

There is a special form of musical/dramatic performance koa-á-hì: the Taiwanese opera; the subject matter is usually a historical event. A similar form pò͘-tē-hì (glove puppetry) is also unique and has been elaborated in the past two decades into impressive televised spectacles.

See Taiwanese cuisine for names of several local dishes.

Bible translations

As with many other languages, the translations of the Bible in Taiwanese marked milestones in the standardization attempts of the language and its orthography.

The first translation of the Bible in Amoy or Taiwanese in the pe̍h-ōe-jī orthography was by the first missionary to Taiwan, James Laidlaw Maxwell, with the New Testament Lán ê Kiù-chú Iâ-so͘ Ki-tok ê Sin-iok published in 1873 and the Old Testament Kū-iok ê Sèng Keng in 1884.

The next translation of the Bible in Taiwanese or Amoy was by the missionary to Taiwan, Thomas Barclay, carried out in Fujian and Taiwan.^[42][43] A New Testament translation was completed and published in 1916. The resulting work containing the Old and the New Testaments, in the pe̍h-ōe-jī orthography, was completed in 1930 and published in 1933 as the Sin-kū-iok ê Sèng-keng (Amoy Romanized Bible). This edition was later transliterated into Han characters and published as Sèng-keng Tâi-gí Hàn-jī Pún (聖經台語漢字本) in 1996.^[44]

The Ko-Tân (Kerygma) Colloquial Taiwanese Version of the New Testament (Sin-iok) in pe̍h-ōe-jī, also known as the Red-Cover Bible (Âng-phoê Sèng-keng), was published in 1973 as an ecumenical effort between the Protestant Presbyterian Church in Taiwan and the Roman Catholic mission Maryknoll. This translation used a more modern vocabulary (somewhat influenced by Mandarin), and reflected the central Taiwan dialect, as the Maryknoll mission was based near Tâi-tiong. It was soon confiscated by the Kuomintang government (which objected to the use of Latin orthography) in 1975.

A translation using the principle of functional equivalence, Hiān-tāi Tâi-gú Sin-iok Sèng-keng (Today's Taiwanese Romanized Version), containing only the New Testament, again in pe̍h-ōe-jī, was published in 2008^[45] as a collaboration between the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan and the Bible Society in Taiwan. A translation of the Old Testament, following the same principle, is being prepared.^[46]

Politics

Until the 1980s, the use of Taiwanese, along with all varieties other than Mandarin, was discouraged by the Kuomintang through measures such as banning its use in schools and limiting the amount of Taiwanese broadcast on electronic media. These measures were removed by the 1990s, and Taiwanese became an emblem of localization. Mandarin remains the predominant language of education, although there is a "mother tongue" language requirement in Taiwanese schools which can be satisfied with student's choice of mother tongue: Taiwanese, Hakka, or aboriginal languages.

Although the use of Taiwanese over Mandarin was historically part of the Taiwan independence movement, the linkage between politics and language is not as strong as it once was. Some fluency in Taiwanese is desirable for political office in Taiwan for both independence and unificationist politicians. At the same time even some supporters of Taiwan independence have played down its connection with Taiwanese language in order to gain the support of the Mainlanders and Hakka.

James Soong restricted the use of Taiwanese and other local tongues in broadcasting while serving as Director of the Government Information Office earlier in his career, but later became one of the first Mainlander politicians to use Taiwanese in semi-formal occasions. Since then, politicians opposed to Taiwanese independence have used it frequently in rallies, even when they are not native speakers and speak it poorly. Conversely, politicians who have traditionally been identified with Taiwan independence have used Mandarin on formal occasions and semi-formal occasions such as press conferences. An example of the latter is former President Chen Shui-bian who uses Mandarin in all official state speeches, but uses mainly Taiwanese in political rallies and some informal state occasions such as New Year greetings. The current DPP chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen have been criticised by her supporters for not using Taiwanese in speeches.^[47] President Ma Ying-jeou spoke in Taiwanese during his 2008 Double Ten Day speech when he was talking about the state of the economy in Taiwan.

