Category Archives: Aborigine languages

Taiwan’s Aborigines urged to officially adopt original names

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Taiwan’s Cabinet-level Council of Indigenous Peoples is encouraging the members of the island’s twelve tribes to officially adopt their original, non-Sinified names. (Good for the Council of Indigenous Peoples. It’s about time.)

These names will be recorded using the Roman alphabet.

Earlier this evening, however, I heard a television report that many local officials were unaware that this name change was legal, much less encouraged. This doesn’t surprise me in the least. I’ve run into more than my share of officials who, because they misunderstand the laws it’s their job to deal with, make life difficult for those who want to get things done. (I”m hoping that renewing my residency will go more smoothly next month than it has in the past.)

Here’s a look at parts of Taiwan’s Full Name Registration Law:

Chapter 1 Local Legislation Authority

Section 1 Republic of China (ROC) nationals may have only one name, and said full name should be the official name stated in the census records.

So why must Aborigines who file to officially use their original, non-Sinified names have not only their names in romanization but also in Chinese characters (and thus are likely Sinified and therefore different than their original name)?

Taiwan indigenous peoples should be registered under their customary full names. Indigenous peoples registered under a Han’s full name should apply for restitution of traditional full name; those who have restituted their traditional full name should apply for the restitution of their Chinese full name; however an individual is entitled to a single restitution application.

Huh? (It’s late, so I’m not going to bother checking the Mandarin-language original to see if that’s any clearer.)

Section 2 The full name registered in the census record should be written in words found in the Ministry of Education Mandarin dictionary or Tzu-Yuan (origin of Chinese phrase or expression), Tzu-Hai (Chinese words collection), Kanghsi and other general dictionary; however, an exemption to paragraph 1 is the registered traditional full name of indigenous peoples which should be written using the Romanization system.
Full names that are not written with words found in any of the aforementioned general dictionaries shall not be registered.

That’s normal.

The Ministry of the Interior is renewing national ID cards from January 1 to December 31, 2006. This hadn’t been done in years.

Lin Chiang-yi, a council official and an Amis tribe member, said his council was asking the Ministry of the Interior to set up a “one-stop window” in counties with large aboriginal populations where people could officially change their Chinese name back to their aboriginal name.

Although a 1995 act allowed aboriginals to substitute their Chinese name with an aboriginal one, only 1,000 aboriginals have adopted their own name so far, Lin continued.

The official said his council was working to persuade several aboriginal communities to make the change en masse, with the purpose of increasing the number of aboriginals who go by their aboriginal name to 10,000.

With a population of 426,000 representing 12 different tribes, aboriginals account for nearly 2 percent of the country’s population.

source: Aboriginals encouraged to adopt indigenous names, CNA, January 31, 2006

Romanization to be allowed on some Taiwan ID cards

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The new type of Taiwan’s national ID card (shēnfènzhèng/身分證) will be coming out soon. For the first time, this card will allow the use of romanization — albeit in very limited ways. The use of romanization is being allowed because members of Taiwan’s indigenous tribes had complained, with good reason, that the old ID cards did not permit them to use their real names but only sinicized versions of their names.

The languages of Taiwan’s tribes are not related to Mandarin, Taiwanese, or any of the other so-called Sino-Tibetan languages. Moreover, the 400-and-some syllables of Mandarin are not adequate to accurately represent the languages of any of these tribes, which means Chinese characters can’t handle those names properly.

I spoke earlier today with an official at Taiwan’s Ministry of the Interior, who helped clarify some of the points of the new policy:

  • the space allotted to romanized names is limited to twenty or fewer letters. Supposedly this will be sufficient; but I doubt it.
  • 0nly aborigines will be allowed to use romanization on their ID cards; everyone else will be limited to Chinese characters
  • all ID cards, including those with romanization, must include Chinese characters; thus, Taiwan’s aborigines aren’t allowed to shed the sinicized versions of their names

The above policy applies to “foreigners” as well. In other words, if I become an ROC citizen — as I probably would if the government dropped its insistence that I first abandon my U.S. citizenship — I would not be permitted to have “Mark Swofford” on my identification card. I would have to be identified as “史偉凡” and only as “史偉凡.” I would not be allowed to include a romanized version: Shi Wei-fan (and certainly not Shǐ Wěifán either).

