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.

Taiwanese Hakka
toiˇ vanˇ hagˋ gaˊ ngiˊ / toiˇ vanˇ hagˋ fa Thòi-vàn Hak-kâ-ngî / Thòi-vàn Hak-fa
Pronunciation	Sixian: [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]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Hakka–Gan? Hakka–She? Hakka Yue-Tai & Hailu Taiwanese Hakka
Dialects	Sixian Hailu Raoping
Writing system	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
Proportion of residents aged 6 or older using Hakka at home in Taiwan, in 2010

Geographic distribution

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

• Taiwanese Hakka Romanization System
• Languages of Taiwan

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]