Language Policy in the Republic of china

Abstract

This review has as its major scope language policy as it has been practied in the province of Taiwan of the Republic of China (ROC). Language policies of the nation from 1911 to 1949 (i.e., from the establishment of the republic in the Mainland to the time when the central goverment of the ROC moved to Taiwan) will also be reviewed as they bear significantly upon the current policies. The reason for this is quite obvious, since the current policies are the result of a continuous evolution of policies in the past. In the following sections three areas will be presented: 1) a brief sociolinguistic profile of the major and minority languages in the ROC; 2) the functional allocation of languages; 3) the language policies as actually practiced today.