Thao language


Thao, also known as Sao, is an Austronesian language. It is the nearly extinct language of the Thao people, an indigenous people of Taiwan from the Sun Moon Lake region in central Taiwan. It is a Formosan language of the Austronesian family; Barawbaw and Shtafari are dialects.

Name

The name Thao literally means "person", from Proto-Austronesian *Cau. It is therefore cognate with the name of the Tsou.

History

Speaking Thao was criminalised under Japanese rule of Taiwan and later the Kuomintang regime, contributing to its critically endangered status today.
A Thao-English dictionary by Robert A. Blust was published in 2003 by Academia Sinica's Institute of Linguistics.
In 2014, there were four L1 speakers and a fluent L2 speaker living in Ita Thaw village, all but one of whom were over the age of sixty. Two elderly native speakers died in December of that year, including chief Tarma, age 75. Four elderly L1 speakers and some semi-speakers were reported in 2021.

Phonology

Consonants

Orthographic notes:
  • are written. However, is written in Blust's dictionary.
  • is written.
  • is written. However, is written in Blust's dictionary.
  • is written.
Notes:
  • The glides are derived from the underlying vowels to meet the requirements that syllables must have onset consonants and to indicate stress placement accurately.
  • is an allophone of occurring intervocalically.

Vowels

Notes:
  • Stress is penultimate, otherwise can be written as in "dadú", but doubling is also frequently used, as in "daduu".
  • and occur as allophones of and, respectively, when preceded or followed either by or.

Morphology

Thao has two or arguably three patterns of reduplication: Ca-reduplication, full reduplication, and rightward reduplication.
Thao verbs have the following types of focus.
  1. Actor: -um-, ma-
  2. Patient: -in, -in-
  3. Locative: -an

Syntax

Thao word order can be both SVO and VSO, although the former is derived from Taiwanese Hokkien.
The Thao personal marker is "ti". Negatives include "ani" and "antu"; "ata tu" is used in "don't" constructions. The perfect is marked by "iza", the past by an infix just after the primary onset consonant "-in-" and the future by the prefix "a-". Imperatives are marked by "-í" and softer imperatives or requests roughly translated as "please" by "-uan" sometimes spelled "-wan" which can co-occur with "-í".

Pronouns

The Thao personal pronouns below are from Blust. Note that there is only 1 form each for "we," "you " and "they."
Type of
Pronoun		NominativeAccusativeGenitiveAgentPatient
1s.yakuyakinnak
2s.ihuihu-nm-ihuuhuuhu-n
3s.thithuthithu-nthithu
1p. itaita-nm-ita
1p. yaminyaminyamin
2p.maniunmaniunmaniun
3p.thaythuythaythuythaythuy

Other pronouns include:
  • minmihu - for you
  • panmihu - as for you
  • panihun - because of you
  • shanaihun - up to you
  • shaunatazihun - go to your place
  • shmunaihun - bring to you
  • nakin - for me
  • panyakin - as for me
  • pashiyakin - leave me
  • shanayayakin - up to me
  • shmunayakin - bring me

