Taiwanese (linguistics)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Formosan languages, Taiwanese Mandarin, and Languages of Taiwan.

Taiwanese 臺灣話; Tâi-oân-oē
Spoken in:	Taiwan
Region:	The whole of Taiwan and overseas Taiwanese communities
Total speakers:	About 15 million in Taiwan; 49 million (Min Nan as a group)
Ranking:	21 (Min Nan as a group)
Language family:	Sino-Tibetan Chinese Min Min Nan Amoy Taiwanese
Writing system:	Latin (pe̍h-ōe-jī), Han
Official status
Official language in:	None. Legislative bills have been proposed for it to be one of the national languages in the Republic of China). It is one of the statutory languages for public transport announcements in the ROC [1].
Regulated by:	National Languages Committee (Ministry of Education, ROC). Some NGOs such as the Tâi-oân Lô-má-jī Hia̍p-hoē are influential.
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	`zh`
ISO 639-2:	`chi (B)`	`zho (T)`
ISO 639-3:	`nan`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Taiwanese is spoken by about 70% of Taiwan's population. The largest ethnic group in Taiwan for which Taiwanese is considered a native language is known as Hoklo or Hohlo. The correspondence between language and ethnicity is generally true though not absolute, as some Hoklo speak Taiwanese poorly while some non-Hoklo speak Taiwanese fluently. Pe̍h-oē-jī (POJ) is a popular orthography for this language, and Min Nan in general.

[edit] Classification

Taiwanese is a variant of Amoy Min Nan. It is a language in the Sino-Tibetan family. The classification may be represented hierarchically as:

Sino-Tibetan ⊃ Min ⊃ Min Nan ⊃ Amoy ≈ Taiwanese

Min is the only branch of Chinese that cannot be directly derived from Middle Chinese. This may account for the difficulty in finding the appropriate Chinese characters for some Min Nan vocabulary. This is maybe also part of the reasons why it is mutually unintelligible with Mandarin or other Chinese dialects.

There is both a colloquial version and a literary version of Taiwanese. Spoken Taiwanese is almost identical to spoken Amoy. Regional variations within Taiwanese may be traced back to Amoy variants spoken in Southern Fujian (Quanzhou and Zhangzhou). Taiwanese 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 still controversial.

Literary Taiwanese, originally developed in the 10th century in Fujian and based on Middle Chinese, was used at one time for formal writing, but is now largely extinct.

[edit] Phonology

Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See Help:IPA for a pronunciation key.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Taiwanese pronunciation

Phonologically, Taiwanese is a tonal language with extensive tone sandhi rules. Syllables consist maximally of an initial consonant, a vowel, a final consonant, and a tone; any or all of the consonants or vowels may be nasal.

[edit] Consonants

		Bilabial	Coronal ¹	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m /m/	n /n/	ng /ŋ/
Plosive	voiced³	b /b/		g /ɡ/
	plain	p /p/	t /t/	k /k/	h⁴ /ʔ/
	aspirated	ph /pʰ/	th /tʰ/	kh /kʰ/
Affricate	voiced		j /dz/²
	plain		ch /ts/
	aspirated		chh /tsʰ/
Fricative			s /s/		h /h,ç/
Lateral			l /l/

Unlike many other varieties of Chinese such as Standard Mandarin or Standard Cantonese, there are no native labiodental phonemes.

Coronal affricates and fricatives become palatoalveolar before /i/, that is, /dzi/, /tsi/, /tsʰi/, and /si/ are pronounced [dʑi], [tɕi], [tɕʰi], and [ɕi].
The consonant /dz/ may be realized as a fricative; that is, as [z] in most environments and [ʑ] before /i/.
The voiced plosives (/b/ and /ɡ/) become the corresponding fricatives ([β] and [ɣ]) in some phonetic contexts.
H represents a glottal stop /ʔ/ at the end of a syllable.

[edit] Vowels

Taiwanese has the following vowels:

IPA	a	e	i	o/ɤ	ɔ	u	m	ŋ
Pe̍h-oē-jī	a	e	i	o	o͘	u	m	ng
PSDB	a	e	i	oi	o	u	m	ng
TLPA	a	e	i	o	oo	u	m	ng

The vowel o is akin to a schwa; in contrast, o͘ 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. It is [ɤ] in Southern Taiwan mainly such as Tainan and Kaohsiung, and [o] in Northern Taiwan such as Taipei. But because of people moving and the development of communication, these two pronunciations are common and acceptable throughout the entire island.

[edit] Tones

Taiwanese tones, close to Taipei values.

In the traditional analysis, there are eight 'tones', numbered from 1 to 8. Strictly speaking, there are only five tones. But as in other Chinese dialects, 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^[1]
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: saⁿ té khò͘ khoah lâng é phīⁿ ti̍t. Tone sandhi rules do not apply in this sentence.

