User:Ijcima/Saisiyat language

Saisiyat is a Formosan language belonging to the Austronesian language family. The Saisiyat language is considered to be a moderately endangered language. The language is widely spoken in Northwest Taiwan. The Saisiyat tribe is mainly located in the mountains of Taiwan. They live between 500 to 1,500 meters in altitude with a total population of around 6,000 people. The language is divided into two dialects, the Taai and the Tungho. The two dialects being spoken largely depends on the region that a person comes from. The Taai dialect is widely considered as the Northern dialect among the Saisiyat people, it is spoken in the Wufeng Township and Hsinchu County in Taiwan. The Tungho dialect is widely considered within Taiwan as the Southern dialect.

The Saisiyat are involved in language preservation, but there is a language gap between people over 80 due to them having their own ways of speaking and intonations compared to populations that are under 80 years of age. The language has 3,000 native speakers worldwide. Along with the Saisiyat language being endangered, the Saisiyat culture is one of Taiwan’s most endangered indigenous cultures. The Saisiyat tribe has a more sparse population compared to the other indigenous tribes. found within Taiwan. According to Taiwan's Department of Household Registration, the Ministry of the Interior, they show that the fourteen officially recognized indigenous peoples have a population of over 510,000, out of that number the Saisiyat people account for only around 6,000. There are currently thirteen Formosan language still being spoken today, more or less actively. Those languages are Atayal, Saisiyat, Thao, Bunun, Tsou, Saaroa, Kanakanavu, Rukai, Paiwan, Puvuyama, Amis, Kavalan, and Seediq. As of July 2013, there are 6,291 people that continue to speak the Saisiyat language. Among the Formosan languages within Taiwan, the Saisiyat language has one of the smallest amount of speakers, along with having the smallest population of their tribe.

As time has passed, Taiwan has evolved in a way where it no longer recognizes the Saisiyat language in the way that they used to. There are not as many people speaking the language the way they used to. As a result, the language remains in a certain area and does not get dispersed. A major factor as to why the language is endangered is due to the lack of speakers within the younger generation. Speaking Saisiyat is much more prevalent within elderly generations and the language dies with them. Rather than children using their tribal language to speak, a majority will be brought up to speak Mandarin, one of China's lingua franca. Due to prior experiences that Taiwan has had with certain countries who they had been controlled by, it has lead to certain cultural materials that originated in the Saisiyat tribe to dwindle.

History
The Saisiyat have had close interactions with other ethnic groups near them. This includes the Taokas of the Western Plains, the Atayal and the Hakka, as well as interactions that have stemmed from language contact through the sharing of cultures and languages. The Northern Saisiyat group has largely become acculturated to the Atayal, the Atayal occupy most of the Wufeng territory. A majority of the speakers of Taai shifted to the Atayal dialect, which they use for daily conversation along with Mandarin Chinese. The Taai dialect is still spoken, but only by a handful of people. The Tungho dialect has managed to still be actively used, however. A reason as to why the Tungho dialect secured a larger presence compared to the Taai dialect after all these years is due to their experience being ruled by the Hakka. In the 1940s, the Hakka inhabited the lands of the Penglai and later the Tungho. An abundant amount of language contact has lead to the exchange and eventual borrowing of ideas within different cultures. Dialectal variants can be found within areas that have been influenced by language contact throughout the decades.

Taiwan has experienced periods of time being under the rule of other countries. For over a hundred years, the Saisiyat language has been influenced by language policies that have been implemented by different governments that Taiwan has been under. From 1895 to 1945, Taiwan was politically dominated by Japan. Within the 50 years that Japan took control over Taiwan, the Saisiyat people were influenced to use certain words and phrases that are associated within the Japanese language. During the 50 years that Japan ruled over Taiwan, certain cultural material from the Japanese merged into Taiwanese culture. For about 50 years after the Nationalist takeover in Taiwan from 1949 to 1987, a governmental policy was implemented in the country that dictated Mandarin as the only official language to be used in Taiwan. As a result of this, the Saisiyat language and its prevalence in Taiwan has decreased and accelerated the loss of influence over the younger generation.

The two dialects of the Saisiyat language have had different fates when it comes to their prevalence, mostly due to their difference in language contact. The Tungho Saisiyat is not under immediate threat of extinction. However, it can certainly disappear for the long term even within the Southern dialect group where it remains prevalent. A major factor that can expedite the extinction of the Saisiyat language is that very few people in the Saisiyat group under the age of 45 are able to speak the language fluently. Due to the lack of people under the age of 45 to speak the Saisiyat language fluently, it leaves the language vulnerable to extinction due to the language not resonating with the younger generations. The language is widely prevalent among older generations and it tends to remain with them, which does not benefit the language from spreading its influence over Taiwan. The Saisiyat is not the only ethnic group that is cognizant of the fact that their language can become extinct. There are also other ethnic groups who are aware of this happening. As a result, Taiwan has implemented government programs to keep certain languages from going fully extinct.

