Taiwanese Mandarin

Taiwanese Mandarin uses traditional Chinese characters like in the two Special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau, rather than the simplified Chinese characters used in mainland China.

Taiwanese Mandarin users may use informal shorthand suzi (Chinese: 俗字; pinyin: súzì; lit.: 'custom/conventional characters'; also 俗體字 sútǐzì) when writing. Often, suzi are identical to their simplified counterparts, but may also take after Japanese kanji, or differ from both, as shown in the table below. Some suzi are used as frequently as standard characters in printed media, such as the tai in Taiwan being written 台, as opposed to 臺.[19]^:251

Taiwanese braille is based on different letter assignments than Mainland Chinese braille.

Chinese language romanization in Taiwan differs somewhat from in the mainland, where Hanyu Pinyin is used almost exclusively. A competing pinyin system, Tongyong Pinyin, had been formally revealed in 1998 with the support of Taipei mayor Chen Shuibian.[21]^:200 In 1999, however, the Legislative Yuan endorsed a slightly modified Hanyu Pinyin, creating paralleled romanization schemes along largely partisan lines, with Kuomintang-supporting areas using Hanyu Pinyin, and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) using Tongyong Pinyin.[21]^:200 In 2002, the Taiwanese government led by the DPP promulgated established Tongyong Pinyin as the country's preferred system, but this was formally abandoned in 2009 in favor of Hanyu Pinyin.[22]

In addition, various other historical romanization systems also coexist across the island, sometimes together in the same locality. Following the defeat of the Kuomintang and subsequent retreat to Taiwan, little emphasis was placed on romanizing Chinese characters, and the default was the Wade-Giles system.[21]^:199 The Gwoyeu Romatzyh method, invented in 1928, also was in use during this time period, but to a lesser extent.[21]^:199[23]^:12 In 1984, Taiwan's Ministry of Education began revising the Gwoyeu Romatzyh method out of concern that Hanyu Pinyin was gaining prominence internationally. Ultimately, a revised version of Gwoyeu Romatzyh was released in 1986,[21]^:199 formally called the National Phonetic Symbols, Second Scheme, but this was not widely adopted.[23]^:13

There are two categories of pronunciation differences. The first is of characters that have an official pronunciation that differs from Putonghua, primarily in the form of differences in tone, rather than in vowels or consonants. The second is more general, with differences being unofficial and arising through Taiwanese Hokkien influence on Guoyu.

There are many notable differences in official pronunciations, mainly in tone but also in initials and finals, between Guoyu and Putonghua. Some differences only apply in certain contexts, while others are universal.

The following is a list of examples of such differences from the Cross-strait language database:[24]

Hokkien-influenced Mandarin (known as Taiwan Guoyu 台灣國語 or simply Guoyu) used to be more commonly heard in Central and Southern Taiwan, where the general populace speaks more Taiwanese Hokkien rather than Mandarin. These Hokkien-influenced Mandarin accent in Taiwan is generally similar to the Hokkien-influenced Mandarin accent in Minnan region of Fujian.

In acrolectal Taiwanese Mandarin:

• The retroflex sounds (zh, ch, sh, r) from Putonghua tend to merge with the alveolar series (z, c, s), becoming more retracted version of alveolar consonants like [t͡s̠ʰ][t͡s̠][s̠][z̠].[25]
• Erhua is rarely heard as a diminutive.[25]
• Isochrony is considerably more syllable-timed than in other Mandarin dialects (including Putonghua), which are stress-timed. Consequently, the "neutral tone" (輕聲 qīngshēng) does not occur as often, and the final syllable retains its tone.[25]
• The syllable written as pinyin: eng after b, f, m, p and w is pronounced as [oŋ].[26]

In basilectal Taiwanese Mandarin, sounds that do not occur in Hokkien are replaced by sounds from Hokkien. These variations from Standard Mandarin are similar to the variations of Mandarin spoken in southern China. Using the Hanyu Pinyin system, the following sound changes take place (going from Putonghua to Taiwanese Mandarin followed with an example):

• Complete replacement of retroflex sounds (zh, ch, sh, r) by alveolar consonants (z, c, s, l). r may also become [z]. The ability to produce retroflex sounds is considered a hallmark of "good" Mandarin, and may be overcompensated in some speakers, causing them to pronounce alveolar consonants as their retroflex counterparts when attempting to speak "proper" Mandarin.[27] (e.g. 所以 suǒyǐ → shuǒyǐ)
• f- becomes a voiceless bilabial fricative (⟨ɸ⟩), closer to a light 'h' in standard English (fǎn → huǎn 反 → 緩)[28] (This applies to native Hokkien speakers; Hakka speakers maintain precisely the opposite, e.g. huā → fā 花 → 發)
• endings -uo, -ou, and -e (when it represents a close-mid back unrounded vowel, like in 喝 hē 'to drink') merge into the close-mid back rounded vowel -o
• -ie, ye becomes ei (tie → tei)
• the close front rounded vowel in words such as 雨 yǔ 'rain' become unrounded, transforming into yǐ[29]
• the diphthong ei is monophthongized [e][29]
• the triphthong [uei] (as in 對 duì 'right, correct') similarly becomes [ei] or [e][29]