Hmph!

And even if I could have my real name on the ID card, I’d have to omit my middle name, because with that included my name wouldn’t fit within twenty spaces.

sad state of ‘native-language education’ in Taiwan

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Today’s Taipei Times has an interesting article on the state of teaching Taiwan’s “native languages.” (This means Taiwanese (a.k.a. Hokkien, Minnan, etc.), Hakka, and the languages of Taiwan’s tribes, but not Mandarin.) From the look of things, the government has basically botched the situation, despite having thrown twice as much money toward these languages as is being spent on English.

Although some of the problems and expenses are to be expected, given how new this is and how much resistance there has been from conservative forces, I’d say that things are still far from acceptable. A large part of the problem is that the government can’t even decide on a script for these languages: sometimes romanization (various systems), sometimes Chinese characters, sometimes zhuyin. It’s a mess.

No progress in native-language education has been made in schools despite the central government promising to encourage local culture and language education three years ago, native-language teachers said yesterday.

Liu Feng-chi (???), director of the Taiwan Association of Mother Language Teachers and a teacher of Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese), said he felt cheated that the government had “not taken in any of our suggestions to improve native-language education in school” over the past three years.

Liu said the Ministry of Education had not put much effort into reform nor native-language education. Classes in schools were not being planned carefully and lack continuity, he said.

“Classes [for native languages] should continue after elementary school so that students can keep learning the languages in junior high,” Liu said.

Association executive director Huang Hsiu-jen (???) said teachers of Hoklo are being “reselected” every year and must undergo a “disrespectful” selection process.

Huang said the selection committee was sometimes composed of teachers who did not speak Hoklo themselves.

“The selection team tends to choose young Hoklo teachers who can sing and dance in class, while older teachers like us end up with no job,” Huang said.

Liu also said that the salary for teachers was based on the number of hours worked in a week and that the hourly wage was a mere NT$320.

Furthermore, native language teachers are called “assistant teachers,” and schools do not provide them with health insurance, Liu added.

The association also expressed concern that many schools were using the time reserved for language classes to teach other subjects, and that many language teachers were required to teach mathematics or science as well.

Meanwhile, Perng Fuh-yuan (???), section chief at the ministry’s Department of Elementary Education, said there are more than 300,000 children learning native languages in the country.

Perng said the selection process applied not only to language teachers but to teachers in general, and that former language teachers were added to the selection committee to provide specialist advice.

“It is hard for students to continue native-language classes in junior high school under all of the exam pressure,” he said. “However, schools have tried to incorporate these languages into extracurricular activities connected to the school, such as Hoklo language clubs.”

The ministry spends NT$400 million (US$11.9 million) annually on native-language courses, while English classes have NT$200 million per year in funding. Elementary school students are required to take at least one period of native-tongue classes per week.

Taiwan’s native tongues include Hoklo, Hakka and a variety of Aboriginal languages.

source: Native-language teachers lash ‘disrespectful’ ministry, Taipei Times, November 18, 2005.

Zhuang writing

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An article from Xinhua discusses writing in Zhuang. The Zhuang, China’s largest “national minority” group, live mainly in Guangxi. Their language is written with the Roman alphabet.

The first paragraph discusses a prize for literature in Zhuang. One of the winners was a folk song, the other a novella. While I have nothing against folk songs, I find the novella potentially far more interesting as it wouldn’t necessarily fit within the framework of what multiculturalism has come to be in today’s China: “We love minorities as long as they wear colorful costumes, have some songs and dances, bring in tourists, and don’t spout other than the Party line.” (It wasn’t always so. In the period just after the 1949 revolution, the Communist authorities initially worked to give real support to minority groups — to the extent of registering many people as Zhuang who insisted that, no, they were Han!)

The novella, though, has a rather folksy title, Shorty A-he, so it may be just more in the colorful, old-fashioned-countryside-folk mode. Although there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that, I hope there’s more to Zhuang literature than this. Otherwise, it’s going to end up a museum piece.

