Taiwanese Mandarin

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Taiwanese Mandarin

Taiwanese Mandarin (; also ????, Táiwan Huáyu) is the dialect of Standard Mandarin

Standard Mandarin

Taiwan

Taiwan is an island in East Asia. "Taiwan" is also commonly used to refer to the country governed by the Republic of China and to the ROC itself, which governs the island of Taiwan, Orchid Island and Green Island, Taiwan in the Pacific Ocean off the Taiwan coast, the Penghu islands in the Taiwan Strait, and Kinmen and the Matsu Islands...
.

The official Standard Mandarin

Standard Mandarin

Republic of China

The Republic of China , also known as Nationalist China is a country in East Asia that has evolved from a single-party state with full global recognition into a multi-party democratic state with Political status of Taiwan....
, known in Taiwan as ?? (Guóyu, Kuo-yü), is based on the phonology of the Beijing dialect

Beijing dialect

Beijing dialect is the dialect of Mandarin spoken in the urban area of Beijing, China. The Beijing dialect is the basis of Standard Mandarin, the standard official Chinese spoken language that is used by the People's Republic of China , the Republic of China , and Singapore....
and the grammar of Vernacular Chinese

Vernacular Chinese

Vernacular Chinese is a style or register of the written Chinese language essentially modeled after the spoken Chinese and associated with Standard Mandarin....
. It is almost identical to the standard of Mandarin used in the People's Republic of China

People's Republic of China

The People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the List of countries by population in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately a fifth of the world's population....
, known in mainland China

Mainland China

Mainland China, Continental China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China , excluding Hong Kong and Macau, which run on One Country, Two Systems....
as Putonghuà; the differences between the two are mainly due to the political separation of the two sides since 1949

Chinese Civil War

The Chinese Civil War or , which lasted from April 1927 to May 1950, was a civil war in China between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party ....
.

Mandarin as spoken informally in Taiwan has some notable differences in vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation with Standard Mandarin

Standard Mandarin

Standard Mandarin, or Standard Chinese, is the official modern Spoken Chinese used in People's Republic of China and Republic of China, and is one of the four official languages of Languages of Singapore....
, which have arisen by virtue of the influence from English, the prior Japanese colonial period

Taiwan under Japanese rule

The Japanese colonial period, Japanese rule or the Imperial Japanese occupation, in the context of Taiwan's history, refers to the period between 1895 and 1945 during which Taiwan was a Empire of Japan colony....
as well as contact with Taiwanese Minnan speakers.

945 when the island of Taiwan came under the control of the Kuomintang

Kuomintang

The Kuomintang of China , also often translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party, is the founding and the ruling party of the Republic of China ....
's Republic of China

Republic of China

The Republic of China , also known as Nationalist China is a country in East Asia that has evolved from a single-party state with full global recognition into a multi-party democratic state with Political status of Taiwan....
, Mandarin was introduced as the official language and made compulsory in schools.

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Encyclopedia

Taiwanese Mandarin (; also ????, Táiwan Huáyu) is the dialect of Standard Mandarin

Standard Mandarin

Taiwan

Standard Mandarin

Republic of China

Beijing dialect

Vernacular Chinese

People's Republic of China

Mainland China

Chinese Civil War

Standard Mandarin

Taiwan under Japanese rule

Usage

In 1945 when the island of Taiwan came under the control of the Kuomintang

Kuomintang

The Kuomintang of China , also often translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party, is the founding and the ruling party of the Republic of China ....
's Republic of China

Republic of China

The Republic of China , also known as Nationalist China is a country in East Asia that has evolved from a single-party state with full global recognition into a multi-party democratic state with Political status of Taiwan....
, Mandarin was introduced as the official language and made compulsory in schools. A Mandarin Promotion Council

Mandarin Promotion Council

The National Languages Committee, formerly Mandarin Promotion Council was established by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China with the purpose of standardizing and popularizing the usage of Standard Mandarin in Taiwan....
(now called National Languages Committee) was established in 1946 by Chen Yi to standardize and popularize the usage of Standard Mandarin

