Dialect fieldwork on the Penghu archipelago
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The Penghu (/ˈpʌŋˈhuː/ PUNG-HOO, Hokkien POJ: Phîⁿ-ô͘ or Phêⁿ-ô͘ ) or Pescadores Islands are an archipelago of 90 islands and islets in the Taiwan Strait, about 50 kilometres (25 nautical miles) west of the main island of Taiwan across the Penghu Channel, covering an area of 141 km2 (54 sq mi). The archipelago collectively forms Penghu County. The largest city is Magong, on the largest island, which is also named Magong. …Population 101,758 (2014) (Wikipedia)
Neil Kubler reports:
Just returned from 2 weeks of fieldwork on the Southern Min subdialects of the 21 inhabited islands of the Penghu archipelago, work I began in 1975-78 (1st generation), continued in 2002-04 (2nd generation), and am continuing this year and next (3rd generation). Complicated but the bottom line is (no surprises but I can show all this in great detail): (1) differences among the subdialects on the different islands are being leveled out and they are becoming much like Kaohsiung Southern Min; and (2) unlike 50 years ago, when the younger generation was stronger in S. Min than Mandarin, the reverse is now the case, with many younger people only able to understand S. Min.
Southern Min being one of our favorite topics on Language Log, I'm especially pleased to have this news of the continuation of Neil's fieldwork on Penghu that he began half a century ago.
Selected readings
- "The classification of [nan] Chinese (Min Nan)" (7/27/24)
- "Taiwan(ese) Taiwanese" (7/22/24) — and subsequent parts of this series
- Taiwanese, Mandarin, and Taiwan's language situation
- "Confessions of an Ex-Hokkien Creationist" (9/20/16)
- "Hoklo, part 2" (12/6/21)