Talk:Taiwan

Siraya

I don't speak the Siraya language. However, I am not confident in the English translation of I/us in the etymology section. Here is a link to a glossary of words in the Siraya language. The word for I is listed as yao or ya-u. Several websites state that tayan means outsider in the Siraya language. On the other hand, this website states that the Dutch used the spelling Taiouwang to describe a small tribe in Southwest Taiwan, which was a branch tribe of the Siraya people. A-cai 23:06, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

This article http://taiwanreview.nat.gov.tw/site/Tr/ct.asp?xitem=132237&ctnode=1341&mp=1 confirms part of your entry and disputes another part. It reads in part Abe wrote that the name "Taiwan" came from the words "taian" and "tayoan" which natives in the present Tainan area used in refer­ring to early Chinese settlers. If it is correct then yes it is a tranliteration of a Siraya word, but a different one.

Yesterday i watched a video lecture by a Taiwnese professor. Part of it was in Mandarin (my mandarin is rusty but not useless.) Part of it was in Taiwanese. (I speak no Taiwanese at all.) My wife speaks both fluently. He also attributed the origin of the word Taiwan to a Sinicization of some word spoken by the Siraya people. I'll watch it again with my wife and see she can pick out WHICH word. I will strike the I/us part and look for confirmation of which Siaya word is the source.Long island bob 18:31, 17 June 2011 (UTC)

From the current etymology displayed for "Taiwan", it seems if it is to be believed that English "Taiwan" or Mandarin "Táiwān" or Minnan "Tāi-oân" came from an old colonial Dutch reading of Tayouan/Tayuan/Tayoan, which itself supposedly came from Siraya 'tau'/'tayw' (“people”) + 'an' (“place”) or possibly the equivalent in the related Taivoan language, I think I recall someone posting here before that it could have been something like from 'tayo' ("to stand") + 'an' (“place”), but I do not personally know the Siraya or Taivoan language. Though in Filipino(Tagalog), which is a related Austronesian language, that I do know, if I match the cognates of Tagalog 'tao' ("people/person") + '-an' ("place suffix") = tauhan, but then 'tayo' ("to stand";"us") + '-an' ("place suffix") = tayuan. I think "tayo" might make more sense in both meaning and form, since even in Tagalog, it is recognizable, although I'm not sure if "tayo" is really the Sirayan or Taivoan word cognate, but the meaning makes sense as a place to stand guard and watch as with matching the meanings of the chinese characters "臺灣/台湾" Taiwan was given which also roughly means lookout tower bay. --Mlgc1998 (talk) 01:44, 16 August 2019 (UTC)

Added Taiwan to Category:Chinese Provinces

This inclusion matches Wikipedia policies as a claimed territory. The territory is controlled by the Republic of China (or Taiwan).Anatoli 03:02, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

South China Sea

@Geographyinitiative, the Taiwan Strait is still part of the South China Sea (the new draft has not been approved). In any case, since Taiwan does border both seas to the north and south, it would still be "between" the East and South China Seas even if the new draft was approved, in the same sense that the United States is "between" Mexico and Canada.

I prefer the "between the East and South China Seas" definition because defining Taiwan in terms of a strait named after it is probably circular, and readers are probably more likely to know vaguely where the East and South China Seas are than where the Philippine Sea is (the ECS has about twice the Google search results of the Philippine Sea, and obviously the SCS has even more due to the ongoing disputes).--Tibidibi (talk) 07:08, 3 May 2021 (UTC)

Thanks for your time. We know, indisputably, that the whole west coast of Taiwan borders the Taiwan Strait and that the whole east coast of Taiwan borders the Philippine Sea. However, it is not so clear that the SCS and ECS border any of the coastline of Taiwan. I think it's fair to say that the Taiwan Strait is part of the SCS, and hence that the west coast of Taiwan island is SCS coast, but even if that is granted, Taiwan merely touches the ECS- there is no ECS coastline beside a point at Cape Fugui.

Just because a geographical concept is less well known doesn't mean it's less adequate to define a relative location. The extent of the Philippine Sea is partially defined by the east coast of Taiwan- something like 400 kilometers of coastline.

The self-referential question is not solved by adding two seas named after China into the mix. If Taiwan island is part of China, then there is a self-referential aspect there too. --Geographyinitiative (talk) 09:49, 3 May 2021 (UTC)

Taiwan's capital

Rephrasing "Its de facto capital is Taipei" to "Its capital is Taipei".

A federal administrative agency has established that this country's capital is Taipei (Taibei Shi). See U.S. Board on Geographic Names (2011) Geographic Names Standardization Policy for Taiwan‎^[1], National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency:

§ 4. Political Geography Policy

a. Country Name and Capital

Country Name

Approved name: Taiwan

Capital Name

Conventional name: Taipei

Approved name: Taibei Shi

See also

2021, “Taibei”, in Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary:

city and capital of Taiwan

The legal term "de facto" means "having effect even though not formally or legally recognized". (Black's Law Dictionary, 11th ed.) –Dervorguilla (talk) 08:04, 20 November 2021 (UTC)

Complex political situation

See Wikipedia:Talk:Taiwan#Rename Taiwan and only the ROC is a country not the word “Taiwan”. ZeehanLin (talk) 04:26, 16 February 2024 (UTC)