Babuza (Favorlang)

Babuza (better known to linguistics as Favorlang, the Dutch missionary name for one of its dialects) was a Western Plains Formosan language of the Babuza-Taokas group, spoken across the central-western plain of Taiwan around modern Changhua County. It is one of the very few Formosan languages whose 17th-century pre-modern form is richly documented: Dutch Reformed missionaries of the VOC produced Gilbertus Happart's c. 1650 Favorlang–Dutch dictionary (published only in 1842 by van der Vlis), Daniel Gravius' 1661 translation of the Gospels of Matthew and John, and a catechism — making Favorlang, alongside Siraya, the best-attested Formosan language of the Dutch Formosa period (1624–1662). Babuza was effectively extinct as a community language by the early 20th century under successive Qing-era Han sinicization and Japanese-era assimilation, though descendant identity is being revived under the broader Pingpu plains-aboriginal movement. Like other Formosan languages it is of major importance to the reconstruction of Proto-Austronesian.