Today in the Japanese class as we were learning about kanji, I read the Japanese word for a continent is precisely 大陸たいりく tairiku.
In other words, the person who taught me the word and the person he learnt it from and the teacher to that person who taught the person who taught me and so on...; whoever this person is is no longer possible to know, yet he or she has borrowed from the Japanese an expression for a concept that was not in their original equation.
This is a loanword. tairiku is one example. Other examples include (just to name a few) sinsi (teacher), situ (student), gaku (school), hikuki (airplane), niciyubi (Sunday) etc.
According to my fieldwork in 2014, there are hundreds of Japanese loanwords in Paiwan alone and thousands of Japanese loanwords in sixteen indigenous Austronesian languages in total.
But indigenous peoples do not borrow from Japanese only. Nor do they borrow simply for new inventions; some loanwords are used as a second or third expression for existing concepts. Moreover, twist of meaning often occurs in borrowing. Such indigenous agency in language contact is an interesting research subject.
Nevertheless for Paiwan, the person who knows and uses many Japanese loanwords in conversation will not be the center of attention. Instead, it is those who can conjure up words and expressions used by elders in the old old past that win all the admiration.
That's what we are missing, and what we are trying to salvage.
nakemasi rinipungan a tairiku.
In English:
The word "tairiku" comes from Japanese.
Glossary:
1. r<in>ipung-an: Japanese language. The root is ripung 'Japan'.
Reading:
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