Puyuma language

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|

Austronesian language spoken in Taiwan

Puyuma

Pinuyumayan
Native to| Taiwan
Ethnicity| Puyuma people

Native speakers

| 8,500 (2002)[1]

Language family

Austronesian

* Puyuma

Language codes
ISO 639-3| `pyu`
Glottolog| `puyu1239`
ELP| Puyuma
Linguasphere| `30-JAA-a`

(red) Puyuma

Puyuma is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

The Puyuma language or Pinuyumayan (Chinese: 卑南語; pinyin: Bēinányǔ), is the language of the Puyuma, an indigenous people of Taiwan. 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.

## Dialects

[edit]

The internal classification of Puyuma dialects below is from Ting (1978). Nanwang Puyuma is considered to be the relatively phonologically conservative but grammatically innovative, as in it preserves proto-Puyuma voiced plosives but syncretizes the use of both oblique and genitive case.[2]

* Proto-Puyuma
* Nanwang
* (Main branch)
* Pinaski–Ulivelivek
* Pinaski
* Ulivelivek
* Rikavung
* Kasavakan–Katipul
* Kasavakan
* Katipul

Puyuma-speaking villages are:[3]

Puyuma cluster ('born of the bamboo')

* Puyuma (Chinese: Nanwang 南王)
* Apapulu (Chinese: Paosang 寶桑)

Katipul cluster ('born of a stone')

* Alipai (Chinese: Pinlang 賓朗)
* Pinaski (Chinese: Hsia Pinlang 下賓朗); 2 km north of Puyuma/Nanwang, and maintains close relations with it
* Pankiu (Chinese: Pankiu 班鳩)
* Kasavakan (Chinese: Chienhe 建和)
* Katratripul (Chinese: Chihpen 知本)
* Likavung (Chinese: Lichia 利嘉)
* Tamalakaw (Chinese: Taian 泰安)
* Ulivelivek (Chinese: Chulu 初鹿)

## Phonology

[edit]

Puyuma has 18 consonants and 4 vowels:

Puyuma Consonants[4] | Bilabial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal

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Nasal | m | n |  |  | ŋ ⟨ng⟩ |
Plosive | Voiceless | p | t | ʈ ⟨tr⟩ |  | k | ʔ ⟨’⟩
Voiced | b | d | ɖ ⟨dr⟩ |  | ɡ |
Fricative |  | s |  |  |  |
Trill |  | r |  |  |  |
Approximant |  | l ⟨lr⟩ | ɭ ⟨l⟩ | j ⟨y⟩ | w |
Puyuma Vowels[4] | Front | Central | Back

|
|
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Close | i |  | u
Mid |  | ə ⟨e⟩ |
Open |  | a |

Note that Teng uses ⟨lr⟩ for /ɭ/ and ⟨l⟩ for /l/, unlike in official version. The official orthography is used in this article.

## Grammar

[edit]

### Morphology

[edit]

Puyuma verbs have four types of focus:[5]

1. Actor focus: Ø (no mark), -em-, -en- (after labials), me-, meʔ-, ma-
2. Object focus: -aw
3. Referent focus: -ay
4. Instrumental focus: -anay

There are three verbal aspects:[5]

1. Perfect
2. Imperfect
3. Future

There are two modes:[5]

1. Imperative
2. Hortative future

Affixes include:[5]

* Perfect: Ø (no mark)
* Imperfect: Reduplication; -a-
* Future: Reduplication, sometimes only -a-
* Hortative future: -a-
* Imperative mode: Ø (no mark)

Verb conjugation example for trakaw "to steal"[6] | Active  | Patient  | Locative  | Causative

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|
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Realis  | Unmarked  | tremakaw | trakawaw | trakaway | trakawanay
Progressive  | trematrakaw | tratrakawaw | tratrakaway | tratrakawanay
Durative  | trematratrakaw | tratratrakawaw | tratratrakaway | tratratrakawanay
Irrealis  | tratrakaw | tratrakawi | tratrakawan
Imperative  | trakaw | trakawi | trakawu | trakawan
Hortative  | tremakawa | —

### Syntax

[edit]

Puyuma has a verb-initial word order.

