The native languages of Taiwan is spoken by the indigenous people of Taiwan, and are also refer to Formosan Languages. These native languages are under the Malayo-Polynesian (Austronesian) language category. Malayo-Polynesian languages are mainly spoken in the South Asian countries, including Malaysia, Indonesia, and other island groups in South Asia. Taiwan’s Malayo-Polynesian language usage marks a northern end for this language category.

It is believed that there are over 20 groups of  indigenous people in Taiwan, however, only 16 of these groups are recognized by the government of Republic of China.  There is a total of 28 native languages, and 3 categories for for these native languages under Maylayo-Polynesian language. The three major categories are Atayalic, Paiwanic, and Tsouic. There are 2 languages under Atayalic, 23 under Paiwanic, and 3 under Tsouic.

However, the use of these native languages has gone through a great decline since Japanese invasion. During the Japanese colonization period, Japanese was the dominant language that indigenous people used to communicate because languages other than Japanese were not allowed outside of their homes. After the Japanese occupation period, the Nationalist Party Kuomintang starts taking over Taiwan and soon retreat to Taiwan, which has also influenced language used. Mandarin Chinese was promoted to make ruling easier for Kuomintang. The indigenous people switch from using Japanese to using Mandarin Chinese, and never got a chance to pick up their native languages. As a result, many (7 according to UNESCO) of these native languages extinct, and some of them are endangered of extinction.

Starting in 1990, native languages in Taiwan has revive to become a new trend, and in 1997, the Constitution of Taiwan has been revised to protect and reserve native languages and indigenous culture. Native Languages courses are being provide in the education system from 2001. In 2006, the education system requires indigenous students to be fluent in aboriginal languages in order to gain bonus points for their indigenous descent. The government started to realize the importance of indigenous culture and language of native people and wanted to revive and preserve these values from the ancestors. Even though that many of the languages are either endangered or extinct, it is still important for the government to pay more attention to these values.

As a result of these preserve actions by the government, the above map shows the usage of Austronesian Language use in families in 2010. Even though that most of the population in Taiwan is located in the East and Northernmost part of Taiwan, but the improvement of these language usage is still impressive.