Amis language
Encyclopedia
Amis is the Formosan language of the Amis Ami, an indigenous tribal people living along the east coast of Taiwan
(see Taiwanese aborigines
). It is spoken from Hualien
in the north to Taitung
in the south, with another population near the southern end of the island, though the northern varieties are sometimes considered a separate language.
Government services in counties where many Amis people live in Taiwan, such as the Hualien and Taitung train stations, broadcast in Amis alongside Mandarin. However, few Amis under the age of 20 in 1995 spoke the language, and it is not known how many of the 138,000 ethnic Amis are speakers.
and Nataoran
, are divergent enough to be classified as separate languages. Within Amis proper, there are Tavalong-Vata'an, Middle, and Southern dialects, the latter including Malan and Hengchun Amis.
The voiceless plosives /p t k ʡ/ and the affricate /t͡s/ are released
, so that ccay "one" is pronounced [t͡sᵊt͡saj]; as is /s/ in clusters: spat "four" is [sᵊpat⁼]. The glottal stop is an exception, being frequently unreleased in final position. The voiced
fricatives, /v ɮ ɣ/ (the latter found only in loanwords) are devoiced to [f ɬ x] in utterance-final and sometimes initial position. /ɮ/ may be interdental or post-dental. The sibilants, /t͡s s/, are optionally palatalized ([t͡ɕ ɕ]) 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 dialectical variation. In Fengbin
, a town in the center of Amis territory, it is pronounced as a central
dental fricative, [ð̪], whereas in the town of Kangko, only 15 km away, it is a lateral
[ɮ̪]. In northern Amis, it is a plosive [d̪], which may be laxed to [ð̪] 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, sometimes transcribed "я". Edmondson and Elsing report that these are true epiglottals initially and medially, but in utterance-final position they are epiglotto–pharyngeal
.
Sakizaya, sometimes considered a northern dialect of Amis, contrasts a voiced /z/ with voiceless /s/.
In the practical orthography, /ts/ is written, /j/ , /ʡ/ <'>, /ʔ/ <^>, /ɮ/ , /ŋ/ , and /ʜ/ .
Amis has three common vowels, /i a u/. 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 vowels at all. Examples of this e are malmes "sad", pronounced [maɺə̆mːə̆s], and ’nem "six", pronounced [ʡnə̆m] or [ʡə̆nə̆m].
, active voice
, passive voice, disposal sentence, imperative mood
, optative mood
, and prohibitive mood.
There are two word order
s in Amis language, called "General" Word Order and "Special" Word Order.
Below are some examples of Amis sentence:
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
(see Taiwanese aborigines
Taiwanese aborigines
Taiwanese aborigines is the term commonly applied in reference to the indigenous peoples of Taiwan. Although Taiwanese indigenous groups hold a variety of creation myths, recent research suggests their ancestors may have been living on the islands for approximately 8,000 years before major Han...
). It is spoken from Hualien
Hualien City
Hualien City is the capital of Hualien County, Taiwan. It is located on the East coast of Taiwan, by the Pacific Ocean, and has a population of 110,000 inhabitants.- History :...
in the north to Taitung
Taitung City
Taitung City is the county seat of Taitung County, Taiwan. It lies on the southeast coast of Taiwan facing the Pacific Ocean.The city is served by Taitung Airport. Taitung is a gateway to Green Island and Orchid Island, both of which are very popular among Taiwanese tourists.-History:Taitung...
in the south, with another population near the southern end of the island, though the northern varieties are sometimes considered a separate language.
Government services in counties where many Amis people live in Taiwan, such as the Hualien and Taitung train stations, broadcast in Amis alongside Mandarin. However, few Amis under the age of 20 in 1995 spoke the language, and it is not known how many of the 138,000 ethnic Amis are speakers.
Dialects
Amis is a dialect cluster. The northern varieties, SakizayaSakizaya people
The Sakizaya are Taiwanese Aborigines with a population of approximately 5,000–10,000...
and Nataoran
Nataoran language
Nataoran is one of the Formosan languages of the Amis and Sakizaya, indigenous tribal peoples living along the east coast of Taiwan. The Sakizaya variety is highly divergent, and sometimes considered a separate language from Nataoran, but in recent years both have begun to converge with Central...
