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
Pinuyumayan
Native toTaiwan
EthnicityPuyuma people
Native speakers
8,500 (2002)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3pyu
Glottologpuyu1239
ELPPuyuma
Linguasphere30-JAA-a
(red) Puyuma
Puyuma is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Puyuma is one of the more divergent of the Austronesian languages and falls outside reconstructions of Proto-Austronesian.

Dialects

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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')
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

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Puyuma has 18 consonants and 4 vowels:

Puyuma Consonants[4]
Bilabial Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
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
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

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Morphology

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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
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

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Puyuma has a verb-initial word order.

Articles include:[7]

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

Pronouns

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The Puyuma personal pronouns are:[8]

Puyuma Personal Pronouns (Free)
Type of
Pronoun
Nominative[9] 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

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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

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  1. ^ Puyuma at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Teng (2009), pp. 839, 841.
  3. ^ Zeitoun & Cauquelin (2006), p. 655.
  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

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  • 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.
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