Amis language

Last updated
Amis
'Amis[ citation needed ] or Pangcah[ citation needed ]
Pronunciation[paŋt͡saʜ][ citation needed ]
Native to Taiwan
Ethnicity200,000 Amis (2014) [1]
Native speakers
110,000 (2015) [2]
Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-3 ami
Glottolog amis1246
IETF ami [3]
Formosan languages 2008.png
Distribution of Amis language (purple)
Lang Status 80-VU.svg
Amis is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Amis (Sowal no 'Amis[ citation needed ] 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.

Contents

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.

Dialects

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.

Phonology

The following discussion covers the central dialect of Amis. [4]

Consonants

Amis consonants
Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Epiglottal Glottal
Nasals m n̪ ⟨n⟩ ŋ ⟨ng⟩
Plosives and
affricate 		p t̪ ⟨t⟩ t͡s ⟨c⟩ k ʡ ~ ʢ ⟨ꞌ⟩ ʔ ⟨^⟩
Fricatives v ⟨f⟩ ð ~ ɮ̪ ⟨d⟩ s ⟨s⟩( ɣ )1⟨g⟩ ʜ ⟨h⟩
Trill r ⟨r⟩
Lateral flap ɺ̠ ⟨l⟩
Approximants w ⟨w⟩ j ⟨y⟩
  1. The voiced velar fricative /ɣ/ 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 is 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/⟨ꞌ⟩, /ʔ/⟨^⟩, /ɮ/⟨d⟩, /ŋ/⟨ng⟩, and /ʜ/⟨x⟩.

Vowels

Amis vowels
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

Stress regularly falls on the final syllable. [4]

Grammar

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.

Case markers

Cases are marked by case particles.

NeutralNominativeAccusativeGenitive
Commono/ukotono
Personal (singular)cicici ... anni
Personal (plural)cacaca ... anna

Syntax

There are two word orders in Amis called "General" Word Order and "Special" Word Order.

Below are some examples of Amis sentence:

"General" Word Order Sentence I : Verb–subject

Verb Subject
Verb, Adjective, etc. Preposition for Subjects + Nouns
Example
  • Maomahay ci wama. (The father is working in the field.)
    • mimaomahay: working (in the field)
    • ci: subject preposition for personal proper noun
    • wama: father
  • Misaholoay ci wina. (The mother is cooking rice.)
    • misaholoay: cooking (rice)
    • ina/wina: mother

"General" Word Order Sentence II : Verb–subject–object

Verb Subject Object
Verb, Adjective, etc.Preposition for Subjects + Nouns Preposition for Objects + Nouns
Example
  • Mifacaꞌ ko kaying to rikoꞌ. (The young woman is washing clothes.)
  • Mifacaꞌ koya kaying to rikoꞌ. (That young woman is washing clothes.)
    • mifacaꞌ: wash (clothes)
    • ko: subject preposition for common nouns
    • kaying: young woman
    • to: object preposition for common nouns
    • rikoꞌ/fudoy: clothes

Vocabulary

  • lotong: monkey/ape
  • fafoy: pig
  • wacu: dog
  • cecay: one
  • tosa: two
  • tolo: three
  • sepat: four
  • lima: five
  • ꞌenem: six
  • pito: seven
  • falo: eight
  • siwa: nine
  • poloꞌ: ten

Comparison

Comparisons of Amis with English and other Austronesian languages
AmisEnglishTagalogPangasinanKapampanganIlocanoJavaneseSundaneseMalay
cecayoneisasakeyisamaysasijihijisatu
tosatwodalawaduaadwadualoroduadua
tolothreetatlotaloatlotallotelutilutiga
sepatfourapatapatapatuppatpapatopatempat
limafivelimalimalimalimalimalimalima
ꞌenemsixanimanemanaminemenemgenepenam
pitosevenpitopitopitu/pitopitopitutujuhtujuh
faloeightwalowalowalu/walowalowoludalapandelapan
siwaninesiyamsiyamsiamsiamsangasalapansembilan
poloꞌtensampusamploapulu/apulosangapulosepuluhsapuluhsepuluh

Toponyms

Sing ꞌOlam (2011:300–301) lists the following Amis names for villages and towns in Hualien County and Taitung County of eastern Taiwan.

Sample text

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights translated into Pangcah:

References

Citations

  1. ↑ "Amis Remains Taiwan's Biggest Aboriginal Tribe at 37.1% of Total". Focus Taiwan . CNA. February 15, 2015.
  2. ↑ Amis at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
  3. ↑ IANA language subtag registry. 29 July 2009 https://www.iana.org/assignments/language-subtag-registry/language-subtag-registry . Retrieved 10 January 2019.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. 1 2 Maddieson & Wright 1995.

Sources

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