In the early 21st century, there are few differences in language usage between the anti-independence leaning Pan-Blue Coalition and the independence leaning Pan-Green Coalition. Both tend to use Taiwanese at political rallies and sometimes in informal interviews and both tend to use Mandarin at formal press conferences and official state functions. Both also tend to use more Mandarin in northern Taiwan and more Taiwanese in southern Taiwan. However at official party gatherings (as opposed to both Mandarin-leaning state functions and Taiwanese-leaning party rallies), the DPP tends to use Taiwanese while KMT and PFP tend to use Mandarin. The Taiwan Solidarity Union, which advocates a strong line on Taiwan independence, tends to use Taiwanese even in formal press conferences. In speaking, politicians will frequently code switch. In writing, almost everyone uses vernacular Mandarin which is further from Taiwanese, and the use of semi-alphabetic writing or even colloquial Taiwanese characters is rare.

Despite these commonalities, there are still different attitudes toward the relationship between Taiwanese and Mandarin. In general, while supporters of Chinese reunification believe that all languages used on Taiwan should be respected, they tend to believe that Mandarin should have a preferred status as the common working language between different groups. Supporters of Taiwanese independence tend to believe that either Taiwanese should be preferred or that no language should be preferred.

In 2002, the Taiwan Solidarity Union, a party with about 10% of the Legislative Yuan seats at the time, suggested making Taiwanese a second official language.^[48] This proposal encountered strong opposition not only from Mainlander groups but also from Hakka and aboriginal groups who felt that it would slight their home languages, as well as others including Hoklo who objected to the proposal on logistical grounds and on the grounds that it would increase ethnic tensions. Because of these objections, support for this measure is lukewarm among moderate Taiwan independence supporters, and the proposal did not pass.

In 2003, there was a controversy when parts of the civil service examination for judges were written in characters used only in Taiwanese.^[49] After strong objections, these questions were not used in scoring. As with the official-language controversy, objections to the use of Taiwanese came not only from Mainlander groups, but also Hoklo, Hakka and aborigines. The Control Yuan later created a rule that only allowed Standard Mandarin characters on civil service exams. According to public opinion surveys, more people support making English the second official language than do for Taiwanese.^[50]

Mother tongue movement

Taiwanization developed in the 1990s into a ‘mother tongue movement’ aiming to save, preserve, and develop the local ethnic culture and language of Holo (Taiwanese Hokkien), Hakka, and aborigines. The effort to save declining languages has since allowed them to flourish. In 1993, Taiwan became the first country in the world to implement the teaching of Taiwanese Hokkien in schools. By 2001, Taiwanese languages such as Taiwanese Hokkien, Hakka, and aboriginal languages were taught in all Taiwanese schools.^[51] Since 2000s, elementary school students are required to take a class In either Taiwanese Hokkien, Hakka or aboriginal languages.^[52] In junior high this is usually an available elective.^[53] Taiwan also has its own literary circle whereby Hokkien poets and writers compose poetry and literature in Taiwanese Hokkien on a regular basis.

As a result of the mother tongue movement, Taiwan has emerged as a significant cultural hub for Hokkien in the world in the 21st century. It also plans to be the major export center for Hokkien culture worldwide in the 21st century.^[54]

Scholarship

Klöter's Written Taiwanese has been described as "the most comprehensive English-language study of written Taiwanese".^[55]

See also

• Min Nan Wikipedia
• Speak Hokkien Campaign

References

Notes

Books cited

Further reading

Books and other material

(As English language material on Taiwanese learning is limited, Japanese and German books are also listed here.)

English textbooks & dictionaries

• 李勤岸 (2005). 哈佛臺語101 [Harvard Taiwanese 101] (paperback & CD) (in English and Chinese). Translated by Yeh, Chieh-Ting; Lee, Marian. Tainan: 開朗. ISBN 9789868160811. 
• Su-chu Wu, Bodman, Nicholas C.: Spoken Taiwanese with cassette(s), 1980/2001, ISBN 0-87950-461-7 or ISBN 0-87950-460-9 or ISBN 0-87950-462-5
• Campbell, William (1913). A Dictionary of the Amoy Vernacular, spoken throughout the prefectures of Chin-chiu, Chiang-chiu and Formosa. Tainan: Taiwan Church Press. OCLC 867068660. 
  • Campbell, William (1923) [1913]. A Dictionary of the Amoy Vernacular, spoken throughout the prefectures of Chin-chiu, Chiang-chiu and Formosa (2nd ed.). Yokohama: Fukuin Print. Co. OCLC 43655590(with preface by Thomas Barclay) 
• Iâu Chèng-to: Cheng-soán Pe̍h-oē-jī (Concise Colloquial Writing). Tainan, Taiwan: Jîn-kong (an imprint of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan). 1992.
• Tân, K. T: A Chinese-English Dictionary: Taiwan Dialect. Taipei: Southern Materials Center. 1978.
• Maryknoll Language Service Center: English-Amoy Dictionary. Taichung, Taiwan: Maryknoll Fathers. 1979.

