The Formosan languages are a geographic grouping comprising the languages of the indigenous peoples of Taiwan, all of which are Austronesian. They do not form a single subfamily of Austronesian but rather up to nine separate primary subfamilies. The Taiwanese indigenous peoples recognized by the government are about 2.3% of the island's population. However, only 35% speak their ancestral language, due to centuries of

language shift Language shift, also known as language transfer, language replacement or language assimilation, is the process whereby a speech community shifts to a different language, usually over an extended period of time. Often, languages that are perceived ...

. Of the approximately 26 languages of the Taiwanese indigenous peoples, at least ten are

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

, another four (perhaps five) are moribund, and all others are to some degree endangered. They are

national language '' '' A national language is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that has some connection— de facto or de jure—with a nation. The term is applied quite differently in various contexts. One or more languages spoken as first languag ...

s of Taiwan. The aboriginal languages of

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

have great significance in

historical linguistics Historical linguistics, also known as diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of how languages change over time. It seeks to understand the nature and causes of linguistic change and to trace the evolution of languages. Historical li ...

since, in all likelihood, Taiwan is the place of origin of the entire Austronesian language family. According to American linguist Robert Blust, the Formosan languages form nine of the ten principal branches of the family, while the one remaining principal branch, Malayo-Polynesian, contains nearly 1,200 Austronesian languages found outside Taiwan. Although some other linguists disagree with some details of Blust's analysis, a broad consensus has coalesced around the conclusion that the Austronesian languages originated in Taiwan, and the theory has been strengthened by recent studies in human population genetics.

Recent history

All Formosan languages are slowly being replaced by the culturally dominant

Taiwanese Mandarin Taiwanese Mandarin, frequently referred to as ''Guoyu'' () or ''Huayu'' (), is the variety of Mandarin Chinese spoken in Taiwan. A large majority of the Taiwanese population is fluent in Mandarin, though many also speak a variety of Min Chinese ...

. In recent decades the Taiwan government started an aboriginal reappreciation program that included the reintroduction of Formosan

first language A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period hypothesis, critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' ...

s in Taiwanese schools. However, the results of this initiative have been disappointing. In 2005, in order to help with the preservation of the languages of the indigenous people of Taiwan, the council established a Romanized writing system for all of Taiwan's aboriginal languages. The council has also helped with classes and language certification programs for members of the indigenous community and the non-Formosan Taiwanese to help the conservation movement.

Classification

Formosan languages form nine distinct branches of the Austronesian language family (with all other Malayo-Polynesian languages forming the tenth branch of the Austronesian).

List of languages

It is often difficult to decide where to draw the boundary between a language and a dialect, causing some minor disagreement among scholars regarding the inventory of Formosan languages. There is even more uncertainty regarding possible extinct or assimilated Formosan peoples. Frequently cited examples of Formosan languages are given below, but the list should not be considered exhaustive.

Living languages

* Although Yami is geographically in Taiwan, it is not classified as Formosan in linguistics.

Extinct languages

Grammar

Verbs typically are not inflected for person or number, but do inflect for tense, mood, voice and aspect. Formosan languages are unusual in their use of the symmetrical voice, in which a noun is marked with the direct case while the verb affix indicates its role in the sentence. This can be seen as a generalisation of the active and passive voices, and is considered a unique morphosyntactic alignment. Furthermore, adverbs are not a unique category of words, but are instead expressed by coverbs. Nouns are not marked for number and do not have grammatical gender. Noun cases are typically marked by particles rather than inflecting the word itself. In terms of word order, most Formosan languages display verb-initial word order—VSO (verb-subject-object) or VOS (verb-object-subject)—with the exception of some Northern Formosan languages, such as Thao, Saisiyat, and Pazih, possibly from influence from Chinese. Li (1998) lists the

word order In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how languages employ different orders. Correlatio ...

s of several Formosan languages. *Rukai: VSO, VOS *Tsou: VOS *Bunun: VSO *Atayal: VSO, VOS *Saisiyat: VS, SVO *Pazih: VOS, SVO *Thao: VSO, SVO *Amis: VOS, VSO *Kavalan: VOS *Puyuma: VSO *Paiwan: VSO, VOS

Sound changes

Tanan Rukai is the Formosan language with the largest number of phonemes with 23 consonants and 4 vowels containing length contrast, while Kanakanavu and Saaroa have the fewest phonemes with 13 consonants and 4 vowels.

Wolff

The tables below list the Proto-Austronesian reflexes of individual languages given by Wolff (2010).

Blust

The following table lists reflexes of Proto-Austronesian *j in various Formosan languages (Blust 2009:572). The following table lists reflexes of Proto-Austronesian *ʀ in various Formosan languages (Blust 2009:582).

Lenition In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them "weaker" in some way. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronically (within a language ...

patterns include (Blust 2009:604-605): * *b, *d in Proto-Austronesian ** *b > f, *d > c, r in Tsou ** *b > v, *d > d in Puyuma ** *b > v, *d > d, r in Paiwan ** *b > b, *d > r in Saisiyat ** *b > f, *d > s in Thao ** *b > v, *d > r in Yami (extra-Formosan)

Distributions

Gallery

Information

Li (2001) lists the geographical homelands for the following Formosan languages. * Tsou: southwestern parts of central Taiwan; Yushan (oral traditions) * Saisiyat and Kulon: somewhere between Tatu River and Tachia River not far from the coast * Thao: Choshui River *Qauqaut: mid-stream of Takiri River (Liwuhsi in Chinese) * Siraya: Chianan Plains *Makatau: Pingtung * Bunun: Hsinyi (信義鄉) in

Nantou County Nantou is the second largest County (Taiwan), county of Taiwan by area, located in the central part of the country. It is also the only non-coastal county in Taiwan. Its name derives from the Hoanya people, Hoanya Taiwanese aborigines, Taiwanese ...

* Paiwan: Ailiao River, near the foot of the mountains

References

Citations

Sources

External links

Ogawa's Vocabulary of Formosan Dialects 小川尚義 (臺灣蕃語蒐録)

Yuánzhùmínzú yǔyán xiànshàng cídiǎn 原住民族語言線上詞典
– "Aboriginal language online dictionary" website of the Indigenous Languages Research and Development Foundation
Zú yǔ E lèyuán 族語E樂園
– Educational site maintained by Taiwan's Council of Indigenous Peoples *
T.A.I.W.A.N. – Taiwan-Austronesion Indigenous Words and Narrations
– English counterpart of Zú yǔ E lèyuán * Map
''Formosan Languages and Yami''
(PDF) {{DEFAULTSORT:Formosan Languages Austronesian languages Languages of Taiwan Endangered Austronesian languages