Taiwan’s first foundation for the research and development of Aboriginal languages launched on Saturday to coincide with International Mother Language Day.
The Foundation for the Research and Development of Indigenous Languages was established in accordance with legislation that was passed in 2018 and defines its role as research and development of teaching methods for Aboriginal languages, collection of Aboriginal corpora, compilation of Aboriginal language dictionaries and the establishment of Aboriginal language databases.
Speaking at the launch ceremony, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said that Taiwan’s Aboriginal languages in 2017 gained national language status with the Aboriginal Language Development Act (原住民族語言發展法).
The budget for Aboriginal languages has since increased five-fold, and there are specialized Aboriginal language instructors in schools and villages, Tsai said.
Some government agencies are publishing official documents in Aboriginal languages and providing simultaneous interpretation in Aboriginal languages on a trial basis, she said.
Apart from recognizing and embracing Aboriginal languages, the government is also working to promote the mother tongues of other ethnic groups, such as the Hoklo and Hakka, Tsai said.
Taiwan’s 16 officially recognized Aboriginal languages have more than 40 dialects, according to Council of Indigenous Peoples statistics.
International Mother Language Day was approved by the UN in 1999 and is observed worldwide on Feb. 21 to promote linguistic diversity and multilingualism.
A recently discovered supernova is the brightest and closest to Earth identified in the past decade, and can be observed with basic equipment, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said on Wednesday. The supernova has an absolute magnitude of 14.9 in luminosity and is in the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) about 21 million light-years from Earth. It was discovered early on May 20 by Japanese amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki, who immediately reported the finding to the International Astronomical Union, the museum said. The supernova was designated SN 2023ixf following the astronomical naming conventions for supernovas, it added. The museum said that it observed
Tropical storm Guchol is moving in a northeasterly direction off the east coast of the Philippines and will not hit Taiwan, but will impact local weather starting on Friday, the Central Weather Bureau said Thursday. The storm would bring a low-pressure system northward toward the vicinity of Taiwan, forecaster Chao Hung (趙竑) said. Northern Taiwan will see intermittent rain showers in the morning, and thunderstorms in the afternoon on Friday, he said, adding that rain would be heavier on the east coast and in the central-southern mountainous areas. Rainfall would continue into Saturday, and would spread throughout Taiwan proper, he
Exiled Chinese democracy advocate Wang Dan (王丹) yesterday denied an accusation by former Taiwanese political worker Lee Yuan-chun (李援軍) that Wang had sexually harassed him in a hotel room in New York nine years ago. There was a huge gap between Lee’s accusation and his own understanding and memory, Wang wrote on Facebook, adding it was hard for him to respond further regarding a “unilateral description” made by someone else. Wang made the remarks after his initial response on Facebook was met with criticism, with people saying he did not directly address the allegation. Lee on Friday wrote on Facebook that he
A man was arrested in Hsinchu on Saturday on suspicion of filming women in the women’s washroom of a shopping mall in the city, local Chinese-language media reported on Thursday. The man was arrested at around noon on Saturday when a woman using a stall in the mall’s washroom noticed a cellphone being held above her from the neighboring stall, reports said. The woman ran out of the washroom and yelled to her husband to help her, after which the suspect – who was dressed as a woman – attempted to flee, but was subdued by other men until police