Pazeh (also spelled Pazih, Pazéh) and Kaxabu are dialects of an extinct language of the Pazeh and Kaxabu, neighboring Taiwanese indigenous peoples. The language was Formosan, of the Austronesian language family. The last remaining native speaker of the Pazeh dialect died in 2010.
(pink, northwest) Saisiyat, Pazeh and Kulon. Some Chinese-language sources designate the white area in the northwest as a Kulon area, as opposed to the small pink circle on this map.[2]
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Due to prejudice faced by the Pazeh, as well as other indigenous groups of Taiwan, Hoklo Taiwanese came to displace Pazeh.[3][4]
The last remaining native speaker of the Pazeh dialect, Pan Jin-yu,[5] died in 2010 at the age of 96.[6] Before her death, she offered Pazeh classes to about 200 regular students in Puli and a small number of students in Miaoli and Taichung.[3] However, there are still efforts in revival of the language after her death.
Phonologyedit
Pazeh has 17 consonants, 4 vowels, and 4 diphthongs (-ay, -aw, -uy, -iw).[7]
/t/ and /d/ do not actually share the same place of articulation; /d/ is alveolar or prealveolar and /t/ (as well as /n/) is interdental. 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
/z/ is actually an alveolar/prealveolar affricate[dz] and only occurs as a syllable onset.[9]
/h/ varies between glottal and pharyngeal realizations ([ħ]) and is sometimes difficult to distinguish from /x/
Although Pazeh contrasts voiced and voiceless obstruents, this contrast is neutralized in final position for labial and velar stops, where only /p/ and /k/ occur respectively (/d/ is also devoiced but a contrast is maintained). /l/ and /n/ are also neutralized to the latter.[10] Voiceless stops are unreleased in final position.
/a/ is somewhat advanced and raised when adjacent to /i/. Prevocally, high vowels are semivocalized. Most coronal consonants block this, although it still occurs after /s/. Semivowels also appear post-vocally.[13]
Phonotacticsedit
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.[10]
Intervocalic voiceless stops are voiced before a morpheme boundary (but not following one) .[14] Stress falls on the ultimate syllable.[10]
Sound changesedit
The Pazih language merged the following Proto-Austronesian 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); *S2, *H > h
*w > ø, w
*e > e, u
Grammaredit
Like Bunun, Seediq, Squliq Atayal, Mantauran Rukai, and the Tsouic languages,[15] 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.
Morphologyedit
Pazeh makes ready use of affixes, infixes, suffixes, and circumfixes, as well as reduplication.[16] 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).
The following are also used to mark aspect (Li 2000).
Reduplication of the verb stem's first syllable – 'progressive'
lia – "already"
Affixesedit
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[ka]- (paa[ka]-): – 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
Syntaxedit
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
Pronounsedit
The Pazeh personal pronouns below are from Li (2000). (Note: vis. = visible, prox. = proximal)
Pazeh Personal Pronouns
Type of Pronoun
Neutral
Nominative
Genitive
Locative
1s.
yaku
aku
naki
yakuan, yakunan
2s.
isiw
siw
nisiw
isiwan
3s. (prox.)
imini
mini
nimini
iminiyan
3s. (vis.)
imisiw
misiw
nimisiw
misiwan
3s. (not vis.)
isia
sia
nisia
isiaan
1p. (incl.)
ita
ta
nita (ta-)
itaan
1p. (excl.)
yami
ami
nyam(i)
yamian, yaminan
2p.
imu
mu
nimu
imuan
3p. (prox.)
yamini
amini
naamini
yaminiyan
3p. (vis.)
yamisiw
amisiw
naamisiw
yamisiwan
3p. (not vis.)
yasia
asia
naasia
yasiaan
Numeralsedit
Pazeh and Saisiyat are the only Formosan languages that do not have a bipartite numerical system consisting of both human and non-human numerals (Li 2006).[17] 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 = ida adang
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 considers these numerals to be ancient retentions from Proto-Austronesian, but Paul Jen-kuei Li 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.[18] The Ilongot language of the Philippines also derives numerals in the same manner as Pazeh does (Blust 2009:273).[19]
Furthermore, numerals can function as both nouns and verbs in all Formosan languages, including Pazeh.
