Taiwanese Mandarin
Taiwanese Mandarin, or Guoyu, is a variety of Mandarin Chinese and a national language of Taiwan. The core of its standard form is described in the dictionary Guoyu Cidian maintained by the Ministry of Education. It is based on the phonology of the Beijing dialect together with the grammar of vernacular Chinese.
Standard Taiwanese Mandarin closely resembles and is mutually intelligible with Standard Chinese, the official language of mainland China, with some divergences in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. These divergences are the result of a number of factors, including the unique influence of other languages in Taiwan, mainly, Japanese, Taiwanese Hokkien, and to a lesser extent, Taiwanese Hakka. Additionally, the de facto political separation of Taiwan and mainland China after the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949 contributed to many differences in vocabulary, especially for words created after 1949, such as those related to computer science. The PRC adopted simplified Chinese characters beginning in the 1950s, while Taiwan maintained the more complex traditional characters from which simplified characters were derived, resulting in a systematic difference in the written script as well.
History and usage
Large-scale Han Chinese settlement of Taiwan began in the 17th century, with Hoklo immigrants from Fujian province speaking Southern Min, and to a lesser extent, Hakka immigrants speaking their language. Official communications were done in Mandarin, but the primary languages of everyday life were Hokkien or Hakka, to a lesser extent. After its defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing dynasty ceded Taiwan to the Empire of Japan, which governed the island as an Imperial colony from 1895 to 1945. By the end of the colonial period, Japanese had become the high dialect of the island as the result of decades of "Japanization" policy.After the Republic of China under Kuomintang fled to Taiwan in 1945, Mandarin was introduced as the official language and made compulsory in schools, despite the fact that few native Taiwanese spoke it. The Mandarin Promotion Council was established in 1946 by Taiwan Chief Executive Chen Yi to standardize and popularize the usage of Standard Mandarin in Taiwan. The Kuomintang highly discouraged the use of Hokkien and other vernaculars, even portraying them as inferior, and school children could be punished for speaking their home languages. Mandarin was thus established as a lingua franca among the various groups in Taiwan.
Mandarin remains the dominant language in Taiwan, but following the end of martial law in Taiwan in 1987, the country underwent a liberalization of language policy. Local languages were no longer proscribed in public discourse, mass media, or schools. Mandarin is still the main language of public education, with English and "mother tongue education" being introduced as subjects in primary school. Mother tongue classes generally occupy much less time than Mandarin classes, however, and English classes are often preferred by parents and students over mother tongue classes. Overall, while the government at both national and local levels has promoted the use of non-Mandarin Chinese languages, younger generations generally prefer using Mandarin.
Taiwanese Mandarin is spoken at different levels according to the social class and situation of the speakers. More formal occasions call for the acrolectal level of Guoyu. Less formal situations often result in the basilect form, which has more uniquely Hokkien features. Bilingual speakers often code-switch between Mandarin and Hokkien, sometimes in the same sentence.
Mandarin is spoken fluently by almost the entire Taiwanese population, except for some elderly people who were educated under Japanese rule. In the capital Taipei, where there is a high concentration of Mainlanders whose native variety is not Hokkien, Mandarin is used in greater frequency and fluency than other parts of Taiwan. As of 2010, in addition to Mandarin, Hokkien is natively spoken by around 70% of the population, and Hakka by 15%.
Differences from Mainland Mandarin
Script
Taiwanese Mandarin uses traditional Chinese characters like in the two Special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau, rather than the simplified Chinese characters used in mainland China.Taiwanese Mandarin users may use informal shorthand suzi when writing. Often, suzi are identical to their simplified counterparts, but may also take after Japanese kanji, or differ from both, as shown in the table below. Some suzi are used as frequently as standard characters in printed media, such as the tai in Taiwan being written 台, as opposed to 臺.
Braille
is based on different letter assignments than Mainland Chinese braille.Romanization
differs somewhat from in the mainland, where Hanyu Pinyin is used almost exclusively. A competing pinyin system, Tongyong Pinyin, had been formally revealed in 1998 with the support of Taipei mayor Chen Shuibian. In 1999, however, the Legislative Yuan endorsed a slightly modified Hanyu Pinyin, creating paralleled romanization schemes along largely partisan lines, with Kuomintang-supporting areas using Hanyu Pinyin, and Democratic Progressive Party using Tongyong Pinyin. In 2002, the Taiwanese government led by the DPP promulgated established Tongyong Pinyin as the country's preferred system, but this was formally abandoned in 2009 in favor of Hanyu Pinyin.In addition, various other historical romanization systems also coexist across the island, sometimes together in the same locality. Following the defeat of the Kuomintang and subsequent retreat to Taiwan, little emphasis was placed on romanizing Chinese characters, and the default was the Wade-Giles system. The Gwoyeu Romatzyh method, invented in 1928, also was in use during this time period, but to a lesser extent. In 1984, Taiwan's Ministry of Education began revising the Gwoyeu Romatzyh method out of concern that Hanyu Pinyin was gaining prominence internationally. Ultimately, a revised version of Gwoyeu Romatzyh was released in 1986, formally called the National Phonetic Symbols, Second Scheme, but this was not widely adopted.
