Northern Formosan languages
Proposed grouping of Formosan languages
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The Northern Formosan languages is a proposed grouping of Formosan languages that includes the Atayalic languages, the Western Plains languages (Papora, Hoanya, Babuza, and Taokas), and the Northwest Formosan languages (Pazeh and Saisiyat; Li places Western Plains with this grouping).
distributionTaiwan
- Northern Formosan
| Northern Formosan | |
|---|---|
| (proposed) | |
| Geographic distribution | Taiwan |
| Linguistic classification | Austronesian
|
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | west2572 (Western Plains)nort2899 (Northwestern) atay1246 (Atayalic) |
(orange) Li's Northern Formosan | |
The Northern Formosan subgroup was first proposed by Paul Jen-kuei Li in 1985.[1] Blust (1999) rejects the unity of the proposed Northern Formosan branch. A 2008 analysis of the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database, however, supports the unity of the Northern Formosan branch with a 97% confidence level (see Austronesian languages#Classification).
Evidence
The following sound changes from Proto-Austronesian occurred in the Northern Formosan languages (Li 2008:215).[2]
- S2, *H1 > h
- S2, *H1, *s > h (Atayalic languages and Saisiyat only)
Also, Pazeh, Saisiyat, and Thao are only Formosan languages that allow for SVO constructions, although this may be due to intensive contact with Taiwanese.[3]
Also, the Atayal, Seediq, and Pazeh languages have devoiced final consonants that were present in the Proto-Austronesian (Blust 2009:616).
Northwestern Formosan
Li (2003, 2008) concludes the six western Plains languages split off from Proto-Northwestern Formosan. The classification is as follows.
The four coastal languages of Taokas, Babuza, Papora, and Hoanya share the following innovations (Li 2003).
- Loss of *k
- Loss of *-y
- Merger of *s and *t in non-final position
- Complete merger of *ŋ and *n
Thao shares the following innovations with the four coastal languages (Li 2003).
- Merger of *s and *t
- Merger of *ŋ and *n
Pazih has undergone the following two sound changes.
- Merger of *j and *s as /z/
- Merger of *C and *S1 as /s/
Li (2003) does not consider Pazih to be very closely related to Saisiyat (Li 2003:946).
However, Shibata (2022) argues that the "Western Plains" languages in fact form a convergence area or linguistic area rather than a true subgroup.[4]