Lin Chu-mei / Yoshida Shingo: T’ai-wan Hua-yü [Taiwanese Mandarin]Thilo Diefenbach

ASIEN – Nr. 160/161 (2021) pp. 232–34

Lin Chu-mei 林初梅 / Yoshida Shingo 吉田真悟: T’ai-wan Hua-yü 台灣華
語 [Taiwanese Mandarin]

Osaka 大阪: Osaka University Press 大阪大學出版会, 2022. 233 pp.,
2600 Yen (plus taxes). Also available in electronic form.

I have to admit this is the first time that I write a review about a book which is mostly written in a language I cannot understand. This textbook, consisting of 30 lessons, was written for Japanese students and is meant to teach them not only some specifics about Taiwanese Mandarin (in comparison with the “standard language / putonghua 普通話” spoken in China), but also about the languages and writing systems of Taiwan in general, as well as the historical, cultural and political background of Taiwan’s current linguistic situation. This means, of course, that all of the commentaries and grammatical explanations are written in Japanese and therefore incomprehensible to me. The reason why I write this review in spite of this is that I can at least understand the main text of each lesson since it is written in (Taiwanese) Mandarin. And it is exactly because of the highly informative content of these lessons that I want to recommend this book to Europeans who are interested in the languages of Taiwan.