Pazeh (also spelled Pazih, Pazéh) and Kaxabu are dialects of an extinct language of the
Pazeh and
Kaxabu, neighboring
Taiwanese indigenous peoples
Taiwanese indigenous peoples (formerly Taiwanese aborigines), also known as Formosan people, Austronesian Taiwanese, Yuanzhumin or Gaoshan people, are the indigenous peoples of Taiwan, with the nationally recognized subgroups numbering about 5 ...
. The language was
Formosan, of the
Austronesian language family. The last remaining native speaker of the Pazeh dialect died in 2010.
Classification
Pazeh is classified as a
Formosan language of the
Austronesian language family.
History
Due to prejudice faced by the Pazeh, as well as other indigenous groups of Taiwan,
Hoklo Taiwanese
Hoklo Taiwanese ( zh, t=臺灣福佬人) or Holo people ( zh, t=河洛人, links=no) are a major ethnic group in Taiwan whose ancestry is wholly or partially Hoklo. Being Taiwanese of Han origin, their mother tongue is Taiwanese (Tâi-oân-ōe ...
came to displace Pazeh.
The last remaining native speaker of the Pazeh dialect,
Pan Jin-yu
Pan Jin-yu (, 21 July 1914 – 24 October 2010) was the last remaining speaker of the Pazeh language of Taiwan. She was born the fifth of six children in 1914 to Kaxabu parents in Puli. Later, she was adopted by parents who were Pazeh speakers ...
, died in 2010 at the age of 96.
Before her death, she offered Pazeh classes to about 200 regular students in Puli and a small number of students in Miaoli and Taichung.
However, there are still efforts in revival of the language after her death.
Phonology
Pazeh has 17 consonants, 4 vowels, and 4
diphthongs (-ay, -aw, -uy, -iw).
# and do not actually share the same
place of articulation
In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation (also point of articulation) of a consonant is a location along the vocal tract where its production occurs. It is a point where a constriction is made between an active and a passive articula ...
; is
alveolar or prealveolar and (as well as ) is
interdental
Interdental consonants are produced by placing the tip of the tongue between the upper and lower front teeth. That differs from dental consonants, which are articulated with the tongue against the ''back'' of the upper incisors. No language is kn ...
. Other coronal consonants tend to be prealveolar or post-dental.
#The distribution for the
glottal stop is allophonic, appearing only between like vowels, before initial vowels, and after final vowels. It is also largely absent in normal speech
# is
spirantized intervocalically
# is actually an alveolar/prealveolar
affricate and only occurs as a syllable onset.
# varies between glottal and
pharyngeal realizations () and is sometimes difficult to distinguish from
Although Pazeh contrasts voiced and voiceless obstruents, this contrast is neutralized in final position for labial and velar stops, where only and occur respectively ( is also devoiced but a contrast is maintained). and are also neutralized to the latter.
Voiceless stops are unreleased in final position.
Mid vowels ( and ) are allophones of close vowels ( and respectively).
* Both lower when adjacent to .
* lowers before . and are in free variation before
*
Reduplicated
In linguistics, reduplication is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word (or part of it) or even the whole word is repeated exactly or with a slight change.
The classic observation on the semantics of reduplication is Edwar ...
morphemes carry the phonetic vowel even when the reduplicated vowel is not in the phonological context for lowering.
** → ('keep clapping').
is somewhat advanced and raised when adjacent to . Prevocally, high vowels are semivocalized. Most coronal consonants block this, although it still occurs after . Semivowels also appear post-vocally.
Phonotactics
The most common morpheme structure is CVCVC where C is any consonant and V is any vowel. Consonant clusters are rare and consist only of a nasal plus a homorganic obstruent or the glide element of a diphthong.
Intervocalic voiceless stops are voiced before a morpheme boundary (but not following one) . Stress falls on the ultimate syllable.
