I recognise some of the spoken Amis words used. I am from the Island of Borneo. Yes, the Paiwanese and the people of the Pacific Islands are the same people.
"Aku" in Malay means I/ me. It's very deep spiritually. It's uniqueness is that we use "aku" when we communicate with God in prayers and close friends. However, it's considered rude when in communication with the elderly or people who are not close. Then, we use "saya" instead. Love from Malaysia 🇲🇾.
In te reo māori (māori language) we use two forms tāku or tōku and āku or ōku for “my” as forms of our “a” and “o” categories of nouns. “my” singular = tāku / tāhaku / taku*** (***see below for explanation) Tāku / tāhaku 1. (determiner) my (referring to one thing) - often followed by a noun but can stand without one. ***taku 1. (determiner) my - when talking of one thing. A possessive determiner which must be followed by a noun, unlike tāku and tōku. This is the neutral or informal form and is not governed by the “a” and “o” categories… Tāku / tāhaku are “a” category determiners Taku is neutral Tōku is the “o” category form of tāku Tōku / tōhoku 1. (determiner) my (referring to one item) - a possessive often followed by a noun but can stand without one. 2. (determiner) mine. 3. (determiner) I have. I own. 4. Used in the ways above when the possessor has, or had, no control of the relationship or is subordinate, passive or inferior to what is possessed. There is never a neutral form of tōku as toku “My” plural = āku / āhaku / wāku (“a” category) “My” plural “o” category = Ōku / ōhoku Tāku example Ko tāku maara kai tēnei This is “my” food garden Ko tōku tūrangawaewae tēnei This is “my” homeland Ko āku teina ēnei These are my younger brothers Ko ōku hapū katoa ēnei These are all my closely related communities Note A category vs O category A category words 1. (particle) of, belonging to - used when the possessor has, or had, control of the relationship or is dominant, active or superior to what is possessed. Thus, in most contexts in a sentence, moveable property, tools, things made by humans, food, drink (except water for drinking), husband (tāne), wife (wahine), lover (whaiāipo), children, grandchildren, people in an inferior position, plants and animals, pets and crops, and work are likely to take the a category. If the possessor is active towards the possessed the a category will also be used, including when derived nouns are used this way. O category 1. (particle) of, belongs to, from, attached to - used when the possessor has, or had, no control of the relationship or is subordinant, passive or inferior to what is possessed. Thus, in most contexts in a sentence, words for parts of anything, clothing, adornments associated with the body, things that originate in the body (feelings, ideas, knowledge, beliefs, sins, problems, luck, etc.), parts of the body, qualities, illnesses, transport, water, medicine, buildings, seating, bedding, land, towns, companions, superiors, relatives (not husband, wife, children, grandchildren), taniwha (spiritual elemental water guardians) atua (spiritual environmental deities or departmental god children of sky father and Mother Earth), groups, organisations, tribes and government are likely to take the o category. This includes actions that are regarded as part of the nature of people or animals. O will follow kore and korenga. Derived nouns from statives and verbs will usually take the o category. Experience verbs are also likely to take the o category.
It's unfortunate because butthurt Han and Chinese nationalists secretly want to erase this beautiful Austronesian culture. Insecure and naive Filipinos of today can't even accept their past Austronesian heritage and assume we came from the Spanish or Han cultures instead. Ridiculously Sad.
thank you for making this documentary... we really need to preserve our culture before it gets lost. Here in the Philippines our traditional way of living is rapidly fading as a lot of younger generations move to the city.
I was watching a music video of a taiwan aboriginal tribe with English subtitles and I just realized they have similar words with the Filipino language!
@@jeanettesee4214 Yes, Amis, Filipino, Malay and Indonesian all came from the same austronesian roots. It's just intermingled by the colonialist imperialist west and divided.
Language preservation is not only a linguistic issue. It is a socio-economic one. If these people are given opportunities in their hometown and opportunities in using their language, not only them but also other people outside their tribe will want to study their language. If you think about it, this is the reason why we learn languages like Chinese and English
Wow, I didn't realize they talk like people in the Philippines. Somehow I feel like they're talking another Philippine language. That "aku" seems to be a denominator word for all Austronesians. Ako means "I".
@Jacky Phantom Thai and Viet are not Austronesian people. Taiwanese aboriginal people originally look like Malay, Native Borneo people, Polynesians. Taiwan aboriginal look like han chinese now because the chinese invaded their land
@Jacky Phantom Austronesian is an ethnolinguistic group. Not just a mere culture. Taiwanese aboriginal people are Austronesian people. They didnt have han chinese facial features before the island were invaded by chinese. Intermixing with han chinese caused them to look like chinese today. Some of the Borneo natives also have chinese facial features due to influx of chinese immigrants in Borneo who intermixed with the natives. And no, Namewee, Angelica Lee dont look like Austronesian people. Namewee look like Vietnamese (which is basically han chinese mixed with native vietnamese) Angelica look like han chinese. Not a trace of Austronesian in her facial features.
