Yilan Creole Japanese based on Japanese
Yilan Creole Japanese is a Japanese-based creole of Taiwan. It arose in the 1930s and 1940s, with contact between Japanese colonists and the native Atayal people of southern Yilan County, Taiwan. The vocabulary of a speaker born in 1974 was 70% Japanese and 30% Atayal, but the grammar of the creole does not closely resemble either of the source languages.It is incomprehensible to both Japanese and Atayal native speakers. The creole was identified in 2006 by Chien Yuehchen and Sanada Shinji, but its existence is still largely unknown. It was named by Sanada and Chien for its location. The official language of Taiwan, Mandarin, threatens the existence of Yilan Creole.Classification
Yilan Creole is a creole language that is considered to be part of the Japonic language family. The superstratum and substratum languages of the creole are Japanese and Atayal, respectively. It has possibly been used as the first language among the Atayal and Seediq people since the 1930s.History
During Taiwan under Japanese rule period under the Shimonoseki Treaty of 1895 until 1945. Control over the island lasted about fifty years. During the latter period of this time, Imperial Japan enforced Taiwanese assimilation to Japanese language and culture. As a result of this contact between the Atayal and Japanese languages, Yilan Creole surfaced. Taiwanese people began attending schools taught in Japanese where all non-Japanese languages were banned, and by 1944 over 77% of Taiwanese were capable in speaking Japanese. Language reforms, name changes, and laws regarding social customs were among the reforms instilled by the Japanese Imperial government. Many are still competent in Japanese today where it is sometimes used as a lingua franca. Although China attempted to rid influence of Japan in Taiwan after the surrender of Japan in 1945, the impact on language and culture in Taiwan is still largely evident.
Atayal features surfaced in the Japanese language spoken in Taiwan, eventually becoming a pidgin before it fully developed into a creole, and the language is now currently the only known Japanese-based creole on the island, and possibly in the world.