, are divergent enough to be classified as separate languages. Within Amis proper, there are Tavalong-Vata'an, Middle, and Southern dialects, the latter including Malan and Hengchun Amis.
Consonants
| Labial Labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals... | Dental | Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... | Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... | Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... | Epiglottal Epiglottal consonant An epiglottal consonant is a consonant that is articulated with the aryepiglottic folds against the epiglottis. They are occasionally called aryepiglottal consonants.-Epiglottal consonants in the IPA:... | Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasals Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m | n̪ | ŋ | ||||
| Plosives Stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &... and affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :... |
p | t̪ | t͡s | k | ʡ ~ я | ʔ | |
| Fricatives Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants 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 , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
v | ð̪ ~ ɮ̪ | s | (ɣ) | ʜ | h | |
| Trill Trill consonant In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr> as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular.... |
r | ||||||
| Lateral flap Flap consonant In phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of consonantal sound, which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator is thrown against another.-Contrast with stops and trills:... |
ɺ̠ | ||||||
| Approximants Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
w | j |
The voiceless plosives /p t k ʡ/ and the affricate /t͡s/ are released
Unreleased stop
An unreleased stop or unreleased plosive is a plosive consonant without an audible release burst. That is, the oral tract is blocked to pronounce the consonant, and there is no audible indication of when that occlusion ends...
, so that ccay "one" is pronounced [t͡sᵊt͡saj]; as is /s/ in clusters: spat "four" is [sᵊpat⁼]. The glottal stop is an exception, being frequently unreleased in final position. The voiced
Voice (phonetics)
Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate...
fricatives, /v ɮ ɣ/ (the latter found only in loanwords) are devoiced to [f ɬ x] in utterance-final and sometimes initial position. /ɮ/ may be interdental or post-dental. The sibilants, /t͡s s/, are optionally palatalized ([t͡ɕ ɕ]) 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 dialectical variation. In Fengbin
Fengbin, Hualien
Fengbin is a rural township located in Hualien County, Taiwan, connected with Taitung County. The East is faced Pacific Ocean and the West is Haian Range. It has the least population around 5,000 inhabitants in Hualien County.-Transportation:...
, a town in the center of Amis territory, it is pronounced as a central
Central consonant
A central or medial consonant is a consonant sound that is produced when air flows across the center of the mouth over the tongue. The class contrasts with lateral consonants, in which air flows over the sides of the tongue rather than down its center....
dental fricative, [ð̪], whereas in the town of Kangko, only 15 km away, it is a lateral
Lateral consonant
A lateral is an el-like consonant, in which airstream proceeds along the sides of the tongue, but is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth....
[ɮ̪]. In northern Amis, it is a plosive [d̪], which may be laxed to [ð̪] 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, sometimes transcribed "я". Edmondson and Elsing report that these are true epiglottals initially and medially, but in utterance-final position they are epiglotto–pharyngeal
Epiglotto-pharyngeal consonant
An epiglotto-pharyngeal consonant is a newly reported type of consonant, articulated with the epiglottis against the back wall of the pharynx. This contrasts with the pharyngeal consonants, where the root of the tongue contacts the back wall of the pharynx, and prototypical epiglottal consonants,...
.
Sakizaya, sometimes considered a northern dialect of Amis, contrasts a voiced /z/ with voiceless /s/.
In the practical orthography, /ts/ is written
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Closed | i | u | |
| Mid | (ə̆) | ||
| Open | a |
Amis has three common vowels, /i a u/. 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 vowels at all. Examples of this e are malmes "sad", pronounced [maɺə̆mːə̆s], and ’nem "six", pronounced [ʡnə̆m] or [ʡə̆nə̆m].
