The Language Shift of Taiwanese Hokkien and Hakka in Hsinchu County and Hsinchu City, Taiwan: A Data Comparison of the Surveys of 1978 and 2015

Abstract

This study examines the extent to which language shift occurred in the Minnan and Hakka areas of Hsinchu, Taiwan, by comparing Marinus van den Berg’s findings (1986) with our own more recent observations. In 1978, van den Berg found that customers in the Minnan area used Taiwan Mandarin more than customers in the Hakka area during business transactions. Our observations in 2015 had the opposite results, with Taiwan Mandarin being spoken more in the Hakka area than in the Minnan area. The reason for this change is seen to be the expansion of people’s living environment, reducing the opportunities for Hakka people to speak their own language when encountering people of other ethnicities. Additionally, as a minority, the Hakka people were more sensitive towards language use, that is, were likely to use high-level languages or standard languages that were more valued by society.