Their “nga’aiho” greeting sounds like our Cebuano (Philippines) “maayo” or “ayo” greeting whenever we visit someone’s house. It’s also interesting that they introduce themselves saying “Chi [name] aku.”. Almost like our own “Si [name] ko”. We commonly use the “Ako si [name].” format though. I’d like to visit these places and get to know more about their culture and language.
+Miguel Ronne (SplatZoners) no but i take it as equal austronesian,so their past were apart of my history too..my grand2 parent were tamil,cham people and minang malay ethnic...
In Māori we count 01 - Tahi 02 - Rua 03 - Toru 04 - Wha. (The “wh” sound is like a soft “f” sound) 05 - Rima 06 - Ono 07 - Whitu 08 - Waru 09 - Iwa 10 - Tekau (and Ngāhuru Also is ten) 11 - Tekau ma tahi (ngāhuru ma tahi) 12 - tekau ma rua 13 - tekau ma toru 14 - tekau ma wha 15 - tekau ma rima Etc 20 - rua tekau (rua ngāhuru) 30 - toru tekau 40 - wha tekau 50 - rima tekau 51 - rima tekau ma tahi 52 - rima tekau ma rua 53 - rima tekau ma toru 54 - rima tekau ma wha 55 - rima tekau ma rima 100 - Kotahi Rau 200 - Rua Rau 500 - Rima Rau 505 - Rima rau ma rima 550 - Rima rau Rima tekau 555 - rima rau rima tekau ma rima 1000 - Kotahi Mano 2000 - Rua Mano 5000 - rima mano 5005 - rima mano ma rima 5055 - rima mano rima tekau ma rima 5555 - rima mano rima rau rima tekau ma rima 7777 - whitu mano whitu rau whitu tekau ma whitu 8888 - waru mano waru rau waru tekau ma waru Mata in māori is both face and eyes. Also Karu is also eye Kanohi / konohi / konohe are all dialectal words for face Hand is ringaringa or ngirangira Waewae / wae = (noun) leg, foot, footprint Mauī is the left hand Matau (or katau) is the right hand Ihu is nose / snout / (noun) prow, bow (of a boat/canoe). Taringa - ear Te Taringa - the ear Ngā Tāringa - the ears Thumb / big toe => kōnui / tōnui / koromatua / rongomatua / takonui - tokonui Finger / toe => matikara Ngā mihi ōku tūākana = I acknowledge you all my elder relations.
My family stayed at a Church like the one featured, helping to preserve indigenous languages. The Priest was able to speak Taroko language, very impressive. I am learning Mandarin, was nice to watch without subtitles and appreciate the explanations in English and Mandarin and the beauty of the Amis language and song.
Flora and Sam, this is truly excellent work. The topic was incredibly interesting; I learned so much and I am impressed with how massive this undertaking was. Way to go!
Im from the indigenous tribe here in luzon and theirs a lot of similarity because we preserved our culture here. And indigenous people from taiwan was our ancestors
hai. my Austronesian brother in Taiwan and around the world.love greetings from Indonesia.... a country that has the biggest Austronesian population in the world
To those claiming that they (the Amis) are Malay, NO... It is also incorrect to call them Ancient Filipinos . They are not Malays. Malays are the descendants of the Austronesians sailing downwards from Taiwan and the Philippines. The Malay language lost many Proto-Austronesian affixes that are still retained in present Formosan and Philippine languages. The aboriginal tribes and languages of Taiwan are closest to the Batanic group (in present Batanes Isands, Philippines and Orchid Island, Taiwan). They are our distant brothers and sisters. We are part of a much bigger Austronesian family.
lester andes the Batanic language is only spoken by the Yami people of Orchid Island. The other aboriginal tribes in Taiwan all speak Austronesian lamguages
To make matters worse, the Han Taiwanese are trying to claim Han culture as Taiwanese. For example, they have renamed the Hokkien Chinese language as Taiwanese. I think that's disrespectful to both the Taiwanese aborigines and non Taiwanese Hokkiens. If any languages deserve the title Taiwanese, it should be the aboriginal languages!
Nobody denies that. They call it Taiwanese because it has expressions and speech patterns that are different from the 閩南話 spoken in China. This is to differentiate it from the forms of Hokkien spoken in 福建, China. Why would it bother you that a small minority have an attitude that is slightly different from your own? Are you Taiwanese?