Problems listening to the file? See media help.

See (for one example) Wi-vun Taiffalo Chiung's modern phonological analysis in the References, 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.

A tone number 0, typically written with a double dash (--) before the syllable with this tone, is used to denote the extent of a verb action, the end of a noun phrase, etc.

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.

[edit] 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; m, n, and ng (and some consider h) may appear at the end of a syllable. Therefore, it is possible to have syllables such as ngiau ("(to) itch") 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.

[edit] Tone sandhi

Schema of the tone sandhi rules in Taiwanese.

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' is, in the context of this language, is an ongoing topic for linguistic research. For the purpose of this article, an utterance may be considered a word, a phrase, or a short sentence. 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 the last in an utterance):

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.

See the work by Tiuⁿ Jū-hông and Wi-vun Taiffalo Chiung in the References, and the work by Robert L. Cheng (Tēⁿ Liông-úi) of the University of Hawaii, for modern linguistic approaches to tones and tone sandhi in Taiwanese.

[edit] 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 languages. 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 (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. 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 オートバイ ootobai "autobike", an "Engrish" word) and pháng (from パン pan "bread," which is itself a loanword from Portuguese). Grammatical particles borrowed from Japanese, notably te̍k (from teki 的) and ka (from 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 Chinese languages, Taiwanese does not have true 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. For example, goán means we excluding you, while lán means we including you (that is, 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?", meaning "where do you live?". This distinction is a relatively common feature of Sino-Tibetan languages, the canonical example from Mandarin being 我們 (wǒmen, exclusive) versus 咱們 (zánmen, inclusive).

[edit] Grammar

The grammar of Taiwanese is similar to southern Chinese languages such as Hakka and Cantonese. The sequence 'subject verb object' 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 grammar, for flavour. Linguistic work on the syntax of Taiwanese is still a (quite nascent) scholarly topic being explored.

Listen to an audio sample of Taiwanese for the sentence: "Kin-á-jit hit-ê cha-bó͘ gín-á lâi góan tau khòaⁿ góa." (Today that girl came to my house to see me.)

[edit] Scripts and orthographies

A selection of literary works (original and translated) in Taiwanese, in several orthographies.

Taiwanese does not have a strong written tradition. Until the late 19th century, Taiwanese speakers wrote solely in literary Chinese. A system of writing Taiwanese using Latin characters called pe̍h-oē-jī (POJ) was developed in the 19th century. Today, Taiwanese speakers most commonly write in vernacular Chinese, which uses the vocabulary and grammar of Mandarin, though Chinese characters are also used to represent spoken Taiwanese in writing.

[edit] 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 看啥痟, 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.

[edit] Orthography in Latin characters

An issue of the Taiwan Church News, first published by Presbyterian missionaries in 1885. This was the first printed newspaper in Taiwan, and was written in Taiwanese, in the Latin orthography pe̍h-oē-jī.

Main article: pe̍h-oē-jī

In some situations, Taiwanese is written with the Latin alphabet using an orthography called pe̍h-oē-jī (POJ), meaning "vernacular writing". 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. Other Latin-based orthographies exist, the most significant being Taiwanese Language Phonetic Alphabet (TLPA), Modern Taiwanese Language (MTL), Phofsit Daibuun (PSDB) and Tongyong Pinyin.

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 capital form is seldom used), and the tonal diacritics.

In 2006, the National Languages Committee (Ministry of Education, Republic of China) proposed a scheme called "Tâi-ôan Lô-má-jī" (literally, "romanized orthography for Taiwanese"). This scheme reconciles the two of the more senior orthographies, TLPA and POJ.^[2] 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 scheme, 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 Tongyong Pinyin.^[3] It has been unclear whether the community will adopt this new agreement.

[edit] Orthographies in kana and in bopomofo

The Taiwanese-Japanese Dictionary, using the orthography in kana

Main article: Taiwanese kana

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.

[edit] 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	ɪɛn	iŋ
Pe̍h-ōe-jī	a	ap	at	ak	ah	aⁿ	o·	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
Pumindian (普闽典)	a	ap	at	ak	ah	na	oo	ok	noo	o	o	e	ne	i	ien	ing
PSDB (普實台文)	a	ab/ap	ad/at	ag/ak	aq/ah	va	o	og/ok	vo	oi	oi	e	ve	i	ien	eng
DT (台語通用拼音)	a	ap	at	ak	ah	ann/aⁿ	or	ok	onn/oⁿ	o	o	e	enn/eⁿ	i	ian/en	ing
zhuyin	ㄚ	ㄚㆴ	ㄚㆵ	ㄚㆶ	ㄚㆷ	ㆩ	ㆦ	ㆦㆶ	ㆧ	ㄜ	ㄛ	ㆤ	ㆥ	ㄧ	ㄧㄢ	ㄧㄥ
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	烏色	中国		澳洲	澳洲	下晡		医学	铅笔	英国

