Taiwanese is a dialect of Mĭn Nán (Southern Min) spoken in Taiwan. The ancestors of the majority of Taiwanese people came from the southern part of Fùjiàn province and their language is very similar to the language of that region, particular to the dialect of Xiàmén.
Until the 1980s use of the Taiwanese language was banned in schools and the number of Taiwanese programmes on the radio and television was restricted. These restrictions have now been lifted and Taiwanese is taught as a subject in some schools and used as a medium of instruction in others. Some companies have made Taiwanese as their official language and Taiwanese broadcasts are now common.
Today about 70% of the population of Taiwan (15 million people) speak Taiwanese and most also speak Mandarin. Taiwanese is spoken in many parts of Taiwan and some people are more comfortable using Taiwanese.
Taiwanese first appeared in writing in the late 19th century in a Romanisation system known as Peh-oē-jī, which was devised by Presbyterian missionaries. Since then many different methods of writing Taiwanese have been devised, some using the Latin alphabet, some using the Chinese script, and others using a mixture of the two scripts.
Useful phrases in Taiwanese | Numbers in Taiwanese
Tower of Babel in Southern Min (Amoy dialect)
Chinese Translation
of names and phrases
Information about Taiwanese
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwanese_Hokkien
http://www.ntcu.edu.tw/tailo/default.htm
http://taiwanesegrammar.wordpress.com/
http://www.taiwanderful.net/guides/learning-taiwanese
Omniglot Chinese
learn to read, write and pronounce Chinese characters
Online Taiwanese lessons
http://www.glossika.com/en/dict/taiwanese/
http://taiwanesevocabulary.wordpress.com/
http://www.taiwanese-oki.idv.tw/
Online Taiwanese dictionaries
http://twblg.dict.edu.tw/holodict_new/
Online radio in Taiwanese (and in Mandarin and Hakka)
http://www.bcc.com.tw
http://big5.soundofhope.org/category-478-1.htm
Dungan, Cantonese, Gan Hakka, Mandarin, Shanghainese, Taiwanese, Teochew, Xiang
Burmese, Dzongkha, Garo, Kayah Li, Lepcha, Limbu, Lisu, Manipuri, Naxi, Nepal Bhasa / Newari, Tangut, Tibetan, Tujia, Yi
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