Pronunciation
There are two categories of pronunciation differences. The first is of characters that have an official pronunciation that differs from Putonghua, primarily in the form of differences in tone, rather than in vowels or consonants. The second is more general, with differences being unofficial and arising through Taiwanese Hokkien influence on Guoyu.Variant official pronunciations
There are many notable differences in official pronunciations, mainly in tone but also in initials and finals, between Guoyu and Putonghua. Some differences only apply in certain contexts, while others are universal.The following is a list of examples of such differences from the Cross-strait language database:
| Taiwanese Mandarin Guoyu | Chinese Mandarin Putonghua | Remarks | |
| 垃圾 'garbage' | lèsè | lājī | The pronunciation of lèsè originates from Wu Chinese and was the common pronunciation in China before 1949. |
| 步驟 'step, measure' | bùzòu | bùzhòu | |
| 和 'and' | hàn, hé | hé | The hàn pronunciation only applies when 和 is used as a conjunction; in words like 和平 hépíng 'peace' it is not pronounced hàn. |
| 星期 'week' | xīngqí | xīngqī | |
| 企業 'enterprise' | qìyè | qǐyè | |
| 成績 'achievement; academic grades' | chéngjī | chéngjì | |
| 危險 'danger; dangerous' | wéixiǎn | wēixiǎn | |
| 微波爐 'microwave oven' | wéibōlú | wēibōlú | |
| 暴露 'to expose' | pùlù | bàolù | The pronunciation bào is used in all other contexts in Taiwan |
| 攻擊 'attack' | gōngjí | gōngjī | |
| 質量 'mass; quality' | zhíliàng | zhìliàng | The noun is less commonly used to express 'quality' in Taiwan. 質 is pronounced as zhí in most contexts in Taiwain, except in select words like 'hostage' or 'to pawn'. |
| 髮型 'hairstyle' | fǎxíng | fàxíng | In Taiwan, 髮 is pronounced as fǎ. The simplified form of 髮 is identical to that of the semantically unrelated 發 fā 'to emit, send out'. |
| 口吃 'stutter' | kǒují | kǒuchī | |
| 暫時 'temporary' | zhànshí | zànshí |
Hokkien-influence
Taiwanese Mandarin has been strongly influenced by Hokkien, especially in areas where Hokkien is more common, namely, in Central and Southern Taiwan. These Hokkien-influenced Mandarin accent in Taiwan is generally similar to the Hokkien-influenced Mandarin accent in Minnan region of Fujian.In acrolectal Taiwanese Mandarin:
- The retroflex sounds from Putonghua tend to merge with the alveolar series, becoming more retracted version of alveolar consonants like .
- Erhua is rarely heard as a diminutive.
- Isochrony is considerably more syllable-timed than in other Mandarin dialects, which are stress-timed. Consequently, the "neutral tone" does not occur as often, and the final syllable retains its tone.
- The syllable written as after b, f, m, p and w is pronounced as .
- Complete replacement of retroflex sounds by alveolar consonants. r may also become. The ability to produce retroflex sounds is considered a hallmark of "good" Mandarin, and may be overcompensated in some speakers, causing them to pronounce alveolar consonants as their retroflex counterparts when attempting to speak "proper" Mandarin.
- f- becomes a voiceless bilabial fricative, closer to a light 'h' in standard English
- endings -uo, -ou, and -e merge into the close-mid back rounded vowel -o
- -ie, ye becomes ei
- the close front rounded vowel in words such as 雨 yǔ 'rain' become unrounded, transforming into yǐ
- the diphthong ei is monophthongized
- the triphthong similarly becomes or
Elision
Grammar
For non-recurring events, the construction involving 有 is used where the sentence final particle 了 would normally be applied to denote perfect. For instance, Taiwanese Mandarin more commonly uses "你有看醫生嗎？" to mean "Have you seen a doctor?" whereas Putonghua uses "你看醫生了嗎？". This is due to the influence of Hokkien grammar, which uses 有 in a similar fashion. For recurring or certain events, however, both Taiwanese and Mainland Mandarin use the latter, as in "你吃飯了嗎？", meaning "Have you eaten?"Another example of Hokkien grammar's influence on Taiwanese Mandarin is the use of 會 as "to be" verbs before adjectives, in addition to the usual meanings "would" or "will". For instance:
This reflects Hokkien syntax, as shown below:
In Putonghua, sentences would more likely be rendered as follows:
Vocabulary
Vocabulary differences can be divided into several categories – particles, different usage of the same term, loan words, technological words, idioms, and words specific to living in Taiwan. Because of the limited transfer of information between mainland China and Taiwan after the Chinese civil war, many items that were invented after this split have different names in Guoyu and Putonghua. Additionally, many terms were adopted from Japanese both as a result of its close proximity as well as Taiwan's status as a Japanese territory in the first half of the 20th century.Particles