For non-recurring events, the construction involving 有 (yǒu) is used where the sentence final particle 了 (le) would normally be applied to denote perfect. For instance, Taiwanese Mandarin more commonly uses "你有看醫生嗎？" to mean "Have you seen a doctor?" whereas Putonghua uses "你看醫生了嗎？". This is due to the influence of Hokkien grammar, which uses 有 (ū) in a similar fashion. For recurring or certain events, however, both Taiwanese and Mainland Mandarin use the latter, as in "你吃飯了嗎？", meaning "Have you eaten?"

Another example of Hokkien grammar's influence on Taiwanese Mandarin is the use of 會 (huì) as "to be" verbs before adjectives, in addition to the usual meanings "would" or "will". For instance:

Taiwanese Mandarin: 你會冷嗎? (lit. "you are cold INT?")

Taiwanese Mandarin: 我會冷 (lit. "I am cold.")

Taiwanese Mandarin: 我不會冷 (lit. "I not am cold.")

This reflects Hokkien syntax, as shown below:

Hokkien: 你會寒𣍐? (lit. "you are cold, not?")

Hokkien: 我會寒 (lit. "I am cold.")

Hokkien: 我𣍐寒 (lit. "I not cold.")

In Putonghua, sentences would more likely be rendered as follows:

Putonghua: 你冷不冷? (lit. "you cold, not cold?"), or 你冷嗎? (lit. "you cold INT?").

Putonghua: 我冷 (lit. "I cold")

Putonghua: 我不冷 (lit. "I not cold").[30][31]

Vocabulary differences can be divided into several categories – particles, different usage of the same term, loan words, technological words, idioms, and words specific to living in Taiwan. Because of the limited transfer of information between mainland China and Taiwan after the Chinese civil war, many items that were invented after this split have different names in Guoyu and Putonghua. Additionally, many terms were adopted from Japanese both as a result of its close proximity (Okinawa) as well as Taiwan's status as a Japanese territory in the first half of the 20th century.

Spoken Taiwanese Mandarin uses a number of Taiwan specific (but not exclusive) final particles, such as 囉 (luō), 嘛(ma), 喔 (ō), 耶 (yē), 咧 (lie), 齁 (hō), 咩 (mei), 唷 (yō), etc.

Some terms have different meanings in Taiwan and China, which can sometimes lead to misunderstandings between speakers of different sides of the Taiwan Strait. Often there are alternative, unambiguous terms which can be understood by both sides.

In addition, words with the same literal meaning as in Standard Chinese may differ in register in Taiwanese Mandarin. For instance, éryǐ 而已 'that's all, only' is very common in Taiwanese Mandarin, influenced by speech patterns in Hokkien, but in Standard Chinese the word is used mainly in formal writing, not spoken language.[32]

Some terms can be understood by both sides to mean the same thing; however, their preferred usage differs.

This also applies in the use of some function words. Preference for the expression of modality often differs among northern Mandarin speakers and Taiwanese, as evidenced by the selection of modal verbs. Compared to native speakers from Beijing, Taiwanese Mandarin users very strongly prefer 要 yào and 不要 búyào over 得 děi and 別 bié to express 'must' and 'must not', for instance, though both pairs are grammatical in either dialect.[33]

Loan words may differ largely between Putonghua and Taiwanese Mandarin, as different characters or methods may be chosen for transliteration (phonetical or semantical), even the number of characters may differ. For example, former U.S. President Barack Obama's surname is called 奥巴馬 Àobāmǎ in Putonghua and 歐巴馬 or 歐巴瑪 Ōubāmǎ in Guoyu.

The term (麻吉 májí) borrowed from the English term "match", is used to describe items or people which complement each other well. Note that this term has become popular in mainland China as well.

The English term "hamburger" has been adopted in many Chinese-speaking communities. In Taiwan, the preferred form is 漢堡 (hànbǎo) rather than the mainland Chinese 漢堡包 (hànbǎobāo) though 漢堡 (hànbǎo) is used as abbreviated form in Mainland as well.

The terms "阿公 agōng" and "阿媽 amà" are more commonly heard than the standard Mandarin terms 爺爺 yéye (paternal grandfather), 外公 wàigōng (maternal grandfather), 奶奶 nǎinai (paternal grandmother) and 外婆 wàipó (maternal grandmother).

Some local foods usually are referred to using their Hokkien names. These include:

List of Taiwanese Hokkien words commonly found in local Mandarin-language newspapers and periodicals

Japanese loanwords based on kanji, now pronounced using Mandarin.

Japanese loanwords based on phonetics, transliterated using Chinese characters with similar pronunciation in Mandarin or Taiwanese Hokkien.