"The Saisiyat are very much involved in language preservation. But there is a "language" gap between people over 80 (they have their own intonation, grammar etc.) and those under 80."

"The Taai (population) has been much acculturated to the Atayal, while the Tungho dialect has been (in some villages) influenced by Hakka (different degrees of language contact)."

The northern dialect speakers have almost assimilated to Atayal, and only a few can still speak their language. Speakers of the southern dialect use their language more actively, but many young people are shifting to Hakka Chinese.

No literacy in language

Only a few of the speakers care about the preservation of their language. Most people do not. Some people support the use of Mandarin Chinese, which is the official language of Taiwan.

Saisiyat does have an orthography, but few people use it. The government does not promote the use of Saisiyat language. Mandarin Chinese is used in almost all domains, especially the formal ones.

Only some word lists, oral texts, and sketch grammars are published for linguistic analyses. No dictionary.

Few people can read it, and few people use it.