Yami_language

Yami language

Yami language

Austronesian language spoken on Orchid Island, Taiwan


Yami language (Chinese: 雅美語), also known as Tao language (Chinese: 達悟語), is a Malayo-Polynesian and Philippine language spoken by the Tao people of Orchid Island, 46 kilometers southeast of Taiwan. It is a member of the Ivatan dialect continuum.

Quick Facts Native to, Ethnicity ...

Yami is known as ciriciring no Tao 'human speech' by its native speakers. Native speakers prefer the 'Tao' name.[1]

Classification

Yami and the other Batanic languages

Yami is the only native language of Taiwanese indigenous peoples that is not a member of the Formosan grouping of Austronesian; it is one of the Batanic languages also found in Batanes province of northern Philippines, and as such is part of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of Austronesian.

Phonology

Yami has 20 consonants and 4 vowels:[2]

Vowels

More information Front, Central ...
  • /o/ can be heard as [ʊ] after labial stop consonants.

Iraralay Yami, spoken on the north coast, distinguishes between geminative consonants (e.g., opa 'thigh' vs. oppa 'hen' form one such minimal pair).[3]

Consonants

More information Labial, Alveolar ...
  • /k ʁ/ can also be heard as sounds [q ɦ] when between vowel /a/ intervocalically.
  • Sounds /n l ʂ/ can be heard as sounds ɮ ʃ] before /i/.

Grammar

Pronouns

The following set of pronouns is found in the Yami language.[4]

More information Nominative, Genitive ...

Verbs

The following list are verbal inflections found in Yami.[5]

Dynamic intransitive
  • -om-/om- (subjunctive: N-)
  • mi-
  • ma-
  • maN-
  • maka-
  • maci-/masi-/macika-/macipa-
Stative
  • ma- (subjunctive: a-)
  • ka- ... -an (subjunctive: ka- ... -i)
Dynamic
  • pi-
  • pa-
  • paN- (subjunctive: maN-)
  • paka- (subjunctive: maka-)
  • paci- (subjunctive: maci-)
Transitive
  • -en (subjunctive: -a)
  • -an (subjunctive: -i)
  • i- (subjunctive: -an)
Stative functioning as transitive
  • ma- (subjunctive: a- ... -a)
  • ka- ... -an (subjunctive: a- ... -a)

Affixes

The following is a list of affixes found in Yami.[6]

  • icia- 'fellows such and such who share the same features or fate'
  • ikeyka- 'even more so'
  • ika- 'feel such and such because...'
  • ika- 'ordinal number'
  • ipi- 'multiple number'
  • ji a- 'negation or emphatic'
  • ka- 'company, as ... as, abstract noun'
  • ka- 'and then, just now, only'
  • ka- 'stative verb prefix reappearing in forming transitive verbs'
  • ka- (reduplicated root) 'very'
  • ka- (reduplicated root) 'animals named after certain features'
  • ka- ... -an 'common noun'
  • ma- ... -en 'love to do such and such'
  • mapaka- 'pretend to be such and such'
  • mapi- 'do such and such as an occupation'
  • mi-/mala- 'kinship relationships in a group of two or three'
  • mika-/mapika-/ipika- 'all, gradually, one by one'
  • mala- 'taste or look like...'
  • mipa- 'getting more and more...'
  • mipipa- 'even more...'
  • mapi-/mapa-/pa- ... -en/ipa- 'causative verb affixes'
  • ni- 'perfective'
  • ni- ... na 'superlative'
  • noka- 'past'
  • noma- 'future (remote)'
  • sicia- 'present'
  • sima- 'future (proximal)'
  • tey- 'direction'
  • tey- 'very, too'
  • tey- (reduplicated root) 'amount allocated to each unit

Vocabulary

Cognates with Philippine languages

More information English ...

Japanese loanwords

More information English, Japanese ...

Chinese loanwords

More information English, Mandarin Chinese ...

See also


References

  1. Rau & Dong 2006, pp. 79–80
  2. Rau & Dong 2006, p. 135–136
  3. "ACD - Austronesian Comparative Dictionary - Cognate Sets - I".
  4. "amax father". ACD. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  5. "quluh head". ACD. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  6. "lima five". ACD. Retrieved 30 December 2022.

Sources

Further reading


Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Yami_language, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.