What can be accomplished in a 10-year period?
Two women, one with Han and one with Yami heritage, completed a book entitled Yami Texts with Reference Grammar and Dictionary (
At a seminar on Austronesian native languages in 1994, Maa-Neu Dong (董瑪女) from Orchid Island met with Victoria Rau (何德華), a professor in the English department at Providence University in Taichung, who holds a doctorate in linguistics from Cornell University in the US.
Rau, who had directed her energies toward Austronesian languages after receiving a scholarship to study Indonesian during her studies at Cornell, immediately agreed when Dong asked if she would compile teaching materials for Yami.
Rau said most Yami students can't speak Yami, a Philippine-Batanic tongue that is part of the Austronesian language family.
The speed at which the language is disappearing is worrying, Rau said, especially since the language lacks a script, which makes it a huge challenge to record and compile it into a dictionary.
Dong said that she and Rau also gained access to the Institute of Ethnology at the Academia Sinica, where they helped professor Liu Pin-hsiung (劉斌雄) with the collection and translation of the oral tradition of the Yami tribe.
The two completed the first Yami teaching materials in 2000. By 2003, Rau had completed her studies of Yami grammar and finished the first draft of their book, which was published by Academia Sinica earlier this year.
In order to bring the study of Taiwan's Aboriginal languages to the attention of the international community, the two also applied for a grant from the School of Oriental and African Studies' Endangered Language Documentation Program to prepare digital archive materials for the Yami language.
Anyone interested in the digital archives can visit their site at yamiproject.cs.pu.edu.tw/yami.
The bilingual Chinese and English site can be searched in both languages, as well as in romanized Yami.
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
The Sports Administration yesterday demanded an apology from the national table tennis association for barring 17-year-old Yeh Yi-tian (葉伊恬) from competing in the upcoming World Table Tennis (WTT) United States Smash tournament in Las Vegas this July. The sports agency said in a statement that the Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association (CTTTA) must explain to the public why it withdrew Yeh from the WTT tournament in Las Vegas. The sports agency said it contacted the association to express its disapproval of the decision-making process after receiving a complaint from Yeh’s coach, Chuang
Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) tendered his resignation last night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by media. His resignation was immediately accepted by the Control Yuan. In a statement explaining why he had resigned, Lee apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon on May 20. The issue first came to light late last month, when TVBS News reported that Lee had instructed his driver to take the dog to the salon. The news channel broadcast photos that it said were taken by an unnamed whistle-blower, which purportedly showed the
A former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who witnessed the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has warned that Taiwan could face a similar fate if China attempts to unify the country by force. Li Xiaoming (李曉明), who was deployed to Beijing as a junior officer during the crackdown, said Taiwanese people should study the massacre carefully, because it offers a glimpse of what Beijing is willing to do to suppress dissent. “What happened in Tiananmen Square could happen in Taiwan too,” Li told CNA in a May 22 interview, ahead of the massacre’s 36th anniversary. “If Taiwanese students or
RSS