Taiwanese Hakka

Last updated

Taiwanese Hakka
toiˇ vanˇ hagˋ gaˊ ngiˊ / toiˇ vanˇ hagˋ fa
Thòi-vàn Hak-kâ-ngî / Thòi-vàn Hak-fa
PronunciationSixian: [tʰoi˩van˩hak̚˨fa˥]
Hailu: [tʰoi˥van˥hak̚˨fa˩]
Dapu: [tʰoi˧van˩˩˧kʰak̚˨˩fa˥˧]
Raoping: [tʰoi˧van˥kʰak̚˥fa˨˦]
Zhao'an: [tʰai˧ban˥˧kʰa˥su˥]
Native to Taiwan
Region Taoyuan, Miaoli, Hsinchu, Pingtung, Kaohsiung, Taichung, Nantou, Changhua, Yunlin, Yilan, Hualien and Taitung
Ethnicity Hakka Taiwanese
Speakers L1: 330,000 (2020) [1]
L2: 870,000 (2020) [2]
Total: 1.2 million (2020) [3]
Sino-Tibetan
Dialects
Latin (Pha̍k-fa-sṳ)
Official status
Official language in
 Taiwan [a]
Regulated by Hakka Affairs Council
Language codes
ISO 639-3 –
ISO 639-6 htia
Glottolog None
Linguasphere 79-AAA-gap
Taiwanese Hakka usage map in 2010.svg
Proportion of residents aged 6 or older using Hakka at home in Taiwan, in 2010

Taiwanese Hakka is a language group consisting of Hakka dialects spoken in Taiwan, and mainly used by people of Hakka ancestry. Taiwanese Hakka is divided into five main dialects: Sixian, Hailu, Dabu, Raoping, and Zhao'an. [7] The most widely spoken of the five Hakka dialects in Taiwan are Sixian and Hailu. [8] The former, possessing 6 tones, originates from Meizhou, Guangdong, and is mainly spoken in Miaoli, Pingtung and Kaohsiung, while the latter, possessing 7 tones, originates from Haifeng and Lufeng, Guangdong, and is concentrated around Hsinchu. [7] [8] Taiwanese Hakka is also officially listed as one of the national languages of Taiwan. In addition to the five main dialects, there are the northern Xihai dialect and the patchily-distributed Yongding, Fengshun, Wuping, Wuhua, and Jiexi dialects.

Contents

Geographic distribution

Townships/cities and districts in Taiwan where Hakka is a statutory regional language according to the Hakka Basic Act Hakka regions in Taiwan.svg
Townships/cities and districts in Taiwan where Hakka is a statutory regional language according to the Hakka Basic Act

In 2014, 4.2 million Taiwanese self-identified as Hakka, accounting for 18% of the population. [9] The Hakka Affairs Council has designated 70 townships and districts across Taiwan where the Hakka account for more than a third of the total population, including 18 in Miaoli County, 11 in Hsinchu County, and another 8 in Pingtung, Hualien, and Taoyuan counties each. [9]

Status

With the introduction of martial law in 1949, the KMT-led government repressed Hakka, along with Taiwanese Hokkien and other indigenous languages in favor of Mandarin. [10] In 1988, the Hakka community established the Restore My Mother Tongue Movement to advocate for the right to use and preserve the Hakka language. [11] Language restrictions were relaxed after 1987 with the lifting of martial law and ensuing democratic reforms. [10] In 2012, the ministry-level Hakka Affairs Council was established to stem the language's decline in Taiwan. [12] In December 2017, the Legislative Yuan designated Hakka as an official national language of Taiwan. [13]

Sociolinguistics

While Hakka has official status in Taiwan, it has seen ongoing decline due to a language shift to the more dominant Taiwanese Mandarin and Taiwanese Hokkien. [14] The number of Hakka speakers in Taiwan has declined by 1.1% per year, particularly among youth. [12] In 2016, only 22.8% of self-identifying Hakkas aged 19 to 29 spoke the language. [15] Today, Taiwanese Hakka tends to be used within families and within local communities, which has reduced intergenerational transmission. [14] An estimated 2 million Hakkas now self-identify as Hoklo. [14] Furthermore, the great diversity of Hakka dialects used throughout Taiwan has impeded standardization of Hakka for teaching. [14]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ National language in Taiwan; [4] also statutory status in Taiwan as one of the languages for public transport announcements [5] and for the naturalisation test. [6]

References

  1. ↑ Taiwanese Hakka at Ethnologue (28th ed., 2025) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
  2. ↑ Taiwanese Hakka at Ethnologue (28th ed., 2025) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
  3. ↑ Taiwanese Hakka at Ethnologue (28th ed., 2025) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
  4. ↑ "Draft National Language Development Act Clears Legislative Floor". Focus Taiwan (CNA English News). Central News Agency. 25 December 2018.
  5. ↑ "Dàzhòng yùnshū gōngjù bòyīn yǔyán píngděng bǎozhàng fǎ" 大眾運輸工具播音語言平等保障法 [Act on Broadcasting Language Equality Protection in Public Transport] (in Chinese) – via Wikisource.
  6. ↑ "Standards for Identification of Basic Language Abilities and General Knowledge of the Rights and Duties of Naturalized Citizens" (PDF). Republic of China (Taiwan): Ministry of the Interior. Amended 9 April 2016. Article 6. Archived from the original on 25 July 2017. Accessed 20 July 2020.
  7. 1 2 "Distribution and Resurgence of the Hakka Language". Hakka Affairs Council. 16 July 2018. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  8. 1 2 "Chapter 2: People and Language" (PDF). The Republic of China Yearbook. Republic of China (Taiwan): Government Information Office. 2010. p. 42. ISBN   9789860252781. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 August 2011.
  9. 1 2 "Study of Hakka language to become mandatory in designated regions". Taipei Times. 25 June 2017. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  10. 1 2 Waksman, Itamar (11 October 2021). "The fight for Taiwan's linguistic diversity". The China Project. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  11. ↑ "KMT Hakka language policy hypocrisy". Taipei Times. 6 November 2023. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  12. 1 2 Van Trieste, John (24 December 2021). "Lawmakers call for law promoting the revival of the Hakka language". RTI.
  13. ↑ Cheng, Hung-ta; Chung, Jake (30 December 2017). "Hakka made an official language". Taipei Times. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Vollmann, Ralf; Soon, Tek Wooi (1 September 2022). "Convergence of Hakka with Chinese in Taiwan". Global Chinese. 8 (2): 211–229. doi: 10.1515/glochi-2022-0008 . ISSN   2199-4382.
  15. ↑ Chan, Rosalie (25 January 2016). "Demographic shift spells language decline". Taipei Times. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.