我国首届壮文文学奖日前揭晓，李从式的山歌《深情重如山》和陆登的中篇小说《短脚阿和》等５篇以壮文创作的作品获奖。众多语言学专家认为，文学艺术给壮文普及插上一对翅膀，对传承壮族文化起着重要作用。”民族语言文字在传播、培育民族文化中发挥着重要作用，以艺术形式推广不仅有利于普及壮文，还能更加鲜明地体现出壮族文化的内涵。”广西少数民族语言文字研究处主任杜宰经说。

壮族是我国人口最多的少数民族，１１月２９日是壮文诞辰４８年纪念日。壮族文化源远流长，壮文早在隋唐时期就有了雏形，但过去一直没有形成统一使用的民族语言文字，直到１９５７年国务院才经过语言文字专家仔细研究，通过了以拉丁字母为基础的拼音壮文方案。据统计，我国壮语人口已经超过１７００万人。作为中国学者和壮文研究者集体智慧的结晶，壮文已经在广西、云南文山等一些地方得到普及和应用。现行的标准壮语是以广西武鸣音为标准音、以壮族北部方言为基础方言的壮民族共同语。

广西贝贝特文化传播有限公司副总经理李庭华说：”过去壮文普及仅仅依托教育模式，通过设立壮汉双语教学学校，培养了数以十万计的壮文教育人才，但是文学艺术才是一个民族文化特色的本质所在，通过艺术表现力才能更好地展现一个民族的魅力。”

“今年广西在第五届壮族文学奖里增设了壮文文学奖，以文学艺术竞赛模式促进了壮文文学创作队伍的扩大，有益于建立独特的壮文文学读者群，从而推动壮语普及和壮族文化发展。”李庭华说。

为了普及壮文，广西之前还举办过农民学壮文学科技等一系列颇具特色的壮文培训班，将壮文扫盲与脱贫致富相结合。”过去学壮文学科技致富脱贫，现在学壮文学艺术陶冶情操。”李庭华笑着说。

source: Shǒujiè Zhuàngwén wénxué jiǎng jiēxiǎo　Zhuàngyǔ pǔjí dāchéng yìshù kuàichē, (首届壮文文学奖揭晓　壮语普及搭乘艺术快车), Xinhua, November 4, 2005.

another Taiwan tribe, another language?

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The Sakizaya people of Taiwan’s Hualian County want to be officially recognized as a tribe and registered their application with the government’s Council of Indigenous Peoples on Thursday, according to an article in the Taipei Times. Among their claims in support of their application is that they have a separate language from that of the Amis, a tribe they have lived among since the nineteenth century. A few examples of words are given in the final paragraph.

“According to how we handled this kind of application before, historians will analyze their [Sakizaya people] language, history and the locations where they are residing now, before we approve their application,” said Walis Pelin (瓦歷斯貝林), council chairman.

According to the council, Sakizaya tribe chief Hsu Cheng-wan (徐成丸) led a group of 100 Sakizaya people from Hualien county early yesterday morning and arrived at the council in the afternoon to deliver their application in person….

According to Hsu, currently, the “Sakizaya” people are classified as a part of the Amis tribe. But, the Sakizaya language and Amis language are two totally different languages, and both have individual historical backgrounds as well.

In 1878, when Taiwan was under the rule of the Qing Dynasty, Sakizaya people were slaughtered by Qing troops, so most Sakizaya people tried to escape from the Qing soldiers’ pursuit by changing their names and they have hidden themselves among the Amis tribe ever since. Up until today, most Sakizaya people can speak Amis language fluently, since the two tribes have been merged for more than a century.

I would hope that many people can still speak Amis fluently. But the sad fact is that many of the languages of Taiwan’s tribes are dying out.

After the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government recovered Taiwan from the Japanese in 1945, the Sakizaya have never been “independent,” and have always been regarded as a part of the Amis since there were more Amis people than Sakizaya people.

“But, we are still so different in many ways, in terms of language, culture, ways of living, etc.,” Hsu said. “Taiwan’s indigenous tribes are all unique minorities in this country, but we are all the original residents of the island. Every tribe is special and so are we.”

“For instance, we call clothes zigut but Amis people call them zui. We call a cow an but Amis people call it lalaba.”

source: Tribe wants official recognition, Taipei Times, Friday, October 14, 2005

Romanization and teaching Taiwan’s languages

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Three recent articles.

