SIRAYA
Excerpts from Wikipedia.org
The Siraya (西拉雅族) are an indigenous people of Taiwan. The Siraya settled flat coastal plains in the southwest part of the island and corresponding sections of the east coast; the area is identified today with Tainan City, Tainan County and Taidong County. At least five subtribes make up the group: Mattauw, Soelangh, Baccloangh, Sinckan, and Taivoan.
The Siraya are one of Taiwan's Pingpu peoples--that is, occupants of flat coastal regions rather than mountain areas. Like other indigenous peoples of Taiwan they are ethnically and linguistically Austronesian. The name "Taiwan" (historically 大灣 / 台員 / 大員 / 台圓 / 大圓) originated from the Siraya language.
After the port in the Siraya area of Taiwan was annexed in 1683 by Qing Dynasty China, a process of gradual acculturation led to the Siraya language falling out of use. Its last recorded regular use was in 1908, after Taiwan was under Japanese rule.
Despite the loss of their language, the Siraya maintain many aspects of their culture today. A number of families in the Tso-chen, Kou-pei and Chiou-chen-lin of Sinhua Township in particular still identify themselves as Siraya. The family name Wan, often encountered in the region, is a Chinese transliteration of Talavan, a common Siraya surname.
The Siraya are not currently one of the 14 indigenous tribes officially recognized by Taiwan's national government. Efforts are under way by the Siraya to change that. A Siraya Culture Association (台南縣平埔族西拉雅文化協會) was founded in 1999. In 2002 the reconstructed Siraya language began to be taught in schools and used in new literature. In 2005 the Tainan County government established a Siraya Aboriginal Affairs Committee (台南縣西拉雅原住民族事務委員會) and subsidised a glossary, released in 2008, containing entries for over 4,000 Sirayan words.
The Sirayan Language: Siraya is a Formosan language spoken until the end of the 19th century by the indigenous Siraya people of Taiwan. Taivoa and Makatao were dialects.
The Siraya language entered the historical record in the early 17th century when traders from the Dutch East India Company, expelled from mainland China and Chinese waters, set up a stronghold on Taiwan at Fort Zeelandia, which was in the Siraya-speaking area. During the period of Dutch rule in Taiwan, Calvinist missionaries used Siraya and Babuza (also known as Favorlang) as contact languages. A translation of the Gospel of St. Matthew into Siraya (174 pages of Siraya and Dutch text, Gravius 1661) and a catechism in Siraya (288 pages of Siraya and Dutch text, Gravius 1662) were published, and have been subsequently republished. The Dutch colony was driven out in 1661 by Ming loyalist refugees from China, and Taiwan was subsequently incorporated into the Qing Empire. During the period of Qing Dynasty rule, use of Siraya receded, but some Siraya language materials survive in the form of Siraya land contracts with Chinese translations. The last records were lists of words made in the early 19th century.
馬卡道族（Makatto）屬於台灣原住民的一支，即鳳山八社；包含大傑巔社等社。馬卡道族分佈在台灣最南部之高雄、屏東平原一帶， 因此過去被分類為平埔族，有學者認為是西拉雅族的分支（如:小川尚義）
From Far Formosa: The Island, Its People and Missions
