The Kanakanavu live in the two villages of Manga and Takanua in Namasia District (formerly Sanmin Township), Kaohsiung.

[3] The native Kanakanavu speakers were Taiwanese aboriginals living on the islands.

Following the Dutch Colonial Period in the 17th century, Han-Chinese immigration began to dominate the islands population.

As most Austronesian and Formosan languages, Kanakanavu has a CV syllable structure (where C = consonant, V = vowel).

[5] Several texts have been transcribed by outsiders in the orthography of the Council of Indigenous Peoples of Taiwan, and a dictionary is available.