Taiwanese Hakka

Chinese topolect spoken in Taiwan From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Taiwanese Hakka

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.

Quick Facts Pronunciation, Native to ...
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 toTaiwan
RegionTaoyuan, Miaoli, Hsinchu, Pingtung, Kaohsiung, Taichung, Nantou, Changhua, Yunlin, Yilan, Hualien and Taitung
EthnicityHakka Taiwanese
SpeakersL1: 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 byHakka Affairs Council
Language codes
ISO 639-3
ISO 639-6htia
GlottologNone
Linguasphere79-AAA-gap
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Proportion of residents aged 6 or older using Hakka at home in Taiwan, in 2010
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Geographic distribution

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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

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