Starting from approximately 5000 BC, the earliest inhabitants of Taiwan were the Austronesian-speaking indigenous peoples, who share cultural and linguistic origins with places such as the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Excavated sites like the Changbin culture and Yuanshan culture indicate that fishing, hunting, and agricultural activities existed on the island long ago. The "Austronesian language family" is the third-largest language family in the world, second only to the Niger-Congo and Sino-Tibetan families. It primarily includes Taiwan, the Philippines, the Malay Archipelago, the Pacific islands, and even reaches as far as Madagascar on the east coast of Africa.

Linguistic circles widely believe that Taiwan is the origin of the Austronesian language family. The Austronesian peoples are said to be among the greatest navigators in human history, using outrigger canoes and celestial navigation to cross vast oceans thousands of years ago. At that time, Austronesian society in Taiwan was based on a tribal and chieftain system; every family or leader wanted to carve out their own territory, yet the terrain of mainland Taiwan is mountainous and arable land is scarce. Meanwhile, sailing to establish new villages, domesticate new lands, and "spread one's branches and leaves" was seen as a way for young men to "achieve merit." Under internal contradictions, some ethnic groups were "exiled" or chose "self-exile" to start anew elsewhere. In Austronesian culture, the sea is a connection, not a barrier. They treated the sea as their home, extending the life of the tribe through the great ocean.

Austronesian people once sailed to the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Malay Archipelago; they also went to Micronesia, Melanesia, and the Pacific island nations, and even crossed the Indian Ocean from Indonesia to Madagascar. The Malagasy language is strikingly similar to the languages of Borneo, which is a classic case of linguistic evidence. They spread language, culture, agricultural technology, and maritime knowledge, bringing with them taro, bananas, coconuts, sugarcane, millet, yams, as well as chickens, pigs, and dogs. No matter how remote the isolated island, as long as they could start a fire and farm, they could settle down. They constitute the early inhabitants of these countries today. There are about 1,200 languages in the Austronesian family, making it the third-largest language family in the world. Taiwan is categorized as the Formosan language group, with about 16 ethnic groups and over 20 languages coexisting; it is the oldest branch of the entire language family, with primary representatives being Amis, Paiwan, Rukai, Saisiyat, etc.

The Malayo-Polynesian branch is the most numerous and widely distributed. This can be further subdivided into the Western Malayo-Polynesian group, such as Malay, Indonesian, Tagalog, and Javanese. The Eastern Malayo-Polynesian group includes Maori, New Zealand indigenous languages, Hawaiian, Samoan, Tongan, and Tahitian. The furthest is Malagasy, belonging to the Borneo branch, which proves that the ancient Austronesians voyaged from Southeast Asia to Africa—a rare "Great Leap of Culture" in world history.

These Austronesian languages share common phonological characteristics; for example, they are mostly CV structures, which means a consonant plus a vowel. For instance, ma-ta is "eye," li-ma is "hand" or "five," and sa-pu-ay is "fire." Among these, "ma-" is a root prefix in Austronesian languages, sometimes meaningless, sometimes representing a state or the starting sound for a body part. "Ta" might signify "to see" or "target," or a part of the body. "Mata" is not just the "eye," but also a symbol of the face, perspective, the eyes of ancestors, and spiritual vision. For example, in Maori, mata is both the eye and "appearance/ancestors"; matakite means "prophet." In Tagalog of the Philippines, mata is "eye," so mata ng araw means "the eye of the sun." Li-ma means "hand/five"; in Maori/Tongan, rima is likewise "five." This is actually because one hand has five fingers, so "five" is used to represent the hand. In early human counting, when there were no words for abstract "numbers," body parts were used to express quantity. The Hawaiian lima is the same. But please note, the Austronesian family is not the only one to do this; the same logic of "hand = five" exists in the Bantu languages of Africa and ancient Japanese.

