Language Taivoan language in Southwestern Taiwan has a close linguistic relationship to Siraya and Makatao The concept that Taivoan spoke the Siraya language has been rejected by many linguists, based on documentary and linguistic evidence. Since the January 2019 code release,
SIL International has recognized
Taivoan as an independent language and assigned the code
tvx.
Documentary evidence "De Dagregisters van het Kasteel Zeelandia" by the Dutch in the 17th century showed that, to communicate with the chieftain of Cannacannavo (
Kanakanavu), the local official language Sinccan (Siraya) had to be translated to
Tarrocquan (regarded as a dialect of
Rukai or
Paiwan), and
Tevorang (Taivoan):
Linguistic evidence Taiwanese linguist Paul Jen-kuei Li and Japanese linguist Shigeru Tsuchida compared the corpora of the Gospel of St. Matthew in "Siraya", the Sinckan Manuscripts, and other corpora recorded by Japanese scholars in the early 20th century, and found some significant sound and morphological changes among Siraya, Taivoan, and Makatao, by which they think the Gospel of St. Matthew written by the Dutch people in the 17th century in Taiwan, having long been regarded as in the Siraya language, had actually been written in the Taivoan language:"ancua ikasu akia tavoLaa gwaa no miaa"(Translation: Why don't you know my name?)"ikuu ka ku boo pakciu cima vo tavLaa"(Translation: I haven't seen you for a long time, so I don't know who you are.)According to the scarce corpora Tsuchida obtained, he doubted the language is apparently a mixture of Kanakanabu, Taiwanese, Mantauran-Rukai, Bunun, Japanese, and some unknown elements. only one of the 700-plus communities of the Taiwanese Highland indigenous people lacks a church. In Taivoan animism, the most important religious concept is
Hiang or
Xiang (transliterated as in Taiwanese), which cannot be translated literally but conveys the idea of sorcery, taboo, and magic. The Night Ceremony () is not only the day to lift the taboo (Khui-Hiang) but also the most important day for all the Taivoan people to worship their Highest Ancestral Spirits. The Highest Ancestral Spirits used to be called
Anag in Taivoan but are now commonly called
Thài-Tsóo (太祖, literally "the Grandmothers"; Taivoan:
Anag) or
Huan-Thài-Tsóo (番太祖, literally "the Indigenous Grandmothers") in Taiwanese. Also, some Taivoan elders refer to the Highest Ancestral Spirits as
Kuba-Tsóo, literally "the Grandmothers in
Kuba", as Kuba is the Taivoan word for the Shrine. ;
Kaohisung •
Xiaolin •
Alikuan •
Laulong Hualien •
Dazhuang Tainan •
Liuchongxi Women's Night While many Taiwanese indigenous peoples are regarded as
matrilineal societies, only Taivoan in Xiaolin and
Pinuyumayan people hold a specific traditional ceremony or holiday for the women. Many regard the two cheerful festivals for women only as legacies of the matrilineal practices of Taivoan and Pinuyumayan. Decades ago, the Women's Night () used to start from 8:00 pm or 9:00 pm on the full-moon of the first lunar month in Xiaolin, when all the local Taivoan women dressed beautifully, played games, and sang and danced in the streets. according to the elders. Not until 2014 did the Taivoan people begin to revive the festival in Sunlight Xiaolin.
Taivoan Cultural Festival The Taivoan Cultural Festival () has been held by the Taivoan residents in Sunlight Xiaolin in spring annually since 2015, both in the hopes of reviving and promoting the culture of Taivoan, especially traditional Taivoan music, and to strengthen self-recognition among Taivoan people in the
Kaohsiung area.
Arts and crafts Bamboo basket A notable handicraft of Taivoan is bamboo basket (Taivoan:
agicin or
kikiz); it is used not only for fishing but also for religious purpose in Taivoan culture. As fishing trap is not uncommon among different Taiwanese indigenous peoples, Taivoan people are the only ones who sanctify bamboo fishing basket and grant it an important role at all levels of religious activity. Many of these have been recorded and even taught in local elementary schools in Taivoan communities.
Taboro Taboro, or the so-called "the Song in the Shrine" among the Taivoan people, is a ceremonial song that can be sung only in the Shrine at the Night Ceremony; singing on any other occasion is strictly prohibited. Some of the lyrics are:
Lawkhema Lawkhema is a cheerful Taivoan work song among men and women while working in mountains. While most of the lyrics are in Taivoan, the word "Lawkhema" (literally "Old Hen", implying a stingy person in
Hakka Chinese) that appears in the song repeatedly is a Hakka Chinese term that the singers sing to mock
Hakka people, showing the negative stereotype believed by many Taivoan people that the immigrants are mean and stingy. titled "Het Heylige Euangelium Matthei En Joannis / oft: Overgeset Inde Formosansche Tale, Voor De Inwoonders Van Soulang, Mattau, Sinckan, Bacloan, Tavokan, En Tevorang" in Dutch,
the Gospel of St. Matthew translated into
Taivoan and
Siraya in 1661. Although the writing is credited to Dutch missionary
Daniel Gravius, recent linguistic research results have shown that it "was not the product of one person only: this is clear from the text itself, and [...] that there was a committee deciding over the final edition", Tou kidi k'anna ni-matta-naunamou ta ti Jesus matta-sasou, mattœ'i-k'ma-hynna, Si-lala, pa-salikough-â ki vanna-oumi ki ryh, ka ni-mou-touk ta pei-sasou-an ki tounnoun ki vullu-vullum. (Translation: From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near".)
Sinckan Manuscripts Many leases, mortgages, and other commerce contracts written in Siraya, Taivoan, and Makatao have been found among the communities in
Southern Taiwan in the past one century, written in the Roman script taught by the Dutch missionaries. As most of the manuscripts are in the language of Sinckan or Siraya, they are called the Sinckan Manuscripts (新港文書) in combination. An example of the Sinckan Manuscripts written in Taivoan: lip san kih lang tausiah tamoring san to lagalaij san 5 o koh hiro to panah san 5 ki koh. komma ta na-ga-girah ti tanbingan. ki banitok 204 nio hon gin. komma ta solat kata, na inni imdaij. (Translation: The contractor Tamoring from Tausiah has 5 units of farmland located in Lagalaij and 5 units of farmland located in Panah to be traded with Tan Bingan for 24
taels of indigenous silver. Thus written the contract, agreed by all the Inni's.)
Folklore Not much folklore has been retained by modern-day Taivoan communities. Two examples of folklore that are still well-known even to the younger Taivoan generations are:
Soldiers of Hiang-Water Taivoan people believe in the supernatural power of
mimaw-pilinlin or
Hiang-water, the water blessed by the Highest Ancestral Spirits. In Xiaolin, it is said when the local Taivoans in rebellion were escaping from the pursuit of Japanese army, the Hiang-water spilled out by them transformed into hundreds of soldiers, helping them defeat the Japanese.
Ancestral Spirit That Escaped Taivoan people in Pualiao believe the forms of the local Highest Ancestral Spirits were seven pearls that flew back to the village only during the Night Ceremony. Decades ago, when a Taoist deity from
Pingtung came by Pualiao and was trying to subdue the Highest Ancestral Spirits, the youngest of the seven spirits transformed into a pearl and escaped successfully. The local Taivoans believe the youngest spirit is still hiding on a certain tree in Pualiao. == Nomenclature ==