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Old 15th February 2010, 06:57 AM   #8
yuanzhumin
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Ex-Taipei, Taiwan, now in Shanghai, China
Posts: 180
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Migueldiaz, concerning the language of the Yami:
The Yami are very special Taiwanese aborigines because, today, they depend politically from Taiwan but they are in fact coming from Luzon. Let's go back in the time : the Austronesian began their migration from Mainland Asia around 8000 years ago, reaching first Taiwan. Then, on pirogues, they spread around 6000 years ago from Taiwan towards the rest of the Pacific till the Easter Island, in the West, and some part of Madagascar, in the east. On the beginning of this long migration, they reached first Luzon, in the Philippines, and mixed with other people that were already there for more than 20 000 years. It is now known that 800 hundred years ago, Ivatan people went from the batanes Islands (today Philippines) to the north, in the Bashi Channel, and reached the Orchid Island/Botel Tobago/Lanyu (today taiwanese territory) and settled down there to become the Yami. So the Yami, coming from Luzon, brought with them their batanic language that is still an austronesian language but more closely related to the Luzon languages than the Taiwanese aboriginal languages (even if originally they are all coming from the same place/family). Yami people can understand and be understood from the Ivatan people. In fact, tao/tawu as in Tagalog if I remember well means 'people'.
-Migueldiaz, for your wife : Taiwan is definitely a nice vacations trip to do ! Good restaurants, nice shops and museums, warm people, beautiful unspotted mountains ! You have everything there and cheaper than in Honkong or Japan !
-Kukulza : Most of the plain aborigines assimilated themselves with the Han migrants. Some have been recognized as independant ethnic groups (Sakiraya...), some not (Siraya...). The Amis, the biggest aboriginal tribe in Taiwan, are often considered as plains aborigines. Whatever, the plains and mountains aborignes have always been distinct groups.
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