Puyuma language
The Puyuma language or Pinuyumayan, is the language of the Puyuma, an indigenous people of Taiwan. It is a language of the Austronesian family. Most speakers are older adults.
Puyuma is one of the more divergent of the Austronesian languages and falls outside reconstructions of Proto-Austronesian.
Dialects
The internal classification of Puyuma dialects below is from. Nanwang Puyuma is considered to be the relatively phonologically conservative but grammatically innovative, as in it preserves proto-Puyuma voiced plosives but syncretizes the use of both oblique and genitive case.- Proto-Puyuma
- *Nanwang
- *
- **Pinaski–Ulivelivek
- ***Pinaski
- ***Ulivelivek
- **Rikavung
- **Kasavakan–Katipul
- ***Kasavakan
- ***Katipul
;Puyuma cluster
- Puyuma
- Apapulu
- Alipai
- Pinaski ; 2 km north of Puyuma/Nanwang, and maintains close relations with it
- Pankiu
- Kasavakan
- Katratripul
- Likavung
- Tamalakaw
- Ulivelivek
Phonology
Puyuma has 18 consonants and 4 vowels:| Front | Central | Back | |
| Close | |||
| Mid | |||
| Open |
Note that Teng uses for and for, unlike in official version. The official orthography is used in this article.
Grammar
Morphology
Puyuma verbs have four types of focus:- Actor focus: Ø, -em-, -en-, me-, meʔ-, ma-
- Object focus: -aw
- Referent focus: -ay
- Instrumental focus: -anay
- Perfect
- Imperfect
- Future
- Imperative
- Hortative future
- Perfect: Ø
- Imperfect: Reduplication; -a-
- Future: Reduplication, sometimes only -a-
- Hortative future: -a-
- Imperative mode: Ø
Syntax
Puyuma has a verb-initial word order.Articles include:
- i – singular personal
- a – singular non-personal
- na – plural
Pronouns
The Puyuma personal pronouns are:| 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. | nanta | kanta, kananta | drata, drananta | kanta | taita |
| 1p. | naniam | kaniam, kananiam | draniam, drananiam | kaniam | mimi |
| 2p. | nanemu | kanemu, kananemu | dranemu, drananemu | kanemu | muimu |
| 3p. | nantu | kantu, kanantu | dratu, dranantu | kantaw | – |
| Type of Pronoun | Nominative | Nominative | Genitive |
| 1s. | =ku | ku= | ku= |
| 2s. | =yu | nu= | nu= |
| 3s. | – | tu= | tu= |
| 1p. | =ta | ta= | ta= |
| 1p. | =mi | niam= | mi= |
| 2p. | =mu | mu= | mu= |
| 3p. | – | tu= | tu= |
Affixes
The Puyuma affixes are:;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
- kitu-: to become
- kur-: be exposed to; be together
- m-, ma-: actor voice affix/intransitive affix
- maka-: along; to face against
- mara-: comparative/superlative marker
- mar-: 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, to speak
- tinu-: to simulate
- tua-: to make, to form
- u-: to go
- ya-: to belong to; nominalizer
- -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
- -in-: perfective marker
- -em-: actor voice affix/intransitive affix
- -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