Saaroa language
| Saaroa | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Taiwan |
| Region | west central Mountains of Taiwan, south and southeast of Minchuan, along the Laonung River |
| Ethnicity | 400 (2012) |
|
Native speakers
|
10 (2012) a speaker died in 2013 |
|
Austronesian
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | saar1237 |
Saaroa or Hla'alua is a Southern Tsouic language is spoken by the Saaroa (Hla'alua) people, a indigenous people of Taiwan. It is a Formosan language of the Austronesian family.
The Saaroa live in the two villages of Taoyuan and Kaochung in Taoyuan District (Taoyuan Township), Kaohsiung City, Taiwan (Zeitoun & Teng 2014).
With fewer than 10 native speakers and an ethnic population of 400 people, Saaroa is considered critically endangered. Even among native speakers of the language, they use primarily Mandarin or Bunun in their daily lives. There is no long an active speech community for Saaroa.
When grouped according to grammar, Saaroa is most closely related to the other Formosan language (Tsou) and branches very early from Proto-Formosan language that defines the grouping.
On lexical and phonographical grounds, Tsou, Kanakanbu, and Saaroa also cluster well to form the Tsouic subgroup; it is likely that the Rukai and the "Lower Three Villages Rukai" are also Tsouic languages.
The Tsouic group used to occupy a fairly large area in the southwestern parts of central Taiwan. Due to the invasion of other communities and contagious diseases, it shrank to the relatively small areas as today. The oral tradition say that the Tsouic group originated in Yushan. About 2,000 years ago, the group split into two, the Northern Tsou and Southern Tsou. Northern Tsou moved down along Nantzuhsien River to the west, while Southern Tsou moved down along Laonung River. The latter split into two, Kanakanabu and Saaroa about 800 years ago. In 1990, Saaroa was nearly extinct. Few children speak the language. The Bunun language is becoming the main language of the Saaroa people, and many of the elders in the community speak Taiwanese Hokkien. The shift to the Bunun language occurred when the Bunun migrated into the area inhabited by the Saaroa people.
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Wikipedia