The language area of Saisiyat is small, situated in the northwest of the country between the Hakka Chinese and Atayal regions in the mountains (Wufeng, Hsinchu; Nanchuang and Shitan, Miaoli).

Many young people use Hakka or Atayal instead, and few children speak Saisiyat.

Although Saisiyat has a relatively large number of speakers, the language is endangered.

Orthographic notes: Although it also allows for verb-initial constructions,[5] Saisiyat is a strongly subject-initial language (i.e., SVO), and is shifting to an accusative language, while it still has many features of split ergativity (Hsieh & Huang 2006:91).

Saisiyat's case-marking system distinguishes between personal and common nouns (Hsieh & Huang 2006:93).