Kanakanavu (also spelled Kanakanabu) is a Southern
Tsouic language spoken by the
Kanakanavu people, an
indigenous people
There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...
of
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...
(see
Taiwanese aborigines
Taiwanese may refer to:
* of or related to Taiwan
**Culture of Taiwan
**Geography of Taiwan
** Taiwanese cuisine
*Languages of Taiwan
** Formosan languages
** Taiwanese Hokkien, also known as the Taiwanese language
* Taiwanese people, residents of ...
). It is a
Formosan language of the
Austronesian family.
The Kanakanavu live in the two villages of Manga and Takanua in
Namasia District (formerly Sanmin Township),
Kaohsiung
Kaohsiung, officially Kaohsiung City, is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsiung City has a population of approximately 2.73 million p ...
.
The language is moribund, with only 4 speakers (2012 census).
History
The native Kanakanavu speakers were
Taiwanese aboriginals
Taiwanese may refer to:
* of or related to Taiwan
**Culture of Taiwan
**Geography of Taiwan
** Taiwanese cuisine
* Languages of Taiwan
** Formosan languages
** Taiwanese Hokkien, also known as the Taiwanese language
* Taiwanese people, resident ...
living on the islands. Following the
Dutch Colonial Period in the 17th century,
Han-Chinese immigration began to dominate the islands population. The village of
Takanua is a village assembled by
Japanese rulers to relocate various aboriginal groups in order to establish easier dominion over these groups.
Phonology
There are 14 different consonant phonemes, containing only voiceless plosives within Kanakanavu. Adequate descriptions of liquid consonants become a challenge within Kanakanavu. It also contains 6 vowels; phonetic
diphthong
A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of ...
s and
triphthongs occur where vowels are adjacent. Vowel length is often not clear if distinctive or not, as well as speakers pronouncing vowel phonemes with variance. As most
Austronesian and
Formosan languages, Kanakanavu has a
CV syllable structure (where C = consonant, V = vowel). Very few, even simple words, contain less than three to four syllables.
Consonants
is pronounced before /i/ and is pronounced before /i/ and /ʉ/.
[
]
Vowels
Orthography
Several texts have been transcribed by outsiders in the orthography of the Council of Indigenous Peoples of Taiwan, and a dictionary is available.
is used for , for , and for and , for , and for the central vowel.
References
Further reading
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External links
www.kanakanavu.info
– language documentation project website
– Kanakanavu search page at the "Aboriginal language online dictionary" website of the Indigenous Languages Research and Development Foundation
Endangered Languages
Kanakanavu teaching and leaning materials published by the Council of Indigenous Peoples of Taiwan
Kanakanavu translation of President Tsai Ing-wen's 2016 apology to indigenous people
– published on the website of the presidential office
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kanakanavu Language
Formosan languages
Languages of Taiwan
Endangered Austronesian languages