Affixes

The following affixes are sourced from Blust and adjusted to the modern spelling.
  • a- : only found in /kan/ 'eat'
  • -ak : '1st person singular '
  • ak-... -in : 'morning, noon, evening meals'
  • an- : uncertain function
  • -an : Verbal uses can be indicative, imperative, or adversative.
  • i- : prefix or clitic particle marking location
  • -i : imperative
  • -ik : patient focus
  • -in- : perfective or completive aspect
  • -in : patient focus
  • ish- : found most with intransitive verbs
  • ka- : 'to make an X', 'two times'
  • ka-... -an : meaning unclear
  • kal- : 'X told'
  • kalh- : 'to pile, spread'
  • kash- : 'intensity, repetition'
  • kashi- : meaning uncertain
  • kashi-... -an : 'pull by the X'
  • kashun- : derives verbs referring to positions of the human body, or sometimes objects such as boats
  • kat- : 'gradually become X'
  • ki- : 'stand, stay'; other possible meanings as well
  • ki-... -an : 'be affected with pain in the X'
  • kilh- : 'search for, seek'
  • kin- : 'to pick or gather X'
  • kit-... -in : 'infested with X'
  • ku- : 'to perform an action with X' ; less specific in other contexts
  • kun- : 'sudden or abrupt action', 'to eat the X meal', 'to do X times'; meaning unclear sometimes
  • la- : usually found in expressions of quantity of degree
  • lhin- : causative sense
  • lhun- : swelling-related meanings, etc.
  • m- : marks the genitive in 'you ' and 'we '
  • ma- : marks stative verbs, occasionally nouns derived from stative verbs
  • ma- : active verb prefix
  • ma- : prefix marking the future in actor focus verbs
  • ma- : 'tens'
  • mak- : intransitive verbs
  • maka- : 'to resemble X', 'produce X', 'from/in/to X'
  • makin- : intransitive verbs; 'Xth from the bottom'
  • makit- : 'happen gradually', 'perform X gradually'
  • maku- : directional sense, and is followed by /na/-
  • malhi- : 'give birth to an X'
  • man- : generally used with dynamic, intransitive verbs
  • mana- : generally found with directional verbs
  • mapa- : 'reciprocal', 'collective action'
  • mash- : 'to speak X', 'walk with an X'
  • masha- : relates to body positions, or may have a directional meaning
  • mashi- : comparatives ; often synonymous with /ma/-
  • mat- : derives intransitive or stative verbs
  • mati- : locative expressions
  • matin- + full reduplication : 'X-ish' or 'spotted with X'
  • mi- : derives intransitive verbs, often with some form of base reduplication
  • mi- + Ca reduplication : 'do with a group of X'
  • mya- : used to derive various verbs
  • min- : derives inchoative verbs ; 'become an X' or 'become like an X'
  • mu- : most frequently derives verbs of motion; 'go into X; enter X' ; 'search for X' ; 'do X times'
  • mun- : intransitive verbs
  • -n : derives accusative pronouns from nominative bases
  • na- : most commonly with verbs indicating change of location; 'it's up to X'
  • pa- : causative of dynamic verbs ; 'make X do Y' or 'let X do Y'; active transitive verb with no causative argument/sense
  • pak- : 'exude X' ; intransitive verb prefix
  • pan- : 'perform X in a downward direction'
  • pan-... -an : used with terms for lineal consanguines to derive the corresponding collateral terms of the same generation
  • pash-... -an : 'place in which X is kept'
  • pashi- : generally causative sense ; 'let X do it' or 'let X have it'
  • pashi-... -an : 'put X on' or 'wear X'
  • pat- : generally causative sense
  • pi- : causative verbs of location ; may also form non-locative verbs
  • pya- : forms causative verbs ; simulative verb
  • pik- : generally causative sense
  • pin- : generally forms causative verbs or deverbal nouns
  • pish- : 'play X' ; inchoative sense ; causative sense
  • pu- : causative or transitive counterpart of the movement prefix /mu/-, which is intransitive; 'use an X' or 'put in an X' ; 'send out an X'
  • pu-... -an : to wear X'
  • pun- : 'to catch X'
  • qata- : bodily movement, observation, and the like
  • sha- : directional sense
  • shan-na-Ca-... : 'it's up to X'
  • shau- : 'go to X' or 'arrive at X'
  • shi- : appears to mark past tense
  • shi- : sometimes appears with commands
  • shi-X-X : 'X-ish, somewhat X'
  • shi-X-iz: 'X times'
  • shu- : 'bring X' or 'take X'
  • tana- : generally directional sense
  • tau- : 'to carry X' ; 'to turn to X'
  • tish- : forms both transitive and intransitive verbs; often refers to results of non-deliberate actions
  • tu-Ca-... : 'the odor of X'
  • -um- : actor focus infix
  • un-... -an : 'undesirable bodily conditions or afflictions'; 'figurative extension of a physical affliction'
  • -un : equivalent of -/in/ 'patient focus'
  • -wak : 1st person singular actor
  • -wan : 'X's turn '
  • ya- : only comes after /mapa/- 'reciprocal or collective action'
  • -zan : 'X paces'
;Quasi-affixes
  • kan 'step, walk'
  • lhqa 'live, living'
  • pasaháy 'to use'
  • qalha 'much, many'
  • sa