The Great Diversity of Formosan Languages

Formosan languages are extremely diverse at all linguistic levels, from phonology to morphology to syntax. In fact, the Formosan languages are the most diverse within the entire Austronesian language family. This great linguistic diversity indicates a great time depth for an early settlement on the island, so as to make Taiwan the prime candidate for Austronesian homeland and the center of Austronesian dispersal. In this paper, we shall briefly survey the diversity of the Formosan languages, highlighting eight linguistic features: word order, focus systems, auxiliaries, numerals, personal pronouns, compounding, affixation, and phonology.