The Cabinet yesterday approved a draft act to establish a national language research center with the aim of preserving and developing national languages, including Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), Hakka, indigenous languages and sign language.
The “establishment act of the research and development center for national languages” was proposed by the Ministry of Culture (MOC) to build a more inclusive environment for other languages in Taiwan.
The bill aims to bring into force the Overall Development Plan of Promoting National Languages — jointly proposed by the MOC, the Council of Indigenous Peoples, the Hakka Affairs Council and the Ministry of Education — which was approved by the Cabinet in 2022 on a budget of NT$32.1 billion (US$987.7 million) over a five-year interval.
Photo courtesy of the Executive Yuan
The Cabinet had passed the draft in April last year and sent it to the Legislative Yuan for approval, but it had not been reviewed there due to non-continuance upon the expiration of the previous Legislative Yuan’s term.
The center is expected to preserve, revive and develop languages via translinguistic and transdisciplinary research and resource integration, the MOC said yesterday.
It would be a non-departmental public body under the ministry, with budgets planned by the government and reviewed by audits in accordance with the law, the draft states.
The center’s core operations would include conducting a nationwide linguistic census, collecting and publishing translinguistic corpora and historical data, developing spelling and writing systems, building and maintaining national linguistic database platforms, and conducting collaborative research on languages with institutions at home and abroad, among others.
The draft is to implement the Development of National Languages Act (國家語言發展法) and build a more diverse, equal and inclusive environment in Taiwan that gives people dignity in using their first languages, Cabinet spokesman Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) quoted Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) as saying during a post-Cabinet meeting news conference.
Language rights are human rights, he quoted Cho as saying.
While the center would focus on translinguistic and transdisciplinary studies, research on single languages such as Hakka and indigenous languages would be conducted by dedicated units, Deputy Minister of Culture Lee Ching-hui (李靜慧) said.
The center would compensate for the lack of a unit dedicated to preserving and developing sign languages and Hoklo, along with the exploration of other national tongues, including Mandarin, Hakka and indigenous languages, an Executive Yuan official said on Wednesday.
More than 60 percent of users of Hoklo are aged 60 or above, with a 5 to 10 percent churn rate for the language in each 10-year age group among people under age 60, the official said, adding that the churn rate for Hoklo is much higher than Hakka or indigenous languages, as it used to have a more prevalent circulation.
The draft would now be sent to the Legislative Yuan for approval.
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