Spoken Taiwanese Mandarin uses a number of Taiwan specific final particles, such as 囉, 嘛, 喔, 耶, 咧, 齁, 咩, 唷, etc.Same words, different meaning
Some terms have different meanings in Taiwan and China, which can sometimes lead to misunderstandings between speakers of different sides of the Taiwan Strait. Often there are alternative, unambiguous terms which can be understood by both sides.| Term | Meaning in Taiwan | Meaning in China | Remarks | - |
| 土豆 tǔdòu | peanut | potato | Unambiguous terms:
| - |
| 搞gǎo | to carry out something insidious, to have sex | to do, to perform a task | As such, it is a verb that is rarely seen in any official or formal setting in Taiwan, whereas it is widely used in China even by its top officials in official settings. The word 弄 can be used inoffensively in place of 搞 in both Taiwan and China to convey the action "to do; to perform a task" as 弄 is widely used in both places and does not carry the vulgar connotation. While many Mainland speakers are in fact aware of the term's connotations, it is still used normally and is rarely misunderstood. | - |
| 窩心 窝心 wōxīn | a kind of warm feeling | having an uneased mind | - | |
| 出租車 出租车 chūzūchē | rental car | taxi | In Taiwan, taxis are called 計程車 / 计程车, which is used less frequently in China. However, many taxis in Taiwan have 個人出租汽車 written on them. Despite the fact that the term chuzuche literally means "car for rent," the term is almost completely unheard of in Taiwan. | - |
| 研究所 yánjiūsuǒ yánjiùsuǒ | graduate school | research institute | - | |
| 愛人 爱人 àirén | lover /mistress | spouse | ||
| 小姐 xiǎojie | Miss | Miss ; prostitute | While it is common to address women with unknown marital status as xiǎojie in Taiwan, it can make a negative impression in China's North, although it is still widely used in formal and informal circumstances on the Mainland. The standard definition on the Mainland has a broader range, however, and could be used to describe a young woman regardless of if she is married or not. | - |
In addition, words with the same literal meaning as in Standard Chinese may differ in register in Taiwanese Mandarin. For instance, éryǐ 而已 'that's all, only' is very common in Taiwanese Mandarin, influenced by speech patterns in Hokkien, but in Standard Chinese the word is used mainly in formal writing, not spoken language.
Different preferred usage
Some terms can be understood by both sides to mean the same thing; however, their preferred usage differs.| Term | Taiwan | China |
| tomato | fānqié, literally "foreign eggplant" | xīhóngshì, literally "western red persimmon" |
| bicycle | jiǎotàchē, literally "pedaling/foot-stamp vehicle", tiémǎ, literally "metal horse" | zìxíngchē, literally "self-propelled vehicle" |
| kindergarten | yòuzhìyuán, | yòu'éryuán |
| pineapple | fènglí | bōluó |
| dress | liánshēnqún, yángzhuāng, literally "western clothing" | liányīqún, qúnzi |
| hotel | 飯店 'food store' | 酒店 'alcohol store' |
| Big Mac | Dàmàikè | Jùwúbà |
| Mandarin | 國語 'national language', 華語 'Chinese language', 中文 'Chinese language' | 普通话 'common speech' |
This also applies in the use of some function words. Preference for the expression of modality often differs among northern Mandarin speakers and Taiwanese, as evidenced by the selection of modal verbs. Compared to native speakers from Beijing, Taiwanese Mandarin users very strongly prefer 要 yào and 不要 búyào over 得 děi and 別 bié to express 'must' and 'must not', for instance, though both pairs are grammatical in either dialect.
Loan words
may differ largely between Putonghua and Taiwanese Mandarin, as different characters or methods may be chosen for transliteration, even the number of characters may differ. For example, former U.S. President Barack Obama's surname is called 奥巴馬 Àobāmǎ in Putonghua and 歐巴馬 or 歐巴瑪 Ōubāmǎ in Guoyu.From English
The term borrowed from the English term "match", is used to describe items or people which complement each other well. Note that this term has become popular in mainland China as well.The English term "hamburger" has been adopted in many Chinese-speaking communities. In Taiwan, the preferred form is wikt:漢堡 rather than the mainland Chinese wikt:漢堡包 though wikt:漢堡 is used as abbreviated form in Mainland as well.
From Taiwanese Hokkien
The terms "阿公 agōng" and "阿媽 amà" are more commonly heard than the standard Mandarin terms 爺爺 yéye, 外公 wàigōng, 奶奶 nǎinai and 外婆 wàipó.Some local foods usually are referred to using their Hokkien names. These include:
| Hokkien | Pe̍h-ōe-jī | IPA | English |
| 礤冰/chhoah冰 | chhoah-peng | baobing: shaved ice with sliced fresh fruit on top | |
| 麻糍/麻糬 | môa-chî | glutinous rice cakes | |
| 蚵仔煎 | ô-á-chian | oyster omelette |
List of Taiwanese Hokkien words commonly found in local Mandarin-language newspapers and periodicals
| As seen in two popular newspapers | Hokkien | Mandarin equivalent | English | ||||||||
鴨霸From Japaneses based on kanji, now pronounced using Mandarin.
|