Saisiyat (sometimes spelled Saisiat) is the language of the
Saisiyat, a
Taiwanese indigenous people. It is a
Formosan language of the
Austronesian family. It has approximately 4,750 speakers.
Distribution
The language area of Saisiyat is small, situated in the northwest of the country between the
Hakka Chinese
Hakka ( zh, c=, p=Kèjiāhuà; '' Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: '', zh, c=, p=Kèjiāyǔ; '' Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: '') forms a language group of varieties of Chinese, spoken natively by the Hakka people in parts of Southern China, Taiwan, some diaspora areas ...
and
Atayal regions in the mountains (
Wufeng, Hsinchu;
Nanchuang and
Shitan,
Miaoli
Miaoli City (Wade–Giles: ''Miao²-li⁴-shih⁴''; Hakka Chinese, Hakka Pha̍k-fa-sṳ, PFS: ''Mèu-li̍t-sṳ''; Hokkien Pe̍h-ōe-jī, POJ: ''Biâu-le̍k-chhī'' or ''Miâu-le̍k-chhī''; Japanese language, Japanese Byōritsushi) is a cou ...
).
There are two main dialects: Ta'ai (North Saisiyat) and Tungho (South Saisiyat). Ta'ai is spoken in
Hsinchu
Hsinchu (, ), officially Hsinchu City, is a city located in northwestern Taiwan. It is the most populous city in Taiwan that is not a special municipality, with estimated 450,655 inhabitants. Hsinchu is a coastal city bordering the Taiwan ...
and Tungho is spoken in
Miao-Li.
Kulon, an extinct Formosan language, is closely related to Saisiyat but is considered by Taiwanese linguist
Paul Jen-kuei Li to be a separate language.
Usage
Today, one thousand
Saisiyat people do not use the Saisiyat language. Many young people use
Hakka
The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka-speaking Chinese, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas, are a southern Han Chinese subgroup whose principal settlements and ancestral homes are dispersed widely across the provinces of southern China ...
or
Atayal instead, and few children speak Saisiyat.
Hakka Chinese
Hakka ( zh, c=, p=Kèjiāhuà; '' Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: '', zh, c=, p=Kèjiāyǔ; '' Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: '') forms a language group of varieties of Chinese, spoken natively by the Hakka people in parts of Southern China, Taiwan, some diaspora areas ...
speakers, Atayal speakers and Saisiyat speakers live more or less together. Many Saisiyat are able to speak Saisiyat, Hakka, Atayal,
Mandarin
Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to:
Language
* Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country
** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China
** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
, and, sometimes,
Min Nan
Southern Min (), Minnan ( Mandarin pronunciation: ) or Banlam (), is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Chinese languages that form a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Fujian (especially the Minnan region), most of Taiwan ...
as well. Although Saisiyat has a relatively large number of speakers, the language is
endangered
An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...
.
Phonology
Consonants
Orthographic notes:
* is a retroflex lateral approximant, while is a palato-alveolar fricative.
Vowels
Orthography
* a -
�* ae -
�* b -
�* e -
�* ng -
�* oe -
�* s -
/θ* S -
�* y -
* z -
/ð* ' -
�* aa/aː -
ː* ee/eː -
�ː* ii/iː -
ː
Grammar
Syntax
Although it also allows for verb-initial constructions, 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).
Pazeh and
Thao, also
Northern Formosan languages, are the only other
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 up to nine separate primary subfamili ...
that allow for SVO constructions.
Saisiyat's case-marking system distinguishes between personal and common nouns (Hsieh & Huang 2006:93).
Pronouns
Saisiyat has an elaborate pronominal system (Hsieh & Huang 2006:93).
Verbs
The following are verbal prefixes in Saisiyat (Hsieh & Huang 2006:93).
Saisiyat verbs can be nominalized in the following ways.
Lexicon
Saisiyat has had influence from Japanese due to the
Japanese occupation of Taiwan and
Mandarin
Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to:
Language
* Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country
** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China
** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
due to the Taiwanese governments former encouragement of the language. It also contains influence from
Hakka
The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka-speaking Chinese, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas, are a southern Han Chinese subgroup whose principal settlements and ancestral homes are dispersed widely across the provinces of southern China ...
though this varies wildly between more isolated dialects with almost no Hakka influence and less isolated dialects with heavy Hakka influence.
References
Citations
Works cited
*
*
Further reading
*
*
External links
Yuánzhùmínzú yǔyán xiànshàng cídiǎn 原住民族語言線上詞典 – Saisiyat search page at the "Aboriginal language online dictionary" website of the Indigenous Languages Research and Development Foundation
Saisiyat teaching and leaning materials published by the Council of Indigenous Peoples of Taiwan
Saisiyat translation of President Tsai Ing-wen's 2016 apology to indigenous people– published on the website of the presidential office
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saisiyat Language
Formosan languages
Languages of Taiwan
Endangered Austronesian languages
Saisiyat people