However, far fewer can still speak their ancestral language after centuries of language shift. It is common for young and middle-aged Hakka and aboriginal people to speak Mandarin and Hokkien better than, or to the exclusion of, their ethnic languages.
The phenomenon of language shift has resulted in a significant decline in the number of people who can still speak their ancestral language after centuries. In many cases, younger and middle-aged Hakka and indigenous individuals have adopted Mandarin and Hokkien as their primary means of communication, often at the expense of their ethnic languages.