Language maintenance and language shift in Taiwan

Abstract

Abstract When the Nationalist government first took over administrative control of Taiwan in 1945, the major languages spoken by the people of Taiwan were the Chinese dialects Hakka and Southern Min, and Japanese. A national language, Mandarin, has since then been actively promoted. Surveys were administered to 823 Chinese on Taiwan to measure the extent of language maintenance of mother dialects and shift toward the use of Mandarin. Results indicate there has been a substantial shift towards the use of Mandarin. There is a significant decrease in the use of one's mother dialect and a significant increase in the use of Mandarin with family members in succeeding generations. There is considerable shift toward Mandarin at work and with friends because Mandarin is often used as a common language in inter‐group communicative interactions.