[KS] Languages in China

[Charles Mark Mueller]

Regarding language families in China, beyond the numerous dialects
(which are technically "languages" since they are mutually
unintelligible), there were clearly some languages from different
families in what is now the Chinese cultural area. Taiwan in particular
was home to several native languages that weren't in the same family as
Chinese. These are not to be confused with a commonly spoken Taiwanese
language/dialect in the same language family as Chinese. (Few people in
Taiwan can now speak the native languages.)

These native languages, classified as Austronesian, have been of
interest to linguists. The languages are related but distant from one
another. Austronesian has ten primary subgroups, nine of them found in
Taiwan (the Formosan languages, unrelated to Chinese) and one ancestral
to all other members of the family (Malayo-Polynesian languages)--a
list that includes Madagascar! Some claim that this preponderance of
Austronesian language families provides support for the theory that
early sea-faring (Malayo-Polynesian aborigines) originally came out of Taiwan.


		
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