Taiwanese Mandarin

Taiwanese Mandarin is the Standard Mandarin spoken in Taiwan. Its standard lect is known in Taiwan as Kuo-yü (Chinese: 國語; pinyin: Guóyǔ; literally: "National language") and is based on the phonology of the Beijing dialect together with the grammar of vernacular Chinese.

The official Guoyu is almost identical to the official language of the People's Republic of China, called Pǔtōnghuà, with the exception of their writing systems. However, Mandarin as spoken informally in Taiwan has some notable differences in vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation with Standard Mandarin, differences which have arisen mainly under influence from Taiwanese Hokkien (the native variety of about 70% of the population of Taiwan), other mother tongues of Taiwan like Hakka (spoken natively by about 15% of the Taiwanese) and Formosan languages, additionally English, and Japanese from the prior Japanese period.

Usage

In 1945 when the Republic of China took over Taiwan and surrounding islands from Japan, Mandarin was introduced as the official language and made compulsory in schools. A Mandarin Promotion Council (now called National Languages Committee) was established in 1946 by Taiwan Chief Executive Chen Yi to standardize and popularize the usage of Standard Mandarin in Taiwan. The Council was led by 21 Chinese Scholars such as Wei Jiangong (魏建功), He Rong (何容), Qi Tiehen (齊鐵恨), Wang Yuchuan (王玉川), Fang Shiduo (方師鐸), Zhu Zhaoxiang, Wu Shouli (吳守禮) etc. (From 1895 to 1945, Japanese was the official language and taught in schools.) Since then, Mandarin has been established as a lingua franca among the various groups in Taiwan: the majority Han ethnic Hoklo, the Hakka who have their own spoken variant, Mainlanders whose native tongue may be any Chinese variant from mainland China, and the Taiwanese aborigines who speak Formosan languages.

Until the 1980s the Kuomintang administration heavily promoted the use of Standard Mandarin and discouraged the use of Taiwanese and other vernaculars, even portraying them as inferior. Mandarin was the only sanctioned Chinese variety for use in the media. This produced a backlash in the 1990s. Although some supporters of Taiwan independence tend to be opposed to standard Mandarin in favor of Taiwanese, efforts to replace standard Mandarin either with Taiwanese or with a multi-lingual standard have not been successful. Today, Mandarin is taught by immersion starting in elementary school. After the second grade, the entire educational system is in Mandarin, except for local language classes that have been taught for a few hours each week starting in the mid-1990s.

Taiwanese Mandarin (as with Singlish and many other situations of a creole speech community) is spoken at different levels according to the social class and situation of the speakers. Formal occasions call for the acrolectal level of Guoyu (Standard Mandarin). Less formal situations often result in the basilect form, which has more uniquely Taiwanese features. Bilingual speakers often code-switch between Mandarin and Taiwanese, 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 Taiwanese, Mandarin is used in greater frequency and fluency than other parts of Taiwan.

Differences from Mainland Mandarin

Script

Taiwanese Mandarin uses traditional Chinese characters, as opposed to the simplified Chinese characters on the mainland. Taiwanese braille is based on different letter assignments than Mainland Chinese braille. Romanization had once been distinct, but now the pinyin system can be seen in both sides, though pinyin is mainly used in Mainland China while the Wade-Giles and Gwoyeu Romatzyh system is more prominent in Taiwan.

Pronunciation

There are two categories of pronunciation differences. The first is of characters that have an official pronunciation that differs from Putonghua (普通话 Pǔtōnghuà), 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 (國語 Guóyǔ).

Variant official pronunciations

There are a few differences in official pronunciations, mainly in tone, between Guoyu and Putonghua.

