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FORMOSAN LANGUAGES

''For classification, see Austronesian Languages .''

The Taiwanese aboriginals have probably been living on Formosa for at least 4000 to 5000 years. People of Chinese origin started to migrate to the island from circa 1650 on. They spoke dialects of Hakka and Southern Min . From 1895 till 1945 , the island was occupied by the Japanese , and afterwards a second influence of speakers of Mandarin-Chinese began.

Most Formosan languages were to a greater or lesser extent influenced by all these languages and especially by Japanese. Nowadays, all Formosan languages are slowly being replaced by the culturally dominant Mandarin-Chinese, but in the last decades the Taiwanese Government started an aboriginal reappreciation program that included the reintroduction of Formosan Mother Tongue Education in Taiwanese schools.


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