Siraya people

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The Siraya are an indigenous people of Taiwan. The Siraya settled flat coastal plains in the southwest part of the island and corresponding sections of the east coast; the area is identified today with Tainan City, Tainan County and Taidong County. At least five subtribes make up the group: Mattauw, Soelangh, Baccloangh, Sinckan, and Taivoan.

The Siraya are one of Taiwan's Pingpu peoples--that is, occupants of flat coastal regions rather than mountain areas. Like other indigenous peoples of Taiwan they are ethnically and linguistically Austronesian. The name "Taiwan" originated from the Sirayan language. The Austronesian language family to which Sirayan belongs includes most of the languages spoken in the western Pacific, including Polynesian, Indonesian, Filipino and Malaysian.^[1]

After the port in the Siraya area of Taiwan was annexed in 1683 by Qing Dynasty China, a process of gradual acculturation led to the Siraya language falling out of use.^[2]. Its last recorded regular use was in 1908, after Taiwan was under Japanese rule.^[3]

Despite the loss of their language, the Siraya maintain many aspects of their culture today. A number of families in the Tso-chen, Kou-pei and Chiou-chen-lin of Sinhua Township in particular still identify themselves as Siraya. The family name Wan, often encountered in the region, is a Chinese transliteration of Talavan, a common Siraya surname.^[4]

The Siraya are not currently one of the 14 indigenous tribes officially recognized by Taiwan's national government. Efforts are under way by the Siraya to change that. A Siraya Culture Association (台南縣平埔族西拉雅文化協會) was founded in 1999. In 2002 the reconstructed Siraya language (see below) began to be taught in schools and used in new literature.^[5] In 2005 the Tainan County government established a Siraya Aboriginal Affairs Committee (台南縣西拉雅原住民族事務委員會) and subsidised a glossary, released in 2008, containing entries for over 4,000 Sirayan words.^[6]

Contents 1 The Sirayan language 2 See also 3 References 4 External Links

[edit] The Sirayan language

According to Taiwan Journal, Taiwan's Academia Sinica historians and linguistics announced, on February 14, 2006, that their team of researchers have deciphered up to 80% of the 187 so-called Sinckan Manuscripts (or Sinkang Manuscripts), a set of documents from 17th and 18th centuries written in the language spoken by the Siraya people using a system of romanization introduced by the Dutch in the 1600s. In order to convert the Siraya to Christianity, Dutch missionaries studied the Sirayan language, devised a romanized script in which to record it, taught the Siraya people how to use it, and began translating the New Testament into the Sirayan language. Copies of the Dutch missionaries' translation of the Book of Matthew into Sirayan have survived, and several of the manuscripts are bilingual, with side-by-side Sirayan and Chinese versions of the contents. (Excerpted from Taiwan Journal).

[edit] See also

• Daniel Gravius - Siraya language scholar

[edit] References

v • d • e Taiwanese aborigines Recognized by the Republic of China Amis · Atayal · Bunun · Kavalan · Paiwan · Puyuma · Rukai · Saisiyat · Sakizaya · Seediq · Tao · Thao · Tsou · Truku Unrecognized by the Republic of China Babuza · Basay · Hoanya · Ketagalan · Luilang · Pazeh/Kaxabu · Popora · Qauqaut · Siraya · Taokas · Trobiawan

[edit] External Links

• Siraya Culture Association (台南縣平埔族西拉雅文化協會) (Chinese)
• 'Siraya: We have not disappeared' Taiwan Culture (English)
• Tainan Cultural Affairs Department (台南縣政府文化局) (Chinese)
• Siraya National Scenic Area (西拉雅國家風景區). (Chinese, English)
• National Museum of Prehistory, Taiwan (國立臺灣史前文化博物館) (Chinese, English)
• Foundation for Endangered Languages, UK (English)