Reawakening the Taivoan Language
Benson Ko-Chou Fang is assisting a team of Taivoan language revitalizationists who are building the first-ever dictionary in their language, the first step to teaching and learning it.
This post was written by Wikitongues intern Adam Hinden.
Diverse groups of Austronesian-speaking peoples have lived in Taiwan for over six millennia prior to colonization by the Dutch, Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese. The island, however, has been occupied by the Han-dominated Republic of China since 1945. The Republic enacted numerous campaigns during the mid-20th century aimed at developing a distinct cultural and linguistic identity — often at the expense of Indigenous lifeways. For example, the government’s 1953 Shandi Pingdi Hua (literally “make the mountains like the plains”) policy enforced the sole use of Mandarin, which resulted in the significant diminishment and at times outright loss of several Indigenous tongues. As the government transitioned towards democracy in the late 1980s, Indigenous languages gained more social recognition, and eventually constitutional protection. In 2017, the government passed the Indigenous Languages Development Act in order to “carry out historical justice, promote the preservation and development of indigenous languages, and secure indigenous language usage and heritage”. Although these steps proved beneficial to increasing Indigenous language visibility and representation, more must be done in order to ensure their prolonged preservation. Further, the policy puts in place protections only for the languages of the 16 officially-recognized tribes in Taiwan, but does not apply to the island’s numerous unrecognized, non-status indigenous groups such as the Taivoan.
Taivoan is an Indigenous Taiwanese language originally spoken by the Taivoan people throughout the island’s southwestern Tainan county, and later in southern Kaohsiung county and Huatung valley as speakers migrated in the early 19th century. Some scholars argue that Taiwan’s name itself came from a Hokkien adaptation of the Indigenous group’s name — “Tayovan”. The Taivoan language was formerly classified as a dialect of Siraya — a neighboring Indigenous tongue — but has recently gained recognition of its uniqueness as a distinct language. Both Siraya and Taivoan were widely considered to have died out at some point during the second half of the 19th century. However, Taivoan has reawakened in the 21st century and is now becoming increasingly taught and spoken by the group’s 20,000 members and beyond. This resurgence has largely been bolstered by activists such as Benson Ko-Chou Fang, who are dedicated to supporting and protecting Taiwan’s Indigenous cultures.
Benson is the founder of Mata Taiwan, an organization dedicated to supporting and preserving unique elements of Indigenous culture in Taiwan and promoting tourism in rural areas. The name “Mata” comes from the Proto-Austronesian “MaCa”, the predecessor for the word for “eyes” in a variety of languages from Maori and Hawaiian to Amis and Tao. This common root symbolizes the organization’s mission to build community among all Austronesian peoples, and to foster visibility for Taiwanese Indigenous cultures. Benson’s work ranges from digital content curation and event organizing to providing revitalization tools and strategies for different tribes. His efforts extend to Indigneous groups beyond the scope of governmental recognition, as is the case of the Taivoan tribe.
Benson first came into contact with members of the Taivoan tribe in 2013 — the same year that Mata Taiwan was founded. He found that the language and culture of the Taivoan tribe was “totally different” than that of the Siraya people, despite the official status of the Taivoan as a Siraya subgroup. What’s more, the Siraya tribe itself is only recognized locally and not by the central government, meaning that its dialects are not considered national languages, and are not taught by public teachers. He was compelled by this discrepancy to study the distinct and underrepresented Taivoan language. As Benson put it: “for the central government, Taivoan people do not exist”. Though he is not Taivoan himself, he is dedicated to revitalizing the Taivoan language even in the face of legal invisibility.
Benson and his team are currently working on compiling the first ever dictionary of the Taivoan language. This process has involved the collection of words from different Taivoan communities around southwestern Taiwan. However, doing so has become more difficult as fewer and fewer people learn the language. In fact, only certain elders of the tribe aging around 90–100 still harbor “a few memories of the language.” Because of this, Benson also relies on anthropological and linguistic records, some dating back to the period of Japanese colonization, to expand the lexicon. This process of collection has spanned several years, but Benson expects the editing process to begin in the fall of 2022. The dictionary will be the most comprehensive codification of the Taivoan language to date, and will allow future generations to reconnect with their ancestral tongue.
The low learnership of the Taivoan language has not deterred Benson from pursuing his mission. “There are very few people in the younger generation that are interested in the revival of their own culture and language…no more than ten people. But there are people trying to do this,” he explained. In his view, non-Indigenous linguists and activists have a role to play in tribal language revitalization even if little interest in doing so exists within the tribe itself. By working towards developing a Taivoan dictionary, Benson and his team are securing the ability for future Taivoan people to connect with their history, and shedding light on knowledge that has been obscured for decades. “If I didn’t try to collect the vocabulary or document this language, a younger generation 10 years later will have less of a chance to learn about their ancestral language,” Benson shared.
Among many groups around the world, the revitalization of ancestral tongues often comes secondary to the learning of more politically and economically dominant languages such as Mandarin and English. Benson explained that this is indeed the case for many Indigenous Taiwanese, some of whom puzzledly asked him “why would you like to revive or save [the Taivoan language]?” He also shared his encounter with a young man from Wales, who similarly found it futile to learn Welsh. But can we truly blame them? Most Indigenous Taiwanese still live under the poverty line, with household incomes 40% lower than the national average. For groups like the Taivoan, whose languages are legally unrecognized and economically unrepresented, it makes sense why revitalization is not prioritized. This dynamic exists for countless Indigenous and minoritized groups throughout the world — those who face structural disadvantages in economies governed by foreign, colonial languages. Language revitalization is thus an important, yet privileged endeavor, that many do not have the resources to pursue, especially when prospects of employment require proficiency in dominant tongues. The work of Benson and his collaborators is therefore incredibly critical, as it will provide future generations of Taivoan people with the opportunity to learn about their ancestral language that may otherwise be forgotten.
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