"Taiwaner" - Taiwanese - Any Thoughts

[Dave Wilton]

I've heard people (here in the US) make the distinction between "Taiwanese,"
referring to the natives of the island, and "mainlanders," referring to
those who fled to the island in 1949.

Perhaps "Taiwaner" is an attempt to bridge the difference with an
all-inclusive term.


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Russ McClay
Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2008 10:12 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: "Taiwaner" - Taiwanese - Any Thoughts

Hi all --

This is a bit off-topic, but I thought I'd bring it up
here for possible discussion/feedback.

I live in Taiwan and am helping a friend with a poor
translation of a document that is in Chinese.

In the document, there is the term "Taiwaner" to
described someone from Taiwan.  This term is used
in government communications here; but it sounds
very awkward to me (native American English speaker).

I believe why this term is used instead of Taiwanese
is because of it's association with the English
word "Chinese".

Can anyone suggest a better term, just for fun?

Cheers,
Russ

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