Japanese publications

• Higuchi, Yasushi (樋口 靖 Higuchi Yasushi): 台湾語会話, 2000, ISBN 4-497-20004-3 (Good and yet concise introduction to the Taiwanese language in Japanese; CD: ISBN 4-497-20006-X)
• Zhao, Yihua (趙 怡華 Zhào Yíhuá): はじめての台湾語, 2003, ISBN 4-7569-0665-6 (Introduction to Taiwanese [and Mandarin]; in Japanese).
• Zheng, Zhenghao (鄭 正浩 Zhèng Zhènghào): 台湾語基本単語2000, 1996, ISBN 4-87615-697-2 (Basic vocabulary in Taiwanese 2000; in Japanese).
• Zhao, Yihua (趙 怡華 Zhào Yíhuá), Chen Fenghui (陳 豐惠 Chén Fēnghuì), Kaori Takao (たかお かおり Takao Kaori), 2006, 絵でわかる台湾語会話. ISBN 978-4-7569-0991-6 (Conversations in Taiwanese [and Mandarin] with illustrations; in Japanese).

Others

• Katharina Sommer, Xie Shu-Kai: Taiwanisch Wort für Wort, 2004, ISBN 3-89416-348-8 (Taiwanese for travellers, in German. CD: ISBN 3-8317-6094-2)

Articles and other resources

• Chiung, Wi-vun Taiffalo (2003). "Tone Change in Taiwanese: Age and Geographic Factors". University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics. 8 (1). Archived from the original on 2013-10-11. 
• LÎM, Chùn-io̍k (2014). "The Common Taiwanese Bible: A Means of Seeking to Affirm the Selfhood and Integrity of Taiwanese and Their Language". Journal of Taiwanese Vernacular. 6 (2): 106–9. doi:10.6621/JTV.2014.0602.05. 
• Tan-Tenn, Henry H. (2001). "Taiwanese learning resources" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2005-04-18. 
• Tiuⁿ, Jū-hông (2001). 白話字基本論 : 臺語文對應&相關的議題淺說 [Principles of Pe̍h-oē-jī or the Taiwanese Orthography: an introduction to its sound-symbol correspondences and related issues] (in Chinese). Taipei: Crane. ISBN 957-2053-07-8. 

External links

Chinese (Min Nan) edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

On the language

• Cannings, Michael. "Introducing the Taiwanese Language". Tailingua. 
• Blog on the Taiwanese language and language education in Taiwan
• Mair, Victor H. (2010). "How to Forget Your Mother Tongue and Remember Your National Language". University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 2 July 2011. 
• Sino-Tibetan Swadesh lists

Dictionaries

• 臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan] (in Chinese). Ministry of Education, R.O.C. 2011. 
• Iûⁿ, Ún-giân. 台語-華語線頂辭典 [Taiwanese-Mandarin Online Dictionary] (in Taiwanese, Chinese, and English).  CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link)
• Iûⁿ, Ún-giân. 台語線頂字典 [Taiwanese Online Character Dictionary] (in Chinese). 
• 臺灣本土語言互譯及語音合成系統 [Taiwanese languages translation and speech synthesis system] (in Chinese, Taiwanese, and Hakka).  CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link)
• "Maryknoll Taiwanese-English Dictionary and English-Amoy Dictionary". Maryknoll Language Service Center. 

Learning aids

• Intermediate Taiwanese grammar (as a blog)
• Taiwanese vocabulary: word of the day (blog)
• Taiwanese teaching material: Nursery rhymes and songs in Han characters and romanization w/ recordings in MP3
• Travlang (language resources for travellers): Hō-ló-oē
• "Daiwanway". Archived from the original on 2007-04-29. Tutorial, dictionary, and stories in Taiwanese. Uses a unique romanization system, different from Pe̍h-oē-jī. Includes sound files 

Other

• Open Directory (dmoz): World: Taiwanese