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.

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

• /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

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

Grammar

Pronouns

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

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

Japanese loanwords

Chinese loanwords

See also

• Languages of Taiwan
• Taiwanese aborigines
• Tao people
• Batanic languages
• Ivatan language

References

1. Rau & Dong 2006, p. 79
2. Rau & Dong 2006, pp. 79–80
3. Rau & Dong 2006, p. 81
4. Rau & Dong 2006, p. 123
5. Rau & Dong 2006, p. 135
6. Rau & Dong 2006, p. 135–136
7. "ACD - Austronesian Comparative Dictionary - Cognate Sets - I".
8. "amax father". ACD. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
9. "quluh head". ACD. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
10. "lima five". ACD. Retrieved 30 December 2022.

Sources

• Rau, D. Victoria; Dong, Maa-Neu (2006). 達悟語：語料、參考語法、及詞彙/ Yami Texts with Reference Grammar and Dictionary (PDF) (in Chinese and English). Taipei: Academia Sinica.
• Rau, D. Victoria 何德華; Dong, Maa-Neu 董瑪女; Chang, Ann Hui-Huan 張惠環 (2012). Dáwù yǔ cídiǎn / Yami (Tao) Dictionary 達悟語詞典 / Yami (Tao) Dictionary (in Chinese and English). Taibei shi: Guoli taiwan daxue chuban zhongxin. ISBN 978-986-03-2519-5.
• Rau, Der-Hwa 何德華; Dong, Maa-Neu 董瑪女 (2018). Dáwù yǔ yǔfǎ gàilùn 達悟語語法概論 [Introduction to Tao Grammar] (in Chinese). Xinbei shi: Yuanzhu minzu weiyuanhui. ISBN 978-986-05-5695-7 – via alilin.apc.gov.tw.

Further reading

• Lai, Li-Fang; Gooden, Shelome (2016). Acoustic Cues to Prosodic Boundaries in Yami: A First Look. Proceedings of Speech Prosody 8, May 31 – June 3, Boston, USA. doi:10.21437/SpeechProsody.2016-128.
• Lai, Li-Fang; Gooden, Shelome (2015). What Does the Question Sound Like: Exploring Wh- and Yes/No Interrogative Prosody in Yami. ICPhS.
• Lai, Li-Fang; Gooden, Shelome (2018). Tonal Hybridization in Yami-Mandarin Contact. Proceedings of the 6th Tonal Aspects of Languages. ISCA. doi:10.21437/TAL.2018-7.

External links

• Yami wordlists at the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/austronesian/language.php?id=254, language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/austronesian/language.php?id=335 Archived 2015-01-13 at the Wayback Machine
• Yami Language Documentation Project website – hosted by Providence University, Taiwan
• Online Yami language course – hosted by Providence University, Taiwan
• Yami Dictionary Project website Archived 2021-02-26 at the Wayback Machine – hosted by Providence University, Taiwan
• Yuán zhù mínzú yǔyán xiànshàng cídiǎn 原住民族語言線上詞典 (in Chinese) – Yami search page at the "Aboriginal language online dictionary" website of the Indigenous Languages Research and Development Foundation
• Yami teaching and leaning materials published by the Council of Indigenous Peoples of Taiwan Archived 2021-11-04 at the Wayback Machine
• Yami translation of President Tsai Ing-wen's 2016 apology to indigenous people – published on the website of the presidential office