Frontiers of Formosan Linguistics: Symposium Showcasting Latest, Collaborative Findings

Abstract

Many languages are spoken in Taiwan, but most, if not all, the Formosan languages are facing extinction due to the drastic linguistic policies carried out during the time of the Japanese occupation (1895–1945) and during the first fifty years of the Nationalist government (1949–1989). Among the sixteen officially recognized Indigenous languages of Taiwan, four can be characterized as vulnerable and twelve are currently severely or critically endangered, based on the measures established by the UNESCO (2003).

There are about 60 scholars and students working on Formosan languages at this moment. While we are currently witnessing (in nearly all the Formosan languages) a decrease of the number of competent speakers, a loss of language proficiency, the erosion of parts of the linguistic systems, and the overriding dominance of Mandarin Chinese, in the past ten or twenty years many scholars have started to work together in a collaborative fashion, and we are observing a more systematic and comprehensive coverage of the aboriginal languages of Taiwan than we have been able to do before. Research range are being carried out in different perspectives: from a more general, comparative or typological standpoint, from a more historical viewpoint or through a sociolinguistic assessment of what has been achieved in the past decades.

We are happy to announce a (joint) symposium in four different locations in Taiwan (Academia Sinica in Taipei and Tainan, National Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu and National Dong Hwa University in Hualien), from November 28 through December 8, 2023. In each of these venues, colleagues will present a variety of topics that do not only correspond to each presenter’s expertise, they also respond to the interests of the students and communities where the conference will take place.

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