You say potato, I say tomato

Taiwan has been separated from the mainland for most of the time since 1895, when it became a colony of Japan. Japanese and the dialect of the Fujian people who make up the majority of Taiwan's population have influenced the Chinese language they speak.

The dictionary is titled Taipei Daodi, Didao Beijing, using two words that both mean "authentic" but are spelt out in reverse, in Taiwan and the mainland.

"Such differences in vocabularies are very interesting humanistic and cultural manifestations," Yang says.

The writing systems are also different on the two sides of the Straits, as the mainland adopts simplified Chinese characters, while Taiwan uses traditional characters.

However, Liu Chao-shiuan, president of Taiwan's General Association of Chinese Culture, believes the difference in the languages from both sides of the Straits will decrease.

"Exchanges between Taiwan and the mainland have become more and more common, and it's natural that we are learning from each other's vocabularies," he says.

Pop songs, films and TV shows from Taiwan have long influenced mainlanders. Since 2008, Taiwan has opened to mainland tourists, and more than 4 million mainlanders have traveled to Taiwan so far, accelerating exchanges between the two sides.

Words not only flow from Taiwan to the mainland, but also the other way around. Liu says many words from the mainland, such as "geili" ("giving strength"), are now understood by Taiwan people.

In February, the "Repository of Chinese Language" website went online, a collaboration between experts from both the mainland and Taiwan, in the hope of presenting a platform for the comprehensive documenting and understanding of Chinese language.

The website's mainland address is zhonghuayuwen.org, while the Taiwan address is chinese-linguipedia.org.

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Look up a Chinese word on the website, and one will find the writing forms, Latin transcriptions and explanations of it from both the mainland and Taiwan.

"I have a dream, that all users of the Chinese language in the world will get to know both the traditional and simplified Chinese characters from this website, and they will eventually choose which characters they prefer and thus form a common system," says Liu, who is director of the website's compilation committee on the Taiwan side.

Liu says that the new system may consist of both traditional and simplified characters, but the making of the system should be through a democratic process, based on people's practice rather than administrative methods.

It doesn't matter even if people cannot agree on the usage of some characters, and different forms of some Chinese characters can exist at the same time, he adds.

muqian@chinadaily.com.cn