The Puyuma language is the language of the Puyuma people, a tribe of indigenous people on Taiwan

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 a divergent Formosan language of the Austronesian

Austronesian languages

The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...

 family. Most speakers are older adults.

Puyuma is one of the more divergent of the Austronesian languages, and falls outside reconstructions of Proto-Austronesian.

Internal classification

The internal classification of Puyuma dialects below is from Ting (1978). Nanwang is usually showed to be the relatively phonologically conservative dialect but grammatically innovative, as it preserves proto-puyuma voiced explosives and syncrets case.

• Proto-Puyuma
  • Nanwang
  • (Main branch)
    • Pinaski-Ulivelivek
    • Rikavung
    • Kasavakan-Katipul

Puyuma-speaking villages are (Zeitoun & Cauquelin 2006:655):

Puyuma cluster ('born of the bamboo')

• Puyuma
• Apapolo

Katipul cluster ('born of a stone')

• Alipai
• Pinaski ; 2 km north of Puyuma/Nanwang, and maintains close relations with it
• Bankiu
• Kasabakan
• Katipul
• Rikabung
• Tamalakaw
• Ulibulibuk

Phonology

Puyuma has 18 consonants and 4 vowels.

caption | Puyuma Consonants

Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:...	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...	Retroflex Retroflex consonant A retroflex consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants, especially in Indology...	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)....	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...
Nasal 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	n			ŋ
Plosive	Voiceless 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...	p	t	ʈ		k	ʔ
	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...	b	d	ɖ		ɡ
Fricative 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...			s
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
Approximant 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...			l	ɭ	j	w

caption | Puyuma Vowels

	Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also...	Central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel...	Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark...
Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the...	i		u
Mid Mid vowel A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an open vowel and a close vowel...		ə
Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue...		a

Morphology

Puyuma verbs have four types of focus (Cauquelin 2004:25–26):

1. Actor focus: Ø (no mark), -em-, -en- (after labials), me-, meʔ-, ma-
2. Object focus: -aw
3. Referent focus: -ay
4. Instrumental focus: -anai

There are three verbal aspects (Cauquelin 2004:25–26):

1. Perfect
2. Imperfect
3. Future

There are two modes (Cauquelin 2004:25–26):

1. Imperative
2. Hortative future

Affixes include (Cauquelin 2004:25–26):

• Perfect: Ø (no mark)
• Imperfect: Reduplication; -a-
• Future: Reduplication, sometimes only -a-
• Hortative future: -a-
• Imperative mode: Ø (no mark)

Syntax

Puyuma has a verb-initial word order.

Articles include (Cauquelin 1991:27):

• i – singular personal
• a – singular non-personal
• na – plural (personal and non-personal)

Pronouns

The Puyuma personal pronouns below are from Teng (2008:61–64).

Puyuma Personal Pronouns (Free)

Type of Pronoun	Nominative	Oblique: Direct	Oblique: Indirect	Oblique: Non-Subject	Neutral
1s.	nanku	kanku, kananku	draku, drananku	kanku	kuiku
2s.	nanu	kanu, kananu	dranu, drananu	kanu	yuyu
3s.	nantu	kantu, kanantu	dratu, dranantu	kantaw	taytaw
1p. (incl.)	nanta	kanta, kananta	drata, drananta	kanta	taita
1p. (excl.)	naniam	kaniam, kananiam	draniam, drananiam	kaniam	mimi
2p.	nanemu	kanemu, kananemu	dranemu, drananemu	kanemu	muimu
3p.	nantu	kantu, kanantu	dratu, dranantu	kantaw	–

Puyuma Personal Pronouns (Bound)

Type of Pronoun	Nominative (Subject)	Nominative (Possessor of subject)	Genitive
1s.	=ku	ku=	ku=
2s.	=yu	nu=	nu=
3s.	–	tu=	tu=
1p. (incl.)	=ta	ta=	ta=
1p. (excl.)	=mi	niam=	mi=
2p.	=mu	mu=	mu=
3p.	–	tu=	tu=

Affixes

The Puyuma affixes below are from Teng (2008:282-285).
Prefixes

• ika-: the shape of; forming; shaping
• ka-: stative marker
• kara-: collective, to do something together
• kare-: the number of times
• ki-: to get something
• kir-: to go against (voluntarily)
• kitu-: to become
• kur-: be exposed to; be together (passively)
• m-, ma-: actor voice affix/intransitive affix
• maka-: along; to face against
• mara-: comparative/superlative marker
• mar(e)-: reciprocal; plurality of relations
• mi-: to have; to use
• mu-: anticausative marker
• mutu-: to become, to transform into
• pa-/p-: causative marker
• pu-: put
• puka-: ordinal numeral marker
• piya-: to face a certain direction
• si-: to pretend to
• tara-: to use (an instrument), to speak (a language)
• tinu-: to simulate
• tua-: to make, to form
• u-: to go
• ya-: to belong to; nominalizer

Suffixes

• -a: perfective marker; numeral classifier
• -an: nominalizer; collective/plural marker
• -anay: conveyance voice affix/transitive affix
• -aw: patient voice affix/transitive affix
• -ay: locative voice affix/transitive affix
• -i, -u: imperative transitive marker

Infixes

• -in-: perfective marker
• -em-: actor voice affix/intransitive affix

Circumfixes

• -in-anan: the members of
• ka- -an: a period of time
• muri- -an: the way one is doing something; the way something was done
• sa- -an: people doing things together
• sa- -enan: people belonging to the same community
• si- -an: nominalizer
• Ca- -an, CVCV- -an: collectivity, plurality