Standard Mandarin

Standard Mandarin, or Standard Chinese, is the official modern Spoken Chinese used in People's Republic of China and Republic of China, and is one of the four official languages of Languages of Singapore....
in Taiwan. The Council was led by 21 Chinese Scholars such as Wei Jiangong, He Rong Qi Tiehen, Wang Yuchuan, Fang Shiduo, Zhu Zhaoxiang

Zhu Zhaoxiang

Zhu Zhaoxiang , aka Zhao-xiang Zhu, is a China engineer, educator and the main pioneer of explosive mechanics in modern China. Zhu was the 1st President of Ningbo University....
, Wu Shouli etc. (From 1895 to 1945, Japanese

Japanese language

IPA: [n?iho?go] is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is related to the Ryukyuan languages....
was the official language and taught in schools.) Since then, Mandarin has been established as a lingua franca
Lingua franca

A lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues....
among the various groups in Taiwan: the majority Min Nan-speaking Hoklo, the Hakka

Hakka

The Hakka people are a subgroup of the Han Chinese people based in the provinces of Guangdong, Jiangxi and Fujian in China and speaking the Hakka language....
who have their own spoken language, Mainlanders

Mainlander

Mainlanders are people who live in a region considered a "mainland". It is frequently used in the context of Greater China, referring to Zhonghua Minzu who live, were born, or have their "native province" in mainland China as opposed to Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan....
whose native tongue may be any Chinese variant in mainland China, and the Indigenous Taiwanese who speak Indigenous languages.

Until the 1980s the Kuomintang

Kuomintang

The Kuomintang of China , also often translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party, is the founding and the ruling party of the Republic of China ....
administration heavily promoted the use of Standard Mandarin and discouraged the use of Taiwanese and other vernaculars, even portraying them as inferior. Mandarin was the only sanctioned language for use in the media. This produced a backlash in the 1990s. Although some more extreme supporters of Taiwan independence

Taiwan independence

Taiwan independence is a political movement whose goal is primarily to create an independent and sovereign Republic of Taiwan out of the lands currently governed by the Republic of China and claimed by the People's Republic of China....
tend to be opposed to standard Mandarin in favor of Taiwanese, efforts to replace standard Mandarin either with Taiwanese or with a multi-lingual standard have not been successful. Today, Mandarin is taught by immersion starting in elementary school. After the second grade, the entire educational system is in Mandarin, except for local language classes that have been taught for a few hours each week starting in the mid-1990s.

Taiwanese Mandarin (as with Singlish

Singlish

Singlish is a creole native to Malaysia and Singapore. It is the first language of many Singaporeans, and is the second language of nearly all the rest of the country's citizens....
and many other situations of a creole speech community

Post-creole speech continuum

Due to the relationship between a creole language and its superstrate language, that is, a language that is very closely related and whose speakers assert social, political, and economic dominance over speakers of said creole language, a post-creole continuum may arise....
) is spoken at different levels according to the social class and situation of the speakers. Formal occasions call for the acrolectal level of Guoyu, which in practice differs little from Putonghua. Less formal situations often result in the basilect form, which has more uniquely Taiwanese features. Bilingual speakers often code-switch

Code-switching

Code-switching is a term in linguistics referring to using more than one language or Variety in conversation. Multilingualism, who can speak at least two languages, have the ability to use elements of both languages when conversing with another bilingual....
between Mandarin and Taiwanese, sometimes in the same sentence.

Mandarin is spoken fluently by almost the entire Taiwanese population, except for some elderly people who were educated under Japanese rule. In the capital Taipei

Taipei

Taipei has been the de facto capital of the Republic of China, commonly known as Taiwan, since the Chinese Civil War in 1949, and the capital of Taiwan since Japanese rule that began in 1895....
, where there is a high concentration of Mainlanders whose native language is not Taiwanese, Mandarin is used in greater frequency than in southern and rural Taiwan.

Differences from Standard Mandarin

Pronunciation

There are two categories of pronunciation differences. The first is of characters that have an official pronunciation that differs from Putonghua (??? Putonghuà) (this mainly means a difference in tone

Tone (linguistics)

Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning?that is, to distinguish or inflection words. All languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called intonation , but not all languages use tones to distingu...
rather than vowels or consonants). The second is more general, with differences being unofficial and arising through the influence of Taiwanese on Guoyu (?? Guóyu).

