The Puyuma language is the language of the Puyuma people, a tribe of indigenous people on Taiwan (see Taiwanese aborigines). It is a divergent Formosan language of the Austronesian family. Most speakers are older adults.
Puyuma is one of the more divergent of the Austronesian languages, and falls outside reconstructions of Proto-Austronesian.
Internal classification
The internal classification of Puyuma dialects below is from Ting (1978).[1] Nanwang is usually showed to be the relatively phonologically conservative dialect but grammatically innovative, as it preserves proto-puyuma voiced explosives and syncrets case.
- Proto-Puyuma
- Nanwang
- (Main branch)
- Pinaski-Ulivelivek
- Rikavung
- Kasavakan-Katipul
Puyuma-speaking villages are (Zeitoun & Cauquelin 2006:655):
- Puyuma cluster ('born of the bamboo')
- Katipul cluster ('born of a stone')
- Alipai (Chinese: Pinglang 蘋郎)
- Pinaski (Chinese: Hsia Pinglang 下蘋郎); 2 km north of Puyuma/Nanwang, and maintains close relations with it
- Bankiu (Chinese: Pankiu)
- Kasabakan (Chinese: Chienhe 建和)
- Katipul (Chinese: Chihpen 知本)
- Rikabung (Chinese: Lichia 利嘉)
- Tamalakaw (Chinese: Taian 泰安)
- Ulibulibuk (Chinese: Chulu 初鹿)
Phonology
Puyuma has 18 consonants and 4 vowels.
Grammar
Morphology
Puyuma verbs have four types of focus (Cauquelin 2004:25–26):
- Actor focus: Ø (no mark), -em-, -en- (after labials), me-, meʔ-, ma-
- Object focus: -aw
- Referent focus: -ay
- Instrumental focus: -anai
There are three verbal aspects (Cauquelin 2004:25–26):
- Perfect
- Imperfect
- Future
There are two modes (Cauquelin 2004:25–26):
- Imperative
- Hortative future
Affixes include (Cauquelin 2004:25–26):
- Perfect: Ø (no mark)
- Imperfect: Reduplication; -a-
- Future: Reduplication, sometimes only -a-
- Hortative future: -a-
- Imperative mode: Ø (no mark)
Syntax
Puyuma has a verb-initial word order.
Articles include (Cauquelin 1991:27):
- i – singular personal
- a – singular non-personal
- na – plural (personal and non-personal)
Pronouns
The Puyuma personal pronouns below are from Teng (2008:61–64).
Puyuma Personal Pronouns (Free)
Type of
Pronoun |
Nominative[3] |
Oblique:
Direct |
Oblique:
Indirect |
Oblique:
Non-Subject |
Neutral |
| 1s. |
nanku |
kanku, kananku |
draku, drananku |
kanku |
kuiku |
| 2s. |
nanu |
kanu, kananu |
dranu, drananu |
kanu |
yuyu |
| 3s. |
nantu |
kantu, kanantu |
dratu, dranantu |
kantaw |
taytaw |
| 1p. (incl.) |
nanta |
kanta, kananta |
drata, drananta |
kanta |
taita |
| 1p. (excl.) |
naniam |
kaniam, kananiam |
draniam, drananiam |
kaniam |
mimi |
| 2p. |
nanemu |
kanemu, kananemu |
dranemu, drananemu |
kanemu |
muimu |
| 3p. |
nantu |
kantu, kanantu |
dratu, dranantu |
kantaw |
– |
Puyuma Personal Pronouns (Bound)
Type of
Pronoun |
Nominative
(Subject) |
Nominative
(Possessor of subject) |
Genitive |
| 1s. |
=ku |
ku= |
ku= |
| 2s. |
=yu |
nu= |
nu= |
| 3s. |
– |
tu= |
tu= |
| 1p. (incl.) |
=ta |
ta= |
ta= |
| 1p. (excl.) |
=mi |
niam= |
mi= |
| 2p. |
=mu |
mu= |
mu= |
| 3p. |
– |
tu= |
tu= |
Affixes
The Puyuma affixes below are from Teng (2008:282-285).
- Prefixes
- ika-: the shape of; forming; shaping
- ka-: stative marker
- kara-: collective, to do something together
- kare-: the number of times
- ki-: to get something
- kir-: to go against (voluntarily)
- kitu-: to become
- kur-: be exposed to; be together (passively)
- m-, ma-: actor voice affix/intransitive affix
- maka-: along; to face against
- mara-: comparative/superlative marker
- mar(e)-: reciprocal; plurality of relations
- mi-: to have; to use
- mu-: anticausative marker
- mutu-: to become, to transform into
- pa-/p-: causative marker
- pu-: put
- puka-: ordinal numeral marker
- piya-: to face a certain direction
- si-: to pretend to
- tara-: to use (an instrument), to speak (a language)
- tinu-: to simulate
- tua-: to make, to form
- u-: to go
- ya-: to belong to; nominalizer
- Suffixes
- -a: perfective marker; numeral classifier
- -an: nominalizer; collective/plural marker
- -anay: conveyance voice affix/transitive affix
- -aw: patient voice affix/transitive affix
- -ay: locative voice affix/transitive affix
- -i, -u: imperative transitive marker
- Infixes
- -in-: perfective marker
- -em-: actor voice affix/intransitive affix
- Circumfixes
- -in-anan: the members of
- ka- -an: a period of time
- muri- -an: the way one is doing something; the way something was done
- sa- -an: people doing things together
- sa- -enan: people belonging to the same community
- si- -an: nominalizer
- Ca- -an, CVCV- -an: collectivity, plurality
Notes
- ^ Ting, Pang-hsin [丁邦新]. 1978. Reconstruction of Proto-Puyuma Phonology [古北南語的擬測]. Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, 49:321-391.
- ^ a b Teng (2008:11, 18)
- ^ Possessor of subject
References
- Cauquelin, Josiane. 1991. Dictionnaire Puyuma–Français. Paris: Ecole française d'Extrême Orient.
- Cauquelin, Josiane. 2004. The aborigines of Taiwan: the Puyuma – from headhunting to the modern world. London, New York: RoutledgeCurzon.
- Teng, Stacy Fang-Ching (2008), A reference grammar of Puyuma, an Austronesian language of Taiwan, Pacific linguistics, 595, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University
- Ting, Pang-hsin [丁邦新]. 1978. Reconstruction of Proto-Puyuma Phonology [古北南語的擬測]. Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology [歷史語言研究所集刊], Academia Sinica, 49:321-391.
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