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Sino-Austronesian Languages
Sino-Austronesian or Sino-Tibetan-Austronesian is a proposed language family suggested by Laurent Sagart in 1990. Using reconstructions of Old Chinese, Sagart argued that the Austronesian languages are related to the Sinitic languages phonologically, lexically and morphologically. Sagart later accepted the Sino-Tibetan languages as a valid group and extended his proposal to include the rest of Sino-Tibetan. He also placed the Tai–Kadai languages within the Austronesian family as a sister branch of Malayo-Polynesian. The proposal has been largely rejected by other linguists who argue that the similarities between Austronesian and Sino-Tibetan more likely arose from contact rather than being genetic. Classification Sagart (2004) The classification below follows Sagart (2004). *Sino-Austronesian (Sino-Tibetan–Austronesian) **Sino-Tibetan ***Tibeto-Burman *** Sinitic ** Austronesian *** Luilang, Pazeh, Saisiat ***Pituish **** Atayalic, Thao, Favorlang, Taokas, Papora, H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
East Asia
East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Japan, Japan, Economy of South Korea, South Korea, and Economy of Taiwan, Taiwan are among the world's largest and most prosperous. East Asia borders North Asia to the north, Southeast Asia to the south, South Asia to the southwest, and Central Asia to the west. To its east is the Pacific Ocean. East Asia, especially History of China, Chinese civilization, is regarded as one of the earliest Cradle of civilization#China, cradles of civilization. Other ancient civilizations in East Asia that still exist as independent countries in the present day include the History of Japan, Japanese, History of Korea, Korean, and History of Mongolia, Mongolian civilizations. Various other civilizations existed as independent polities in East Asia in the past ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Favorlang Language
Favorlang is an extinct Formosan language closely related to Babuza. Although Favorlang is considered by Taiwanese linguist Paul Jen-kuei Li to be a separate language, it is nevertheless very closely related to Babuza. In fact, the name ''Favorlang'' is derived from ''Babuza''. Alternatively, Favorlang may also have represented a dialect of Babuza at an earlier stage, since Favorlang was documented in the mid-17th century, while Babuza was documented only around the turn of the 20th century by Japanese linguists. Phonology Favorlang has gone through the following sound changes. Except for the *t, *s, *Z > merger, all of these sound changes are shared by the five Western Plains languages Taokas, Babuza, Papora, Hoanya, and Thao. #Merger of PAn *n and *ŋ as #Merger of *t, *s, *Z as #Merger of *N and *S1 as #Complete loss of *k, *q, *H #Partial loss of *R, *j, including the loss of final *-y and *-w #*s (in initial and medial positions) > Sources Favorlang data sources are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese language, Chinese recorded in the ''Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The Swedish linguist Bernhard Karlgren believed that the dictionary recorded a speech standard of the capital Chang'an of the Sui dynasty, Sui and Tang dynasty, Tang dynasties. However, based on the preface of the ''Qieyun'', most scholars now believe that it records a compromise between northern and southern reading and poetic traditions from the late Northern and Southern dynasties period. This composite system contains important information for the reconstruction of the preceding system of Old Chinese phonology (early 1st millennium BC). The ''fanqie'' method used to indicate pronunciation in these dictionaries, though an improvement on earlier methods, proved awkward in practice. The mid-12th-century ''Yunjing'' and other r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proto-Austronesian Language
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 in Taiwan. Lower-level reconstructions have also been made, and include Proto-Malayo-Polynesian, Proto-Oceanic, and Proto-Polynesian. Recently, linguists such as Malcolm Ross and Andrew Pawley have built large lexicons for Proto-Oceanic and Proto-Polynesian. Phonology Proto-Austronesian is reconstructed by constructing sets of correspondences among consonants in the various Austronesian languages, according to the comparative method. Although in theory the result should be unambiguous, in practice given the large number of languages there are numerous disagreements, with various scholars differing significantly on the number and nature of the phonemes in Proto-Austronesian. In the past, some disagreements concerned whether certain ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kavalan Language
Kavalan (also known as Kvalan, Kebalan or Kbalan) was formerly spoken in the Northeast coast area of Taiwan by the Kavalan people (噶瑪蘭). It is an East Formosan language of the Austronesian family. Kavalan is no longer spoken in its original area. As of 1930, it was used only as a home language. As of 1987, it was still spoken in Atayal territories. In 2000, this language was still reported to be spoken by 24 speakers but considered moribund. In 2017, a study using the EDGE metric from species conservation found that Kavalan, although critically endangered, was among the most lexically distinct of Austronesian languages. Dialects Kavalan consists of the following speech communities ordered from north to south: *Kariawan (Jialiwan 加禮宛) – near Hualien, a formerly Sakizaya-speaking area *Patʀungan (Xinshe 新社) – located in Fungpin (豐濱鄉), Hualien *Kulis (Lide 立德) *Kralut (Zhangyuan 樟原) These speech communities in eastern Taiwan were name ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bunun Language
