真杉靜枝的作品〈南方的語言〉收錄在1941年11月出版的作品集《囑咐》中的短篇小說。作中主角木村花子離婚後身無分文，想投靠已經嫁來台灣的幼時好友，來到台中之後才發現朋友已經過世。走投無路的花子剛好搭到了一位說著流暢日語的台灣人力車夫李金史的車子，因而結婚，婚後與婆婆三人共同生活。在台灣的兩年期間花子說著一口流暢的台灣話，鄰居都以為她是台灣人阿花。當她打算讓左鄰右舍知道她是日本人時，傳來婆婆在路上被水牛撞死的噩耗。一向說著一口流利日語的丈夫，在知曉後趕回家中不禁脫口駡出台語「幹你娘」，這是作品中李金史唯一自己直接說出的台語。從作品的標題就可以知道這是一篇以台灣語言為題的作品。在先行研究中主要以語言政策以及內台通婚的觀點來探討。本論文將探討木村花子隱瞞身分的理由，並且以她〈女學生出身〉為切入點再次思考本作品。

Masugi Shizue’s work, “language of the south” featuring Hanako
Kimura who was skint after divorce. She planned to go to stay with her
friend from childhood who has been married and lived in Taiwan. However,
when Hanako arrived in central Taiwan, she only found o ut that her friend
has passed away. Having no where to go, Hanako happened to meet a
Taiwanese rickshaw puller, Ching-shi Lee who spoke fluent Japanese
language and ended up marrying him. When Hanako was about to bring
the whole family back to Japan, bad news broke out that her mother-in-
law was hit by a cow and died. When her husband hurried home and heard
about this news, he burst out Taiwanese swearing word. This was the first
time for Mr. Lee as an imperial civilian in colonized Taiwan to speak out
local dialect.
Apparently the title, "Language of the South" pointed out the theme
of Taiwanese language in the work. It is therefore fair that most literatual
review showed that the perspectives adopted to research such work were
either by ‘language policy’ or ‘transboundary marriage’. However, this
study attempts to re-examine the reasons why Hanako chose to hide her
true identity as a native Japanese girl student to live in a Japanese colony.