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You must be very young if you included parts of Taiwan outside of Taipei/New Taipei. I still regularly hear people in their late 30's/early 40's speak Taiwanese among themselves there.
I am pretty young. Late 30s and early 40s would still be alright, but that's on the boundary. I do notice the change in accent and the loss of a lot of colloquial expressions as part of everyday speech--basically, the language gets far less colorful. I'm odd in being raised in isolation with a completely Hoklo speaking community abroad who spoke very poor Mandarin (and I speak Mandarin better than most of my US family members having gone to Mandarin language school and being around a good deal of Mandarin speaking people).
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Originally Posted by theunbrainwashed
I know a Taiwanese in her 20s that speaks Taiwanese with her family.
It certainly exists, and not just in one or two but in thousands if not millions but in aggregate with the twenty million people of the formerly Hoklo speaking community in Taiwan and the tens if not hundreds of millions of Hoklo-speaking people outside of Taiwan, the Hoklo-speaking ability of people has nosedived severely in the last two generations.
The decline of Hokkien/Minnan in Singapore, Taiwan and southern Fujian itself is sad. In Singapore it was actively discouraged by the government in favour of Mandarin. I think there should be more of a sense of Hoklo/Fujianese identity instead of just Chinese. My grandmother speaks Hokkien.
Well there is no need to be sad actually . On the streets hokkien and Cantonese is still widely spoken.. I mean the government's efforts to "wipe out" dialects have worked to a certain extent .. But dialects are still widely spoken.. Army guys are all familiar with common hokkien terms.. Go To kopitiam or hawker centres you hear locals ordering our food in hokkien and Cantonese etc
Well there is no need to be sad actually . On the streets hokkien and Cantonese is still widely spoken.. I mean the government's efforts to "wipe out" dialects have worked to a certain extent .. But dialects are still widely spoken.. Army guys are all familiar with common hokkien terms.. Go To kopitiam or hawker centres you hear locals ordering our food in hokkien and Cantonese etc
Yes but it's mostly older people who speak it, and knowing a few terms is different from knowing the language. It looks quite likely Hokkien will die out soon unless people start reclaiming their heritage.
It is still widely spoken in Fujian. and Cantonese is spoken in Guangdong. It will never die. Maybe in overseas Chinatown, Manderin is dominant, but that is normal. considering the majority of immigrants from China speak Manderin
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Originally Posted by The Postman
Yes but it's mostly older people who speak it, and knowing a few terms is different from knowing the language. It looks quite likely Hokkien will die out soon unless people start reclaiming their heritage.
It is still widely spoken in Fujian. and Cantonese is spoken in Guangdong. It will never die. Maybe in overseas Chinatown, Manderin is dominant, but that is normal. considering the majority of immigrants from China speak Manderin
Even among the Hokkien in Singapore. I did hear it and other Min dialects like Min bei of Fuzhou, but not surprisingly the young people prefer Mandarin. It's no different to what is happening in Lhasa or Turpan.
Young people get more influence from the media, which is dominated by Manderin. However, local language is still important. Some Shanghainese talk shows are quite popular. There are some proposals to have the annoncements in the subway made both in Shanghainese and Manderin.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Postman
Even among the Hokkien in Singapore. I did hear it and other Min dialects like Min bei of Fuzhou, but not surprisingly the young people prefer Mandarin. It's no different to what is happening in Lhasa or Turpan.
Young people get more influence from the media, which is dominated by Manderin. However, local language is still important. Some Shanghainese talk shows are quite popular. There are some proposals to have the annoncements in the subway made both in Shanghainese and Manderin.
Not sure if you've been to Taiwan, but on the subways the announcements are in Mandarin, English, Taiwanese (Hokkien) and Hakka.
Do you speak Mandarin? Mandarin in Taiwan is different than the Mandarin spoken in the Mainland.
Some vocabularies are completely different
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Originally Posted by The Postman
What 'tone'? It's Mandarin not Manderin btw.
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