The Bunun language () is spoken by the Bunun people of Taiwan. It is one of the Formosan languages, a geographic group of Austronesian languages, and is subdivided in five dialects: Isbukun, Takbunuaz, Takivatan, Takibaka and Takituduh. Isbukun, the dominant dialect, is mainly spoken in the south of Taiwan. Takbunuaz and Takivatan are mainly spoken in the center of the country. Takibaka and Takituduh both are northern dialects. A sixth dialect, Takipulan, became extinct in the 1970s. The Saaroa and Kanakanavu, two smaller minority groups who share their territory with an Isbukun Bunun group, have also adopted Bunun as their vernacular. Name The name ''Bunun'' literally means "human" or "man". Dialects Bunun is currently subdivided into five dialects: Isbukun, Takbunuaz, Takivatan, Takibaka and Takituduh. Li (1988) splits these dialects into three main branches — Northern, Central, and Isbukun (also classified as Southern Bunun).Li, Paul Jen-kuei. 1988. A Comparative Study o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amis Language
Amis ( or ) is a Formosan language of the Amis (or Ami), an indigenous people living along the east coast of Taiwan. 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 Peninsula 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 does. 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 is a moribund language spoken among the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Puyuma Language
The Puyuma language or Pinuyumayan (), 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 is one of the more divergent of the Austronesian languages and falls outside reconstructions of Proto-Austronesian. Dialects The internal classification of Puyuma dialects below is from . Nanwang Puyuma is considered to be the relatively phonologically conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ... but grammatically innovative, as in it preserves proto-Puyuma voiced plosives but syncretizes the use of both oblique and genitive case. *Proto-Puyuma **Nanwang **(''Main branch'') ***Pinaski–Ulivelivek ****Pinaski ****Ulivelivek ***Rikavung ***Kasavakan–Kati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rukai Language
Rukai is a Formosan language spoken by the Rukai people in Taiwan. It is a member of the Austronesian language family. The Rukai language comprises six dialects, which are Budai, Labuan, Maga, Mantauran, Tanan and Tona. The number of speakers of the six Rukai dialects is estimated to be about 10,000. Some of them are monolingual. There are varying degrees of mutual intelligibility among the Rukai dialects. Rukai is notable for its distinct grammatical voice system among the Formosan languages. Classification Paul Jen-kuei Li considers Rukai to be the first language to have split from the Proto-Austronesian language. Below are the estimated divergence dates of various Formosan languages from Li (2008:215). # Proto-Austronesian: 4,500 BCE # Rukai: 3,000 BCE # Tsouic: 2,500 BCE (split into Tsou and Southern Tsouic around 1,000 BCE) # Most other splits: 2,000 to 0 BCE # Western Plains: 1,000 CE Classifications by various scholars repeatedly find that Rukai is one of the, and oft ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paiwan Language
Paiwan (, ) is a native language of southern Taiwan. It is spoken as a first language by the ethnic Paiwan, a Taiwanese indigenous people, and historically as a second language by most of people in southern Taiwan. Paiwan is a Formosan language of the Austronesian language family. It is also one of the national languages of Taiwan. Dialects Paiwan variants are seen divided into the following dialect zones by Ferrell. *A1 – southern and central **Kuɬaɬau (Kulalao) _ used in Ferrell's 1982 ''Paiwan Dictionary'' due to its widespread intelligibility and preservation of various phonemic distinctions; also spoken in Tjuabar Village, Taitung County, where Tjariḍik and "Tjuabar" (closely related to Tjavuaɬi) are also spoken. **Kapaiwanan (Su-Paiwan) **Tjuaqatsiɬay (Kachirai) – southernmost dialect *A2 – central **Ɬarəkrək (Riki-riki) **Patjavaɬ (Ta-niao-wan) *B1 – northernmost **Tjukuvuɬ (Tokubun) **Kaviangan (Kapiyan) *B2 – northwestern **Tjaɬakavus (Chalaab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 inventories out of all the Formosan languages, with each language having only 13 consonants and 4 vowels (Blust 2009:165).Blust, Robert A. ''The Austronesian Languages''. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, 2009. , . These two languages are highly endangered, as many Southern Tsouic speakers are shifting to Bunun and Mandarin Chinese. The Proto-Tsouic language was reconstructed by Japanese linguist Shigeru Tsuchida in 1976, and is supported by Blust (1999), Li (2008), and Sagart (2014). However, Chang (2006)Chang, Henry Yungli. 2006. "Rethinking the Tsouic Subgroup Hypothesis: A Morphosyntactic Perspective." In Chang, H., Huang, L. M., Ho, D. (eds.). ''Streams converg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siraya Language
Siraya is a Formosan languages, Formosan language spoken until the end of the 19th century by the indigenous Siraya people of Taiwan, derived from Proto-Siraya language, Proto-Siraya. Some scholars believe Taivoan language, Taivoan and Makatao language, Makatao are two dialects of Siraya, but now more evidence shows that they should be classified as separate languages. Several Siraya communities have been involved in a Sirayan cultural and language revitalization movement for more than a decade. Through linguistic research and language teaching, the natives are 'awaking' their ancestors mother tongue that has been 'dormant' for a century. Today a group of Siraya children in Sinhua District, Tainan, Sinhua District of Tainan particularly in Kou-pei and Chiou Chen Lin area are able to speak and sing in the Siraya language. Dialects The Sirayaic languages were previously thought to include three languages or dialects: *Siraya proper — spoken in the coastal area of Tainan Plain. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
