消失的南島語言 頭目兒子都不學 Hla'alua Language fading away - Leaders' children all not learning language

Taiwan Aborigines' Tribes before the arrival of the Han Chinese

Aborigines Today in Taiwan

The 沙阿魯阿族 Hla’alua aboriginal language in Taiwan is slowly fading away as reported by 聯合新聞網 United Daily News in its "Important Home News Section" 國內要聞. The Hla’alua tribe is located in Kaohsiung country 高雄縣 in southern Taiwan.
The Hla'alua are a branch of the Tsou aboriginal group. They now barely number 500 and only 10 of them are still capable of speaking their ancestors' language fluently. 
Today having been swamped by modernity, they have switched to Taiwanese.

The Hlua'lua tribe's situation is not unique. Before the Han Chinese came 300 years ago, encouraged by the Dutch, the Aborigines inhabited the whole island. As in many countries, the ethnic minorities were pushed back away from the main urban centres.

Many years of successive assimilationist policies by the Japanese and then the Kuomintang governments have had their toll.  The recent positive support first by the DPP 民進黨 and even President Ma Ying-Jeou's belated tepid support have had little effect.
When I went to Hualien and talked to young people from the Truku tribe, I couldn't find a single youth who could talk the language of their tribe. This they told me with a gentle smile of resignation. I left wondering what they themselves would be transmitting to their own children. Dancing for camera-mad tourists is not something I would relish. Neither taking part in these tours where you stare at dances you don't understand is something I could never do, just not me.
The Hlua'lua leaders explain that maintaining food, wedding and religious traditions is possible; but just pass on the mother tongue is not easy (唯獨母語傳承不易). They go on explaining that the children don't want to feel different at school.

84 year-old Yu asks, "you can speak the language, but with whom would you speak it?"