Thao (; endonym: Thau a lalawa), 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 (伊達邵, Yi Dashao) village (traditionally called Barawbaw), all but one of whom were over the age of sixty. Two elderly native speakers died in December of that year, including chief Tarma (袁明智, Yuan Mingzhi), age 75. Four elderly L1 speakers and some semi-speakers were reported in 2021.
Phonology Consonants +Consonant inventory Labial Dental Alveolar Post-Alveolar Velar Uvular Glottal Plosive Fricative Lateral Fricative Tap or Flap Nasal Approximant
Orthographic notes: are written . However, is written in Blust's dictionary. is written . However, is written in Blust's dictionary (as in Fijian).
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. realise as [] intervocalically.
Vowels +Vowel inventory Front Central Back High Low
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 (which is sometimes considered to be a form of full reduplication).
Thao verbs have the following types of focus (Blust 2003:239).
Actor: -um- (present), ma- (future) Patient: -in, -in- Locative: -an
Syntax Thao word order can be both SVO and VSO, although the former is derived from Taiwanese Hokkien (Blust 2003:228).
The Thao personal marker is "ti" (Blust 2003:228). 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 (2003:207). Note that there is only 1 form each for "we (exclusive)," "you (plural)" and "they."
+Thao Personal Pronouns Type of Pronoun Nominative Accusative Genitive Agent Patient 1s. yaku yakin nakPAN *ni-ku 2s. ihu ihu-n m-ihuPAN *ni-Su uhu uhu-n 3s. thithu thithu-n thithuPAN *ni-a 1p. (incl.) ita ita-n m-ita 1p. (excl.) yamin yamin yamin 2p. maniun maniun maniun 3p. thaythuy thaythuy thaythuy
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 (2003:92-188) and adjusted to the modern spelling.
a- : only found in /kan/ 'eat' -ak : '1st person singular (I)' 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 (1st person singular) -in- : perfective or completive aspect -in : patient focus ish- : found most with intransitive verbs (uncommon prefix) ka- : 'to make an X', 'two times' (with reduplication) 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' (when used with tools or weapons); 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 (2s)' and 'we (incl.)' 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' (used with numbers) mak- : intransitive verbs maka- : 'to resemble X' (people), 'produce X' (plant or animal parts), 'from/in/to X' (deictic/directional expressions) makin- : intransitive verbs; 'Xth from the bottom' (with numerals) makit- : 'happen gradually', 'perform X gradually' maku- : directional sense, and is followed by /na/- (though it does not follow not in non-locative expressions) 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' (language), 'walk with an X' (positions or conditions of the leg) masha- : relates to body positions, or may have a directional meaning mashi- : comparatives (with stative bases of measurement); often synonymous with /ma/- (stative verb marker) mat- : derives intransitive or stative verbs mati- : locative expressions matin- + full reduplication : 'X-ish' or 'spotted with X' (colors) 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 (Bunun loan?); 'become an X' or 'become like an X' (with kinship terms) mu- : most frequently derives verbs of motion; 'go into X; enter X' (with concrete nouns that refer to structures or places capable of being entered); 'search for X' (with names of useful plants); 'do X times' (numeral bases and expressions of quantity) 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 (verbs with -/um/-); 'make X do Y' or 'let X do Y'; active transitive (or intransitive) verb with no causative argument/sense pak- : 'exude X' (body fluids, other natural fluids/substances); 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 (e.g., 'father' > 'uncle', 'grandparent' > 'grandparental sibling') pash- ... -an : 'place in which X is kept' pashi- : generally causative sense (often with Ca-reduplication); 'let X do it' or 'let X have it' (with the accusative forms of personal pronouns) pashi- ... -an : 'put X on' or 'wear X' pat- : generally causative sense pi- : causative verbs of location (can be paired with /i/- 'at, in, on'); may also form non-locative verbs pya- : forms causative verbs (usually have stative counterparts with /ma/-; note that /pa/- and -/um/- are also counterparts.); simulative verb pik- : generally causative sense pin- : generally forms causative verbs or deverbal nouns pish- : 'play X' (musical instruments); inchoative sense (sometimes with an implied element of suddenness); causative sense pu- : causative or transitive counterpart of the movement prefix /mu/-, which is intransitive; 'use an X' or 'put in an X' (with names of some tools); 'send out an X' (with names of plant parts) pu- ... -an : to wear X' (body ornaments) pun- : 'to catch X' (animals used for food) qata- : bodily movement, observation, and the like sha- : directional sense ('facing', etc.) shan-na-Ca- ... : 'it's up to X' (often with pronouns) shau- : 'go to X' or 'arrive at X' (with bases that have an inherently locative sense or temporal sense) shi- : appears to mark past tense (as opposed to the perfective aspect marker -/in/-) shi- : sometimes appears with commands shi-X-X : 'X-ish, somewhat X' shi-X-iz: 'X times' shu- : 'bring X' or 'take X' (with pronominal and deictic bases) tana- : generally directional sense (from Bunun /tana/- 'prefix of direction') tau- : 'to carry X' (with concrete nouns); 'to turn to X' (with bases having a directional meaning) 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' (borrowed from Bunun) -wak : 1st person singular actor (apparently distinct from -/ak/) -wan : 'X's turn (to do something)' ya- : only comes after /mapa/- 'reciprocal or collective action' -zan : 'X paces' (used with numerals)
Quasi-affixes kan 'step, walk' lhqa 'live, living' pasaháy 'to use' qalha 'much, many' sa (usually almost impossible to translate in most environments)
Notes
References
External links
Robert Blust's audio recordings of Thao are archived with Kaipuleohone Yuánzhùmínzú yǔyán xiànshàng cídiǎn 原住民族語言線上詞典 – Thao search page at the "Aboriginal language online dictionary" website of the Indigenous Languages Research and Development Foundation Thao teaching and leaning materials published by the Council of Indigenous Peoples of Taiwan Thao translation of President Tsai Ing-wen's 2016 apology to indigenous people – published on the website of the presidential office