I do agree with that. Many Han Taiwanese are trying to claim aboriginal ancestries for their own political aims - particular to argue that they are not Han and therefore have the right to independence. Usurping others culture for own political gain is such a disrespect to the aboriginal culture. Fact is, majority of Taiwanese today know nothing about aboriginal culture and custom. The laws and policy particular on land use by Taiwanese government continues to threaten their traditional way of life.
You say that, yet provide no evidence to support the claim that "many" Han Taiwanese are claiming aboriginal ancestry for political ends. The Han majority in Taiwan realise they are descended from settlers in the 16th century and the 外省人，to use an outdated term, are fully aware of their origins also. The fact is, this has little relevance. Your assumption of this assumed fact needs thorough research. Your comment about independence leads me to believe you are from the PRC, yes? Taiwan is already de facto independent from a legal standpoint, and if it is the desire of the majority of the 23 million people living in Taiwan to declare de jure independence under a new system without connection the Republic of China, that is their decision as a lawful democracy. Your writing style indicates that either you have yet to actually travel to Taiwan, or have yet to accumulate enough knowledge on the subject to comment. I thoroughly recommend you do both.
I’m very interested in Amis language and culture now, especially knowing that the Amis language is similar/related to languages like Hawaiian and Malagasy...so interesting!
Jacky Phantom I agree that some Malays in Peninsular Malaysia have the mixture of Dravidian dna due to the fact long time ago, Muslims traders from India came here to trade/do business thus some may have reside and married with locals. The same can be said with those who married with the Chinese people who were also traders during the early Malay kingdoms. For the negroid, the Semang people, they are the natives of Peninsular Malaysia too. They are one of the earliest settlers even before any Malay kingdoms have ever been established. They are nomadic tribes and their numbers are not many even in modern days. I will say, yes some might have also married with the Malays but the percentage might be not as much as those intermarriage with the Dravidians. And it all depends on which part of Peninsular Malaysia’s you are referring to. From where I came from which is Terengganu, Dravidian is as almost as none-existence especially in the early days of our land. Same thing can be said with the intermarriage with Semang people. So to say that all Malays have Semang/negroid dna is not accurate. And it is absolutely wrong if you are referring to Brunei, Sarawak, Kalimantan and Sabah Malay. They have no connection with Semang/negroid people at all. Hope this will explain. Cheers. :)
Jacky Phantom About the mixture with either Chinese or Southern Indian (Dravidian), you would have to look at which area of Peninsular Malaysia. If the Eastern Coast (Kelantan, Terengganu & Pahang), some of them have Chinese ancesstors more than the Southern Indian. Because in these part of my country, the Southern Indian population is pretty much insignificant that if you found one, most probably he or she is not a local. If local, then they are most likely “unique” even to us till this modern day. Meanwhile in Kelantan you can find some of them have mixture with the Aryans ancesstors (Northern India/Pakistan). Because many Kelantanese have fair skin as compared to Western Coast of Peninsular Malaysia’s Malays. They have mixture dna with the Siamese and Chinese too. And the same can be said with those in Perlis & Kedah states of Malaysia. They have mixture with Siamese that some can have very light skin. And if you said many Malays have mixture with Dravidian, the best state in Malaysia as your reference would be Penang. The Malays there I can rest assured you, more than 90% are heavily from Malay-Dravidian ancesstors. Again, from where I came from, we have less than 1% mixture with either Dravidian or Semang people. And yes, there is no denying that the Semang is perhaps one the first wave of people/human to ever inhabits Malay Peninsular. And for your information, they are the only known negroid (more accurately negrito) native/Orang Asli in our country. Other native/Orang Asli tribes in Peninsular Malaysia include: Senoi (Sakai), Temiar, Mah Meri and a few others. Their feautures are not strongly resemblance of negroid either since they are the Proto-Malay. You can read more about them. :)
Jacky Phantom And mind you, Malays are also residing in Borneo which consists of Brunei, Sabah, Sarawak and Kalimantan. These Malays have absolutely no connection with Dravidian dna I believe, let alone negrito dna. So my point is that, it is true that Malays have admixture with Southern Indian or Negrito dna, but you have to specifically zoom it into which particular region or area. Penang = abundance of Dravidian dna (no doubt). Perak = most likely to have a few Malay with Semang dna mixture. Like I have explained earlier, Orang Asli population particularly the Semang, are not much.
