台湾的中文 Táiwān de Zhōngwén — Chinese in Taiwan

Three standards, and a subject to be careful with

This lesson touches a politically disputed matter and it is better to say so plainly than to write around it. The political status of Taiwan is contested: the People's Republic of China maintains that Taiwan is part of China, the authorities in Taipei govern it separately, most states do not maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taipei, and people on all sides hold strong and incompatible views. This course takes no position on any of that. What follows is about language. Linguistically the picture is clear enough. The standard spoken language of Taiwan, called 国语, and the standard of the mainland, called 普通话, are the same language: both were standardised in the early twentieth century from the same Beijing-based norm, and a speaker of either is understood immediately by the other. The differences are an accent — often described as 软, softer, with less retroflex distinction and less 儿化 — a set of grammatical habits of which 有 plus a verb is the most noticeable, a few dozen everyday words, and two large practical differences: Taiwan writes 繁体字 and teaches 注音符号 rather than pinyin. Alongside 国语, Taiwan has its own linguistic diversity. 台语 — Taiwanese, a Southern Min variety also called 闽南语 — is the first language of a large share of the population, particularly older and southern speakers; Hakka is substantial; and the indigenous Austronesian languages, which predate all Chinese settlement on the island, are spoken by around half a million people and several are endangered. As on the mainland, the standard was promoted through schooling for decades and the other languages lost ground, and as on the mainland there is now a preservation movement and public argument about how much was lost. 台语 is the source of the 有 plus verb construction, which is a good illustration of how a substrate language shapes the standard spoken over it. Singapore and Malaysia give a third centre, which is lesson 88. So a learner should understand that 中文 has several standards rather than one, in the way English does, and that none of them is a deviation from the others. Which one you learn matters much less than consistency: this course teaches mainland 普通话 with simplified characters and pinyin, and a learner who takes that to Taipei will be understood perfectly and will need a week to get used to the signs. Practically, for a visitor. Say 中文 rather than choosing between the names. Expect 繁体字 everywhere and rely on lesson 81. Learn 捷运, 便当, 计程车 and 悠游卡, the transport card. The night markets are where the food is and the breakfast shops open at six. And if a conversation turns to politics, the phrases from lesson 86 — 这个话题比较敏感 and 每个人看法不同 — are exactly as useful here, in both directions.