臺灣向來被視為多元語言文化匯聚之地。歷經世代政權的更迭，島嶼吸納了多重文化的養分，也逐漸滋養出海納百川的包容性。語言作為文化最敏銳的感知器，承載著族群的生活記憶、思維方式與世界觀，其興衰亦映照著歷史的潮汐。 在這片土地上，語言的多樣性呈現出一幅豐富的文化圖景。除華語外，使用人數最多的臺灣臺語擁有南部、北部、內埔與海口等四大腔調；客語亦因族群遷徙而形成四縣、海陸、大埔、饒平、詔安等多種語音系統；而官方認定的原住民族更橫跨十六族，分化出多達四十二種語言，還有馬祖語、臺灣手語……等，展現島嶼深厚的語言根柢與文化層次。 然而，過去歷史的殖民、戒嚴與同化政策，皆曾深刻影響各族群語言的自然發展，使許多本土語言面臨快速流失的危機。今日，不僅原住民族語被聯合國教科文組織列為瀕危語言，甚至通行廣泛的臺灣臺語也遭遇世代斷層。語言作為文化生命的根脈，其保存與傳承已是迫切的課題。 Speaking in Our Own Voices: The Changing Lives of Taiwan’s Mother Tongues Taiwan has long been recognized as a crossroads of diverse linguistic cultures. Under successive regimes, the island has absorbed multiple cultural influences, fostering an openness that embraces difference. Language, as a sensitive carrier of culture, holds collective memory, ways of thinking, and worldviews, while reflecting the tides of history. Across the island, linguistic diversity forms a rich cultural picture. Beyond Mandarin, Taiwanese Hokkien has developed four major regional accents, while Hakka comprises multiple speech systems shaped by migration. Sixteen officially recognized Indigenous groups give rise to forty-two distinct languages, alongside Matsu dialects and Taiwan Sign Language—revealing deep linguistic roots and layered cultural depth. Still, colonial rule, martial law, and assimilation policies disrupted the free development of community languages. Today, many Indigenous languages are classified by UNESCO as endangered, and even widely spoken Taiwanese Hokkien faces generational rupture. Ensuring the preservation and transmission of languages is now an urgent task.

國家文化記憶庫專案推動中心編輯，個別被編輯素材得點擊鏈結至原頁面閱讀出處資訊，若有轉載利用之需求，請依各編輯素材之授權與限制範圍之指示，2025/12/29。