Jacky Phantom Are you Malaysian? If not, I have to admit that you seems to know quite well about Malaysian culture and heritage in which I am impress :) Anyway, about the term “bumiputera”, it is actually more of referring to the natives of Sabah and Sarawak who are not Malay (the Malays are minority in those regions). “Orang Asli” term is only use to refer the natives tribes of Peninsular Malaysia (Semang, Temiar, Mah Meri, Senoi and a few others). About Elizabeth Tan, I am not sure whether or not she got the “Orang Asli” looks. She looks beautiful though. In the eyes of many Malays, she perfectly match with the Chinese looks. And she can blend well with bumiputera in Sabah and Sarawak. Hannah Tan, she is half Kelabit, one of many bumiputera natives.
Keep your language and culture up my brothers and sisters Amis people😀💪 Regards from me your fellow Austronesian Batak Toba which from Indonesia, God bless you my family
Well done, but I would like to offer a few comments. First, it's pronounced ah-MEES, accent on the second syllable, and it's hardly a "lost" language. A lot of people speak it -- even I can handle some basic conversation -- there's even an Amis language group on FaceBook. And as of this week, there are now 16 officially recognized tribes of Taiwan aborigines. But still, you did a good job. Keep up the good work.
Hi I’m so glad you shows a glimpse of Amis Languages and cultural practices. I am Visual Artist and I’m looking for religious practices and folk stories from Amis Tribe. Would you be intestate to have an chat of your finding. Ps. I was born in Yilan .
Mom always says Dad is super handsome because his family came from Alishan. So, I had my DNA analyzed... turned out 6 generations ago my Austronesian great, great, great, great-grandpa married a cute Chinese girl. I wonder how their parents felt? Was it like Romeo and Juliet? Was the loss of culture and language ever discussed in their mixed marriage? Can he imagine his great, great, great, great-grandson speaks neither Chinese nor Austronesian but English? Doh!!!
The first Polynesian settlers in the Philippine islands came from Taiwan. Respect to these people! Taiwan don't ever be controlled again by Mainland China as a respect to the first settlers of your nation.
Nga'ayho = Ayo (Bisaya my native tounge) means Good in English yes I understand their introduction --- Your distant cousin from the Philippines 🇵🇭 --- Long live Austronesia!!! ❤❤❤
Wow this is soo interesting. I was today old that my ancestors come from Taiwan! I am from The Philippines, but I am Filipina American. Something we all have in common austronesians!
This is an important subject that you should go into further. However, you should put subtitles in with the non-English statements. I understand a little gouyu, but their accent is not what I expected.
Yes, in the latest genetic tests, the Amis people do not cluster with other East Asians and other South East Asians except the Filipinos. However, the Amis people are also found to genetically cluster with the Navajos Indians of North West America and the Eskimos. So, it is therefore not surprising that you see strong cultural connections between the Amis people and the Northern American natives.
Although the extinction of languages are inevitable, me must make a concerted effort to preserve the diversity of verbal speech the world over. Because with the loss of language begins the end of certain idioms, concepts and perceptions that are linked to hundreds of years of collective communal knowledge. Indigenous cultures are important and add more diversity to an otherwise sterile humanity. The greatest triumph of our species will not just be our diversity, but the celebration of our differences.
I have read that austronesian Matrilineal culture played a major part in their maritime expedition.Women were master navigators and they invaded islands by intermixing with native inhabitant, introducing their culture and language.
My highest respect from Nias Tribes (North Sumatra, Indonesia). our DNA very similar with Taiwan tribes, our face, our culture, our accessories colors like yellow /red /black, how to sing a song are so similar, and I'm so surprised when Amis tribes called mother as "Ina " and father as "Ama". Just the same calling like us in Nias tribes, hopefully we can connected each others as one of ancestors.
We Kadazan race in Sabah Malaysia call mother Ina and father Ama. Our people consider it is a sin to call Ina and Ama by their names. We also believe that if it is taboo to you call your mother in- law (minan) and father in-law (maman) by their names.
your Amis dialect is actually not totally lost! maybe you don't know this but i understand some of the Amis words spoken by the Amis kids in a certain video featuring Amis culture...and believe it or not, we have similar words, especially in counting...your Amis words have been preserved here in the Philippines though it changed too as time passed by. we say "Ina" for mother in our dialect or national Philippine language, we say "Ama" too for father in our dialect as well as in our national language. We count "oha, duwa, tulu, opat, lima" from 1-5 and some parts of the Cordillera region, some count as "osa, duwa, tallu, uppat, lima" ... your Amis language is here preserved in the Philippines where your and our forefathers left when they crossed the Philippine island and settled here probably thousands of years ago....mind boggling! i need to meet my Amis brethren in Taiwan...God bless you all and may our forefathers bless us and be with us in spirit throughout eternity!
yeah.. but the pinoys outnumber the hans.. thats why they are so backwards. if the hans ruled the country.. it will be like singapore and taiwan. that for sure. :p
I've kind of felt like the Japanese and Korean languages were influenced by the Austronesian languages. The proximity from Taiwan to these two countries are close enough to have some trading and culture borrowing and migrations.
