The languages of Taiwan consist of several varieties of languages under the families of Austronesian languages and Sino-Tibetan languages. The Formosan languages, a geographically designated branch of Austronesian languages, have been spoken by the Taiwanese indigenous peoples for thousands of years. Owing to the wide internal variety of the Formosan languages, research on historical linguistics recognizes Taiwan as the Urheimat (homeland) of the whole Austronesian language family. In the last 400 years, several waves of Han emigrations brought several different Sinitic languages into Taiwan. These languages include Taiwanese Hokkien, Hakka, and Mandarin, which have become the major languages spoken in present-day Taiwan.
Formosan languages were the dominant language of prehistorical Taiwan. Taiwan's long colonial and immigration history brought in several languages such as Dutch, Spanish, Hokkien, Hakka, Japanese, and Mandarin. Due to the former Japanese occupation of the island, the Japanese language has influenced the languages of Taiwan, particularly in terms of vocabulary, with many loanwords coming from Japanese.
After World War II, a long martial law era was held in Taiwan. Policies of the government in this era suppressed languages other than Mandarin in public use. This has significantly damaged the evolution of local languages, including Taiwanese Hokkien, Hakka, Formosan languages, and the Matsu dialect. The situation had slightly changed since the 2000s when the government made efforts to protect and revitalize local languages. Local languages became part of elementary school education in Taiwan, laws and regulations regarding local language protection were established for Hakka and Formosan languages, and public TV and radio stations exclusively for these two languages were also established. Currently, the government of Taiwan also maintains standards for several widely spoken languages listed below; the percentage of users are from the 2010 population and household census in Taiwan.
Overview of national languages LanguagePercentageof home useRecognisedvariantsNationallanguageStatutory languagefor public transportRegulated by Taiwanese Mandarin83.5%1By legal definitionRequired nationwideMinistry of Education Taiwanese Hokkien(incl. Kinmen dialect)81.9%1~6By legal definitionRequired nationwideMinistry of Education Taiwanese Hakka6.6%6By legal definitionRequired nationwideMinistry of Education Hakka Affairs Council Formosan languages Amis 1.4%5By legal definitionDiscretionaryCouncil of Indigenous PeoplesAtayal 6Bunun 5Kanakanavu 1Kavalan 1Paiwan 4Puyuma 4Rukai 6Saaroa 1Saisiyat 1Sakizaya 1Seediq 3Thao 1Truku 1Tsou 1Malayo-PolynesianTao 1 Taiwan sign language<1%1By legal definitionN/AMinistry of Culture Matsu dialect<1%1By legal definitionRequired in Matsu IslandsMinistry of CultureDepartment of Education,Lienchiang County Government Wuqiu dialect<1%1By legal definition but not listedN/AN/A
Indigenous languages
The Taiwanese indigenous languages or Formosan languages are the languages of the Taiwanese indigenous peoples. Taiwanese indigenous peoples currently comprise about 2.3% of the island's population.Council of Indigenous Peoples, Executive Yuan "Statistics of Indigenous Population in Taiwan and Fukien Areas" . However, far fewer can still speak their ancestral language after centuries of language shift. It is common for young and middle-aged Hakka and Taiwanese indigenous peoples to speak Mandarin and Hokkien better than, or to the exclusion of, their ethnic languages. Of the approximately 26 languages of the Taiwanese indigenous peoples, at least ten are extinct, another five are moribund, and several others are to some degree endangered. The government recognizes 16 languages and 42 accents of the indigenous languages. ClassificationRecognized languages (accents)FormosanAtayalicAtayal (6), Seediq (3), Truku (1)RukaicRukai (6)Northern FormosanSaisiyat (1), Thao (1)Eastern FormosanAmis (5), Kavalan (1), Sakizaya (1)Southern FormosanPaiwan (4), Bunun (5), Puyuma (4)TsouicTsou (1), Kanakanavu (1), Saaroa (1)Malayo-PolynesianBatanic (Philippine)Tao (1) The governmental agency Council of Indigenous Peoples maintains the orthography of the writing systems of Formosan languages. Due to the era of Taiwan under Japanese rule, a large number of loanwords from Japanese also appear in Formosan languages. There is also Yilan Creole Japanese as a mixture of Japanese and Atayal.
All Formosan languages are slowly being replaced by culturally dominant Mandarin. In recent decades the government started an aboriginal reappreciation program that included the reintroduction of Formosan mother tongue education in Taiwanese schools. However, the results of this initiative have been disappointing. The television station Taiwan Indigenous Television and radio station Alian 96.3 were created as efforts to revive the indigenous languages. Formosan languages were made an official language in July 2017.
The Amis language is the most widely spoken indigenous language on the eastern coast of the island, where Hokkien and Hakka are less present than on the western coast. The government estimates put the number of Amis people at a little over 200,000, but the number of people who speak Amis as their first language is lower than 10,000. Amis has appeared in some mainstream popular music. Other significant indigenous languages include Atayal, Paiwan, and Bunun. In addition to the recognized languages, there are around 10 to 12 groups of Taiwanese Plains Indigenous Peoples with their respective languages.
