The Taiwanese is a spoken language usually by approximately 60% of the population of Taiwan. It is about a Chinese Langue, group Minnan gathering the Chinese medieval languages. He is also spoken in the continental province about the Fujian where he was created at the 10th century and an alternative, the chaozhou (or tiuchiu in this language), is spoken in the East about the province about the Guangdong, in particular in the prefectures of Chaozhou and Shantou.

Several languages are common to Taiwan and the province of Fujian of which the Mandarin, the minnan, the Hakka. The pronunciation of the Mandarin is there also very close if one gathers by dialect. It is thus difficult to speak about a Taiwanese language itself. There are on the other hand cultural differences dependant on separation of the island of with continental China, initially between 1895 and 1945 during the Japanese occupation, then of 1949 at our days (see: Chronology of the island of Taiwan).

The group subethnic of Taiwan and Fujian for which Taiwanese is regarded as a native tongue is known like Holo (Hō-ló) or Hoklo; the correspondence between the language and the ethnic membership is however not absolute because a certain number of Holos speak this language badly, while a certain number of non-Holos usually speak it.

Zh-min-nan: Tâi-oân-oē Zh-yue: 臺灣話