Variant official pronunciations

There are a few in official pronunciations, mainly in tone

Tone (linguistics)

Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning?that is, to distinguish or inflection words. All languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called intonation , but not all languages use tones to distingu...
, between Guoyu and Putonghua.

The following is a partial list of such differences:

	Putonghua (PRC)	Guoyu (Taiwan)	Remarks
("garbage")	laji	lèsè
("liquid")	yèti	yìti
("and")	hé	hàn	hé is also used in Taiwan
("week")	xingqi	xingqí
("enterprise")	qiyè	qìyè

Taiwanese-influenced

In acrolectal Taiwanese Mandarin:

the retroflex sounds (ch, zh, sh, r) from Putonghua are softened considerably
the Beijing retroflex "r" () ending is very rarely heard
the pinyin feng is pronounced as fong

In basilectal Taiwanese Mandarin, sounds that do not occur in Taiwanese are replaced by sounds from that language. These variations from Standard Mandarin are similar to the variations of Mandarin spoken in southern China. Using the Hanyu Pinyin system, the following sound changes take place (going from Putonghua to Taiwanese Mandarin followed with an example):

f- becomes hu- (fan – huan )
-ie, ye becomes ei (tie – tei)
chi (stand-alone) becomes tu (chi – tu)
ch- becomes c- (chuan – cuan )
r- becomes l- (ren - len) or z- (IPA z, not Hanyu Pinyin)
zh-, zhi becomes z-, zi (zhao – zao )
sh-, shi becomes s-, si (shuo – suo )
yu becomes yi (yue – ye )

Grammar

The standard Mandarin construct (have or not have) is not as commonly used in Taiwanese Mandarin as in standard Mandarin.

For example: (lit. "you have a car or not have?") is not often found in Taiwanese Mandarin, where the construction would be (lit. "you have or not have a car?") is more often used. Both phrases have the same meaning of "Do you have a car?"

In some contexts, the construction involving is often used where the sentence final particle would normally be used to denote perfect aspect

Perfect aspect

The perfect aspect is variously considered either an grammatical aspect or grammatical tense which calls a listener's attention to the consequences generated by an action, rather than the action itself....
. For instance, Taiwanese Mandarin more commonly uses "" to mean "Have you eaten?" whereas standard Mandarin uses "". This is due to the influence of Min Nan grammar which uses in a similar fashion.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary differences can be divided into four categories – different usage of the same term, loan words, technological words, idiom

Idiom

An idiom is a phrase whose meaning cannot be determined by the literal definition of the phrase itself, but refers instead to a figurative language meaning that is known only through common use....
s, and words specific to living in Taiwan. Because of the limited transfer of information between mainland China and Taiwan after the Chinese civil war, many things that were invented after this split have different names in Guoyu and Putonghua. Additionally, many terms were adopted from Japanese both as a result of its close proximity as well as Taiwan's status as Japanese territory

Empire of Japan

The Empire of Japan was a Japanese political entity that existed during the period from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until its defeat in World War II in 1945....
in the first half of the 20th century.

Particles

Spoken Taiwanese Mandarin uses a number of Taiwan specific (but not exclusive) final particles, such as ?/? (luo), ? (o), ? (ye), ? (lie) etc.

Same words, different meaning

Some terms have different meanings in Taiwan and mainland China, which can sometimes lead to misunderstandings of speakers between the two. Often there are alternative unambiguous terms which can be understood by both sides.

Term	Meaning in Taiwan	Meaning in mainland China	Remarks
tu dòu	peanut	potato	(peanut) / (potato).
gao	to carry out something insidious, to screw (vulgar)	to do, to perform a task	As such, it is a verb that is rarely seen in any official or formal setting in Taiwan, whereas it is widely used in mainland China even by its top officials in official settings.
T Traditional Chinese character Traditional Chinese characters refers to one of two standard sets of printed Chinese characters. The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han Dynasty, and have been more or less stable since the 5th century The retronym "traditional Chinese" is used to contrast tr... ) (S Simplified Chinese character Simplified Chinese Characters are one of two standard sets of Chinese characters of the contemporary Chinese written language. They are based mostly on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the "traditional" forms that were used in printed text for over a thousand years.... ) wo xin	a kind of warm feeling	having an uneased mind
(S) chu zu che	rental car	taxi
yán jiu suo (mainland China) yán jiù suo (Taiwan)	graduate school	research institute
(S) (shi fu)	driver	teacher
(S) ài rén	lover (unmarried)	spouse

Some terms can be understood by both sides to mean the same thing; however, their preferred usage differ.

