Taiwanese Hokkien
Taiwanese Hokkien (/ˈhɒkiɛn/ HOK-ee-en or /hɒˈkiːɛn/ hok-EE-en; Chinese: 臺灣話; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tâi-oân-ōe; Tâi-lô: Tâi-uân-uē), or simply Taiwanese, also known as Taiuanoe, Taigi, Taigu (Chinese: 臺語; Pe̍h-ōe-jī/Tâi-lô: Tâi-gí / Tâi-gú), Taiwanese Minnan (Chinese: 臺灣閩南語), Hoklo and Holo, is a variety of the Hokkien language spoken natively by more than 70 percent of the population of Taiwan. It is spoken by a significant portion of those Taiwanese people who are descended from Hoklo immigrants of southern Fujian. It is one of the national languages of Taiwan.
| Taiwanese Hokkien | |
|---|---|
| 臺語 Tâi-gí / Tâi-gú | |
| Pronunciation | "Tâi-gí / Tâi-gú" [tai˧˩ gi˥˩] / [tai˧˩ gu˥˩] (coastal dialect) |
| Native to | Taiwan |
Native speakers | 13.5 million (2017) |
Sino-Tibetan
| |
Early forms | |
| Chinese characters (Traditional), Latin (Tâi-lô/Pe̍h-ōe-jī), Katakana (historically) | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Republic of China (Taiwan) |
| Regulated by | Ministry of Education in Taiwan and relevant NGOs in Taiwan |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nan for Southern Min (oan is proposed) |
| Glottolog | taib1242 Taibei Hokkien |
| Linguasphere | 79-AAA-jh |
Proportion of residents aged 6 or older using Hokkien at home in Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen & Matsu in 2010 | |
| Taiwanese Minnan | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 臺灣閩南語 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hokkien POJ | Tâi-oân Bân-lâm-gí / Bân-lâm-gú | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Taiwanese dialect | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 臺灣話 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hokkien POJ | Tâi-oân-ōe | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Taiwanese | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 臺語 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hokkien POJ | Tâi-gí / Tâi-gú | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Taiwanese is generally similar to spoken Amoy Hokkien, Quanzhou Hokkien, and Zhangzhou Hokkien, as well as their dialectal forms used in Southeast Asia, such as Singaporean Hokkien, Penang Hokkien, Philippine Hokkien, Medan Hokkien, and Southern Peninsular Malaysian Hokkien. It is mutually intelligible with Amoy Hokkien and Zhangzhou Hokkien at the mouth of the Jiulong River (九龍) immediately to the west in the mainland of China and with Philippine Hokkien to the south in the Philippines, spoken altogether by about 3 million people. The mass popularity of Hokkien entertainment media from Taiwan has given prominence to the Taiwanese variety of Hokkien, especially since the 1980s.