Sound changes
The Pazih language merged the following
Proto-Austronesian
Proto-Austronesian (commonly abbreviated as PAN or PAn) is a proto-language. It is the reconstructed ancestor of the Austronesian languages, one of the world's major language families. Proto-Austronesian is assumed to have begun to diversify ...
phonemes (Li 2001:7).
#
*C, *S > s
#
*D, *Z > d
#
*k, *g > k
#
*j, *s > z
#
*S2, *H > h
#
*N, *ñ > l
#
*r, *R > x
Pazih also split some Proto-Austronesian phonemes:
#
*S > s (merged with *C); *S
2, *H > h
#
*w > ø, w
#
*e > e, u
Grammar
Like
Bunun,
Seediq, Squliq
Atayal, Mantauran
Rukai, and the
Tsouic languages
The Tsouic languages (also known as the Central Formosan languages) are three Formosan languages, Tsou proper and the Southern languages Kanakanavu and Saaroa. The Southern Tsouic languages of Kanakanavu and Saaroa have the smallest phonemic i ...
, Pazeh does not distinguish between common nouns and personal names, whereas Saisiyat does (Li 2000). Although closely related to Saisiyat, the Pazeh language does not have the infix -um- that is present in Saisiyat.
Morphology
Pazeh makes ready use of
affixes,
infixes,
suffixes, and
circumfixes, as well as reduplication. Pazeh also has "focus-marking" in its verbal morphology. In addition, verbs can be either stative or dynamic.
There are four types of focus in Pazeh (Li 2000).
#Agent-focus (AF): mu-, me-, mi-, m-, ma-, ∅-
#Patient-focus (PF) -en, -un
#Locative-focus (LF): -an
#Referential-focus (RF): sa-, saa-, si-
The following affixes are used in Pazeh verbs (Li 2000).
*-in- 'perfective'
*-a- 'progressive'
*-ay 'actor focus, irrealis', -aw 'patient focus, irrealis'
*-i 'non-agent-focused imperative'
The following are also used to mark aspect (Li 2000).
*Reduplication of the verb stem's first syllable – 'progressive'
*lia – "already"
Affixes
The Pazih affixes below are from Li (2001:10–19).
;Prefixes
*ha-: stative
*ka-: inchoative
*kaa-: nominal
*kai-: to stay at a certain location
*kali- -an: susceptible to, involuntarily
*m-: agent focus
*ma- (ka-): stative
*ma- (pa-): to have (noun); agent-focus
*maa
a (paa
a): – mutually, reciprocal
*maka- (paka-): to bear, bring forth
*mana- (pana-): to wash (body parts)
*mari- (pari-): to bear, to give birth (of animal)
*maru- (paru-): to lay eggs or give birth
*masa-: verbal prefix
*masi- (pasi-): to move, to wear
*mata-: (number of) times
*mati- (pati-): to carry, to wear, to catch
*matu- (patu-): to build, erect, set up
*maxa- (paxa-): to produce, to bring forth; to become
*maxi- (paxi-): to have, to bring forth; to look carefully
*me-, mi- (pi-), mi- (i-): agent-focus
*mia- (pia-): towards, to go
*mia- which one; ordinal (number)
*mu- (pu-): agent-focus (-um- in many other Formosan languages); to release
*pa-: verbalizer; causative, active verb
*paka-: causative, stative verb
*papa-: to ride
*pu-: to pave
*pu- -an: locative-focus, location
*sa- ~saa-, si-: instrumental-focus, something used to ..., tools
*si-: to have, to produce; to go (to a location)
*si- -an: to bring forth, to have a growth on one's body
*ta-: agentive, one specialized in ...; nominal prefix; verbal prefix
*tau-: agentive
*tau- -an: a gathering place
*taxa-: to feel like doing; to take a special posture
*taxi-: to lower one's body
*taxu-: to move around
*ti-: to get something undesirable or uncomfortable
*tu-: stative
*xi-: to turn over, to revert
;Infixes
*-a-: progressive, durative
*-in-: perfective
;Suffixes
*-an: locative-focus, location
*-an ~ -nan: locative pronoun or personal name
*-aw: patient-focus, future
*-ay: locative-focus, irrealis
*-en ~ -un: patient-focus
*-i: patient-focus, imperative; vocative, address for an elder kinship
*CV- -an: location
Syntax
Although originally a verb-initial language, Pazeh often uses SVO (verb-medial) sentence constructions due to influence from Chinese.