The following is a partial list of such differences:

Taiwanese-influenced

In acrolectal Taiwanese Mandarin:

• The retroflex sounds (ch, zh, sh, r) from Putonghua tend to merge with the alveolar series (c, z, s), becoming more retracted version of alveolar consonants like [t͡s̠ʰ][t͡s̠][s̠][z̠].^[4]
• Erhua is rarely heard as a diminutive.^[4]
• Isochrony is considerably more syllable-timed than in other Mandarin dialects (including Putonghua), which are stress-timed. Consequently, the "neutral tone" (輕聲) does not occur as often.^[4]
• The syllable written as pinyin: eng after b, f, m, p and w is pronounced as [ɔŋ].^[5]

In basilectal Taiwanese Mandarin, sounds that do not occur in Taiwanese are replaced by sounds from Taiwanese. These variations from Standard Mandarin are similar to the variations of Mandarin spoken in southern China. Using the Hanyu Pinyin system, the following sound changes take place (going from Putonghua to Taiwanese Mandarin followed with an example):

• f- becomes hu- (fan → huan 反 → 緩) (This applies to native Hokkien speakers - Hakka speakers maintain precisely the opposite: (e.g. hua → fa 花 → 發))
• -ie, ye becomes ei (tie → tei)
• ch- becomes c- (chuan → cuan 傳 → 攢)
• r- becomes l- (ren → len) or [z]
• zh-, zhi becomes z-, zi (zhao → zao 照 → 造)
• sh-, shi becomes s-, si (shuo → suo 說→縮)
• yu becomes yi (yue → ye 月 → 夜)
• the diphthongs ei and ou are monophthongized as [e] and [o] respectively.

Grammar

The standard Mandarin construct 有…沒有 (have or not have) is not as commonly used in Taiwanese Mandarin as in standard Mandarin. For example, the sentence "Do you have a car?" is as follows:

Taiwanese Mandarin: 你有沒有汽車？ (lit. "you have or not have a car?")

PRC Mandarin: 你有汽车沒有? (lit. "you have a car or not have?")

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 ū 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:

Taiwanese Mandarin: 你會冷嗎? (lit. "you are cold INT?")

Taiwanese Mandarin: 我會冷 (lit. "I am cold.")

Taiwanese Mandarin: 我不會冷 (lit. "I not am cold.")

This reflects Hokkien syntax, as shown below:

Hokkien: 你會寒𣍐? (lit. "you are cold, not?")

Hokkien: 我會寒 (lit. "I am cold.")

Hokkien: 我𣍐寒 (lit. "I not cold.")

In Putonghua, sentences would more likely be rendered as follows:

Putonghua: 你冷不冷? (lit. "you cold, not cold?"), or 你冷嗎? (lit. "you cold INT?").

Putonghua: 我冷 (lit. "I cold")

Putonghua: 我不冷 (lit. "I not cold").^[6]

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 (Okinawa) 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 (but not exclusive) final particles, such as 囉 (luō), 嘛(ma), 喔 (ō), 耶 (yē), 咧 (lie), 齁 (hō), 咩 (mei), 唷 (yō), etc.

Same words, different meaning

Some terms have different meanings in Taiwan and mainland 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.

Different preferred usage

Some terms can be understood by both sides to mean the same thing; however, their preferred usage differs.

Loan words

Loan words may differ largely between Putonghua and Taiwanese Mandarin, as different characters or methods may be chosen for transliteration (phonetical or semantical), even the number of characters may different. For example, 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. Also, in Taiwanese Mandarin, rhotacization (erhua) is generally avoided.

From English

The term (麻吉 májí) 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 漢堡 (hànbǎo) rather than the mainland Chinese 漢堡包 (hànbǎobāo).

From Taiwanese Hokkien

The terms "阿公 agōng" and "阿媽amà" are more commonly heard than the standard Mandarin terms 爺爺 yéye (paternal grandfather), 外公 wàigōng (maternal grandfather), 奶奶 nǎinai (paternal grandmother) and 外婆 wàipó (maternal grandmother).

Some local foods usually are referred to using their Hokkien names. These include:

List of Taiwanese Hokkien words commonly found in local Mandarin-language newspapers and periodicals

From Japanese

Japanese loanwords based on kanji, now pronounced using Mandarin.

Japanese loanwords based on phonetics, transliterated using Chinese characters with similar pronunciation in Mandarin or Taiwanese.

Technical terms

Idioms and proverbs

Words specific to living in Taiwan

Notes

References