Sirayan

English

Etymology

From Siraya +‎ -an.

Adjective

Sirayan (not comparable)

1. Pertaining to the Siraya tribe, an indigenous people of Taiwan.
   • 2008, Chiu Hsin-Hui, The Colonial 'civilizing Process' in Dutch Formosa: 1624 - 1662, →ISBN:

     Sirayan pragmatism was obviously the key reason that they showed no desire to make a headlong rush into the new faith, but Candidius blamed the inibs for this recalcitrance.

   • 2010, Steven Crook, Taiwan: The Bradt Travel Guide, →ISBN, page 219:

     Elements of its culture and language live on, and the association is striving to 'energise the Siraya tribe' and reconstruct the Sirayan language, the last native speaker having died c 1908.

Noun

Sirayan (countable and uncountable, plural Sirayans)

1. (countable) A member of the Siraya tribe.
   • 2008, Chiu Hsin-Hui, The Colonial 'civilizing Process' in Dutch Formosa: 1624 - 1662, →ISBN, page 135:

     In Sirayan society, the Reverend Candidius observed that the Sirayans had a different definition of "sins", which he considered were merely "fanciful inventions" not forbidden by the Law of God.

   • 2010, Steven Crook, Taiwan: The Bradt Travel Guide, →ISBN, page 219:

     Unlike the Han people, who have traditionally preferred to bury their dead at times and in locations they consider auspicious, when a Sirayan died his or her body was first preserved by smoking, the buried under the floor of the family home.

2. (uncountable) The traditional language of the Sirayans.
   • 2016, Ulrich L. Lehner, Richard A. Muller, A.G. Roeber, The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern Theology, 1600-1800, →ISBN:

     While texts in Sirayan and other aboriginal languages are lost, there is still a substantial extant corpus of texts in Sinckan and Favorlang.

Anagrams

• asinary