Andrew Dunbar wrote:

> Please correct me if I'm wrong. I thought that in
> Taiwan everybody spoke the local Chinese "dialect"
> and was later educated in Mandarin and that the
> traditional characters are used there.

70% of the population is of Minnan (Southern Min) heritage, for which
the majority still speak as an everyday language; the next largest
Han/Chinese language group spoken in Taiwan is Hakka/Kejia - ~15%; the
rest of the population is 13% Other-Mainlander and 2% Indigenous Taiwanese.

1. yes, everyone is educated in Mandarin (although the lifting of
martial law in 1987 has allowed for a growth in non-Mandarin, even in
some schooling)
2. yes, traditional characters are employed in Taiwan, with some
additional "dialect" characters

> Does anybody
> know if they would be typing the bopomofo
> pronunciation for the local "dialect" or Mandarin? If Mandarin then
> uneducated people would not be able to use computers,
> electronic dictionaries, etc.

While there are extensions in bopomofo to accomodate sounds found in
dialects and not in Mandarin, these are not in common use AFAIK. Most
electronic bopomofo input systems require Mandarin knowledge, which is
difficult even for some Mandarin-primary language speakers - this is due
to a loss of phonemic/phonetic distinctions in Standard Mandarin, as
opposed to typically spoken Taiwanese Mandarin.

> This problem was avoided
> in Hong Kong by using input methods based on the
> script rather than the sounds of any particular
> "dialect". Is this right?

Due to the abovementioned situation, a lot of people use cangjie or
someother graphic-based input method, as opposed to <zhuyin fuhao>
(bopomofo).

cheers,
-Patrick