| Kari Seediq | |
|---|---|
| Taroko | |
| Native to | Taiwan |
| Region | central, eastern, and coastal |
| Ethnicity | Seediq, Taroko |
Native speakers | 20,000 (2008) [1] |
Austronesian
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | trv |
| Glottolog | taro1264 |
| ELP | Seediq |
| Linguasphere | 30-AAB |
 Taroko is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Seediq, also known as Sediq, Taroko, is an Atayalic language spoken in the mountains of Northern Taiwan by the Seediq and Taroko people.
Seediq consists of three main dialects (Tsukida 2005). Members of each dialect group refer to themselves by the name of their dialect, while the Amis people call them "Taroko."
In Seediq there are 19 consonant phonemes and 4 vowel phonemes. Among these, there are two velar fricatives, one voiceless and the other voiced, and a uvular stop. In both labial and alveolar plosive series, voice opposition is contrastive; velar and uvular series, however, only display voiceless sounds. The alveolar affricate has a marginal phonological status and is found in some interjections (such as teʼcu! "what a mess!"), loanwords and non-finite verbal forms with the gerund prefix cese- (Tsukida 2005: 292, 297).
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ ⟨ng⟩ | ||||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | ( ɟ ⟨j⟩) | k | q | ʔ ⟨ʼ⟩ |
| voiced | b | d | |||||
| Fricative | voiceless | s | x | h | |||
| voiced | ɣ ⟨g⟩ | ||||||
| Affricate | ( ts ⟨c⟩) | ||||||
| Tap | ɾ ⟨r⟩ | ||||||
| Glide | l | j ⟨y⟩ | w | ||||
With the graphemes c and j the practical orthography indicates the palatal allophones of t and d respectively after i and y.
The vowels are the following:
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | ə ⟨e⟩ | ||
| Open | a |
Seediq also has three diphthongs, mainly ay [ai̯], aw [au̯] and uy [ui̯].
Seediq syllables have C, CV, or CVC structures, except for some interjections which have CVCC structures (e.g., saws, which is uttered when offering food to ancestors, and sawp, which is the sound of an object blown by the wind). Disyllabic words can take on the following structures:
Vowels in antepenultimate syllables are often /e/. The stressed syllable is usually the penultimate one, and is pronounced with a high pitch. In the Truku dialect stress is on the final syllable resulting in loss of first vowel in CVCCV and CVCCVC structures, for example compare: qduriq > pqdriqun, lqlaqi > lqlqian. In Taroko, up to six onset consonants are possible: CCCCCVC(VC), for example: tn'ghngkawas, mptrqdug, pngkrbkan, dmptbrinah.
As other Austronesian languages, Seediq uses reduplication to convey grammatical functions, such as pluralization and reciprocal verb form derivation. There are two kinds of reduplication: one which involves only the first syllable of the stem, with structure Cə-CV(C), and one which involves the last pair of syllables of the stem excluding codas, having structure CəCə-CV(C)CV(C). Examples are:
qehuni
tree
"tree"
→
qe-qehuni
REDUP-tree
"trees"
(Cə-reduplication)
Along with reduplication, there are also numerous prefixes and suffixes in Seediq that intervene to alter the meaning of words in derivational and inflectional processes. Affixes include:
Clitics, unlike affixes, do not cause phonological alterations on their roots to which they are attached.
Seediq verbs have three types of voices, which are in turn inflected for mood or aspect (Tsukida 2005:313). Nouns, however, do not inflect for voice.
There are four basic aspect/mood categories:
The future is marked by me-, mpe-, mpe-ke-.
There are a total of five different verb classes (conjugation paradigms). Other verb forms include causatives, reciprocals, and reflexives. Serial verb constructions are also allowed.
Truku Seediq has 11 word classes (Tsukida 2005:295).
Like many other Formosan and Philippine languages, Seediq nouns and verbs behave similarly. Adjectives can be considered as a subcategory of verbs.
The word order of Seediq is verb–object–subject (VOS), where S corresponds to the argument marked with absolutive case. This argument ordinarily occurs clause-finally, but may be followed by a topicalized ergative argument. Like many of its other Austronesian relatives, Seediq contains voice morphemes marked on the verb which indicate which of the verb's arguments (agent, patient, etc.) is treated as the subject and thus marked with absolutive case. In noun phrases, modifiers follow the head (Tsukida 2005:304). Unlike Tagalog and many other Philippine languages, there are no linkers connecting the heads and modifiers.
There are three types of Seediq clauses (Tsukida 2005):
Basic clauses have predicates (usually initial and consisting of single verbs, adjectives, or noun phrases), subjects, and optionally non-subject arguments and adjuncts.
Subjects can be recognized via (Tsukida 2005):
Some function words are given below:
Deictics include (Tsukida 2009:132-133):
There are a total of six prepositions (Tsukida 2005:303):
Stative locatives (e.g., "on the mountain") do not take on any prepositions, but are rather placed directly after the verb without any additional marking.
Preverbal elements such as adverbs, demonstratives, and prepositions can be used to extend predicates. Below is a partial list of predicate extenders from Tsukida (2008:308).
| Type of pronoun | Direct | Oblique | Independent possessive | Subject | Genitive |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1s. | yaku | kenan | (ne-)naku | =ku | =mu |
| 2s. | isu | sunan | (ne-)nisu | =su | =su |
| 3s. | hiya | hiyaan | ne-hiya | – | =na |
| 1p. (incl.) | 'ita | tenan | (ne-)nita | =ta | =ta |
| 1p. (excl.) | yami | menani | (ne-)nami | =nami | =nami |
| 2p. | yamu | munan | (ne-)namu | =namu | =namu |
| 3p. | dehiya | dehiyaan | ne-dehiya | - | =deha |
The cardinal numbers are: [6]
Other numerals and numeral-related affixes (Tsukida 2005:297):
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