Common meaning in English	Taiwan	mainland China
tomato	fan qié literally, "barbarian eggplant"	xi hóng shì literally, "western red persimmon" (T)
box lunch	biàn dang (loanword from Japanese bento Bento is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickling or cooking vegetables as a side dish.... ??) (S)	hé fàn (T)
bicycle	jiaotàche literally, "pedaling vehicle" (S)	zìxíngche literally, "oneself-propelled vehicle" (T)
kindergarten	yòuzhìyuán (S)	yòu'éryuán (T)

Loan words

Loan words may differ largely between Putonghua and Taiwanese Mandarin, as different characters or methods may be chosen for transliteration (phonetical or semantical), even the number of characters may different. Also, in Taiwanese Mandarin, Erhua

Erhua

?rhu? refers to a phonological process that adds r-coloring or the "?r" sound to syllables in spoken Mandarin Chinese. It is most common in the speeches of North China, especially in the Beijing dialect, as a diminutive suffix for nouns, though some dialects also use it for other grammatical purposes....
is generally avoided. For example, the United States President's surname is called ???

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the List of Presidents of the United States and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office....
Àobama in Putonghua and ??? or ??? Oubama in Guoyu.

From English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...

The term "machi
Machi

Machi may refer to:...
" ( Pinyin
Pinyin

Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most commonly used Romanization system for Standard Mandarin. Hanyu is the Chinese Language, and pinyin means "phonetics", or more literally, "spelling sound" or "spelled sound"....
: májí) is borrowed from the English term "match", and is used to describe items or people which complement each other.

Note: has become popular in mainland China as well.

The English term "hamburger
Hamburger

A hamburger consists of a cooked ground meat patty, usually beef, placed in a sliced bun or between pieces of bread or toast. Hamburgers are often served with various condiments, such as ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, relish etc....
" has been adopted in many Chinese speaking communities. In Taiwan, the preferred form is (Pinyin
Pinyin

Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most commonly used Romanization system for Standard Mandarin. Hanyu is the Chinese Language, and pinyin means "phonetics", or more literally, "spelling sound" or "spelled sound"....
: hànbao) rather than (Pinyin
Pinyin

Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most commonly used Romanization system for Standard Mandarin. Hanyu is the Chinese Language, and pinyin means "phonetics", or more literally, "spelling sound" or "spelled sound"....
: hànbaobao).

Note: ?? has become popular in mainland China as well.

The term "Fensi ??" is borrowed from the English term "fans", and is used to describe fans or people who idolize a superstar.

Note: ?? has become popular in mainland China as well.

From Taiwanese
Taiwanese

Taiwanese may refer to:* things of or pertaining to the Republic of China, the government of Taiwan.* things of or pertaining to the island of Taiwan....

The terms " agong" and " amà" are more commonly heard than the standard Mandarin yéye (paternal grandfather), wàigong (maternal grandfather), nainai (paternal grandmother) and wàipó (maternal grandmother).
Some local foods usually are referred to using their Taiwanese names. These include:

POJ Pe?h-oe-ji Pe?h-oe-ji is an orthography in the Latin alphabet created and introduced to Fujian and Taiwan by Presbyterian missionaries in the 19th century....	IPA International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic....	English
chhoah-peng	[tsuapi?]	Shaved ice with sliced fresh fruit on top (usually strawberry, kiwi or mango)
môa-chî	[muati]	glutinous rice cakes (see Mochi)
ô-á-chian	[oatin]	oyster omelette Oyster omelette Oyster omelette is a Chinese cuisine of Chiuchow cuisine/Fujian cuisine origin. It is also popular in places with Chaozhou and Fujianese influences such as in Guangdong, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Taiwan ....