Examples of words
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- Compare with TagalogTagalog languageTagalog is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by a third of the population of the Philippines and as a second language by most of the rest. It is the first language of the Philippine region IV and of Metro Manila...
baboy (pig), tatlo (3), apat (4), lima (5), anim (6), pito (7), walo (8) - Compare with KapampanganKapampangan languageThe Pampangan language, or Kapampangan , is one of the major languages of the Philippines. It is the language spoken in the province of Pampanga, the southern half of the province of Tarlac and the northern portion of the province of Bataan. Kapampangan is also understood in some barangays of...
asu (dog), pusa (cat), atlo (3), apat (4), lima (5), anam (6), pitu/pito (7), walu/walo (8), siyam (9), apulu/apulo (10) and ama (father) and ima (mother) - Compare with IlokanoIlokano languageIlokano or Ilocano is the third most-spoken language of the Republic of the Philippines....
baboy(pig), aso(dog), pusa(cat), maysa(1), dua(2), tallo(3), uppat(4), lima(5), inem(6), pito(7), walo(8), siam(9), sangapulo(10)
- ma olah kako mimali = I like to play sports.
- takaraw ko pi ta’kod = I jump very high.
- kalamkam ko kacomikay = I run very fast.
- Ira ko tata’angay a mata a ko = I have big eyes
- mamangay a ngapa ’= A small mouth
- takaya’ay a fokes = long hair
- sowalsan ko kahaccay a tamdaw makapahay kako = Everyone tells me that I am beautiful.
- ma fana’ay mi asik，misawsaw to kaysing，milidong to fodoy = I can sweep the floor, wash dishes and clothing.
- ma olah midmak kako to tayal no loma’ = I love to do household chores.
- nawhani ma olah kako to loma’no mako = Because I love my home.
Grammar
Verbs in the Amis language have some inflections, including existential clauseExistential clause
Existential clauses are clauses that indicate only an existence. In English, they are formed with the dummy subject construction with "there", e.g. "There are boys in the yard". Many languages do not require a dummy subject, e.g. Finnish, where the sentence Pihalla on poikia is literally "On the...
, active voice
Active voice
Active voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. It is the unmarked voice for clauses featuring a transitive verb in nominative–accusative languages, including English and most other Indo-European languages....
, passive voice, disposal sentence, imperative mood
Imperative mood
The imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :...
, optative mood
Optative mood
The optative mood is a grammatical mood that indicates a wish or hope. It is similar to the cohortative mood, and closely related to the subjunctive mood....
, and prohibitive mood.
There are two word order
Word order
In linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the order of the syntactic constituents of a language, and how different languages can employ different orders. Correlations between orders found in different syntactic subdomains are also of interest...
s in Amis language, called "General" Word Order and "Special" Word Order.
Below are some examples of Amis sentence:
"General" Word Order Sentence I : Verb–subject
| Verb Verb A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive... |
Subject Subject (grammar) The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e... |
|---|---|
| Verb Verb A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive... , Adjective Adjective In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified.... , etc. |
ko (Preposition for Subjects Adposition Prepositions are a grammatically distinct class of words whose most central members characteristically express spatial relations or serve to mark various syntactic functions and semantic roles... )+Nouns |
Example
- Maomahay ko wama. (The father is working at the farmfield.)
- mimaomahay: Working (at farmfield)
- wama: Father
- Misaholoay ko wina. (The mother is cooking rice.)
- misaholoay: Cooking (rice)
- ina/wina: Mother
"General" Word Order Sentence II : Verb–subject–object
| Verb Verb A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive... |
Subject Subject (grammar) The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e... |
Object Object (grammar) An object in grammar is part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. Basically, it is what or whom the verb is acting upon... |
|---|---|---|
| Verb Verb A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive... , Adjective Adjective In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified.... , etc. |
ko (Preposition for Subjects)+Nouns | to (Preposition for Objects)+Nouns |
Example
- Mifaca' ko kaying to riko'. (The young woman is washing cloth.)
- Mifaca' koya kaying to riko'. (The young woman is washing cloth.)
- mifaca': wash(clothes)
- kaying: young woman
- riko'/fudoy: cloth