Taiwanese

Discover the language

Taiwanese 台語 (Tâigí, or Táiyǔ in Mandarin, also referred to as the language spoken by the ho̍h-ló) is a language widely spoken by around 80% to 85% of Taiwan's population.

Since 2019, as part of its language policy, the Taiwanese government has introduced the "National Language Development Act", designating, in addition to Mandarin, Taiwanese (Tâigí), Hakka and the languages of Taiwan's Austronesian peoples as national languages. In August 2024, this same legislation was reinforced with the official designation of the terms used to designate Taiwan's national languages: "臺灣台語", "臺灣客語" and "臺灣南島語". For Taiwanese, the two-character compound expression "台語" is a noun meaning "the Taiwanese", while "臺灣" refers to the country itself.

Taiwanese has its origins in the Chinese dialects spoken in Quanzhou 泉州 and Zhangzhou 漳州, in southern Fujian. However, it has also been influenced by the Formosan languages of the indigenous peoples of the Taiwanese plains (Austronesian languages), as well as by the Japanese language imposed during the colonial period from 1895 to 1945. Taiwanese is a tonal language, and has several writing systems: the Peh-oe-ji system (phonetic alphabet), the Tai-lo system (phonetic alphabet) and the Taiwanese Chinese character system.

Since 2020, Inalco has offered an introduction to Taiwanese as an option to students enrolled from the second year up to the third year of the Bachelor's degree in Chinese Studies. Taiwanese courses are also open to minor students. In addition, a Taiwanese course is offered in M1 as part of the master's degree in Chinese Studies.