In Austronesian languages, complex consonant clusters like "str" or "spl" rarely appear, nor do closed syllables (syllables ending in a consonant). They have clear syllables and a strong sense of rhythm, making them suitable for oral transmission and singing; this helps with memory and rhyming, forming the foundation of oral poetry and mythological traditions. There is also a theory that the language of voyagers had to be transmitted clearly amidst wind and rain, and the CV structure is easy to distinguish and repeat. The limited variety of consonants and vowels, along with simple syllables, also gives it a strong sense of rhythm. I can almost see the scene of the Austronesian people, just like in Moana, heading out on a long voyage, everyone full of spirit, raising the sails and singing toward the sun—I can't help but be a little moved.

Grammatically speaking, Austronesian languages widely use "Verb-Subject-Object" or "Subject-Verb-Object" structures. They have a rich "focus system," meaning the form of the verb changes to highlight the emphasis of different components in the sentence. This focus system is very interesting; the first time I heard this term, I looked into it a bit. The focus system, also known as the "voice system," has a core where the verb form changes according to the "focus component" you want to emphasize. That is to say, it’s not that the subject or object is unimportant, but whoever is the "protagonist of the sentence" is the "focus," and the verb must transform to coordinate with its role.

It is said this is because Austronesian languages are widely distributed in tribal societies, oral cultures, and non-written traditions. The function of the language is not for writing theses, but to clearly convey who did what and who is responsible, and to express social responsibility and ownership during the exchange of kinsmen and objects. The focus system provides a more flexible mechanism for expressing responsibility than the subject or object. For example, in Tagalog, if we want to express "Maria gives Pedro a book," there can be different focuses—the meaning is the same, but the emphasis differs. To emphasize Maria with the actor focus: "Nagbigay si Maria ng libro kay Pedro." Here, the verb "give" indicates the "person doing the act" is the focus (Maria), while "book" and "Pedro" are non-focus components. Then there is the object focus, emphasizing the "book": "Ibinigay ni Maria ang libro kay Pedro." The verb changes to "ibinigay," where the prefix "i-" explains that the "book" is the focus, and Maria is demoted to "ni Maria." And so on.

Interestingly, many of their languages distinguish between "inclusive/exclusive we." Inclusive "we" means "us" including you and me; exclusive "we" means only us, excluding you. Neither Chinese nor English has these two different "we"s; we use the same word with no distinction between including you or excluding you. It seems like it could be used to confuse the audience or mobilize the masses (laughs).

The kinship naming system is very developed and finely distinguished; for instance, "mother's elder brother" and "father's younger brother" are different words. These relative and generational titles in Chinese often give me a headache, but at least "mother's elder brother" and "mother's younger brother" use the same word; but in Austronesian languages, older/younger brothers and the relatives of fathers/mothers are all different. In many Austronesian languages, the naming system is not just a simple classification of "papa," "mama," "older brother," or "older sister," but distinguishes between maternal/paternal lines, older/younger, direct/collateral lines, biological/in-laws, and even the gender and seniority of siblings.

For example, in the Malay family, father is bapa/ayah, mother is ibu/emak. But the father's elder brother is bapa saudara tua sebelah bapa, while the father's younger brother is bapa saudara muda sebelah bapa—meaning "paternal younger uncle." Besides this, there is the mother's elder brother, "bapa saudara tua sebelah ibu," meaning "maternal elder uncle." The mother's sisters are mak saudara, literally "sister mother," sometimes directly called "mak long," etc. There are also cousins; this part actually doesn't distinguish gender, they are all sepupu. Looking at it this way, it seems similar to the titles in my family when I was growing up: there were jiujiu (maternal uncle), jiuma (maternal uncle's wife), shushu (paternal uncle), xiaoyi (youngest maternal aunt), dayi (eldest maternal aunt), guma (paternal aunt), gubaba (paternal aunt's husband), gaozi jiujiu (tall uncle), xiaojiujiu (little uncle), dajiujiu (big uncle). But these seem to be my family's own titles; my family is likely not entirely Han Chinese in bloodline—we probably have bloodlines from Western Hunan and the Miao people; several of my maternal aunts are Miao.

