What if I told you that 你好 is not pronounced “ni hao” but rather “li ho”? This is one small example of the difference between Taiwanese and Chinese. Taiwanese, Mandarin, Hakka and the Formosan languages (Taiwanese aboriginal languages) collectively are the official languages of Taiwan. In Taiwan, it is estimated that over 73 percent of people speak 臺語 Taiyu, literally translated as “the language(s) of Taiwan, Taiwanese”, also known as Hokkien. The origin of Hokkien reflects the complex and interesting nature of Taiwan’s past that we will explore today.
Native Taiwanese Formosan
In 1542, Portuguese sailors sighted an uncharted island and named it Ilha Formosa ("beautiful island") on their maps, leading Taiwan to be known as Formosa and its inhabitants as Formosans. These indigenous groups are believed to have originated from Austronesians from various parts of Oceania. Today, approximately 2.38 percent of the island’s population is nationally recognized as belonging to an indigenous subgroup.
During the late 1600s, rulers from mainland China, specifically the Ming Dynasty and later the Qing Dynasty (1800s), inhabited and claimed the islands.