List of Taiwanese words commonly found in local Mandarin language newspapers and periodicals

As seen in two popular newspapers	Taiwanese (POJ Pe?h-oe-ji Pe?h-oe-ji is an orthography in the Latin alphabet created and introduced to Fujian and Taiwan by Presbyterian missionaries in the 19th century.... )	Mandarin Equivalent (Pinyin)	English

(ah-pà)

(èbà)

a local tyrant; a bully

(kah-ì) (xihuan) to like (kiàn-siàu) (hàixiu) shy; bashful; sense of shame (kòng-ku) (luòkong) to end up with nothing (ku-mo·) (bù gancuì) picky; high-maintenance Q (khiu) description for food -- soft and pliable (like mochi cakes) LKK

(lau-khok-khok) (laotàilóngzhong) old and senile (làu-phâu) (táopao) to run away; to flee; to escape (pha-pha-cháu) (dongbenxipao) to rush about or around (pháin-sè) (bù hao yìsi) I beg your pardon; I am sorry; Excuse me. (sù-phòe) (xiangpèi) to be well suited to each other (tai-chì) (shìqing) an event; a matter; an affair (tòng-be-tiâu)1

(shòu bù liao)

(dang bù zhù)

¹can not bear something

²compelled to do something

(tòng-soán) (dangxuan) to win an election (thâu-khak pháin-khì) (naojin you wèntí) (you have/he has) lost (your/his) mind! (thut-chhôe) (chugui) to go off the rails; to go wrong (un-chiàng) (siji) driver (of automotive vehicles) (ut-chut) (mènmènbùlè) depressed; sulky; unhappy; moody

From Japanese
Japanese language

IPA: [n?iho?go] is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is related to the Ryukyuan languages....

Japanese loanword
Loanword

A loanword is a word directly taken into one language from another with little or no translation. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept whereby it is the Meaning or idiom that is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself....
s based on kanji
Kanji

are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese language logogram along with hiragana , katakana , Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet....
, now pronounced using Mandarin.

Japanese (Romaji)	English	Note
bento Bento is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickling or cooking vegetables as a side dish.... )	A boxed lunch.
	Someone who is very talented at doing something (a pro or expert).	?? have the same meaning in classical Chinese, but not widely used in vernacular Chinese in mainland china.
?? (chuko)	Used, second-hand.

Japanese loanwords based on phonetics
Phonetics

Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech. It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds , and the processes of their physiological production, auditory reception, and neurophysiological perception....
, transliterated using Chinese characters with similar pronunciation in Mandarin or Taiwanese.

Japanese (Romaji)	Taiwanese Mandarin (Pinyin Pinyin Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most commonly used Romanization system for Standard Mandarin. Hanyu is the Chinese Language, and pinyin means "phonetics", or more literally, "spelling sound" or "spelled sound".... )	English
		A foolish person.
		Mood; Feeling.
		Auntie.
		A type of stew.
		Uncle.
		An Autobike or motorcycle Motorcycle A motorcycle is a Single track, two-wheeled motor vehicle powered by an Motorcycle engine. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as Touring motorcycle travel, navigating Naked bike, Cruiser , Motorcycle sport and Motorbike racing, or off-road conditions.... .

Technical terms

! PRC Mandarin (Pinyin)

Google hits: .tw

Google hits: .cn

! English |- | (bùluògé)

| (bókè)

| Blog

Blog

A blog is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video....
|- | (guangdié)

| (guangpán)

| Optical disc

Optical disc

In computing, sound reproduction, and video, an optical disc is a flat, circular disc wherein Data is stored in the pits in its flat surface ? sequentially on the continuous, spiral track extending from the innermost track to the outermost track, covering the entire disc surface....
|- | (huáshu)

| (shubiao)

| mouse (computing)

Mouse (computing)

In computing, a mouse is a pointing device that functions by detecting dimension motion relative to its supporting surface. Physically, a mouse consists of an object held under one of the user's hands, with one or more buttons....
|- | (jìchéngche)

| (chuzuche)

| Taxicab

Taxicab

A taxicab, also taxi or cab, is a type of public transport for a single passenger, or small group of passengers, typically for a non-shared ride....
|- | (jiahùbìngfáng)

| (jianhùbìngfáng)

| Intensive Care Unit (ICU); Intensive Treatment Unit (ITU) |- | (léishè)

| (jiguang)

| Laser

Laser

A laser is a device that emits light through a process called stimulated emission. The term laser is an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation....
|- | (lùyingji)

| (lùxiàngji)

| video camera

Video camera

File:Sonyhdrfx1.jpgA video camera is a camera used for electronic motion picture acquisition, initially developed by the television industry but now common in other applications as well....
|- | (ruanti)

| (ruanjiàn)

| software |- | (sìfú qì)

| (fúwù qì)

| server

Server (computing)

