Taiwanese (Tâi-oân-oe/Ho-ló-oe)

Taiwanese is a dialect of Mĭn Nán (Southern Min) spoken in Taiwan. The ancestors of the majority of Taiwanese people came from the southern part of Fùjiàn province and their language is very similar to the language of that region, particular to the dialect of Xiàmén.

Until the 1980s use of the Taiwanese language was banned in schools and the number of Taiwanese programmes on the radio and television was restricted. These restrictions have now been lifted and Taiwanese is taught as a subject in some schools and used as a medium of instruction in others. Some companies have made Taiwanese as their official language and Taiwanese broadcasts are now common.

Today about 70% of the population of Taiwan (15 million people) speak Taiwanese and most also speak Mandarin. Taiwanese is spoken in many parts of Taiwan and some people are more comfortable using Taiwanese.

Taiwanese first appeared in writing in the late 19th century in a Romanisation system known as Peh-oē-jī, which was devised by Presbyterian missionaries. Since then many different methods of writing Taiwanese have been devised, some using the Latin alphabet, some using the Chinese script, and others using a mixture of the two scripts.

Taiwanese pronunciation (Missionary Romanisation System)

Taiwanese pronunciation (Church romanisation)

Taiwanese tone indication

Useful phrases in Taiwanese

Tower of Babel in Southern Min (Amoy dialect)

Taiwanese language courses

Chinese Translation

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Links

Information about Taiwanese
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwanese_(linguistics)
http://tailingua.com
http://johangijsen.blogspot.com/
http://taiwanesegrammar.wordpress.com/

Online Taiwanese lessons
http://www.glossika.com/en/dict/taiwanese/
http://www.tacpa.org/wdcts/mtl/intro.html
http://edu.ocac.gov.tw/lang/taiwanese/

An Introduction to the Modern Taiwanese Language
http://www.tacpa.org/wdcts/mtl/intro.html

Xiàmén Missionary Romanisation System
http://www.coastalfog.net/languages/xiarom.html

Voice of Taipei - online radio in Taiwanese and Mandarin
http://www.vot.com.tw

BCC (中國廣播電台) - online radio in Mandarin, Taiwanese and Hakka
http://www.bcc.com.tw

Information about the Taiwanese language (in English)
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwanese_language

Information about the Taiwanese language (in Taiwanese - Chinese script)
http://lomaji.com/

Tâi-oân Lô-má-ji Hia̍p-hōe / Taiwan Romanization Association (in Romanized Taiwanese)
http://203.64.42.21/TG/TLH/

Taigubang [Taiwanese Languages Net]
http://tw.groups.yahoo.com/group/taigubang/

Other varieties of spoken Chinese

Cantonese, Dungan, Gan, Hakka, Shanghainese, Mandarin, Taiwanese, Teochew, Xiang

Information about the Chinese script

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