The Japanese did a study, but couldn't prove a genetic link between the Ainu and the Austronesian. They did find that Ainu linked with the Okinawan/Ryukyuans and aboriginal people of Sibera and Mongolia The Taiwanese Amis have been proven to have genetic link with New Zealand, Maori, Tongans, and Samoans among the Polynesian population.
Aynu came from hapla group C there part of the same hapla group associated with Australian aborigines but the Aynu where genetically mutated as the lived in Japan this was when the earth was still developing ice age.
At around 2:20, if you just listen carefully, it is as if they are saying "Ang ngalan ko ay si (name)", or "Si (name) ang ngalan ko." This is "my name is (name)" JUST in Tagalog. Of course this is a basic sentence, but that's how close the Philippine languages are to those languages.
The Igorots to be specific. Most Filipinos are too mixed already, and are closer to Malaysians (Malay) historically. Malays have rounder faces with smaller noses. "Old" Austronesians have oval faces and large (flat or narrow) noses.
Is it really lost? Taiwan government should preserve its indigenous languages for the sake of history. Their languages are the closest descendant of the Proto-Austronessian language that later on diverged into thousands of languages (the biggest language family in the entire world).
Yes the government actually have some action, but sadly they don’t have enough chances to speak own language because of the environment and economic conditions
watching them i feel the same.....in my own place.....it's the same 95 percent of my generation that cant speak kadazan in sabah..the language is very much dissapearing with the malay language dominating ...sad...
Malay is the lingua franca of Southeast Asia.. Indonesian govt abandoned Javanese despite being majority and adopt Malay as their national language, because it's easier to understand, and plays the role of uniting SE Asia.. Other language also fast disappearing or already reached extinction: Perak, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka & Hulu Terenganu language.. Learning more language is always an advantage. The people of Kedah, Kelantan & Terengganu learn standard Malay, while their dialect is still strong
They can barely speak their own language, many don't even know a word in their own language. So sad. But thank God for the Church trying to preserve their language as she preserved ours.
Why do so many Filipinos seem to always comment on their comparisons/similarities with other cultures? This vid is about the Amis Language and people--not about the Philippines.
nga'ay ho. just to be clear. sowal no 'amis is not a lost language. it is commonly spoken along the east coast of taiwan and in a couple neighborhoods in taipei. there are many young singer songwriters who write in the language, such as suming rupi, anu, chalaw, and ado kaliting pacidal. that said, it is a threatened language, with many people under the age of 30 not able to speak it fluently. although i am glad that people care about the language, creating this sort of primitivist discourse surrounding it is not beneficial to language revitalization efforts. sa'icelen!
Jerome The formosan languages of taiwan are some of the most ancient austronesian languages, and the taiwanese aboriginals were the ones who first colonized the islands of the pacific, like polynesia, micronesia, melanesia, indonesia, malaysia, and the Philippines.
Jerome Malay and Formosan languages are part of Austronesian language. Comparing Malay to Formosan is like comparing Russian to Serbian, not mutually intelligible but they have cognates.
who thinks these people must be our identity for the filipinos ? if so talk to me, the truth must be known whether or not i can call myself amis or filipinos
Thats correct. One branch of the formosan languages is Malayo-Polynesian. This was the ancestral homeland of all austronesians. Now Austronesian languages (including Philippine languages) are all spoken from Madagascar to Hawaii, one of the greatest distribution of a language family in the world.
jini08taeki : I am Filipino and the Ami is ancient Filipino. We used to be part of one kingdom until Chinese destroyed natives in Taiwan. Never forget your heritage. We are one people.
***** This suggestion is certainly way out of the left field. Many Taiwanese aboriginals are Christians because of hard work by Christian missionaries - particularly the Swiss and the Canadians in the 19th and early 20th century. The fact that many Filipinos are Catholics is because they were a Spanish Colony for nearly 400 years. The same reason why many South American natives are Catholics.
I'm...speechless. What? Catholicism was invented in around the 4th century AD. Modern Greece is Orthodox Christian, not Catholic. Modern Taiwanese indigenous are the proto-ethnic groups associated with modern Maori, Hawaiian and other Austro-Polynesian peoples around the Pacific. The internet is filled with free knowledge. Educate yourself better.
