Taokas-10 revisited:
Taokas or Atayal?

SEALS-29, Tokyo, 27-29 May 2019

Andre Goderich 郭育賢
National Tsinghua University
yuhsien77@gmail.com
goderich.github.io/seals29

Taokas

  • Austronesian language of Taiwan
  • Western plains (Sinicized)
  • Spoken around present-day Miaoli city

Atayal

  • Spoken in the mountains of northern Taiwan
  • Atayalic primary branch of Austronesian (with Seediq)
  • Dialects: Squliq, S’uli’, Matu’uwal (Mayrinax), etc.

Taokas-10

  • Data collected by Ogawa in 1901
  • Published in Tsuchida 1982
    (A Comparative Vocabulary of Austronesian Languages of Sinicized Ethnic Groups in Taiwan
    Part I: West Taiwan)
  • Tenth Taokas dialect in Tsuchida’s book
  • Tsuchida noticed similarities between Taokas-10 and Atayal

Comparison with Taokas

The six most stable words on the Leipzig-Jakarta list:

Taokas-10 Taokas-1 Taokas-3-2b Gloss
hapunek yuwao yawau ‘fire’
mohong yanut yanot ‘nose’
mausa sā sa-a ‘go (fut)’
kusa yatap yatap ‘water’
ngakoa yeverah birax ‘mouth’
huma terah tilax ‘tongue’

Taokas cognates

  • A total of 7 words (out of 195) in T-10 can be linked with Taokas
    • ‘mother’, ‘father’, ‘cat’, ‘pig’, ‘chicken’, ‘alcohol’, ‘money’
  • Of these, 6 have Atayal doublets

Comparison with Atayal

Taokas-10 Matu’uwal Squliq Gloss
hapunek hapuniq puniq ‘fire’
mohong nguhuw nguhu ‘nose’
mausa maʔusaʔ mosaʔ ‘go (fut)’
kusa qusiyaʔ qsyaʔ ‘water’
ngakoa ngaquwaq nqwaq ‘mouth’
huma həmaʔ hmaliʔ ‘tongue’

Taokas-10 and Matu’uwal

  • Tsuchida noted that Taokas-10 had more cognates with Matu’uwal Atayal
  • Taokas-10 shares unique phonological and lexical correspondences with Matu’uwal

Consonant correspondences

T-10 Matu’uwal Squliq P-Atayal Gloss
lauwe rawwiq roziq *rawɹiq ‘eye’
tikai tikay cikay *tikay ‘a little’
tsukuli cuquliq squliq *cuquliq ‘person’

Proto-Atayal *ɹ > w is unique to Matu’uwal

Vowel correspondences

T-10 preserves vowel contrasts before the head foot

T-10 Matu’uwal Squliq P-Atayal Gloss
tsukuli cuquliq squliq *cuquliq ‘person’
hapunek hapuniq puniq *hapuniq ‘fire’
linamu rinamug rnamu *rinamug ‘roof’

Mergers in Taokas-10

Phonemes not found in Sinitic languages do not appear in Taokas-10 data

Merger T-10 Matu’uwal Gloss
k,q > k kutu qutux ‘one’
l,r > l lauwe rawwiq ‘eye’
h,x > h mauha mawxaʔ ‘sick’

/t/, /k/, /q/, /x/, /h/ tend to be deleted word-finally

Lexical correspondences

T-10 Matu’uwal Squliq Gloss
lanek raniq tuqi ‘road’
takish takiis pucing ‘sword’
hamhom hamhum yulung ‘cloud’
maova maʔubaʔ plqwiʔ ‘white’
ukas ukas ungat ‘not have’

Other lexical items

  • Some words look like non-Matu’uwal Atayal
    • 7 out of a grand total of 195
    • Some of these might be due to unique changes in Taokas-10
  • Loans from Taokas and Saisiyat
    • 15 in total, most with Atayal doublets
  • Some words are of unknown origin or difficult to identify (23 in total)

Morphosyntactic correspondences

T-10 Matu’uwal Squliq Gloss
-um- humakai humakay hmkaniʔ ‘to walk’
ma- makilu makilux mkilux ‘hot’
i + TEMP itsasan i casan suxan ‘tomorrow’

Statistics

Cognate with: Number % of total
Only Matu’uwal 69 35.4%
Atayal 79 40.5%
Atayal (excl. Matu’uwal) 7 3.6%
Taokas, Saisiyat, Min 17 8.7%
Unsure/unknown 23 11.8%
Total: 195

(does not include duplicates and compound forms)

Unique reflexes of
Proto-Atayal *ɹ

Proto-Atayal *ɹ is reflected as /h/ in Taokas-10
word-initially before /a/

T-10 Matu’uwal Squliq P-Atayal Gloss
hangli (w)angriʔ zngliʔ *ɹaŋ[rl]iʔ ‘housefly’
hamin (w)amil yamil *ɹamil ‘shoes’

Reflexes in Matu’uwal and Squliq as per Li (1981)

Conclusion

  • “Taokas-10” is an Atayal dialect
    (at least 80% Atayal lexicon)
  • Closely related to, but distinct from, Matu’uwal
    (~35% words have unique correspondences with Matu’uwal)
  • Unique features in phonology and lexicon
    (*ɹ > h /#_a)

Mahuway cimu kahabaag!

References

  • Li, Paul Jen-kuei. 1981. Reconstruction of Proto-Atayalic Phonology. Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, 52: 235-301. Academia Sinica.
  • Tsuchida, Shigeru. 1982. A Comparative Vocabulary of Austronesian Languages of Sinicized Ethnic Groups in Taiwan Part I: West Taiwan. University of Tokyo.

Unique lexical items

Possible unique male register items

Taokas-10 Matu’uwal Gloss
watsihun balihun ‘door’
kach’uwin qacuʔ ‘boat’

/c~l/ is also seen in lumiq/cumiq ‘louse’

Doublet examples

T-10 Taokas-3-2b T-10 doublet Matu’uwal Gloss
kwakwa kwakwar wauwa bawwak ‘pig’
linlin lilin havangan habangan ‘money’
yakau yakau kuwau quwaw ‘alcohol’

Reflexes of *ɹ in T-10
before u

T-10 Matu’uwal Squliq Proto-Atayal Gloss
yungai ungay yungay *ɹuŋay ‘monkey’
yutek utiq (rhzyal) *ɹutiq? ‘earth’

Phrases in T-10

T-10 avankiavoaila ‘flower’

abag kiya buay la
leaf EXIST fruit ASP