Local name: 客家语 / 客家語 (hak7 ga1 fa5 / hak7 ga1 va5)
Language family: Sino-Tibetan > Sinitic > Chinese
Native speakers: ~ 30 millions (Ethnologue.com)
Script: Han script (i.e. Chinese characters), a modified Latin alphabet (esp. in churches)
Official in: Not official.
Spoken mostly in: China (esp. Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Hunan, Sichuan), Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan

According to the tradition, the Hakka people origined in the northern parts of China, but because of political circumstances, they migrated to the south and most speakers of Hakka are nowadays to be found in an area comprising eastern Guangdong, western Fujian and southern Jiangxi. However, like other groups of southern China, e.g. those speaking Cantonese and Min Nan, also Hakka speakers have found their way to many parts of South East Asia.

Hakka shows many similarities with its neighbor variety Cantonese, but also shows many unique features, like the development of 等 (den) into a marker for the continuative aspect.

Hakka lacks a tradition of being written, and has mostly been used as a spoken language. During the last decades, Taiwan has seen a status upgrade of Hakka. A special TV station for Hakka has been started, and measures have been taken for standardizing this variety of Chinese.

Siyen Hakka: “Bet-fung lau ngit-teu
Speaker: Joey (哲宇) Age at recording: 23 (2012) Geographical reference: Banqiao, TW (Google Map) Linguistic background: Joey grew up speaking Hakka, Min Nan (“Taiwanese”) as well as Mandarin. Writing system: Han script Transcription scheme: Following Zdic


有一擺,北風撈日頭相爭乜人可厲害。
其兜住好看到路人行過去,嗰儕人著等一倆斗篷。
其兜就掛定,看乜人做等分路人脫等嗰倆斗篷,就算乜人可厲害。
那面北風就尚忙的吹,無想到渠吹到愈厲害,路人就愈用斗篷包狠自家。
那面北風無辦法,只好認輸。
那面太陽出來照一下,路人就馬上把斗篷脫了。
北風只好認輸,承認太陽可厲害。

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