Mainland Mandarin vs. Taiwanese Mandarin
Just like there is a difference between British and American English, there is also a difference between the Mandarin Chinese spoken in mainland China compared to Taiwan. If you are learning Chinese for either one and want to visit the other one, this blog post is for you. Mainland China and Taiwan also use two different writing systems, but today we are focusing more on the spoken differences. Let's dive right in!
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Why do they differ?
History time! The term Chinese actually refers to a whole family of languages, not just Mandarin. The first Chinese people who settled in Taiwan in the 16th century were from the Fujian area and did not speak Mandarin, but Hakka and Hokkien. Hokkien became the most dominant language in Taiwan for the following centuries. When Taiwan came under Japanese control in 1895, Japanese became the official language in education, government, and public life. Mandarin Chinese only became a thing in Taiwan after the Chinese nationalist government retreated to Taiwan during the communist revolution in 1949.
The older generation in Taiwan often does not speak standard Mandarin very well (Source)
However, a 2020 study found that over two thirds of people over 65 still use either Hakka or Hokkien as their primary language in daily life. On the other hand, 88% of the 15-24 year olds use Mandarin as their primary language (Source). That goes to show that Taiwanese Hokkien and Hakka had survived the colonial period under Japanese rule just fine and were the first language for most people in Taiwan after World War II. It took decades and a whole new generation to turn Mandarin into the dominant language in Taiwan. In the process, mainland China and Taiwan developed some differences in their use of Mandarin Chinese. While mainland Mandarin is based on the Bejing dialect, Taiwanese Mandarin was heavily influenced by Hokkien.
How do they differ?
Some of the differences between Taiwanese and mainland Mandarin are due to the fact that the majority of people who migrated from the mainland to Taiwan were from southern parts of China. However, there are also some differences that are specific to Taiwan. Today, we will focus mostly on the differences in pronunciation and vocabulary.
Differences in pronunciation
The r-sound
The first thing you'll notice when hopping between mainland China and Taiwan is the "r" sound. In mainland China, standard spoken Mandarin has a stronger, more pronounced "r" sound and it often gets added to the end of words. This is called "érhuàyīn" (儿化音 / 兒化音) and is especially common in Beijing. Examples are "ménr" (door, 门儿 / 門兒) and "xiǎoháir" (child, 小孩儿 / 小孩兒). Taiwanese generally omit the trailing "r" in both spoken and written contexts. If they add it, they usually treat it as its own syllable and don't merge it with the one before it. For example, in mainland China people would say "mó-tèr" (model, 模特儿 / 模特兒) as two syllables, while Taiwanese would say it as "mó-tè-ér".
Different tones
Mainland Mandarin uses the 5th / neutral tone a lot, which is not the case in Taiwan. In addition to that, a lot of words simply use different tones. This is one of the things I found the most annoying as a Chinese learner coming to Taiwan after learning Mandarin in mainland China. If you speak super strong érhuàyīn or use very specific mainland vocabulary, everyone will assume you are speaking mainland Mandarin. But if you use mainland tones, people will just think your tones are off because you are a foreigner.
The other day, I was talking to a Taiwanese friend and wanted to use the word for "knowledge", which is pronounced "zhīshi" on the mainland. I know that people don't use neutral tones in Taiwan, so I switched the neutral tone to a second tone, as a mainlander would to (zhīshí). My friend then told me, "I know you like to get feedback on your Chinese. You just said zhīshí and it should have been zhīshì (fourth tone)". As if tones were not hard enough by themselves, you now have to remember multiple tones for the same word. Thanks Chinese...
Lots of small things
Taiwanese Mandarin has a lot of peculiarities regarding the pronunciation of words, but many of these can also be found in southern mainland China. The zh/ch/sh sounds are often changed to z/c/s. Syllables ending with "-ng" are often pronounced as ending with "-n". Furthermore, "f" is often pronounced as "h". Also, "n" and "l" can be used interchangeably. Now imagine trying to look up a word that someone said. You basically have to account for all these things, especially if the person is from an older generation. You can also forget about asking them how to spell the word in pinyin because Taiwan doesn't use pinyin. Seriously, why did I decide to learn Chinese again?
Vocabulary and expressions
Besides the pronunciation, there are a lot of differences in the words that people use in everyday life.
Different words for the same thing
Some words make it immediately obvious that you learned Mandarin in a specific place. Here are some examples:
| English | Mainland Mandarin | Taiwanese Mandarin |
|---|---|---|
Bicycle | zìxíngchē (自行车) | jiǎotàchē (腳踏車) |
Subway | dìtiě (地铁) | jiéyùn (捷運) |
Taxi | chūzūchē (出租车) | jìchéngchē (計程車) |
Trash | lājī (垃圾) | lèsè (垃圾) |
Same word for different things
On the other hand, there are also words that mean different things in mainland China in Taiwan. There is a whole zoo of words that fall into this category and you will definitely encounter some confusing situations related to them. For example, when you say "tǔdòu", mainlanders will think of a potato, while Taiwanese will think of a peanut. They call potatoes "mǎlíngshǔ" instead. Some mistakes can even be perceived as insulting. If you learned to say "xiǎojiě" to address young women in Taiwan, don't use that word in mainland China, where it's also a slang term for female sex workers.
Different usages
There are also some general differences in word usage. In mainland China, people usually say "zǎoshang hǎo" to say "good morning", whereas Taiwanese say "zǎo ān". When talking about days of the week, Taiwanese prefer to use "lǐbài" over "xīngqī", which is more common in mainland China. However, people will understand you just fine, no matter which one you use.
Closing thoughts
There are more differences that go beyond the scope of this post.
For example, some grammatical structures differ between Taiwan and mainland China.
Taiwanese Mandarin also introduced some Japanese loanwords via Hokkien.
Furthermore, some differences in vocabulary stem from the different political systems that governed mainland China and Taiwan for the past decades.
If you want to read more about the topic, I recommend reading this Wikipedia article Wikipedia article.
Writing this blog post was really enlightening for me. I originally learned Chinese in Beijing and Shanghai, but I have been living in Taiwan for a while now. Most Taiwanese people I meet still say that I have a mainland accent, but they have no idea what I sounded like when I first arrived to Taiwan 😅 I managed to "fix" a lot of the points mentioned in this post, but especially the tonal differences will keep tripping me up. And honestly, I am a little bit proud of my rather "standard" pronunciation and would like to keep it, so I'm probably not gonna go full Taiwanese mode anytime soon.
Anyway, I hope you learned something new today. You will definitely encounter the mentioned problems when you decide to spend time in both mainland China and Taiwan. From a Chinese learner's perspective, having to keep all these differences in mind can be a pain in the backside but it also shows how diverse the language and culture are. Furthermore, it's always a great conversation starter.
Until next time, happy learning! 🙃
_Featured image by Jack Brind on Unsplash.*
