Taiwan aborigine
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 530,000 2.3% of the population of Taiwan |
|
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Taiwan | |
| Languages | |
|
Atayal, Bunun, Amis, Paiwan, other Formosan languages Mandarin |
|
| Religion | |
| Animism and Christianity (Presbyterianism) |
Taiwanese aborigines or Formosan people (Chinese: 臺灣; pinyin: Táiwān yuánzhùmín; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tâi-ôan gôan-chū-bîn; literally: "Taiwanese original inhabitants") or Austronesian Taiwanese are the indigenous peoples of Taiwan, who number more than 530,000 and constitute nearly 2.3% of the island's population. Recent research suggests their ancestors may have been living on Taiwan for approximately 5,500 years in relative isolation before a major Han immigration began in the 17th century. Taiwanese aborigines are Austronesian peoples, with linguistic and genetic ties to other Austronesian people. Related ethnic groups include those of Timor-Leste, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei among others.
For centuries, Taiwan's aboriginal inhabitants experienced economic competition and military conflict with a series of colonising newcomers. Centralised government policies designed to foster language shift and cultural assimilation, as well as continued contact with the colonisers through trade, intermarriage and other intercultural processes, have resulted in varying degrees of language death and loss of original cultural identity. For example, of the approximately 26 known languages of the Taiwanese aborigines (collectively referred to as the Formosan languages), at least ten are now extinct, five are moribund and several are to some degree endangered. These languages are of unique historical significance, since most historical linguists consider Taiwan to be the original homeland of the Austronesian language family.
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