教育部極力推動鄉土語言教學，但第一線的老師碰到不少瓶頸。93學年度鄉土語言教學訪視今(26)日舉行頒獎典禮，教授母語的老師表示，最大的困難是缺乏實用的環境，有些學生在學校學了母語，回到家後缺乏和父母練習，加上教材缺乏生活化，都是教學現場中經常會遇到的問題。

近年來由於強調本土化，所以母語教學也變得很重要，教授的母語包括河洛語、客家話和原住民語；國小是每週有1小時的母語課程，到了國中則改為選修。儘管教育部加強推動，但老師也遇到不少困難。

台北市福德國小老師蔡(系秀)珍表示，因為缺乏實用的環境，許多學生在學校學習母語之後，回到家中缺乏練習的機會，所以很容易就忘記，加上台北市以講國語為主，學生練習的機會更少。

另外，她提到，教材編寫不夠生活化，無法引起學生的興趣，所以在教學時都要改編教材，加入更多生活化的題材，吸引學生注意。

北市國語實小老師朱阿莉則認為，語文領域應該有一套同整的音標，羅馬拼音就是很實用的工具，像她就是用羅馬拼音學會河洛語和客家話。她強調，全世界都是使用羅馬拼音，如果台灣不用，其實很可惜。

另一位教授原住民語的花蓮縣水璉國小老師宋德讓表示，他的學生多是阿美族，有很多不會講母語也不會聽，甚至不懂為什麼要學會講原住民的母語，但他透過遊戲和唱歌，在過程中就教導學生講幾句母語，學生學會之後就會和阿嬤用母語交談，大人們都會很高興，也增加學生的樂趣。

source: 缺乏實用環境、教材不夠生活化　母語教師教學遇瓶頸, 台北報導 September 26, 2005

國語實小教師朱阿莉今天指出，語文教學工具對鄉土語教學很重要，她建議九年一貫課程應有一套可學國語、英語、閩南語、客家話等語言的統整拼音系統。

教育部首度舉辦的鄉土語言教學訪視評鑑結果今天出爐並舉行頒獎典禮，教育部長杜正勝親自頒獎評鑑遴選出來的八個績優縣市、五十二所績優學校、四十九位教學績優教師，朱阿莉等得獎教師認為鄉土語言教學的路還很長，鄉土語言教師應有更積極努力的空間。

台北市福德國小教師蔡 (糸秀)珍表示，鄉土語言教師編教材要結合時事經驗和生活化，她曾在兩年前把SARS編成童謠。

阿美族人宋德讓在花蓮縣水璉國小退休後，仍回校義務教阿美族語，他說水璉國小大部分學童是阿美族，卻不會講母語，也不懂為什麼要學母語，因此，他先教唱歌玩遊戲，再穿插教一兩句母語，孩子回去與阿媽對話，彼此都很開心，顯見教母語要先激發孩子的興趣。

教育部表示，這次評鑑發現很多縣市的用心與創意，例如台北縣利用K12數位學校，營造無所不在的學習環境，結合資訊與鄉土語言教育，深具創意及方便性，尤其運用動畫技巧，將親師生共同創作的繪本，予以數位化，更能吸引孩子的目光。

高雄縣透過鄉土月、主題週、鄉土語言日、社團活動，認識其他各族群語言；台北市編印鄉土語言教材，每一種都包括書本及CD，且包含閩、客及原住民三種語言。

台中縣辦理閩南語卡拉OK歌唱比賽及爭取行政院客家委員會經費，成立大埔音客語教學資源中心；台南市將校園公共設施及場所標示牌納入台語諺語、俚語及俗語等內容，並透過英語老師協助翻譯成英語，採﹁中、英、台﹂介紹給到校參觀的外國人士，充分讓鄉土語言俚語國際化；高雄市每年辦理台語文教學學術研討會，有效提升鄉土語言學術價值。

今天得獎的績優縣市共計有屏東縣、高雄市、高雄縣、新竹市、台中縣、台北市、台北縣、台南市等八個單位，由杜正勝頒發獎牌一面，並頒給五十萬元推展鄉土語言教學專案補助款。

source: 母語教師:鄉土語教學應有一套統整拼音工具, 中央社 September 26, 2005

教育部昨天表揚鄉土語言教學評鑑績優單位及個人，共有8縣市、52所學校及49位教師及支援人員得獎。有得獎老師嗆聲表示，政府力排的羅馬拼音，現在各國都在積極學習，而一套統整的羅馬拼音可以同時學華、閩、客、英語，教育部應推動整合。

