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Taiwanese Mandarin (traditional Chinese: 臺灣國語; simplified Chinese: 台湾国语; pinyin: Táiwān Guóyǔ; Wade-Giles: T'ai²-wan¹ Kuo²-yü³); also (traditional Chinese: 臺灣華語; simplified Chinese: 台湾华语; pinyin: Táiwān Huáyǔ) is a variant of Mandarin derived from the Standard Mandarin spoken in Taiwan.

The official Standard Mandarin of the Republic of China, known in Taiwan as 國語 (Guóyǔ, Kuo-yü), is based on the phonology of the Beijing dialect and the grammar of Vernacular Chinese. It is almost identical to the standard Mandarin of the People's Republic of China, known in mainland China as Pǔtōnghuà (普通话); the differences between the two are mainly due to the political separation of the two sides since 1949.

Mandarin as spoken informally in Taiwan has some notable differences in vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation with Standard Mandarin, which have arisen by virtue of the influence from English, the prior Japanese colonial period as well as contact with Taiwanese Hokkien speakers with Taiwanese.

Usage

In 1945 when the island of Taiwan came under the control of the Kuomintang's Republic of China, 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 Chen Yi (陳儀) 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 (齐铁恨), Wang Yuchuan (王玉川), Fang Shiduo (方师铎), Zhu Zhaoxiang (朱兆祥), Wu Shouli (吴守礼) 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 Min Nan-speaking Hoklo, the Hakka who have their own spoken language, Mainlanders whose native tongue may be any Chinese variant in mainland China, and the Indigenous Taiwanese who speak Indigenous 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 language for use in the media. This produced a backlash in the 1990s. Although some more extreme 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, which in practice differs little from Putonghua. 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 language is not Taiwanese, Mandarin is used in greater frequency than in southern and rural Taiwan.

Differences from Standard Mandarin

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) (this mainly means a difference in tone rather than vowels or consonants). The second is more general, with differences being unofficial and arising through the influence of Taiwanese 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 are softened considerably
• the Beijing retroflex "r" (兒 (儿)) ending is very rarely heard
• the pinyin feng is pronounced as fong

In basilectal Taiwanese Mandarin, sounds that do not occur in Taiwanese are replaced by sounds from that language. 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)^[1]
• -ie, ye becomes ei (tie – tei)
• chi (stand-alone) becomes tu (chi – tu)
• ch- becomes c- (chuan – cuan 傳→攢)
• r- becomes l- (ren - len) or z- (IPA z, not Hanyu Pinyin)
• 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)

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: 你有汽車沒有? (lit. "you have a car or not have?") is not often found in Taiwanese Mandarin, where the construction would be 你有沒有汽車？ (lit. "you have or not have a car?") is more often used. Both phrases have the same meaning of "Do you have a car?"

In some contexts, the construction involving 有 is often used where the sentence final particle 了 would normally be used to denote perfect aspect. For instance, Taiwanese Mandarin more commonly uses "你有吃飯嗎？" to mean "Have you eaten?" whereas standard Mandarin uses "你吃飯了嗎？". This is due to the influence of Min Nan grammar which uses 有 (ū) in a similar fashion.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary differences can be divided into four categories – 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 things 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 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), 喔 (ō), 耶 (yē), 咧 (lie) etc.

Same words, different meaning

Some terms have different meanings in Taiwan and mainland China, which can sometimes lead to misunderstandings of speakers between the two. 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 differ.

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. Also, in Taiwanese Mandarin, Erhua is generally avoided. For example, the United States President's surname is called 奥巴马 Àobāmǎ in Putonghua and 歐巴馬 or 歐巴瑪 Ōubāmǎ in Guoyu.

From English

• The term "machi" (麻吉 Pinyin: májí) is borrowed from the English term "match", and is used to describe items or people which complement each other.
  • Note: 麻吉 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 (Pinyin: hànbǎo) rather than 漢堡包 (Pinyin: hànbǎobāo).
  • Note: 漢堡 has become popular in mainland China as well.
• The term "Fensi 粉絲" is borrowed from the English term "fans", and is used to describe fans or people who idolize a superstar.
  • Note: 粉絲 has become popular in mainland China as well.

From Taiwanese

• The terms "阿公 agōng" and "阿嬤 amà" are more commonly heard than the standard Mandarin 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 Taiwanese names. These include:

• List of Taiwanese 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

• Kubler, Cornelius Charles (1985). The development of Mandarin in Taiwan: A case study of language contact. Taipei: Student Book.  
• Kuo, Yun-Hsuan (2005). New dialect formation: The case of Taiwanese Mandarin. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, UK: University of Essex.  
• Tseng, Hsin-I. (2003). The syntax structures of contemporary Taiwanese Mandarin [當代台灣國語的句法結構]. Unpublished master's thesis, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei.
• 台灣話大詞典　(Tâi-ôan-ōe tōa-sû-tián), ISBN 9573240785
• "On-line Taiwanese/Mandarin Dictionary (Tai-gi hôa-gí sòaⁿ-téng sû-tián)" (in Taiwanese/Mandarin/English). http://203.64.42.21/iug/ungian/SoannTeng/chil/taihoa.asp.