AMIS
Excerpts from Wikipedia.org
The Amis (阿美; also Ami or Pangcah) are an indigenous people of Taiwan. They speak an Austronesian language and are one of the thirteen officially recognized peoples of Taiwanese aborigines. The traditional territory of the Amis include the long, narrow valley between the Central Mountains and the Coastal Mountains, the Pacific coastal plain eastern to the Coastal Mountains, and the Hengchun Peninsula.
In the year 2000 the Ami numbered 148,992. This was approximately 37.5% of Taiwan's total indigenous population, making them the largest tribal group. The Amis are primarily fishermen due to their coastal location. They are traditionally matrilineal. Traditional Amis villages were relatively large for indigenous groups, typically between 500 and 1,000. In today's Taiwan, the Amis also comprise the majority of "urban aboriginals" and have developed many "urban tribes" all around the island.
Identity and Classification
The Amis people generally identify themselves as Pangcah, which means "human" or "people of our kind." Nonetheless, in today's Taiwan, Amis is much more frequently used. This name comes from the word amis, meaning "north." There is still no consensus in the academic circle how "Amis" came to be used to address the Pangcah. One supposition is that it was originally used by the Puyuma to call the Pangcah, as the Pangcah lived to the north of them. Another supposition holds that those who lived in the Taitung Plain called themselves "Amis" because their ancestors had come from the north. The later explanation is recorded in the Banzoku Chōsa Hōkokusho (Survey Reports on the Savages, 1913-1918, Taipei. See: vol.8, p.4), indicating this might originate from what is classified by anthropologists as Falangaw Amis, the Amis group located from today's Chengkong to the Taitung Plain. Their closest genetic relative appears to be the Filipinos.
According to Taiwanese Aboriginal History: Amis, the Amis are classified into five groups:
- Northern group (located on the Chihlai/Hualien Plain)
- Middle group (located west to the Coastal Mountains)
- Coastal group (located east to the Coastal Mountains)
- Falangaw group (located between Chengkong and the Taitung Plain)
- Hengchun group (located on the Hengchun Peninsula)
Note that such classification, however widely accepted, is merely based on the geographical distribution and tribal migration. It does not match the observed differences in culture, language, and physiques.
Ami Language
Amis is the Formosan language of the Amis or Ami, a tribe of indigenous people along the east coast of Taiwan (see Taiwanese aborigines). It is spoken from Hualian in the north to Taidong in the south, with another population near the southern end of the island, though the northern varieties are sometimes considered a separate language.
Government services in counties where many Amis people live in Taiwan, such as the Hualien and Taitung train stations, broadcast in Amis alongside Mandarin. However, few Amis under the age of 20 in 1995 spoke the language, and it is not known how many of the 138,000 ethnic Amis are speakers.
There are some dialects of Amis language: Sakizaya language (regarded as a language independent to Amis language sometimes), Northern Amis dialect, Middle Amis dialect, Seashore Amis dialect, Malan Amis dialect and Hengchun Amis dialect.
Classification of Austronesian Languages
- Tsouic
- Western Plains
- Northwest Formosan
- Atayalic
- East Formosan
- Northern (Kavalanic)
- Basai (Trobiawan, Linaw-Qauqaul dialects)
- Kavalan
- Ketagalan
- Central (Ami)
- Nataoran (North Amis)
- Amis
- Siraya
- Malayo-Polynesian
- Northern (Kavalanic)
- Bunun
- Rukai (Mantauran, Tona, and Maga dialects are divergent)
- Puyuma
- Paiwan (southern tip of Formosa)
