語言創傷、沉寂與再發聲：臺灣的還我母語運動

Linguistic Trauma, Disarticulation, and Rearticulation: The Give Me Back My Mother Tongue Movement in Taiwan

本文重探臺灣的語言衝突，聚焦於臺灣歷史上兩項重大的語言政策，藉以解析臺灣人對語言權的敏感度。自1895年日本殖民時期實施的國語政策，於1945年被中國國民黨政府所施行的國語政策取代。這兩個時期的語言政策，致使許多母語被邊緣化的臺灣人經歷語言創傷，影響族群認同感。
由於不滿語言壓迫，客家知識分子發起一場大規模的抗議活動，於1988年12月28日上萬人走上台北街頭，要求政府恢復他們的語言權利。這場名為「還我母語運動」的抗議活動，在在顯示臺灣人對語言權的重視。本文認為，這場抗議活動打破多年以來由於語言創傷而導致的沉寂。它一直被視為臺灣客家運動，然而，它的意義不僅僅是一場客家運動，而是超越族群的語言人權運動。

This paper revisits language conflicts in Taiwan to discuss Taiwanese people’s sensitivity to linguistic rights. It focuses on two significant language policies in history. Beginning in 1895, the Japanese colonizers implemented a policy of teaching the Japanese language to turn Taiwanese into loyal subjects of Japan. During the 50 years of Japanese colonization, the local population was compelled to learn Japanese. In 1945, when Japan surrendered to the Allies in World War II, the Kuomintang（KMT）government from Mainland China took control of Taiwan. It designated Mandarin Chinese as the official language. Japanese was prohibited, and local languages were devalued. These periods in Taiwan’s linguistic history were marked by discrimination and stringent control, and many individuals whose mother tongues were margin-alized experienced linguistic trauma, causing them to be unwilling to speak their native languages. Their alienation from their mother tongues impacted their ethnic identity recognition.
The mental resistance to this linguistic oppression among some Hakka intellectuals ignited a massive protest on December 28, 1988, when more than ten thousand people took to the streets of Taipei, demanding the restoration of their linguistic rights. This event called the“Give Me Back My Mother Tongue Movement,”manifested Taiwanese people’s linguistic sensitivity. The paper considers it a rearticulation that terminated the disarticulation caused by linguistic trauma. The movement has generally been equated with the Hakka movement. Nevertheless, it was more than a Hakka movement. We argue it was a loud call beyond ethnic division for linguistic human rights.