An Historical and Geographical Description of Formosa (1704 book)

An Historical and Geographical Description of Formosa, an Island Subject to the Emperor of Japan: Giving an Account: Giving an Account of the Religion, Customs, Manners, &c., of the Inhabitants is a 1704 book by George Psalmanazar (Psalmanaazaar), presented by the author as a factual reporting on his claimed native country of Formosa (now known as Taiwan), including the culture and language of the Formosans. While successful at first, his claims fell under deep scrutiny, and, having experienced setbacks in his further attempts to capitalise on his claims, Psalmanazar eventually conceded that his former declarations regarding Formosa were entirely fraudulent.

Alphabet
According to Psalmanaazaar, the language of Formosa had a written form consisting of twenty glyphs, each with three forms (minuscule, accented, majuscule), that were assembled from right-to-left.


 * See our Psalmanaazaaran Formosan Dictionary for a brief index of terms, including Latin script transliterations and Psalm-Formosan forms, with accompanying English translations.