**Vowels**
IPA	ɪk	ĩ	ai	aĩ	au	am	ɔm	m̩	ɔŋ	ŋ̍	u	ua	ue	uai	uan	ɨ	ũ
Pe̍h-ōe-jī	ek	iⁿ	ai	aiⁿ	au	am	om	m	ong	ng	u	oa	oe	oai	oan	i	uⁿ
Revised TLPA	ik	iN	ai	aiN	au	am	om	m	ong	ng	u	ua	ue	uai	uan	ir	uN
TLPA	ik	inn	ai	ainn	au	am	om	m	ong	ng	u	ua	ue	uai	uan	ir	unn
Pumindian (普闽典)	ik	ni	ai	nai	au	am	om	m	ong	ng	u	ua	ue	uai	uan	i	nu
PSDB (普實台文)	eg/ek	vi	ai	vai	au	am	om	m	ong	ng	u	ua	ue	uai	uan	i	nu
DT (台語通用拼音)	ik	inn/iⁿ	ai	ainn/aiⁿ	au	am	om	m	ong	ng	u	ua	ue	uai	uan	i	unn/uⁿ
zhuyin	ㄧㆶ	ㆪ	ㄞ	ㆮ	ㆯ	ㆰ	ㆱ	ㆬ	ㆲ	ㆭ	ㄨ	ㄨㄚ	ㄨㆤ	ㄨㄞ	ㄨㄢ	ㆨ	ㆫ
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
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

**Consonants**
IPA	p	b	pʰ	m	t	tʰ	n	nŋ	l	k	g	kʰ	h	tɕi	ʑi	tɕʰi	ɕi	ts	ʣ	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
Pumindian (普闽典)	b	bb	p	bb	d	t	n	lng	l	g	gg	k	h	zi	li	ci	si	z	l	c	s
PSDB (普實台文)	p	b	ph	m	d	t	n	nng	l	k	g	q	h	ci	ji	chi	si	z	j	zh	s
DT (台語通用拼音)	b	bh	p	m	d	t	n	ng	l	g	gh	k	h	zi	r	ci	si	z	r	c	s
zhuyin	ㄅ	ㆠ	ㄆ	ㄇ	ㄉ	ㄊ	ㄋ	ㄋㆭ	ㄌ	ㄍ	ㆣ	ㄎ	ㄏ	ㄐ	ㆢ	ㄑ	ㄒ	ㄗ	ㆡ	ㄘ	ㄙ
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**
IPA	a˥	a˥˧	a˨˩	ap˩ at˩ ak˩ aʔ˩	a˧˥	a˥˧	a˧	ap˥ at˥ ak˥ aʔ˥
Pe̍h-ōe-jī	a	á	à	ap at ak ah	â	á	ā	a̍p a̍t a̍k a̍h
Revised TLPA TLPA	a1	a2	a3	ap4 at4 ak4 ah4	a5	a2 (6=2)	a7	ap8 at8 ak8 ah8
Pumindian (普闽典)	ā	ǎ	à	āp āt āk āh	á	ǎ	â	áp át ák áh
PSDB (普實台文)	af	ar	ax	ab ad ag aq	aa	aar	a	ap at ak ah
DT (台語通用拼音)	a	à	â	āp āt āk āh	ǎ	á	ā	ap at ak ah
zhuyin	ㄚ	ㄚˋ	ㄚᒻ	ㄚㆴ ㄚㆵ ㄚㆶ ㄚㆷ	ㄚˊ	ㄚˋ	ㄚ⊦	ㄚㆴ̇ ㄚㆵ̇ ㄚㆶ̇ ㄚㆷ̇
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
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

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).

[edit] 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 language Min-nan is registered per RFC 3066 as zh-min-nan [2]. 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 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 N2713). Font support has followed: for example, in Charis SIL.

[edit] Sociolinguistics

[edit] Regional variations

Within the wider Min-nan (Hō-ló-oē) speaking community in Southeast Asia, Ē-mn̂g (Amoy or Xiamen) is historically the variant of prestige (close to a 'standard language'), with other major variants from Choâⁿ-chiu (Chinchew or Quanzhou in Fujian), Chiang-chiu (Changchew or Zhangzhou in Fujian), and Tiô-chiu (Teochew or Chaozhou in Guangdong).

In Taiwan, however, the Tâi-lâm (Tainan, southern Taiwan) speech is the variant of prestige, and the other major variants are the northern speech, the central speech (near Taichung and the port town of Lo̍k-káng in Changhua County), and the northern (northeastern) coastal speech (dominant in Gî-lân). 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 between 'i' and 'u', which may be represented as 'ö'.

