Basay language

Basay was a Formosan language spoken around modern-day Taipei in northern Taiwan by the Basay, Qauqaut, and Trobiawan peoples. Trobiawan, Linaw, and Qauqaut were other dialects (see East Formosan languages).

Not to be confused with Pazeh language or Ketagalan language.
Basay
Ketagalan
Native toTaiwan
EthnicityBasay, Qauqaut
Extinctmid-20th century
Dialects
  • Basay proper
  • Trobiawan
  • Linaw–Qauqaut
Language codes
ISO 639-3byq
Glottologbasa1287
(dark green, north) The Kavalanic languages: Basai, Ketagalan, and Kavalan

Basay data is mostly available from Erin Asai's 1936 field notes, which were collected from an elderly Basay speaker in Shinshe, Taipei, as well as another one in Yilan who spoken the Trobiawan dialect (Li 1999). However, the Shinshe informant's speech was heavily influenced by Taiwanese, and the Trobiawan informant, named Ipai, had heavy Kavalan influence in her speech.

Li (1992) mentions four Basaic languages: Basay, Luilang, Nankan, Puting.[1] Nankan and Puting are close to Kavalan, whereas Luilang is divergent.[2]

Syntax

There are four optional case markers in Basay (Li 1999:646).

  • a – nominative, ligature (Shinshe dialect)
  • ta – nominative (Trobiawan dialect)
  • li – locative (Shinshe dialect)
  • u – oblique (Trobiawan dialect)

Some function words include (Li 1999):

  • pai 'future'

Trobiawan negators include (Li 1999):

  • mia 'not' (Shinshe dialect: mayu 'not (yet)')
  • asi 'don't' (Shinshe dialect: manai 'don't')
  • (m)upa 'not to want'
  • (Shinshe dialect: kualau 'not exist')

Yes–no questions are marked by u ~ nu (Li 1999:657).

Morphology

Basay verbs, like Kavalan verbs, distinguish between agent-focus (AF) and patient-focus (PF) verbs (Li 1999:650). The perfective prefixes na- and ni- are allomorphs.

Basay Focus System
Type of prefix Neutral Perfective Future
Agentive focus (AF) -um-, m- na-mi- -um- ... -a, m- ... -a
Patient focus (PF) – ni- -au
Locative focus (LF) -an ni- ... -an -ai

Pronouns

The Basay pronouns below are from Li (1999:639).

Basay Personal Pronouns
Neutral Nominative Genitive Oblique
1st person singular yaku kaku, -ku maku-, -aku; naku, -ak yakuan, kuan, kuanan
plural excl. yami -mi yami, -ami; nami, -am yamian, mian, mianan
incl. mita kita, -ita mita, -ita; nita, -ta ... , ... , tianan
2nd person singular isu kisu, -su misu, -isu; nisu, -su ~ -is isuan, suan, isuanan, suanan
plural imu kimu, -mu -imu; nimu, -im imuan, ... , imuanan
3rd person singular – -ia – –
plural – -ia – –

References

Notes
  1. Li, Paul Jen-kuei (2001). "The Dispersal of the Formosan Aborigines in Taiwan" (PDF). Language and Linguistics / Yǔyán jì yǔyánxué. 2 (1): 271–278. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-08-08. Retrieved 2021-06-30.
  2. Tsuchida, Shigeru. 1985. Kulon: Yet another Austronesian language in Taiwan?. Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica 60. 1-59.

General references
  • Li, Paul Jen-kuei (1999). "Some Problems in the Basay Language". In Zeitoun, E.; Li, Paul J.-k. (eds.). Selected Papers from the Eighth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics. Taipei: Academia Sinica. pp. 635–664.
  • Inō, Kanori 伊能嘉矩 (2012). Píngpǔzú diàochá lǚxíng: Yīnéng jiājǔ "Táiwān tōngxìn" xuǎnjí 平埔族調查旅行: 伊能嘉矩<台灣通信>選集 [Research Trips Among the Plains Aborigines: Selections from Inō Kanori's Taiwan Diaries] (in Chinese). Translated by Yang, Nanjun 楊南郡. Taibei Shi: Yuanliu. ISBN 9789573268932.

Further reading
Basay language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator
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