Where is Toisan and what is Toisanese?

Synonyms: Toisanese/Toishanese/Taishanese/Hoisanese/Toishaanese

For the purposes of this Toisan Descendant blog, I will refer to the language as the Toisanese language. I will also use Jyutping pronunciations to pronounce the Toisanese language. I will rarely use pinyin for Mandarin speakers.

臺山話 – In Cantonese, traditional characters (toi4 saan1 waa2)

The spelling of Toisanese/Toishanese/Toishaanese is derived from Cantonese pronounciations.

The spelling of “Toishan” is recognized by the United States Post Office, the Defence Language Institute, and the U.S. Census Bureau.

In Toisanese (hoi4 saan3 waa2)

The spelling of Hoisanese was derived from the local pronunciation by locals, but this term is not used in literature.

台山话  - In Mandarin, simplified characters (tai2 shan1 hua4)

The spelling, Taishanese, is derived from Mandarin pronunciation. This particular term is the most popular and widely-used term used in literature.

台山話 – I am more familiar with this character combination to describe Toisanese and will adopt this term instead for my Toisan Descendant blog.

Toisanese is spoken in Southern China areas like Guangzhou, Guangdong, Peral River Delta, Hainan, Toisan, Hong Kong, popular U.S> metro locations in California, New York City, Canada, and Vietnam. Wikipedia estimates that 1-2 million people speak Toisanese.

Source: wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taishanese

The Toisanese language is a Chinese dialect that has similarities to both Cantonese and Mandarin, though more Cantonese than Mandarin. However, Toisanese is not an official language of any country, which is why you are less likely to encounter the language. Many Chinese immigrated to the United States especially from the mid 19^th century to the late 20^th century. Personally, I know that my grandma and parents came to New York in the 1960’s after a brief stay in Canada.

Unless You’re From Guangzhou…

While sitting in on my first Cantonese I class, I got to know some of the students. One student, an older woman, introduced herself and told the class that she spoke Toisanese  and wanted to learn Cantonese because everybody seems to be speaking it around her. I was puzzled by her statement because in my family, we all understand both Cantonese and Toisanese.

Later that day, I returned to my grandma’s apartment to ask my grandma if all Toisanese people knew how to speak Cantonese. My grandma replied, “no.”

Then, I wondered out loud in Cantonese. How come we understand Cantonese so easily then?

My grandma simply replied, “Because we are from Guangzhou.”

Slowly, this information sunk into my mind. Why did I assume that everybody lived in Toisan? Of course, my roots are there, but that didn’t mean that nobody traveled to other parts of China. I slowly began to imagine what it would be like to make the great journey from Toisan to Guangzhou.

To sum up my experience, do not assume that all Toisanese people can understand Cantonese!

Even though Mandarin is the national language of China and Mandarin is taught and spoken in schools, Toisanese people in Toisan still regard Mandarin as a foreign language since they do not primarily speak Mandarin. On the other hand, Cantonese still remains an influential language for Toisanese people due to its geographical influence.

I hope you enjoyed my little introduction to Toisanese. I am still in the middle of researching more information!

Welcome to Toisan Descendant!

Welcome to my wonderful blog for Toisanese (aka Taishanese or Toishanese) descendents. I created this blog so we can find our roots and to never forget where we came from. It disheartens me that there are currently no formal classes, textbooks, or any educational material for learning Toisanese. For this reason, I am more adamant on learning more about Toisanese.

Allow me to introduce myself and tell you more about my background. My name is Karen and both sides of my family, my mother and father’s side, have Toisanese roots. I mostly learned everything I know from my grandmother on my father’s side. Honestly, if I sit down and actually listen to my elders speak Toisanese, I sometimes have trouble understanding what they were immediately saying. Though, growing up, I didn’t have too much of a problem understanding my grandma. She usually uses a lot of Cantonese with Toisanese mixed in here and there. To me, Toisanese is easily understood, but hard for me to naturally speak. Since I didn’t grow up speaking it, I am accustomed to hearing it and replying in Cantonese. I have lots of family members who speak Toisanese, yet I never really paid a lot of attention to it. I intend to consciously learn more.

I married a Korean man and I want our future kids to understand Toisanese as much as I do. Hopefully, they will be able to read my blog and understand all I have to tell them and keep Toisanese alive.

In this blog, I will use the terms “Toisan” and “Toisanese” to refer to the language and its people. I know the terms, “Taishan” or “Toishan” are very popular, but I didn’t use these terms while growing up. I prefer the Cantonese pronunciation since this is the sound I am used to while growing up. Hence, my blog is called Toisanese Descendant. In any case, when I refer to Toisan, I am also referring to its interchangeable terms, Taishan or Toishan.

I don’t know everything about Toisan or the Toisanese language, but I will do my best to put up as much information as possible. I’m sure that while writing this rare topic, I will have to do a lot of research for this blog.

Please feel free to introduce yourself or enlighten me with any information you know about Toisan or the Toisanese language or people. I can always use some help with this topic.