Languages of Taiwan

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 53. Chapters: Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese Hokkien, Standard Chinese, Hakka Chinese, Pe¿h-oe-ji, Taiwanese Mandarin, Fuzhou dialect, Pazeh language, Daighi tongiong pingim, Modern Literal Taiwanese, Bunun language, Formosan languages, Amis language, Paiwan language, Puyuma language, Saisiyat language, Phofsit Daibuun, Taiwanese Sign Language, Yami language, Sinckan Manuscripts, Atayalic languages, O¿, Tsouic languages, Northern Formosan languages, East Formosan languages, Babuza language, Huanna, Saaroa language, Comparison of Hokkien writing systems, Taiwanese Language Phonetic Alphabet, Basay language, Kanakanabu language. Excerpt: Pe¿h-oe-ji (pronounced , abbreviated POJ, literally vernacular writing, also known as Church Romanization) is an orthography used to write variants of Southern Min, a Chinese language or dialect, particularly Taiwanese and Amoy Hokkien. Developed by Western missionaries working among the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia in the 19th century and refined by missionaries working in Xiamen and Tainan, it uses a modified Latin alphabet and some diacritics to represent the spoken language. After initial success in Fujian, POJ became most widespread in Taiwan, and in the mid-20th century there were over 100,000 people literate in POJ. A large amount of printed material, religious and secular, has been produced in the script, including Taiwan's first newspaper, the Taiwan Church News. The orthography was suppressed during the Japanese era in Taiwan (1895-1945), and faced further countermeasures during the Kuomintang martial law period (1947-1987). In Fujian, use declined after the establishment of the People's Republic of China (1949) and in the early 21st century the system was not in general use there. Use of pe¿h-oe-ji is now restricted to some Taiwanese Christians, non-native learners of the language, and native-speaker enthusiasts in Taiwan. Full native computer support was developed in 2004, and users can now call on fonts, input methods, and extensive online dictionaries. Rival writing systems have been developed over time, and there is ongoing debate within the Taiwanese mother tongue movement as to which system should be used. Versions of pe¿h-oe-ji have been devised for other languages, including Hakka and Teochew. The name pe¿h-oe-ji (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ) means "vernacular writing", that is, written characters representing everyday spoken language. Though the name vernacular writing could be applied to many kinds of writing, romanized and character-based, the term pe¿h-oe-ji is commonly restricted to the Southern Min romanization system d