教育部長杜正勝致詞時表示，聯合國教科文組織宣示「世界上的少數族群語言、文化、宗教，是人權的一部分，全世界應共同維護」，鼓勵鄉土語言是世界主流價值，社會對母語教學應有正確認識。

受獎人之一的台北市國語實小老師朱阿莉說，學習語文的工具很重要，她不是閩南人或客家人，但根據羅馬拼音學會閩南語和客家語；全世界都積極用羅馬拼音來學習華語，國內應趕緊發展可同時學習華語、閩南語、客家語及英語4種語言且和大陸漢語拼音接軌的羅馬拼音系統，學生只要花2、3個月學會這套拼音系統，不但可學母語，也才能和全世界競爭。

台北市福德國小老師蔡綉珍則認為現在部分母語教材與生活脫節，她必須自編教材加一課專講台北的捷運、百貨公司、孔廟，才能結合兒童接觸過的生活時事。

蔡綉珍強調，語言教學不能只靠課堂，家長在家一定要協助，若回家不講母語，教學無法落實。

已退休的花蓮水璉國小老師宋德讓是阿美族人，他說很多阿美族小朋友不會聽、說母語，也不懂為何要學，所以他花很多心思讓小朋友了解學習母語是很重要的事，再利用唱歌、遊戲引起興趣，讓小朋友喜歡學習母語。

source: 得獎老師嗆聲：政府不該排斥羅馬拼音, 台北報導 September 27, 2005

Presbyterian Church in Taiwan

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For many years, the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan has been an important voice for human rights in Taiwan, including the right of people to speak and worship in their native language.

Probably the best-established romanization system for writing Taiwanese (Hoklo, Hokkien, Minnan, etc.) is known as the “church system,” having been developed by Presbyterian missionaries. Publications are still being issued in this, as I intend to discuss in a later edition of Pinyin News.

Through the efforts of David Alexander, many writings and news releases from the church are available in English.

Articles that might be of interest to readers of Pinyin News include:

Bunun language

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Chuánchéng Bùnóngzú mǔyǔ: Gǔ Sìhai sǎzhǒng

擔任天主教傳教士的延平鄉布農族人古四海，有感布農族語日漸式微，默默的在部落裏，以口傳方式，教導族人母語，還以自行研發的注音及羅馬拼音，編譯族語聖經和教材，撤下傳承種子。

具有天主教聖約翰傳教學校學歷的古四海說，布農族是個有語言卻沒文字的族群，當年傳教士傳教，都用羅馬拼音的布農語證道，50年代老一輩族人懂日語，一度改用日語，但為政府所禁，後來採用注音符號拼音，但37個字母的注音符號，卻無法拼出許多「大舌頭直音」的布農族語，經他不斷研發，發現加上「ｂａ」、「ｄａ」、「ｇａ」、「vａ」、「ｚａ」等五個新音標，聖經內容即能以布農族語傳道。

他表示，若採用羅馬拼音，則24個音標僅需19個，就能翻譯出布農族語的聖經；遺憾的，60年代政府禁止他們教授族語，民國90年才解禁，這期間靠教會和家庭教導，來延續族語傳承，但30年間隔仍出現語言斷層，會講母語的族人，似乎越來越少。

身為原民會台東縣布農族語唯一認證委員的古四海認為，如果再不致力於族語的傳布，布農族極可能因族語消失，成為歷史名詞，因此他毅然肩負起傳承重任，曾受邀到關山工商或東華大學授課，與原民會合作，培訓族語種子師資，目前已有30餘名族語認證種子，散布在布農部落中，教授族人族語。

古四海還為延平鄉立托兒所編寫族語教材，擔任國中、小學、社區族語教師，他表示，目前國小每週一堂、托兒所週三下午的族語教學，仍然不夠，至少教育下一代對族語能說、聽、看、讀，才能將布農文化傳承下去。古四海很希望獲得政府有關單位或關心布農族語民間團體的支援與協助，共同為傳布布農族語而努力。

他的聯絡電話：（089）550010，0955974990。