The Dialects
Saisiyat has two dialects. The two dialects are the Taai which is widely known as the Northern Dialect. The second dialect is the Tungho dialect widely known as the Southern dialect. The main difference that lies between the two dialects are found in the phonology and lexicon. Due to the different paths that both languages have taken, it has lead to many cultural changes when it comes to the way that they speak. For example, the word rarahoe refers to one's big eyes as big in the Taai dialect. However, in the Tungho dialect the word rarahoe means an abundant amount of things, such as a huge pile of fruit. The proximity of the Taai community to the Squiliq Atayal community has allowed for the exchange of cultural information to occur. The Northern Saisiyat has been largely assimilated by the Atayal, which is another Formosan language spoken in the Wufeng territory. As a result of this, the speakers of the Taai dialect have been profoundly influenced by the Atayal and have eventually learned to speak Atayal rather than Saisiyat. The Southern dialect is still actively used because of the influence of Hakka, another Chinese language. The influence of other cultures has led the two dialects to become slightly more different in the way that they are spoken, as well as which dialect became more prevalent than the other.

Culture
The Saisiyat people have had cultural shifts throughout the years as a result of their country being under the rule of different regimes and countries. However, there continues to be cultural practices that have remained throughout the years.

The Saisiyat people have held onto many rituals that are still in practice to the present day. One ritual that has remained among the Saisiyat people is the Pas-ta'ai, also known as the Ritual to the Short People or the Ritual to the Spirits of the Pygmies. The story varies in detail, but it talks about the Saisiyat and the pygmies and the eventual conflict that occured between their two groups. A long time ago, the short people lived in peaceful terms with the Saisiyat, who were their neighbors from across the river. The short people excelled in singing and dancing, and the Saisiyat would invite them to their annual harvest festivals. The short people tended to be informal and would make advances to the women. One night, a youth from the Saisiyat tribe seeked revenge on the short people. Many of the short people perished as a result, with the exception of two elders. The two remaining elders that survived migrated. As a result of the revenge, the Saisiyat perished from severe famine. The Saisiyat knew that they would not be able to survive as a tribe without solving the issue. In order to curb appease the spirits of the dead short people, the Saisiyat implemented the Pas-ta'ai as a way of begging forgiveness for what their people did. The ritual ceremony has remained within the culture of the Saisiyat people for as many as 400 years. The tribe is renowned for their colorful and unique deliverance of the Pas-ta'ai. The ceremony takes place biennially at the tenth full moon of the lunar calendar, with a grand pas-ta’ai staged once a decade. During this time all fights and disputes that has occured are not allowed and forgotten.

As one of the smallest aboriginal groups in Taiwan, the Saisyat preserve have an intent to preserve their culture, traditions, and folklore. The Saisiyat have a variety of folk legends that tells the story of how their cultural traditions came to be. For instance, the Saisiyat tribe has a popular folktale of how a dragon woman was able to teach them skill of weaving. Although the Saisiyat actually picked up the weaving skills from elsewhere. Today, the Saisiyat tribe continues to hold the ability to weave in high regard. Within the Saisiyat, a woman is not considered a woman until she learns the ability of weaving.

Saisiyat Language in the 21st Century
The Saisiyat language along with other Austronesian languages in Taiwan are not used in the same way that they used to be. In Taiwan, only about 35% of the 500,000 Austronesian indigenous people can speak their tribal language. In addition out of the 14 indigenous languages in Taiwan, seven are listed by UNESCO as critically endagered.

A major issue that leads to the Austronesian languages from being less prevalent is that many people in their 40s and 50s are unable to speak their mother-tongue, which prevents them from teaching it to the younger generation. The language has more presence in individuals of older age, and it tends to die with them without it being taught to younger generations. Due to the autonomy of languages such as Mandarin and English, it gives the younger generation a mindset that if they are able to speak the two major languages, they do not need to speak the languages that their ancestors were raised with.

The Taiwanese government became cognizant of the cultural emergency in the summer of 2012. Aborigines were dominant in Taiwan for 8,000 years, but their dominance was interrupted as migrants began to arrive by sea from nearby China. The Chinese are now 98% of the population in Taiwan. The government of Taiwan says that most indigenous people have little incentive to attempt to use or remember their native tongue due to the fact that marry ethnic Chinese or settle away from tribal homelands.

Since 2008, Taiwan's government has attempted to save the languages, but they have lessened their outreach and focused on the languages that are the most vulnerable to extinction. An important factor to point out is that any further loss to the amount of speakers of a certain language will weaken the culture of Taiwan. It is also important to realize that local languages hold the key to unlocking information about the flora and fauna in Taiwan. If local languages continue to decrease in their influence, words that contain important information about the environment people live in will impact Taiwan negatively if they were to be lost. Aside from the flora and fauna, it will also be more difficult to express cultural meaning and values. Cultural resources such as stories and important knowledge would disappear along with the local languages, which can be detrimental to way of life in Taiwan.