Austronesian languages allocate titles this way because Austronesian society often takes the "tribe" and "family" as the basic unit, and everyone bears different responsibilities within the kinship network. For instance, the father's elder brother, because he is older than the father, holds a symbolic leadership position. The father's younger brother is of the same generation but not equal, possibly being the successor. The mother's elder brother is usually more of an "external protector," sometimes the marriage arranger. Between brothers and sisters, there are usually taboos and ritual distinctions regarding marriage. Who can marry whom, whether a marriage is consanguineous, or whether it belongs to the same ancestral spirit lineage is all judged by the naming system. In many Austronesian cultures, land is owned communally by the family; only by understanding the kinship structure can one know who can inherit, who must care for whom, and which branch has the dominant power.

The concept of the "Austronesian language family" was first proposed by Wilhelm von Humboldt, a German linguist, in the early 19th century. He was one of the first Western scholars to observe the deep connection between Malay and Polynesian languages. The word "Austronesian" comes from the Latin "auster" meaning "south wind" and the Greek "nesos" meaning "island." Put together, "Austronesian" means "the languages of the southern islands," roughly meaning "peoples who speak island languages." Isn't it poetic?

The biggest difference between the Austronesian and Sino-Tibetan language families is that they differ not just in phonetic structure, but they reflect differences in history, geography, culture, and social organization. Austronesian languages were born from island civilizations; humans had to adapt to navigation, island-hopping, and the mobility of kinship networks; their languages reflect connectivity, flexibility, and intimacy. The Sino-Tibetan family originated on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Yellow River basin, primarily distributed in the interior, highlands, and mountains, with many closed syllables and complex initial and final consonants. Most Austronesian languages are non-tonal, while most Sino-Tibetan languages have tones. Austronesian word formation relies on affixes and reduplication, with a developed verb focus system, while Sino-Tibetan tends toward being an isolating language, where grammatical relationships depend on word order and function words. The Austronesian family is mostly oral culture, now using phonetic systems. The Sino-Tibetan family has ancient writing traditions, such as Chinese characters, Tibetan script, and Burmese script.

In terms of culture, the Sino-Tibetan family primarily follows the patriarchal system, patrilineal inheritance, and a central dynastic system, involving farming or nomadism. The distribution of power is primarily centralized and based on a central bureaucracy; education involves classics, writing, and the imperial examination system. Austronesian culture was born from island civilization; humans had to adapt to navigation, island-hopping, and the mobility of kinship networks, and their languages reflect connectivity, flexibility, and intimacy. In Austronesian culture, nature is the matrix for the continuation of life, and humans are one link within it. Time is circular and rhythmic, like the ocean and monsoons. On the Sino-Tibetan side, humans should master nature and establish order and discipline. Time is linear, and history is the replacement of dynasties. Each island has an autonomous language without a single hegemony, while Mandarin and Tibetan are standard national languages.

However, the Taiwan indigenous peoples of the Austronesian family likely migrated there from the coastal regions of the East Asian mainland. The most widely accepted theory holds that the ancestors of Taiwan's indigenous people came from the late Neolithic cultures of the Southeast coast of China, such as the Dabenkeng culture and the late Hemudu culture. These groups were skilled in fishing, hunting, and planting millet and rice, and possessed the ability to make pottery, navigate, and settle. They followed the Taiwan Strait across the sea to reach Taiwan. From today's perspective, debating whether Taiwan is a "plain culture" or an "island culture" might not be very meaningful; the answer is obviously both. The indigenous people came from the land, and the National Revolutionary Army that joined later were mostly plains people; they and the seafaring peoples must have all fused into a great melting pot. When examining this history, one must look at all of history, of course, but one also needs to look at the state of things today. Regardless, it is true they share the same roots and origin, but various versions of the Chinese people exist all over the world—Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau are all Chinese, just different versions of the same root. And I just happened to be born in the Hunan version.