2-05_黃東秋_TheThemesoftheAmisFolkSongsandTheirRolesinLanguageRevitalization.pdfVIP

台灣原住民研究論叢 第二期 民國九十六年十二月 第 97～114 頁 The Themes of the Amis Folk Songs and Their Roles in Language Revitalization 黃東秋 國立東華大學民族語言與傳播學系/ 民族發展研究所助理教授 Abstract This paper reveals that Taiwan’s aboriginal history was not ‘written, but ‘lived’, because for the aboriginal people, history is not ‘studied’, but ‘experienced’. Only active participation in the living language itself will allow these people to strengthen their roots. Singing or dancing is one of the ways of language revitalization to activate and cultivate minority languages and cultures by developing literacy through action research. The largest community of aboriginal peoples in Taiwan is the Amis ethnicity. Folk songs, of which are part of our typical daily life, are like little lessons passed down from older generation to the younger people to teach them about life. They are examples or small bits of folk wisdom, values, knowledge and experience Keywords: Taiwan/Formosa, Amis ethnicity, folk songs, language revitalization Introduction Areas in which Austronesian languages are spoken are so vast that they encompass nearly half the globe, stretching from Taiwan in the north, Easter Island in the east, to Madagascar in the west and New Zealand to the South. Taiwan aboriginal people who speak various Austronesian languages (.tw/index/ menu4/munu4-9.htm), and has been widely recognized in recent years as an important center for these languages. Since 1997, all indigenous languages, including Hoklo and Hakka as well as over 12 official recognized aboriginal languages, have been taught in elementary schools (Tsao, 1999a: 329; Sung, Da-Chuan, 2004,2005; Huang, Lillian 98 台灣原住民研究論叢 M. 2001). As President of Academia Sinica, Dr. Lee, Yuan-Tseh suggested views towards linguisti