Preliminary Study of Loanwords in Taiwan's Indigenous Languages

Presented at National Dong Hwa University on October 25, 2014.

Lamuru Pakawyan (Pinuyumayan)

2013年臺灣原住民族文學獎小說第二名：卑南族林嵐欣的"不，她不是我的Vuvu"。

In addition to my work at the Indigenous Languages Research and Development Center, I also occasionally take translation projects, though I specifically choose projects related to indigenous peoples only. 

This is not bias, for those who tend to tag me as plagued with Chinese-phobia. I have just this amount of time and energy; I choose where to make the best use of my contribution. 

The latest project I completed was translation of short stories written by debut indigenous writers in Taiwan. All of these stories won either the first, second, third or recommendation prize of Annual Formosan Indigenous Literature Award sponsored by Council of Indigenous Peoples and Shan-hai Cultural Magazine Publishing Association. In other words, they are like the Formosan counterparts of Maori stories I introduced earlier in "Huia Short Stories 10: Contemporary Maori Fiction", "Bugs" or "Zhu Mao". 

Among the stories I translated, the second-prized story by a young writer from the Puyuma Nation, Lamuru Pakawyan (or Lin Lan-Hsin 林嵐欣 by her Chinese name), literally stopped me in the middle of my work. Disregarding the public space where I was in, I just could not stop my tears. I cried and I sobbed until the point of exhaustion when I could no longer work with the text. I only resumed the next morning. 

This young writer may not intend to incite such strong sentiment in her readers. Nevertheless, her story has that kind of power for those who have experienced the same thing. Those who understand will cry. Her story is called "No. She Is My Vuvu"; it is included in the 2013 Anthology of 4th Formosan Indigenous Literature Award (photo).