^"Táiwān yuánzhùmín píngpǔ zúqún bǎinián fēnlèi shǐ xìliè dìtú" 臺灣原住民平埔族群百年分類史系列地圖 [A History of the Classification of Plains Taiwanese Tribes Over the Past Century]. blog.xuite.net (in Chinese). August 6, 2009. Retrieved March 4, 2017.
^Li, Jen-kuei 李壬癸 (October 29, 2010). "Xià yīgè xiāoshī de yǔyán shì?" 下一個消失的語言是? [Which Language Will Be Extinct Next in Taiwan?]. udn.com (in Chinese). Archived from the original on October 29, 2010.
^Li, Paul Jen-kuei. (1997). "A Syntactic Typology of Formosan Languages – Case Markers on Nouns and Pronouns." In Li, Paul Jen-kuei. (2004). Selected Papers on Formosan Languages. Taipei, Taiwan: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica.
^Li, Paul Jen-kuei (2006). "Numerals in Formosan Languages". Oceanic Linguistics. 45 (1): 133–152. doi:10.1353/ol.2006.0014. JSTOR 4499950. S2CID 146593890.
^Li, Jen-kuei 李壬癸 (2006b). "Táiwān nándǎo yǔyán de àomì" 台灣南島語言的奧秘 (PDF). Zhōngyāng Yánjiùyuàn xuéshù zīxún zǒnghuì tōngxùn 中央研究院學術諮詢總會通訊 (in Chinese). 15 (1): 59–62. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 27, 2011.
^Blust, Robert (2009). The Austronesian Languages. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. ISBN 0-85883-602-5, ISBN 978-0-85883-602-0.
General referencesedit
Li, Paul Jen-kuei (2000). "Some Aspects of Pazeh Syntax". In De Guzman, V. P.; Bender, B. (eds.). Grammatical Analysis: Morphology, Syntax, and Semantics. Studies in Honour of Stanley Starosta. Oceanic Linguistics Special Publications No. 29. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press. pp. 89–108. JSTOR 20000143.
Li, Paul Jen-kuei; Tsuchida, Shigeru (2001). Pazih Dictionary / Bāzǎiyǔ cídiǎn Pazih Dictionary / 巴宰語詞典 (PDF). Language and Linguistics Monograph Series No. 2 (in English and Chinese). Taipei: Institute of Linguistics (Preparatory Office), Academia Sinica. ISBN 957-671-790-6.
Bibliographyedit
Blust, Robert (1999). "Notes on Pazeh Phonology and Morphology". Oceanic Linguistics. 38 (2): 321–365. doi:10.1353/ol.1999.0002. S2CID 145426312.
Further readingedit
Li, Paul Jen-kuei; Tsuchida, Shigeru (2002). Pazih Texts and Songs / Bāzǎizú chuánshuō gēyáo jí Pazih Texts and Songs / 巴宰族傳說歌謠集 (PDF). Language and Linguistics Monograph Series No. A2-2 (in English and Chinese). Taipei: Institute of Linguistics (Preparatory Office), Academia Sinica. ISBN 957-671-888-0.
Li, Paul Jen-kuei (2013). "The Last Text of the Last Pazih Speaker" (PDF). In Cao, Guangshun; Chappell, Hilary; Djamour, Redouane; Wiebusch, Thekla (eds.). Breaking Down the Barriers: Interdisciplinary Studies in Chinese Linguistics and Beyond. Language and Linguistics Monograph Series 50. Taipei: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica. pp. 1133–1147. ISBN 978-986-03-7678-4.
External linksedit
Pazeh language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator
The secret of Formosan languages (Interview clip including exclusive interviews with Pan Jin-yu) (in Chinese)