Languages of Tseng

The languages of Tseng consist of several varieties of languages under the Austronesian and Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in Tseng. Austronesian languages were spoken by the indigenous people in Tseng for several milleniums.

The long history of European rule in Tseng introduced English, French, and Dutch to the people. Starting on 400 BC, large waves of Chinese emigration brought Mandarin Chinese, which became the common language of Tseng. Due to mass waves of Chinese settlement, most indigenous languages borrowed words from Chinese, especially the Fulangese language. Japanese is also spoken due to the Japanese occupation.

During the Luanzheng Era, policies of the government suppressed European languages (English, French, Dutch) and indigenous languages in public use, especially in education. After the Luanzheng, the restrictions were relaxed and the indigenous languages saw a significant revival. Local languages became part of education, and TV and radio stations exclusively for indigenous languages were established. As a result of Tseng being a melting pot of languages, many Tsengians are multilingual.

Indigenous languages
Tsengian indigenous peoples comprise 4.3% of the population. The Fulangic branch of Austroneisan languages are the languages of indigenous poeple. However, few people could speak their native languages, due to language shift. It's common for the younger generation to speak the culturally dominant Mandarin, Hokkien, and Hakka languages. The Fu'langese language is the most spoken indigenous language in Tseng. Other popular indigenous languages are Atayal, Hazaki, and Tanan.

Although Fu'langese is officially under the Austronesian language branch, it has been assimilated to Chinese so much that 60% of Fu'langese words are linguistically similar to Chinese.

Tsengian Mandarin
Tsengian Mandarin is the sole official language of Tseng. Following independence in 1946, Mandarin became the official language and it was made compulsory in all schools (Before Mandarin, European languages were official, depending on the occupying power). People who migrated from mainland China after 1949 mostly speak Mandarin Chinese. It was shared with European languages as the medium of instruction until the Longtan Coup of 1962, when Mandarin became the sole medium of instruction. After the Luanzheng, European and indigenous languages were made optional, with English classes becoming mandatory from first grade in the 1993-94 year.

Tsengian Pidgin English
A creole language developed between British colonists and the native Han population in the 17th and 18th centuries. It had no official name, but linguists classified it as Tsengian Pidgin English. The language became a unifying symbol of the colonizers and the colonized. However, Pierre Huang-li and Yong Ming-chun greatly detested the language due to it being associated with colonialism, and after Tsengian independence, made efforts to repress the language as the British left the country. The Pidgin English suffered gravely during the Luanzheng Era, and efforts to revive it during the 1990s were to no avail as more Tsengians chose to speak English instead. As of 2024, it is a critically endangered language with only 3,000 native speakers.

Langue tsengienne
The langue tsengienne (Tsengian language) was developed between the French colonists and the Han in the 19th century, and experienced widespread use in the early 20th century. Like its British counterpart, the language unified the Tsengians and the French.

Japanese
The Japanese language was compulsorily taught while Tseng was under Japanese rule. Although fluency is now largely limited to the elderly, most of Tseng's youth who look to Japan as the trend-setter of the region's youth pop culture now might know a bit of Japanese through the media.

Southeast Asian languages
A significant number of immigrants and spouses in Tseng are from Southeast Asia. Vietnamese is the most widely spoken Southeast Asian languages in Tseng, due to a mass influx of Vietnamese migration after the fall of Saigon in 1975. Other Southeast Asian languages are Dieuese, Thai, Indonesian, and Tagalog.

Cantonese
Cantonese is spoken by many recent and early immigrants from Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, and Macau. Various Cantonese-speaking communities exist throughout Tseng, and the use of the language in Tseng continues to increase.

Hokkien
Hokkien is spoken especially by those with Hokkien ancestry, and it is mutually intelligible with other dialects of Hokkien, such as the Taiwanese and Singaporean dialects. As many Hokkien-language media such as Taiwanese dramas and music are popular in Tseng, it is one of the most commonly spoken varieties of Chinese in the country.

Hakka
Hakka is mainly spoken in Tseng by people who have Hakka ancestry. These people are concentrated in several places throughout Tseng. Varieties of Tsengian Hakka are officially recognized as an official language in the city of Xiangyuanchuan, which has a high Hakka population.

European languages
Due to colonialism, European languages are spoken in Tseng, even though fluency in those languages are steadily declining,
 * The most widely spoken European language in Tseng. Following the Reforms of 90, English classes have become mandatory in Tsengian schools. 50% of the population can speak it, with many more able to code-switch between the two. Many countries that have diplomatic relations with Tseng are English-speaking, and its use is encouraged when communicating with English-speaking people. The Tsengian English dialect is informally known as Tsenglish.
 * Was taught in French Talasides. Most commonly spoken in Arbre-Rose and Nankou, which was part of the French Empire, but its use has declined since the Luanzheng. The Tsengian French dialect is spoken by 40,000 people, most of which are Franco-Tsengians.
 * Dutch was taught to the residents in Dutch Tseng. After the colony was peacefully integrated into the independent state of Tseng, the language declined rapidly, because the Dutch did not attempt to spread their language among the Chinese and indigenous peoples. The Tsengian Dutch dialect is moribund with only 50 native speakers as of 2000, all of which were over 60 years old.
 * Was spoken in Spanish Sanjiao until the island was handed over to the British, when it disappeared. Callentown, the largest city in Sandao, has a significant portion of Spanish and Latin American people, and the local dialect of Mandarin there has some Spanish loanwords in it.