Seediq consists of three main dialects (Tsukida 2005). Members of each dialect group refer to themselves by the name of their dialect, while the Amis people call them "Taroko."
Truku (Truku) – 20,000 members including non-speakers. The Truku dialect, transcribed 德路固 Délùgù in Chinese.
Toda (Tuuda) – 2,500 members including non-speakers.
Tgdaya (Tkdaya, Paran) – 2,500 members including non-speakers.
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 (such as teʼcu! "what a mess!"), loanwords and non-finite verbal forms with the gerund prefix cese- (Tsukida 2005: 292, 297).
Seediq also has three diphthongs, mainly ay [ai̯], aw [au̯] and uy [ui̯].
Seediq syllables have C, CV, or CVC structures, except for some interjections which have CVCC structures (e.g., saws, which is uttered when offering food to ancestors, and sawp, which is the sound of an object blown by the wind). 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(VC), for example: tn'ghngkawas, mptrqdug, pngkrbkan, dmptbrinah.
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(C), and one which involves the last pair of syllables of the stem excluding codas, having structure CəCə-CV(C)CV(C). 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.
Seediq verbs have three types of voices, which are in turn inflected for mood or aspect (Tsukida 2005:313). Nouns, however, do not inflect for voice.
Agent voice – marked by -em- or its allomorphsme or Ø
Goal voice
Conveyance voice
There are four basic aspect/mood categories:
Neutral – same as non-future/imperfective
Perfect – marked by -en-
Non-finite – bare stem
Hortative (i.e., when advising someone) – marked by -a(y/nay)
The future is marked by me-, mpe-, mpe-ke-.
There are a total of five different verb classes (conjugation paradigms). Other verb forms include causatives, reciprocals, and reflexives. Serial verb constructions are also allowed.
The word order of Seediq is verb–object–subject (VOS), where S corresponds to the argument marked with absolutive case. This argument ordinarily occurs clause-finally, but may be followed by a topicalizedergative argument. Like many of its other Austronesian relatives, Seediq contains voice morphemes marked on the verb which indicate which of the verb's arguments (agent, patient, etc.) is treated as the subject and thus marked with absolutive case. In noun phrases, modifiers follow the head (Tsukida 2005:304). Unlike Tagalog and many other Philippine languages, there are no linkers connecting the heads and modifiers.
There are three types of Seediq clauses (Tsukida 2005):
Interjection clauses
Basic clauses
Existential/possessive clauses
Basic clauses have predicates (usually initial and consisting of single verbs, adjectives, or noun phrases), subjects, and optionally non-subject arguments and adjuncts.
There are a total of six prepositions (Tsukida 2005:303):
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 (e.g., "on the mountain") do not take on any prepositions, but are rather placed directly after the verb without any additional marking.
Preverbal elements such as adverbs, demonstratives, and prepositions can be used to extend predicates. Below is a partial list of predicate extenders from Tsukida (2008:308).
Extenders that require neutral verb forms
wada – past
ga(ga) – distal progressive
niyi – proximal progressive
gisu – progressive, state
meha – future, "is going to do"
(me-)teduwa – "be able to do"
nasi – "if"
na'a – "could have done something but did not
Extenders that require non-finite verb forms
'asi ~ kasi – "at once, suddenly"
pasi – "at once"
kani – "one did not have to do something but did it"
'ini – negative
'iya – negative imperative
Extenders that require future forms
saw – "is/was about to do"
rubang – "was about to do"
Extenders that require future/perfect forms of verbs/nouns
^Tsukida, Naomi. セデック語(台湾)の文法 (in Japanese). pp. 132–133.
^Campbell, W. (1915). Sketches from Formosa. London: Marshall Brothers. p. 43. Here are the ten numerals : Khial, Dahah, Turuh, Supat, Rimah, Maturuh, Mapitah, Mashupat, Mugarih, Machal.
Tsukida, Naomi (2005). "Seediq". In Adelaar, K. Alexander; Himmelmann, Nikolaus (eds.). The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar. Psychology Press.
Lien, Hao-Chi 連皓琦 (2013). Sàidékèyǔ Tàilǔgé fāngyán jìnjìyǔ yǔ wēiwǎnyǔ yánjiū 賽德克語太魯閣方言禁忌語與委婉語研究 [A Study of Taboos and Euphemisms in the Truku Dialect of Seediq] (in Chinese). Hualian Xian Shoufeng Xiang: Guolì donghua daxue. ISBN978-986-03-9288-3.
Ochiai, Izumi (2016). "Bu-hwan Vocabulary Recorded in 1874: Comparison with Seediq Dialects". Asian and African Languages and Linguistics. 10: 287–324. hdl:10108/85073.
Chen, Kang 陈康 (2014). Sàidékèyǔ yánjiū 赛德克语研究 [A Study of Seediq] (in Chinese). Beijing: Minzu chubanshe.
Yuánzhùmínzú yǔyán shūxiě xìtǒng 原住民族語言書寫系統 [Aboriginal Language Writing System] (PDF) (in Chinese), 1994, archived from the original(PDF) on 2006-12-31 – The alphabets of written Taiwanese aboriginal languages and the corresponding sounds in IPA
Lee, Amy Pei-jun 李佩容; Hsu, Lowking Wei-Cheng 許韋晟 (2018). Tàilǔgéyǔ yǔfǎ gàilùn 太魯閣語語法概論 [Introduction to Truku Grammar] (in Chinese). Xinbei Shi: Yuanzhuminzu weiyuanhui. ISBN978-986-05-5691-9 – via alilin.apc.gov.tw.
Sterk, Darryl (2020). "Ecologising Seediq: Towards an Ecology of an Endangered Indigenous Language from Taiwan". International Journal of Taiwan Studies. 4 (1): 54–71. doi:10.1163/24688800-20201153. S2CID219671559.
Yuánzhùmínzú yǔyán xiànshàng cídiǎn 原住民族語言線上詞典(in Chinese) – Seediq search page at the "Aboriginal language online dictionary" website of the Indigenous Languages Research and Development Foundation
Yuánzhùmínzú yǔyán xiànshàng cídiǎn 原住民族語言線上詞典(in Chinese) – Truku search page at the "Aboriginal language online dictionary" website of the Indigenous Languages Research and Development Foundation