Some indigenous people and languages are recognized by local governments. These include Siraya (and its Makatao and Taivoan varieties) to the southwest of the island. Some other language revitalization movements are going on Basay to the north, Babuza-Taokas in the most populated western plains, and Pazeh bordering it in the center west of the island.
Sinitic languages
Taiwanese Mandarin
Mandarin is commonly known and officially referred to as the national language () in Taiwan. In 1945, following the end of World War II, Mandarin was introduced as the de facto official language and made compulsory in schools. Before 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 Taiwanese-speaking Hoklo (Hokkien), the Hakka who have their own spoken language, the aboriginals who speak aboriginal languages; as well as Mainland Chinese immigrated in 1949 whose native tongue may be any Chinese variant.
People who emigrated from mainland China after 1949 (12% of the population) mostly speak Mandarin Chinese. Mandarin is almost universally spoken and understood. It was the only officially sanctioned medium of instruction in schools in Taiwan from late 1940s to late 1970s, following the handover of Taiwan to the government of the Republic of China in 1945, until English became a high school subject in the 1980s and local languages became a school subject in the 2000s.
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 Standard Chinese of Taiwan (), which differs little from the Standard Chinese of China (). Less formal situations may result in the basilect form, which has more uniquely Taiwanese features. Bilingual Taiwanese speakers may code-switch between Mandarin and Taiwanese, sometimes in the same sentence.
Many Taiwanese, particularly the younger generations, speak Mandarin better than Hakka or Hokkien, and it has become a lingua franca for the island amongst the Chinese dialects.
Taiwanese Hokkien
Commonly known as Taiwanese (, ) and officially referred as Taiwanese Hokkien (); Taiwanese Hokkien is the most-spoken native language in Taiwan, spoken by about 70% of the population. Linguistically, it is a subgroup of Southern Min languages variety originating in southern Fujian province and is spoken by many overseas Chinese throughout Southeast Asia.
There are both colloquial and literary registers of Taiwanese. Colloquial Taiwanese has roots in Old Chinese. Literary Taiwanese, which was 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. Due to the era of Taiwan under Japanese rule, a large number of loanwords from Japanese also appear in Taiwanese. The loanwords may be read in Kanji through Taiwanese pronunciation or simply use the Japanese pronunciation. These reasons make the modern writing Taiwanese in a mixed script of traditional Chinese characters and Latin-based systems such as pe̍h-ōe-jī or the Taiwanese romanization system derived from pe̍h-ōe-jī in official use since 2006.
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 language with the Austronesian and Tai language families; however, such claims are not without controversy. Recently there has been a growing use of Taiwanese Hokkien in the broadcast media.
Accent differences among Taiwanese dialects are relatively small but still exist. The standard accent — Thong-hêng accent () is sampled from Kaohsiung city, while other accents fall into a spectrum between Hái-kháu accent (): representing the accent spoken in Lukang, close to Quanzhou dialect in China, and Lāi-po͘ accent (): representing the accent spoken in Yilan, close to Zhangzhou dialect in China.
Much of Taiwanese Hokkien is mutually intelligible with other dialects of Hokkien as spoken in China and South-east Asia (such as Singaporean Hokkien), but also to a degree with the Teochew variant of Southern Min spoken in Eastern Guangdong, China. It is, however, mutually unintelligible with Mandarin and other Chinese languages.
Taiwanese Hakka
Hakka () is mainly spoken in Taiwan by people who have Hakka ancestry. These people are concentrated in several places throughout Taiwan. The majority of Hakka Taiwanese reside in Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli. Varieties of Taiwanese Hakka were officially recognized as national languages. Currently the Hakka language in Taiwan is maintained by the Hakka Affairs Council. This governmental agency also runs Hakka TV and Hakka Radio stations. The government currently recognizes and maintains five Hakka dialects (six, if Sixian and South Sixian are counted independently) in Taiwan.
+ Usage of Subdialects of Taiwanese HakkaSubdialect (in Hakka) Si-yen Hói-liu̍k South Si-yen Thai-pû Ngiàu-Phìn Cheu-ônSubdialect (in Chinese)SixianHailuSouth SixianDabuRaopingZhao'anPercentage (as of 2013)56.1%41.5%4.8%4.2%1.6%1.3%Percentage (as of 2016)58.4%44.8%7.3%4.1%2.6%1.7%
Matsu dialect
Matsu dialect (, Mā-cū-ngṳ̄) is the language spoken in Matsu islands. It is a dialect of Fuzhounese of the Eastern Min branch.
Wuqiu dialect
Wuqiu dialect (, Ou-chhiu-uā) is the language spoken in Wuchiu islands. It is a dialect of Hinghwa of the Pu-Xian Min branch. Due to the low population of native speakers, the language is not recognise as a national language.
Cantonese
Cantonese is spoken by Waishengren immigrants from Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, and Macau. There are also significant of Malaysian Chinese can speak the language. Various Cantonese-speaking communities exist throughout Taiwan. Cantonese is the largest Sinitic language that Taiwan does not recognize as a national language, as it is not native to the island, was not brought by early Han settlers, and is not used in any official capacity.