Amis | |
---|---|
'Amis or Pangcah | |
Pronunciation | [paŋt͡saʜ] |
Native to | Taiwan |
Ethnicity | 200,000 Amis (2014) [1] |
Native speakers | 110,000 (2015) [2] |
Austronesian
| |
Latin script | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | ami |
Glottolog | amis1246 |
IETF | ami [3] |
Distribution of Amis language (purple) | |
Amis is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Amis (Sowal no 'Amis or Pangcah) is a Formosan language of the Amis (or Ami), an indigenous people living along the east coast of Taiwan. Currently the largest of the Formosan languages, it is spoken from Hualien in the north to Taitung in the south, with another population in the Hengchun Peninsula near the southern end of the island, though the northern varieties are considered to be separate languages.
Government services in counties where many Amis people live in Taiwan, such as the Hualien and Taitung railway stations, broadcast in Amis alongside Mandarin. However, few Amis under the age of 20 in 1995 spoke the language. It is not known how many of the 200,000 ethnic Amis speak the language, but overall a third of the aboriginal Taiwanese population does.
Amis is a dialect cluster. There are five dialects: Southern Amis, Tavalong-Vataan, Central Amis, Chengkung-Kwangshan, and Northern Amis (Nanshi Amis, which includes Nataoran).
Sakizaya is a moribund language spoken among the northernmost ethnic Amis but is mutually unintelligible with the Northern Amis dialect.
The following discussion covers the central dialect of Amis. [4]
Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Epiglottal | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasals | m | n̪ ⟨n⟩ | ŋ ⟨ng⟩ | ||||
Plosives and affricate | p | t̪ ⟨t⟩ | t͡s ⟨c⟩ | k | ʡ ~ ʢ ⟨ʼ⟩ | ʔ ⟨^⟩ | |
Fricatives | v ⟨f⟩ | ð ~ ɮ̪ ⟨d⟩ | s ⟨s⟩ | ( ɣ ) ⟨g⟩ | ʜ ⟨h⟩ | ||
Trill | r ⟨r⟩ | ||||||
Lateral flap | ɺ̠ ⟨l⟩ | ||||||
Approximants | w ⟨w⟩ | j ⟨y⟩ |
The voiced velar fricative /ɣ/ is in parentheses because it only occurs in some loanwords, such as rigi/riˈɣiʔ/ 'ridge between sections of a rice field'.
The epiglottal consonants have proven difficult to describe, with some sources describing them as pharyngeal or even uvular as opposed to epiglottal. It's unclear if [h] is a separate phoneme from [ʜ] or if it's just an allophone of it. The voiceless pharyngeal fricative [ħ] is a word-final allophone of /ʜ/.
The voiceless plosives /ptkʡ/ and the affricate /t͡s/ are released in clusters, so that cecay "one" is pronounced [t͡sᵊt͡saj]; as is /s/: sepat "four" is [sᵊpatʰ]. The glottal stop is an exception, frequently having no audible release in final position. The voiced fricatives, /vɮɣ/ (the latter found only in loanwords) are devoiced to [fɬx] in utterance-final and sometimes initial position. /ɮ/ may be interdental or post-dental. The sibilants, /t͡ss/, are optionally palatalized ([t͡ɕɕ]) before /i/. /j/ does not occur in word-initial position. /ɺ/ is often post-alveolar, and in final position it is released: [ʡuʡuɺ̠ᵊ] "fog".
/ɮ/ shows dramatic dialectal variation. In Fengbin, a town in the center of Amis territory, it is pronounced as a central dental fricative, [ð], whereas in the town of Kangko, only 15 km (9.3 mi) away, it is a lateral [ɮ̪]. In Northern Amis, it is a plosive [d̪], which may be laxed to [ð] intervocalically. The epiglottals are also reported to have different pronunciations in the north, but the descriptions are contradictory. In Central Amis, /ʜ/ is always voiceless and /ʡ/ is often accompanied by vibrations that suggest it involves an epiglottal trill [ ʢ ]. Edmondson and Elsing report that these are true epiglottals initially and medially, but in utterance-final position they are epiglotto–pharyngeal.
Sakizaya, considered to be a separate language, contrasts a voiced /z/ with voiceless /s/.
In the practical orthography, /ts/ is written ⟨c⟩, /j/⟨y⟩, /ʡ/⟨'⟩, /ʔ/⟨^⟩, /ɮ/⟨d⟩, /ŋ/⟨ng⟩, and /ʜ/⟨x⟩.
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | u | |
Mid | ( ə̆ ) | ||
Open | a |
Amis has three common vowels, /iau/. Despite the fact that a great deal of latitude is afforded by only needing to distinguish three vowels, Amis vowels stay close to their cardinal values, though there is more movement of /a/ and /u/ toward each other (tending to the [o] range) than there is in front-vowel space (in the [e] range).
A voiceless epenthetic schwa optionally breaks up consonant clusters, as noted above. However, there are a small number of words where a short schwa (written e) may be phonemic. However, no contrast involving the schwa is known, and if it is also epenthetic, then Amis has words with no phonemic vowels at all. Examples of this e are malmes "sad", pronounced [maɺə̆mːə̆s], and ’nem "six", pronounced [ʡnə̆m] or [ʡə̆nə̆m].
