The Atayalic languages are a group of

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 ...

spoken in northern

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 ...

Robert Blust Robert A. Blust (; zh, c=白樂思, p=Bái Lèsī; May 9, 1940 – January 5, 2022) was an American linguist who worked in several areas, including historical linguistics, lexicography and ethnology. He was Professor of Linguistics at the Uni ...

considers them to form a primary branch within the

Austronesian language family The Austronesian languages ( ) are a language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan (by Taiwanese indigenous peoples). They are spoken b ...

, However, Paul Jen-kuei Li groups them into the Northern Formosan branch, which includes the Northwestern Formosan languages.

Classification

Li (1981) and Li (1982) classify the Atayalic languages and dialects as follows:Li, Paul Jen-kuei. 1981. "Reconstruction of Proto-Atayalic Phonology." In Li, Paul Jen-kuei. 2004. Selected Papers on Formosan Languages. Taipei, Taiwan: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica. *''Atayalic'' ** Atayal ***Squliq Atayal ****Squliq ****Maspaziʔ ****Pyanan ****Lmuan ****Habun Bazinuq ****Syanuh ****Kulu ****ŋŋupa ****Haga-Paris ****Kubaboo ****Rghayuŋ ***C'uli' Atayal (also known as Ts'ole' Atayal) ****Skikun, Mnibuʔ ****Mnawyan ****Mayrinax (includes female and male registers) ****Mabatuʔan ****Matabalay ****Sakuxan ****Palŋawan ****Mkgugut ****Pyahaw ****Ryuhiŋ ****Mtlaŋan ****Knŋyan ** Seediq ***Toŋan ***Toda ***Truwan ***Inago

Reconstruction

The Proto-Atayalic language was reconstructed by Taiwanese linguist Paul Jen-kuei Li in 1981. Proto-Atayalic had final voiced stops, which are preserved in the Mayrinax dialect of Cʔuliʔ Atayal.Li, Paul Jen-kuei. 1982. "Atayalic Final Voiced Stops." In Li, Paul Jen-kuei. 2004. Selected Papers on Formosan Languages. Taipei, Taiwan: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica. These voiced stops include *-b, *-d, *-g, and *-g'. However, they are now lost in many dialects of Atayal, Seediq, and also Pazeh (Blust 2009:615).

References

Notes

General references

* Languages of Taiwan {{Formosan-lang-stub