[edit] Fluency

Most people in Taiwan can speak both Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese although the degree of fluency varies widely. There are however significant numbers of people in Taiwan (roughly 20 to 30 percent of the population of Taiwan), mainly but not exclusively Hakka and Mainlanders, who cannot speak Taiwanese at all, as well as large numbers of people (roughly 10 to 20 percent of the population), mainly people born before the 1950s, who cannot speak Mandarin at all. 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 Taiwanese is greater than their ability to speak it.

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, soap opera/dramas and variety shows tend to use Taiwanese, while game shows and documentaries tend to use Mandarin. Political news is broadcasted in both Taiwanese and Mandarin.

[edit] Special literary and art forms

Puppetry is part of the heritage in Taiwanese

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 of puppetry, pò͘-tē-hì ("Taiwanese 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.

[edit] Conceptualization and history

In the first decades of the 18th century, the language difference between the Chinese Qing imperial bureaucrats and the commoners was recorded by the first Imperial High Commissioner to Taiwan (1722), Huáng Shújǐng, a Beijinger sent by the Kangxi Emperor, during whose reign Taiwan was annexed in 1684:

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 "Tiuⁿ". 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)

This set the tone for the uneasy relationship between this language community and the colonial establishments in the next few centuries.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, civil unrest and armed conflicts were frequent in Taiwan. In addition to resistance against the government (both Chinese and Japanese), battles between ethnic groups were also significant: the belligerent usually grouped around the language they use. History recorded battles between the Hakka and the Taiwanese-language speakers; between these and the aborigines; and between those who spoke the Choâⁿ-chiu variant of what became the Taiwanese language and those who spoke the Chiang-chiu variant.

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 variants of Chinese.

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 variants such as Mandarin, Hakka, and the aboriginal languages which are spoken on Taiwan. Others prefer the name Min-nan or Hokkien as this views Taiwanese as a variant of the speech which is spoken on Fujian province in Mainland China. Others dislike the name Min-nan and Hokkien for precisely the same reason. One can get into similar controversial debates as to whether Taiwanese is a language or a dialect.

[edit] Politics

Until the 1980s, the use of Taiwanese, along with all dialects 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. Fluency in Taiwanese has become a de facto requirement 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 Taiwan independence have used it frequently in rallies even when they are not native speakers of the language and speak it badly. 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 President Chen Shui-bian who uses Mandarin in all official state speeches, but uses Taiwanese in political rallies and some informal state occasions such as New Year greetings, although in the latter case he never uses Taiwanese exclusively.

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 farther 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 Taiwan 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. 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 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 it appears very unlikely to pass.

In 2003, there was a controversy when parts of the civil service examination for judges were written in characters used only in Taiwanese. 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 Hakka and aborigines.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ 國臺對照活用辭典 (Mandarin-Taiwanese Comparitive Living Dictionary), page 2691 (in Mandarin, Min Nan). ISBN 9573240882.
^ 臺灣閩南語羅馬字拼音方案 (Orthographical scheme for the Minnan language in Taiwan, "Tâi-ôan Lô-má-jī")
^ 教育部國語推行委員會: 關於閩南語拼音整合工作相關問題說帖 (National Languages Committee: On the integration of Minnan orthographies), 2006-10-16

[edit] Books and other material

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

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: Ē-mn̂g-im Sin Jī-tián (Dictionary of the Amoy Vernacular). Tainan, Taiwan: Tâi-oân Kàu-hoē Kong-pò-siā (Taiwan Church Press, Presbyterian Church in Taiwan). 1993–06 (First published 1913–07).
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.
Klöter, Henning. Written Taiwanese. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2005. ISBN 3-447-05093-4, 78,00 € [D]
Maryknoll Language Service Center: English-Amoy Dictionary. Taichung, Taiwan: Maryknoll Fathers. 1979.
Tiuⁿ Jū-hông: Principles of Pe̍h-oē-jī or the Taiwanese Orthography: an introduction to its sound-symbol correspondences and related issues. Taipei: Crane Publishing, 2001. ISBN 957-2053-07-8
Wi-vun Taiffalo Chiung: Tone Change in Taiwanese: Age and Geographic Factors.
樋口靖: 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)
趙怡華: はじめての台湾, 2003, ISBN 4-7569-0665-6 (In Japanese: Introduction to Taiwanese and Chinese)
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)
Taiwanese learning resources (a good bibliography in English) (Google cache as a web page)

[edit] External links

This article contains Chinese text.
Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols and shit instead of Chinese characters which are weird little chop marks that make strange fucking noises like those you would hear in old Kung-Fu movies. But more than a billion people actually use them.