A server is a computer program that provides services to other computer programs , in the same or other computer. The physical computer that runs a server program is also often referred to as server....
|- | (wangjì wanglù)

| (hùliánwang)

| Internet

Internet

The Internet is a global network of interconnected computers, enabling users to share information along multiple channels. Typically, a computer that connects to the Internet can access information from a vast array of available server and other computers by moving information from them to the computer's local memory....
|- | (yìnbiaoji)

| (dayìnji)

| computer printer

Computer printer

File:Lexmark X5100 Series.jpgIn computing, a printer is a peripheral which produces a hard copy of documents stored in computer file form, usually on physical print media such as paper or Transparency ....
|- | (yìngdié)

| (yìngpán)

| Hard disk

Hard disk

A hard disk drive , commonly referred to as a hard drive, hard disk, or fixed disk drive, is a non-volatile storage device which stores digitally encoded data on rapidly rotating hard disk platters with magnetic surfaces....
|- | (yíngmù)

| (xianshìqì)

| computer monitor (?? is the equivalent of "screen" in English, while ??? is the equivalent of "display" in English) |- | (ziliàokù)

| (shùjùkù)

| database |- | (zixùn)

| (xìnxi)

| Information

Information

Information as a Conveyed concept has a diversity of meanings, from everyday usage to technical settings. Generally speaking, the concept of information is closely related to notions of constraint, communication, control system, data, form, instruction, knowledge, Meaning , stimulation, pattern, perception, and knowledge representation....
|- | (zuòyè xìtong)

| (caozuò xìtong)

|| operating system

Operating system

An operating system is an interface between hardware and applications; it is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the limited resources of the computer....
|}

Idioms and proverbs

! PRC Mandarin (Pinyin)

Google hits: .tw

Google hits: .cn

! English |- | ???? (chuí shou ke dé)

| ???? (tuò shou ke dé)

| extremely easy to obtain |- | (yi cù ke ji)

| (yi cù ér jiù)

| to reach a goal in one step |- | (yi lan wú yí)

| (yi lan wú yú)

| to take in everything at a glance |- | (rù jìng suí sú)

| ???? (rù xiang suí sú)

| When in Rome, do as the Romans do. |}

Words specific to living in Taiwan

Mandarin Google hits: .tw Google hits: .cn	Pinyin	English
	anqinban	after school childcare
	bangzhuang	pork barrel Pork barrel *Pork barrel* is a derogatory term referring to Appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a representative's district....
	biàndang	a box meal (from Japanese, bento Bento is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickling or cooking vegetables as a side dish.... ), word traditionally means "convenient"
	gékuí	the premier Premier of the Republic of China The President of the Executive Yuan , commonly known in English language as the Premier of Taiwan , is the head of the Executive Yuan, the executive branch of the Republic of China , which currently administers Taiwan, Matsu, and Kinmen....
	gongche	public bus
	jiche	motor scooter (means "locomotive" in mainland China)
	jiaotàche	bicycle
	jiéyùn	rapid transit (e.g. Taipei MRT)
	tongyi bianhào	the ID number of a corporation

Taiwanese Mandarin

Usage

Differences from Standard Mandarin

Pronunciation

Variant official pronunciations

Taiwanese-influenced

Grammar

Vocabulary

Particles

Same words, different meaning

Loan words

From TaiwaneseTaiwaneseTaiwanese may refer to:* things of or pertaining to the Republic of China, the government of Taiwan.* things of or pertaining to the island of Taiwan....

From JapaneseJapanese languageIPA: [n?iho?go] is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is related to the Ryukyuan languages....

Technical terms

Idioms and proverbs

Words specific to living in Taiwan

From Taiwanese
Taiwanese

Taiwanese may refer to:* things of or pertaining to the Republic of China, the government of Taiwan.* things of or pertaining to the island of Taiwan....

From Japanese
Japanese language

IPA: [n?iho?go] is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is related to the Ryukyuan languages....