Articles include:[7]

* i – singular personal
* a – singular non-personal
* na – plural (personal and non-personal)

### Pronouns

[edit]

The Puyuma personal pronouns are:[8]

Puyuma Personal Pronouns (Free)  Type of
Pronoun  | Nominative[9] | Oblique:
Direct  | Oblique:
Indirect  | Oblique:
Non-Subject  | Neutral

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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

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|
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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

[edit]

The Puyuma affixes are:[10]

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

[edit]

1. ^ Puyuma at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. ^ Teng (2009), pp. 839, 841.
3. ^ Zeitoun & Cauquelin (2006), p. 655. sfnp error: no target: CITEREFZeitounCauquelin2006 (help)
4. ^ a b Teng (2008), pp. 11, 18.
5. ^ a b c d Cauquelin (2004), pp. 25–26.
6. ^ Teng (2008), p. 112.
7. ^ Cauquelin (1991), p. 27.
8. ^ Teng (2008), pp. 61–64.
9. ^ Possessor of subject
10. ^ Teng (2008), pp. 282–285.

## References

[edit]

* Cauquelin, Josiane (1991). Dictionnaire puyuma-français. Paris: Ecole Française d'Extreme-Orient. ISBN 9782855395517.
* Cauquelin, Josiane (2004). Aborigines of Taiwan: The Puyuma – From Headhunting to the Modern World. London: RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 9780203498590.
* Teng, Stacy Fang-ching (2007). A Reference Grammar of Puyuma, an Austronesian Language of Taiwan (Ph.D. thesis). doi:10.25911/5D63C47EE2628. hdl:1885/147042.
* Teng, Stacy Fang-ching (2008). A Reference Grammar of Puyuma, an Austronesian Language of Taiwan (PDF). Pacific Linguistics 595. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. hdl:1885/28526. ISBN 9780858835870.
* Teng, Stacy Fang-ching (2009). "Case Syncretism in Puyuma" (PDF). Languages and Linguistics. 10 (4): 819–844\. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-11-11.
* Ting, Pang-hsin (1978). "Reconstruction of Proto-Puyuma Phonology". Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology. 49. Academia Sinica: 321–391\. OCLC 4938029239. Archived from the original on 13 December 2014. Retrieved 5 December 2014.
* Teng, Fang-ching 鄧芳青 (2018). Bēinányǔ yǔfǎ gàilùn 卑南語語法概論 [Introduction to Puyuma Grammar] (in Chinese). Xinbei shi: Yuanzhu minzu weiyuanhui. ISBN 978-986-05-5694-0 – via alilin.apc.gov.tw.

## External links

[edit]

* Yuánzhùmínzú yǔyán xiànshàng cídiǎn 原住民族語言線上詞典 (in Chinese) – Puyuma search page at the "Aboriginal language online dictionary" website of the Indigenous Languages Research and Development Foundation
* Puyuma teaching and leaning materials published by the Council of Indigenous Peoples of Taiwan (in Chinese)
* Puyuma translation of President Tsai Ing-wen's 2016 apology to indigenous people – published on the website of the presidential office

Puyuma language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

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Languages of Taiwan

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| Formosan|

| Atayalic|

* Atayal
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|

Rukaic|

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Northern|

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East|

* Amis
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* Basay
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* Makatao
* Qauqaut
* Sakizaya
* Siraya
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Southern|

* Bunun
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* Puyuma

Tsouic|

* Kanakanavu
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Malayo-Polynesian|

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* Yami

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Formosan languages

East|

| Ami|

* Amis
* Sakizaya

|

Kavalanic|

* Kavalan
* Basay †
* Ketagalan †

Sirayaic|

* Siraya †
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Northern|

| Atayalic|

* Atayal
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|

Northwest|

* Babuza †
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