Seediq language


Seediq, also known as Sediq and Taroko, is an Atayalic language spoken in the mountains of Northern Taiwan by the Seediq and Taroko people.

Subdivisions

Seediq consists of three main dialects. Members of each dialect group refer to themselves by the name of their dialect, while the Amis people call them "Taroko".
  1. Truku – 20,000 members including non-speakers. Transcribed 德路固 in Chinese.
  2. Toda – 2,500 members including non-speakers.
  3. Tgdaya – 2,500 members including non-speakers.

    Phonology

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, loanwords and non-finite verbal forms with the gerund prefix cese-.
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:
FrontCentralBack
Close
Mid
Open

Seediq also has three diphthongs, mainly ay , aw and uy .
Seediq syllables have C, CV, or CVC structures, except for some interjections which have CVCC structures. Disyllabic words can take on the following structures:
  • CVCV, CVCVC
  • CVCCV, CVCCVC
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, for example: tn'ghngkawas, mptrqdug, pngkrbkan, dmptbrinah.

Morphology

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, and one which involves the last pair of syllables of the stem excluding codas, having structure CəCə-CVCV. Examples are:
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:
  • -an: oblique case
  • ne-: something possessed by the prefixed noun
Clitics, unlike affixes, do not cause phonological alterations on their roots to which they are attached.

Verbs

Seediq verbs have three types of voices, which are in turn inflected for mood or aspect. Nouns, however, do not inflect for voice.
  1. Agent voice – marked by -em- or its allomorphs me or Ø
  2. Goal voice
  3. Conveyance voice
There are four basic aspect/mood categories:
  1. Neutral – same as non-future/imperfective
  2. Perfect – marked by -en-
  3. Non-finite – bare stem
  4. Hortative – marked by -a
The future is marked by me-, mpe-, mpe-ke-.
There are a total of five different verb classes. Other verb forms include causatives, reciprocals, and reflexives. Serial verb constructions are also allowed.

Word classes

Truku Seediq has 11 word classes.
;Open classes
  • Nouns
  • Verbs
  • Adjectives
;Closed classes
  • Numerals
  • Personal pronouns
  • Deictics
  • Adverbs
  • Conjunctives
  • Prepositions
  • Interjections
  • Sentence final particles
Like many other Formosan and Philippine languages, Seediq nouns and verbs behave similarly. Adjectives can be considered as a subcategory of verbs.

Syntax

The word order of Seediq is verb–object–subject, 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 is treated as the subject and thus marked with absolutive case. In noun phrases, modifiers follow the head. Unlike Tagalog and many other Philippine languages, there are no linkers connecting the heads and modifiers.

Clauses

There are three types of Seediq clauses :
  1. Interjection clauses
  2. Basic clauses
  3. Existential/possessive clauses
Basic clauses have predicates, subjects, and optionally non-subject arguments and adjuncts.
Subjects can be recognized via :
  1. Voice affix
  2. Clitic pronoun
  3. Quantifier floating
  4. Relativization
  5. Possessum demotion

    Function words

Some function words are given below:
  • ni – "and"
  • deni – "and then"
  • u, du'u, ga, dega – all meaning "in case that"
  • nasi – "if"
  • ana – "even"
  • ka – subordinating conjunction, case marker, linker
  • ini – negator
  • adi – negates noun phrase predicates, future/perfect verb forms
  • wada – past
  • na'a – "had better, could have done..."
  • dima – "already"
  • hana – "just"
  • ya'asa – "because"
  • niqan – existential predicate
  • ungat – negative existential predicate
Deictics include :
  • Demonstratives:
  • *niyi – this, this one
  • *ga/gaga – that, that one
  • *kiya/ki – that, that one
  • Deictic adverbials:
  • *hini – here
  • *hi/hiya – there
There are a total of six prepositions :
  • quri – toward, about, in the direction of
  • pa'ah – from
  • bitaq – until, up to
  • saw – like
  • asaw – because of
  • mawxay – for the sake of
Stative locatives do not take on any prepositions, but are rather placed directly after the verb without any additional marking.

Predicate extenders

Preverbal elements such as adverbs, demonstratives, and prepositions can be used to extend predicates. Below is a partial list of predicate extenders from Tsukida.
  1. Extenders that require neutral verb forms
  2. #wada – past
  3. #ga – distal progressive
  4. #niyi – proximal progressive
  5. #gisu – progressive, state
  6. #meha – future, "is going to do"
  7. #teduwa – "be able to do"
  8. #nasi – "if"
  9. #na'a – "could have done something but did not
  10. Extenders that require non-finite verb forms
  11. #asi ~ kasi – "at once, suddenly"
  12. #pasi – "at once"
  13. #kani – "one did not have to do something but did it"
  14. #ini – negative
  15. #iya – negative imperative
  16. Extenders that require future forms
  17. #saw – "is/was about to do"
  18. #rubang – "was about to do"
  19. Extenders that require future/perfect forms of verbs/nouns
  20. #adi – negative
  21. Extenders that are combined with adjectives/nouns
  22. #ma'a – "become"
  23. Extenders without specific requirements
  24. #pekelug – "just"
  25. #dima – "already"
  26. #hana – "at last"
  27. #ida – "surely"
  28. #ya'a – uncertainty
  29. #wana – only
  30. #ana – "even"
  31. #ma – "why"
  32. #alung ~ 'alaw ~ 'arang – "as is expected"
  33. #pida – exactly
  34. #lengu – "planned to do..."
  35. #binaw – confirmation
  36. #atih – "at the last moment," "nearly"
  37. #seperang – "purposefully, on purpose"

    Pronouns

Numerals

The cardinal numbers are:
  1. kingal
  2. deha
  3. teru
  4. sepat
  5. rima
  6. mataru
  7. mpitu
  8. maspat
  9. mengari
  10. maxal
Other numerals and numeral-related affixes :
  • taxa: used for humans – one person
  • 'uwin: used for objects – one object
  • ma- -l: used to form words for 10, 20, 30, 40, 50
  • ma-xa-l: 10
  • m-pusa-l: 20
  • me-teru-l: 30
  • me-sepat-ul: 40
  • me-rima-l: 50