The Linguistic Map of Taiwan Indigenous Peoples 臺灣原住民語言地圖
This map is part of the author's Austronesian language group map, aimed at showcasing the distribution of indigenous languages in Taiwan. Taiwan is an island in southeastern Asia and the first transit point for the Austronesian language family to advance towards the Pacific Ocean. The linguistic differentiation of Taiwan's indigenous peoples began earliest, and the differences in differentiation are unparalleled among the Austronesian language families.
After a hundred years of investigation and research by scholars, the Taiwanese language group can be divided into nine major language families, namely the Atayal language family, the Bunun language family, the Eastern Taiwanese language family, the Zou language family, the Paiwan language family, the Rukai language family, the Northwest Taiwanese language family, and the Western Plains language family. Many of these language families have less internal language differentiation, while others have a higher degree of internal differentiation. For hundreds of years, the indigenous languages of the plain areas have gradually been assimilated by the cultivated Han people, and language diversity has been gradually lost. Fortunately, there are many historical materials and survey results that allow us to explore the mysteries behind them. The language distribution in the Central Mountain Range region has not changed much, with a high degree of continuity and application in tribal societies. The Lanyu region in the southeast is home to the Tao tribe of the Malayo-Polynesian language family, which belongs to the Bassic language group and is closely related to the Bassic people of the Philippines.