Phonetic realization of final engma in Taipei Mandarin

Academia Letters, 2022

Global Chinese, 2022

The Hakka language and identity enjoys full public recognition as one of the cultural groups in Taiwan. Nonetheless, its usage appears to be in decline. In a series of interviews, the situation of the Hakka language was evaluated. Taiwanese Hakka has developed its own peculiarities and converges with Guoyu; code-switching with Guoyu is common. The intergenerational transmission seems to be difficult. General education promoting global/standard languages, inter-linguistic marriages, urbanisation, mass media, and the increased need for wider communication seem to be responsible for a general decline of smaller languages, even while receiving extensive preservation measures.

This work is based on an online survey, submitted to inquire about Taiwanese people linguistics’ ideology and identity, in order to collect direct data on the view that Taiwanese people have on their languages. The aim of the work is to analyze the historical facts and the linguistic policies that in history changed deeply the current situation of Taiwan languages. After a brief explanation on the history of Taiwan and the languages of Taiwan, the paper will try to underline the political use of the languages during the Japanese imperialist period and the following period of Guo Ming Tang rules, taking in partial consideration to the historical, social and cultural aspects that could have influence on nowadays socio-linguistic Taiwan panorama, such education policies, economy and development of the land. The concept of 国語 (Jap: kokugo, chn: guoyu), was considered fundamental to better understand where Japanese before and Guo Ming Tang later, failed and succeeded and how these policies are reflect on the view that Taiwanese people have on their languages now. The data collected though the online survey was fundamental and are considered as the most direct sources to analyze Taiwanese people point of view and beliefs toward their languages and identity. In conclusion, the work will try to expose possible linguistic policies to adopt in order to preserve local languages that are (in this paper) considered fundamental aspects to preserve the unicity of the Taiwanese culture and identity. The advantage being a better understanding of how the use of a multicultural education could be positive to Taiwan’s future. From this papers point of view, Taiwan could represent a positive example of the possible advancement in multicultural cooperation that a multi lingual and multi-ethnic country education can offer, if government and population support this idea.

Taiwan Studies Revisited, edited by Dafydd Fell and Michael Hsiao. London: Routledge, 197-214., 2019

The first part of this chapter provides a retrospective on a previous research project that led to the publication of my book Written Taiwanese in 2005. The description of the project’s genesis and the book contents centers on three questions. By asking how, I recapitulate my attempt to provide as accurate a description as possible of how the Taiwanese language was written in the past and present. The question why addresses the ideological dimensions of writing Taiwanese in the periods of Japanese colonialism and political liberalization in the late 20th century. By asking who, I shift the focus towards the persons behind the writing of Taiwanese, i.e. language activists, writers and lexicographers pushing for the standardization of written Taiwanese. In the remainder of the chapter, the questions why and who are placed into broader comparative perspective by analyzing them in the contexts of language ideology, language activism, agency in language planning, and language purism. I finally look at the current situation of written Taiwanese and argue that governmental language planning today, like 20 years ago, has not led to the standardization of Taiwanese.

Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 2007

The Han sphere, including Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Taiwan and China, adopted Han characters and classical Han writing as the official written language before the 20th century. However, great changes came with the advent of the 20th century. After World War II, Han characters in Vietnam and Korea were officially replaced by the romanised Chu Quoc Ngu and phonemic Hangul, respectively. In Japan, the number of Han characters in use decreased, and the syllabic Kana system was promoted to a national status. In Taiwan, although Taiwanese romanisation was developed centuries ago, Han characters remain the dominant orthography in current Taiwanese society. This paper examines Taiwan's orthographic transition from the perspective of the Han sphere. Both internal and external factors have contributed to the different outcomes of orthographic reform in these countries. Internal factors include the general public's demand for literacy and anti-feudal hierarchy. External factors include the political relationships between these countries and the origin of Han characters (i.e. China).

2020

;is chapter examines (dis)continuities in language planning from Republican China to modern language planning in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan after the middle of the twentieth century and the political split of the two polities. From the perspective of language ideology, the "K9:s marked a transitional period during which a former inclusive approach to language standardization, aimed at the integration of different regional features, gave way to an exclusive approach that defined correctness in terms of the pronunciation of the Beijing area. ;is shift has since been upheld consistently on both sides of the Taiwan strait, despite the fundamental ideological differences between the two polities. ;is continuity implied a growing marginalization of topolects through neglect (PRC) and suppression (Taiwan). In both cases, the spread of standard Mandarin has been successful, not only in terms of actual language use but also in terms of attitudes toward the standard.

2012