Saisiyat language

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Saisiyat
Native to Taiwan
Ethnicity Saisiyat
Native speakers
 4,800  (2002)[1]
Austronesian
  • Northwest Formosan
    • Saisiyat
Dialects
Taai
Tungho
Language codes
ISO 639-3 xsy
Saisiyat, Pazeh, and Kulon (pink, northwest)

Saisiyat is the language of the Saisiyat, a tribe of indigenous people on Taiwan (see Taiwanese aborigines). It is a Formosan language of the Austronesian family. It has approximately 4,750 speakers.

Distribution

The language area of Saisiyat is small, situated in the northwest of the country between the Hakka Chinese and Atayal regions in the mountains (Wufeng-hsiang, Hsinchu, Nanchuang-hsiang, Miaoli).

There are two main dialects of Saisiyat.

  1. Ta'ai (Taai)
  2. Tungho

Kulon, an extinct Formosan language, is closely related to Saisiyat but is considered by Taiwanese linguist Paul Jen-kuei Li to be a separate language.

Usage

Today, one thousand Saisiyat people do not use the Saisiyat language. Many young people use Hakka or Atayal instead, and few children speak Saisiyat. Hakka Chinese speakers, Atayal speakers and Saisiyat speakers live more or less together. Many Saisiyat are able to speak Saisiyat, Hakka, Atayal, Mandarin, and, sometimes, Min Nan as well. Although Saisiyat has a relatively large number of speakers, the language is endangered.

Grammar

Syntax

Although it also allows for verb-initial constructions,[2] Saisiyat is a strongly subject-initial language (i.e., SVO), and is shifting to an accusative language, while it still has many features of split ergativity (Hsieh & Huang 2006:91). Pazeh and Thao, also Northern Formosan languages, are the only other Formosan languages that allow for SVO constructions.

Saisiyat's case-marking system distinguishes between personal and common nouns (Hsieh & Huang 2006:93).

Saisiyat case markers
Type of
Noun		 Nominative Accusative Genitive Dative Possessive Locative
Personal Ø, hi hi ni ’'an-a 'ini' kan, kala
Common Ø, ka ka noka '’an noka-a no ray

Pronouns

Saisiyat has an elaborate pronominal system (Hsieh & Huang 2006:93).

Saisiyat personal pronouns
Type of
Pronoun		 Nominative Accusative Genitive Dative Possessive Locative
1s. yako/yao yakin/iyakin ma'’an '’iniman 'amana'’a kanman
2s. So’'o ’'iso’'on niSo '’iniSo ’'anso’'o’'a kanSo
3s. sia hisia nisia ’inisia 'ansiaa kansia
1p. (incl.) '’ita '’inimita mita’' '’inimita’' 'anmita’'a kan’'ita
1p. (excl.) yami '’iniya’'om niya’'om ’'iniya’'om '’anya'’oma kanyami
2p. moyo '’inimon nimon '’inimon 'anmoyoa kanmoyo
3p. lasia hilasia nasia '’inilasia '’anlasiaa kanlasia

Verbs

The following are verbal prefixes in Saisiyat (Hsieh & Huang 2006:93).

Saisiyat Focus System
Type of Focus I II
Agent Focus (AF) m-, -om-, ma-, Ø    Ø   
Patient Focus (PF) -en    -i   
Locative Focus (LF) -an —
Referential Focus (RF) si-, sik-    -ani   

Saisiyat verbs can be nominalized in the following ways.[3]

Nominalization in Saisiyat
Lexical nominalization Syntactic nominalization Temporal/Aspectual
Agent ka-ma-V ka-pa-V Habitual, Future
Patient ka-V-en, V-in- ka-V-en, V-in- Future (for ka-V-en), Perfective (for V-in-)
Location ka-V-an ka-V-an Future
Instrument ka-V, Ca-V (reduplication) ka-V, Ca-V (reduplication) Future

Notes

  1. ↑ Saisiyat reference at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
  2. ↑ Li, Paul Jen-kuei. 1998. "台灣南島語言 [The Austronesian Languages of Taiwan]." In Li, Paul Jen-kuei. 2004. Selected Papers on Formosan Languages. Taipei, Taiwan: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica.
  3. ↑ Yeh, Marie Mei-li. n.d. Nominalization in Saisiyat. Hsinchu, Taiwan: National Hsinchu University of Education.

References

Rukaic
Tsouic
Northern Formosan
Atayalic
Northwest
Formosan
East Formosan
Southern
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