There are four case markers in Pazeh (Li 2000).
#''ki'' Nominative
#''ni'' Genitive
#''di'' Locative
#''u'' Oblique
Pazeh has the following negators (Li 2001:46).
*ini – no, not
*uzay – not
*kuang ~ kuah – not exist
*mayaw – not yet
*nah – not want
*ana – don't
Pronouns
The Pazeh personal pronouns below are from Li (2000). (''Note'': vis. = visible, prox. = proximal)
Numerals
Pazeh and Saisiyat are the only
Formosan languages
The Formosan languages are a geographic grouping comprising the languages of the indigenous peoples of Taiwan, all of which are Austronesian. They do not form a single subfamily of Austronesian but rather nine separate subfamilies. The Taiwa ...
that do not have a bipartite numerical system consisting of both human and non-human numerals (Li 2006).
Pazeh is also the only language that forms the numerals 6 to 9 by addition (However, Saisiyat, which is closely related to Pazeh, expresses the number 7 as 6 + 1, and 9 as 10 − 1.)
*1 =
*2 = dusa
*3 = turu
*4 = supat
*5 = xasep
*6 = 5 + 1 = xaseb-uza
*7 = 5 + 2 = xaseb-i-dusa
*8 = 5 + 3 = xaseb-i-turu
*9 = 5 + 4 = xaseb-i-supat
The number "five" in Pazeh, ''xasep'', is similar to Saisiyat ''Laseb'', Taokas ''hasap'', Babuza ''nahup'', and Hoanya ''hasip'' (Li 2006). Li (2006) believes that the similarity is more likely because of borrowing rather than common origin.
Laurent Sagart
Laurent Sagart (; born 1951) is a senior researcher at the Centre de recherches linguistiques sur l'Asie orientale (CRLAO – UMR 8563) unit of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).
Biography
Born in Paris in 1951, he earned hi ...
considers these numerals to be ancient retentions from Proto-Austronesian, but
Paul Jen-kuei Li
Paul Li, or Li Jen-kuei (; born 20 September 1936), is a research fellow at the Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of th ...
considers them to be local innovations. Unlike Pazeh, these Plains indigenous languages as well as the
Atayalic languages use 2 × 4 to express the number 8. (The
Atayalic languages as well as
Thao also use 2 × 3 to express the number 6.) Saisiyat, Thao, Taokas, and Babuza use 10 − 1 to express 9, whereas Saisiyat uses 5 + 1 to express 6 as Pazeh does.
The
Ilongot language
Bugkalot (also Ilongot) is a language of the indigenous Bugkalot people of northern Luzon, Philippines.
Distribution
''Ethnologue'' lists the following provinces in which Ilongot is spoken.
*Most of Quirino Province north of the Cagayan River ...
of the Philippines also derives numerals in the same manner as Pazeh does (Blust 2009:273).
[ , .]
Furthermore, numerals can function as both nouns and verbs in all
Formosan languages
The Formosan languages are a geographic grouping comprising the languages of the indigenous peoples of Taiwan, all of which are Austronesian. They do not form a single subfamily of Austronesian but rather nine separate subfamilies. The Taiwa ...
, including Pazeh.
References
Notes
General references
*
*
Bibliography
*
Further reading
*
*
External links
The secret of Formosan languages (Interview clip including exclusive interviews with Pan Jin-yu)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pazeh Language
Formosan languages
Languages of Taiwan
Extinct languages of Asia
Languages extinct in the 2010s