Taiwanese Hakka is a language group consisting of
Hakka dialects
Hakka (, , ) forms a language group of varieties of Chinese, spoken natively by the Hakka people throughout Southern China and Taiwan and throughout the diaspora areas of East Asia, Southeast Asia and in overseas Chinese communities around ...
spoken in
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
, and mainly used by
people of Hakka ancestry. Taiwanese Hakka is divided into five main dialects:
Sixian,
Hailu Hailu ( Amharic: ኃይሉ) is a male name of Ethiopian origin that may refer to:
*Hailu Shawul (born 1936), Ethiopian engineer and the chairman of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy
* Hailu Tekle Haymanot (1868–1950), Ethiopian army commande ...
,
Dabu,
Raoping
Raoping County ( postal: Jaoping; ) is a county in eastern Guangdong Province, bordering Fujian Province to the east, and facing the South China Sea to the south. The city with the same name has 135,600 inhabitants (1990).
It is under the jurisdic ...
, and
Zhao'an
Zhao'an () is a county in the municipal region of Zhangzhou, southernmost Fujian province, People's Republic of China.
History Qing dynasty to the Republic of China
In May 1907, county officials arrested, on suspicion of piracy, the local lea ...
.
The most widely spoken of the five Hakka dialects in Taiwan are Sixian and Hailu.
The former, possessing 6 tones, originates from
Meizhou
Meizhou (, Hakka Chinese: Mòichû) is a prefecture-level city in eastern Guangdong province, China. It has an area of , and a population of 3,873,239 million as of the 2020 census. It comprises Meijiang District, Meixian District, Xingning City ...
,
Guangdong
Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...
, and is mainly spoken in
Miaoli
Miaoli City (Wade–Giles: ''Miao²-li⁴''; Hakka PFS: ''Mèu-li̍t-sṳ''; Hokkien POJ: ''Biâu-le̍k-chhī'' or ''Miâu-le̍k-chhī'') is a county-administered city and the county seat of Miaoli County, Taiwan. Miaoli has a relatively h ...
,
Pingtung and
Kaohsiung
Kaohsiung City (Mandarin Chinese: ; Wade–Giles: ''Kao¹-hsiung²;'' Pinyin: ''Gāoxióng'') is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsi ...
, while the latter, possessing 7 tones, originates from
Haifeng
Haifeng County ( postal: Hoifung; ) is a county under the administration of Shanwei, in the southeast of Guangdong Province, China.
History
Hakka peasants from nearby villages of Chengxiang county (modern-day Meixian) immigrated to Haifeng, fo ...
and
Lufeng,
Guangdong
Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...
, and is concentrated around
Hsinchu
Hsinchu (, Chinese: 新竹, Pinyin: ''Xīnzhú'', Wade–Giles: ''Hsin¹-chu²'') is a city located in northwestern Taiwan. It is the most populous city in Taiwan Province not among the special municipalities, with estimated 450,655 inhabi ...
.
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.
See also
*
Taiwanese Hakka Romanization System
*
Languages of Taiwan
The languages of Taiwan consist of several varieties of languages under the families of Austronesian languages and Sino-Tibetan languages. The Formosan languages, a branch of Austronesian languages, have been spoken by the Taiwanese indigenous pe ...
Notes
References
External links
*
{{Chinese language
Hakka Chinese
Languages of Taiwan