Stress regularly falls on the final syllable. [4]
|
|
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Amis | English | Tagalog | Pangasinan | Kapampangan | Ilocano | Javanese | Sundanese | Malay |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
cecay | one | isa | sakey | isa | maysa | siji | hiji | satu |
tosa | two | dalawa | dua | adwa | dua | loro | dua | dua |
tolo | three | tatlo | talo | atlo | tallo | telu | tilu | tiga |
sepat | four | apat | apat | apat | uppat | papat | opat | empat |
lima | five | lima | lima | lima | lima | lima | lima | lima |
'enem | six | anim | anem | anam | inem | enem | genep | enam |
pito | seven | pito | pito | pitu/pito | pito | pitu | tujuh | tujuh |
falo | eight | walo | walo | walu/walo | walo | wolu | dalapan | delapan |
siwa | nine | siyam | siyam | siam | siam | sanga | salapan | sembilan |
polo' | ten | sampu | samplo | apulu/apulo | sangapulo | sepuluh | sapuluh | sepuluh |
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights translated into Pangcah:
Verbs in the Amis language have some inflections including existential clause, active voice, passive voice, disposal sentence[ clarification needed ], imperative mood, optative mood, and prohibitive mood.
Cases are marked by case particles.
Neutral | Nominative | Accusative | Genitive | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Common | o/u | ko | to | no |
Personal (singular) | ci | ci | ci ... an | ni |
Personal (plural) | ca | ca | ca ... an | na |
There are two word orders in Amis called "General" Word Order and "Special" Word Order.
Below are some examples of Amis sentence:
Verb | Subject |
---|---|
Verb, Adjective, etc. | Preposition for Subjects + Nouns |
Verb | Subject | Object |
---|---|---|
Verb, Adjective, etc. | Preposition for Subjects + Nouns | Preposition for Objects + Nouns |
Sing ’Olam (2011:300–301) lists the following Amis names for villages and towns in Hualien County and Taitung County of eastern Taiwan.
A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in the case of German ; or the side of the tongue against the molars, in the case of Welsh. This turbulent airflow is called frication.
H, or h, is the eighth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, including the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is aitch, or regionally haitch, plural haitches.
A lateral is a consonant in which the airstream proceeds along one or both of the sides of the tongue, but it is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth. An example of a lateral consonant is the English L, as in Larry. Lateral consonants contrast with central consonants, in which the airstream flows through the center of the mouth.
Pharyngealization is a secondary articulation of consonants or vowels by which the pharynx or epiglottis is constricted during the articulation of the sound.
The voiceless epiglottal or pharyngeal trill, or voiceless epiglottal fricative, is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʜ⟩, a small capital version of the Latin letter h, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is H\
.
The voiceless pharyngeal fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is an h-bar, ⟨ħ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is X\
. In the transcription of Arabic, Berber as well as a few other scripts, it is often written ⟨Ḥ⟩, ⟨ḥ⟩.
In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the active articulator and passive articulator. Standard Spanish ⟨rr⟩ as in perro, for example, is an alveolar trill.
A pharyngeal consonant is a consonant that is articulated primarily in the pharynx. Some phoneticians distinguish upper pharyngeal consonants, or "high" pharyngeals, pronounced by retracting the root of the tongue in the mid to upper pharynx, from (ary)epiglottal consonants, or "low" pharyngeals, which are articulated with the aryepiglottic folds against the epiglottis at the entrance of the larynx, as well as from epiglotto-pharyngeal consonants, with both movements being combined.
The Amis, also known as the Pangcah, are an indigenous Austronesian ethnic group native to Taiwan. They speak the Amis language, an Austronesian language, and are one of the sixteen officially recognized Taiwanese indigenous peoples. The traditional territory of the Amis includes the long, narrow valley between the Central Mountains and the Coastal Mountains, the Pacific coastal plain eastern to the Coastal Mountains and the Hengchun Peninsula.
The Bunun language is spoken by the Bunun people of Taiwan. It is one of the Formosan languages, a geographic group of Austronesian languages, and is subdivided in five dialects: Isbukun, Takbunuaz, Takivatan, Takibaka and Takituduh. Isbukun, the dominant dialect, is mainly spoken in the south of Taiwan. Takbunuaz and Takivatan are mainly spoken in the center of the country. Takibaka and Takituduh both are northern dialects. A sixth dialect, Takipulan, became extinct in the 1970s.
Doubly articulated consonants are consonants with two simultaneous primary places of articulation of the same manner. They are a subset of co-articulated consonants. They are to be distinguished from co-articulated consonants with secondary articulation; that is, a second articulation not of the same manner. An example of a doubly articulated consonant is the voiceless labial–velar plosive, which is a and a pronounced simultaneously. On the other hand, the voiceless labialized velar plosive has only a single stop articulation, velar, with a simultaneous approximant-like rounding of the lips. In some dialects of Arabic, the voiceless velar fricative has a simultaneous uvular trill, but this is not considered double articulation either.
The Atayal language is an Austronesian language spoken by the Atayal people of Taiwan. Squliq and C’uli’ (Ts’ole’) are two major dialects. Mayrinax and Pa’kuali’, two subdialects of C’uli’, are unique among Atayal dialects in having male and female register distinctions in their vocabulary.
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Kanakanavu is a Southern Tsouic language spoken by the Kanakanavu people, an indigenous people of Taiwan. It is a Formosan language of the Austronesian family.
Sakizaya is a Formosan language closely related to Amis. One of the large family of Austronesian languages, it is spoken by the Sakizaya people, who are concentrated on the eastern Pacific coast of Taiwan. Since 2007 they have been recognized by the Taiwan government as one of the sixteen distinct indigenous groups on the island.
Adyghe is a language of the Northwest Caucasian family which, like the other Northwest Caucasian languages, is very rich in consonants, featuring many labialized and ejective consonants. Adyghe is phonologically more complex than Kabardian, having the retroflex consonants and their labialized forms.
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