Few will associate primarily Mandarin-
speaking, Japanese-influenced Taiwan
with the roots of vernaculars spoken by
over 300 million people today. But based
on archaeological excavations and modern
linguistic analysis, researchers are increasingly
attributing the small island nation as the
proud birthplace of the over 1,200 languages
forming the Austronesian language family,
including Malay, Indonesian and Tagalog.
“Drawing on evidence from linguistic
studies, leading scholars from around the
world are convinced that the Austronesian-
speaking peoples dispersed from TaiwanResearchers say one-fifth of the world’s languages – including numerous
Asian dialects – developed from the lingua franca of Taiwanese aboriginesIsland of Tongues
FORMOSAN FOUNDATIONS
bottom A car ving of
aborigines dancing
in traditional attire in
the Taiwan Indigenous
Peoples Cultural Park
in Pintung countyPHOTO © SHUTTERSTOCK
language
around 5,000 to 4,000 years ago, and that the
island is the closest thing to an Austronesian
homeland,” said prominent Austronesian
linguist Paul Li in a 2011 interview with
newspaper Taiwan Today.
Austronesian is one of the biggest language
families on the planet, with speakers across
Asia, the Pacific, and Africa. It is split into
two main branches: the Formosan languages
and the Malayo-Polynesian languages.
The Formosan languages are spoken by the
people of Formosa (Taiwan’s former name) and
strongly resemble archaic Austronesian, which
features words for things like rice, sugar cane,