Amis Amis may refer to:
* Amis (surname)
* Amis people (or ''Amis''), a tribe of Taiwanese aborigines
* Amis language, an indigenous language of Taiwan
* AMIS (ISP), an Internet service provider (ISP) in Slovenia and Croatia
* Amis et Amiles, an old ...
(or Ami), an
indigenous people
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
living along the east coast of
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...
. Currently the largest of the Formosan languages, it is spoken from Hualien in the north to Taitung in the south, with another population in the Hengchun Peninisula near the southern end of the island, though the northern varieties are considered to be separate languages.
Government services in counties where many Amis people live in Taiwan, such as the Hualien and Taitung railway stations, broadcast in Amis alongside Mandarin. However, few Amis under the age of 20 in 1995 spoke the language. It is not known how many of the 200,000 ethnic Amis speak the language, but overall a third of the aboriginal Taiwanese population do.
Dialects
Amis is a dialect cluster. There are five dialects: Southern Amis, Tavalong-Vataan, Central Amis, Chengkung-Kwangshan, and Northern Amis (Nanshi Amis, which includes Nataoran).
Sakizaya Sakizaya may refer to:
* Sakizaya language, a Formosan language
* Sakizaya people
The Sakizaya (native name: Sakuzaya, literally "real man"; ; occasionally Sakiraya or Sakidaya) are Taiwanese indigenous peoples with a population of approximately ...
is a moribund language spoken among the northernmost ethnic Amis but is mutually unintelligible with the Northern Amis dialect.
Phonology
The following discussion covers the central dialect of Amis.
Consonants
The voiceless plosives and the affricate are released in clusters, so that ''cecay'' "one" is pronounced ; as is : ''sepat'' "four" is . The glottal stop is an exception, frequently having no audible release in final position. The voiced fricatives, (the latter found only in loanwords) are devoiced to in utterance-final and sometimes initial position. may be interdental or post-dental. The sibilants, , are optionally palatalized () before . does not occur in word-initial position. is often post-alveolar, and in final position it is released: "fog".
shows dramatic dialectal variation. In
Fengbin
Fengbin Townshipcentral dental fricative, , whereas in the town of Kangko, only away, it is a lateral . In Northern Amis, it is a plosive , which may be laxed to intervocalically. The epiglottals are also reported to have different pronunciations in the north, but the descriptions are contradictory. In Central Amis, is always voiceless and is often accompanied by vibrations that suggest it involves an epiglottal trill . Edmondson and Elsing report that these are true epiglottals initially and medially, but in utterance-final position they are epiglotto–pharyngeal.
Sakizaya, considered to be a separate language, contrasts a voiced with voiceless .
In the practical orthography, is written , , , , , , and .
Vowels
Amis has three common vowels, . Despite the fact that a great deal of latitude is afforded by only needing to distinguish three vowels, Amis vowels stay close to their cardinal values, though there is more movement of and toward each other (tending to the range) than there is in front-vowel space (in the range).
A voiceless epenthetic schwa optionally breaks up consonant clusters, as noted above. However, there are a small number of words where a short schwa (written ''e)'' may be phonemic. However, no contrast involving the schwa is known, and if it is also epenthetic, then Amis has words with no phonemic vowels at all. Examples of this ''e'' are ''malmes'' "sad", pronounced , and ''’nem'' "six", pronounced or .
Examples of words
*
*Compare with
Tagalog
Tagalog may refer to:
Language
* Tagalog language, a language spoken in the Philippines
** Old Tagalog, an archaic form of the language
** Batangas Tagalog, a dialect of the language
* Tagalog script, the writing system historically used for Tagal ...
baboy (pig), aso (dog), tatlo (3), apat (4), lima (5), anim (6), pito (7), walo (8)
* Compare with Kapampangan asu (dog), atlo (3), apat (4), lima (5), anam (6), pitu/pito (7), walu/walo (8), siyam (9), apulu/apulo (10) and ama (father) and ima (mother)
* Compare with Ilokano baboy(pig), aso (dog), maysa (1), dua (2), tallo (3), uppat (4), lima (5), inem (6), pito (7), walo (8), siam (9), sangapulo (10)
* Compare with Javanese lutung (monkey), babi (pig), asu (dog), siji (1), loro (2), telu (3), papat (4), lima (5), enem (6), pitu (7), wolu (8), sanga (9), sepuluh (10)
* Compare with Sundanese lutung (monkey), babi (pig), hiji (1), dua (2), tilu (3), opat (4), lima (5), genep (6), tujuh (7), dalapan (8), salapan (9), sapuluh (10)
* Compare with Malay lotong/lutung (monkey), babi (pig), satu (1), dua (2), tiga (3), empat (4), lima (5), enam (6), sembilan (9), sepuluh (10)
*maolah kako mimali = I like to play sports.
*takaraw ko pita’kod = I jump very high.
*kalamkam ko kacomikay = I run very fast.
*Ira ko tata’angay a mata ako = I have big eyes
*mamangay a ngoyos = A small mouth
*takaya’ay a fokes = long hair
*sowal san ko kahacecay a tamdaw makapahay kako = Everyone tells me that I am beautiful.
*mafana’ay miasik, misawsaw to kaysing, milidong to fodoy = I can sweep the floor, wash dishes and clothing.
*maolah midemak kako to tayal no loma’ = I love to do household chores.
*nawhani maolah kako to loma’ no mako = Because I love my home.
passive voice
A passive voice construction is a grammatical voice construction that is found in many languages. In a clause with passive voice, the grammatical subject expresses the ''theme'' or '' patient'' of the main verb – that is, the person or thing t ...
, disposal sentence,
imperative mood
The imperative mood is a grammatical mood that forms a command or request.
The imperative mood is used to demand or require that an action be performed. It is usually found only in the present tense, second person. To form the imperative mood, ...
prohibitive mood
The imperative mood is a grammatical mood that forms a command or request.
The imperative mood is used to demand or require that an action be performed. It is usually found only in the present tense, second person. To form the imperative mood, ...
.
Case markers
Cases are marked by case particles.
Syntax
There are two word orders in Amis called "General" Word Order and "Special" Word Order.
Below are some examples of Amis sentence:
"General" Word Order Sentence I : Verb–subject
=Example
=
*Maomahay ci wama. (The father is working in the field.)
**mimaomahay: working (in the field)
**ci: subject preposition for personal proper noun
**wama: father
*Misaholoay ci wina. (The mother is cooking rice.)
**misaholoay: cooking (rice)
**ina/wina: mother
"General" Word Order Sentence II : Verb–subject–object
=Example
=
*Mifaca' ko kaying to riko'. (The young woman is washing clothes.)
*Mifaca' koya kaying to riko'. (That young woman is washing clothes.)
**mifaca': wash (clothes)
**ko: subject preposition for common nouns
**kaying: young woman
**to: object preposition for common nouns
**riko'/fudoy: clothes
Toponyms
Sing ’Olam (2011:300–301) lists the following Amis names for villages and towns in Hualien County and Taitung County of eastern Taiwan.
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