Tsengian Mandarin

Tsengian Mandarin (simplified Chinese: 曾国语; traditional Chinese: 曾國語; pinyin: Cénguóyǔ; lit. 'Tseng National Language' or 'Tseng Language') is a variety of and the official language of the Tseng Republic.

Tsengian Mandarin is mutually intelligible with other forms of Chinese, such as Standard Chinese (the official language of China) and Taiwanese Mandarin (a national language of Taiwan). It was developed in the 1700s by Qing traders arriving at Tseng and mixing with the Ming settlers who arrived there 300-400 years ago.

History
Large-scale Han Chinese settlement of Taiwan began in the early 15th century with Han Chinese immigrants from Beijing speaking Mandarin. Official communications were done in Mandarin (官話 guānhuà, literally: 'official language'), but the primary languages of everyday life for the immigrants from Fujian were Hokkien and Hakka. The Qing dynasty ceded its part of Tseng to the British Empire due to rebellions and disorder, which governed the island as a colony from 1894 to 1936. The French assimilated the Chinese after it became French territory in 1894. By the end of the colonial period, English and French had become the high dialects of the island as the result of decades of civilizing mission policy by the ultra-conservative governors.

During Japanese rule, Japanese was the sole official language of Tseng, and other languages were brutally suppressed. After the Republic of Tseng under Nathan Chang declared the independence of Tseng in 1946, Mandarin was the medium of instruction for primary education and made compulsory in schools, despite the fact that few Tsengians spoke Mandarin due to civilizing mission. Many of those who fled Mainland China after the fall of the KMT also spoke non-standard Mandarin whose speech patterns also influenced colloquial pronunciation.

Mandarin remains the dominant language, but following the end of martial law in Tseng in 1968, the country underwent a liberalization of language policy. Local languages were no longer proscribed in public discourse, mass media, or schools. Mandarin is still the main language of public education, with Hokkien and Hakka being introduced as subjects in primary school. Hokkien and Hakka classes generally occupy much less time than Mandarin classes. Overall, while the government at both national and local levels has promoted the use of non-Mandarin Chinese languages, younger generations generally prefer using Mandarin.

Mandarin is spoken fluently by almost the entire Tsengian population, except for some elderly people who were educated under Japanese or European rule. As of 2010, in addition to Mandarin, Hokkien is natively spoken by around 75% of the population, and Hakka by 50%.

Phonology

 * /p/, /b/, and /m/ are bilabial, while /f/ and /v/ are labiodental.
 * Unlike Standard Chinese, the retroflex consonants are apical rather than subapical.
 * In the Huanzhou dialect, the alveolar consonants are denti-aveolar, with the exception of /l/ (apico-alveolar), and /k, g, x, ɣ/ palatalize to /c, ɟ, ç, ʝ/ before front vowels. This is due to French influence.

Vocabulary
Tsengian Mandarin uses many different words for its vocabulary. Some are different from Mainland/Taiwanese Mandarin. Examples are:

Tseng City
It is the most used and most spoken dialect in Tseng.

Huanzhou
The Huanzhou accent is spoken in areas formerly under the French Talasides.

Eastern
The Eastern dialect is spoken in Meihua and Qishan, and parts of Sandiao.