Editing Taiwanese Hokkien (section)

=== Modern times ===
[[File:Proportion of Taiwanese Language Used in House.svg|thumb|Proportion of languages used at home by residents aged 6 or over in Taiwan in 2010, sorted by birth year.<ref name="housing census">{{Cite web|url=http://www.dgbas.gov.tw/public/data/dgbas04/bc6/census022(final).html|title=census022(final).swf|website=www.dgbas.gov.tw}}</ref> The chart shows the tendency that speech communities of [[Languages of Taiwan#Other languages|Taiwanese local languages]] are shifting to speak [[Taiwanese Mandarin|Mandarin]].]]
Later, in the 20th century, the conceptualization of Taiwanese was more controversial than most variations of Chinese because, at one time, it marked a clear division between the [[Waishengren|mainlanders who]] [[KMT retreat to Taiwan in 1949|arrived in 1949]] and the pre-existing majority native Taiwanese. Although the political and linguistic divisions between the two groups have blurred considerably, the political issues surrounding the Taiwanese have been more controversial and sensitive than for other [[varieties of Chinese]].

After the [[First Sino-Japanese War]], due to military defeat to the Japanese, the [[Qing dynasty]] ceded [[Taiwan]] to Japan, causing contact with the [[Hokkien]]-speaking regions of mainland China to stop. During Japanese rule, Japanese became an official language in Taiwan, and Taiwanese began to absorb a large number of Japanese loanwords into its language. Examples of such loanwords (some which had in turn been borrowed from English) include ''piān-só͘'' from {{nihongo||{{linktext|便所}}|benjo|"toilet"}}, ''phêng'' from {{nihongo||{{linktext|坪}}|[[tsubo]]|"[[pyeong]]", an areal measurement}} (see also [[Taiwanese units of measurement]]), ''ga-suh'' from {{nihongo||{{linktext|瓦斯}}|gasu|"gas"}}, ''o͘-tó͘-bái'' from {{nihongo||{{linktext|オートバイ}}|ōtobai|"autobicycle", motorcycle}}. All of these caused the Taiwanese to deviate from Hokkien used elsewhere.

During [[Japanization#Taiwan|Kōminka]] of the late Japanese colonial period, the [[Japanese language]] appeared in every corner of Taiwan. The [[Second Sino-Japanese War]] beginning in 1937 brought stricter measures into force, and along with the outlawing of [[Chinese language romanization in Taiwan|romanized Taiwanese]], various publications were prohibited and Confucian-style private schools which taught [[Classical Chinese]] with [[Literary language|literary]] Southern Min pronunciation – was closed down in 1939.{{sfnp|Klöter|2005|p=135}} Taiwanese thus was reduced to a common [[Vernacular|daily language]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ang |first1=Ui-jin |script-title=zh:臺灣方言之旅 |date=1991 |publisher=前衛出版社 |location=Taipei |isbn=9789579512312}}</ref> In 1937 the colonial government introduced a concept called "National Language Family" ({{linktext|国語|の|家}}), which meant that families that proved that they adopted Japanese as their daily language enjoyed benefits such as greater access to education.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hwsh.tc.edu.tw/ischool/publish_page/106/?cid=4897|title=Hui-Wen High School Taichung, Introduction to the Kominka period|work=www.hwsh.tc.edu.tw}}</ref>

After the handover of Taiwan to the [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|Republic of China]] in 1945, there was a brief cultural exchange with mainland China followed by further oppression. The [[Chinese Civil War]] resulted in another political separation when the [[Kuomintang]] (Chinese Nationalist Party) government [[Chinese Nationalist Party retreat to Taiwan|retreated to Taiwan following their defeat by the communists]] in 1949. The influx of two million soldiers and civilians caused the population of Taiwan to increase from 6 million to 8 million. The government subsequently promoted Mandarin while suppressing, but short of banning, the use of written Taiwanese [[Hokkien]] (e.g. [[Pe̍h-ōe-jī]], a phonetic rendering of spoken Hokkien using the Latin alphabet) as part of its general policy of political repression.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Lin |first=Alvin |issue=89 |title=Writing Taiwanese: The Development of Modern Written Taiwanese |journal=Sino-Platonic Papers |url=http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp089_taiwanese.pdf |year=1999 |oclc=41879041 }}</ref> In 1964 the use of spoken Taiwanese [[Hokkien]] or [[Hakka]] in schools or in official settings was forbidden; violations of the prohibition in schools often resulted in physical punishments, fines, or humiliation.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Linguistic capital in Taiwan: The KMT's Mandarin language policy and its perceived impact on language practices of bilingual Mandarin and Taigi speakers |last=Sandel |first=Todd L. |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2003 |journal=Language in Society |volume=32 |issue=4 |pages=523–551 |doi=10.1017/S0047404503324030 |jstor=4169285 |s2cid=145703339 }}</ref>

Only after the lifting of [[Martial law in Taiwan|martial law]] in 1987 and the [[mother tongue]] movement in the 1990s did Taiwan finally see a true [[Language revitalization|revival]] in Taiwanese Hokkien. Today, there are a large number of Taiwanese Hokkien scholars dedicated to researching the language. Despite this, however, according to census data, the number of people speaking Taiwanese continued to drop.<ref name="housing census"/>

The history of the Taiwanese variety of Hokkien and its interaction with Mandarin is complex and, at times, controversial, even regarding its name. The language has no official name in Taiwan.<ref>{{cite web |title=中華民國文化部-國家語言發展法 |url=https://www.moc.gov.tw/content_275.html |website=www.moc.gov.tw |access-date=24 October 2019 |language=zh |date=10 October 2008 |quote=《國家語言發展法》並未以法律明列各固有族群之語言名稱，即是尊重各族群使用者慣常使用之命名權。 |archive-date=2 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210402055541/https://www.moc.gov.tw/content_275.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Some dislike the name "Taiwanese" as they feel that it belittles other languages spoken on the island such as Mandarin, [[Hakka Chinese|Hakka]], and the [[Formosan languages|indigenous languages]]. Others prefer the names [[Southern Min]], Minnan or Hokkien as this views Taiwanese as a form of the Chinese variety spoken in [[Fujian]] province in [[mainland China]]. Others dislike those names for precisely the same reason.{{citation needed|date=March 2016}} In the [[American Community Survey]] run by the [[United States Census Bureau]], Taiwanese was referred to as "Formosan" from 2012 to 2015 and as "Min Nan Chinese" since 2016.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/working-papers/2018/demo/SEHSD-WP2018-31.pdf | title=American Community Survey Redesign of Language-Spoken-at-Home Data | date=2016 | first=Christine P. | last=Gambino | work=U.S. Census Bureau}}</ref>