(pink, northwest) Saisiyat, Pazeh and Kulon. Some Chinese-language sources designate the white area in the northwest as a Kulon area, as opposed to the small pink circle on this map.[2]
Pazeh (also spelled Pazih, Pazéh) and Kaxabu are dialects of an extinct language of the Pazeh and Kaxabu, neighboring Taiwanese indigenous peoples. The language was Formosan, of the Austronesian language family. The last remaining native speaker of the Pazeh dialect died in 2010.
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (September 2021)
Due to prejudice faced by the Pazeh, as well as other indigenous groups of Taiwan, Hoklo Taiwanese came to displace Pazeh.[3][4]
The last remaining native speaker of the Pazeh dialect, Pan Jin-yu,[5] died in 2010 at the age of 96.[6] Before her death, she offered Pazeh classes to about 200 regular students in Puli and a small number of students in Miaoli and Taichung.[3] However, there are still efforts in revival of the language after her death.
/t/ and /d/ do not actually share the same place of articulation; /d/isalveolar or prealveolar and /t/ (as well as /n/) is interdental. Other coronal consonants tend to be prealveolar or post-dental.
The distribution for the glottal stop is allophonic, appearing only between like vowels, before initial vowels, and after final vowels. It is also largely absent in normal speech
/z/ is actually an alveolar/prealveolar affricate[dz] and only occurs as a syllable onset.[9]
/h/ varies between glottal and pharyngeal realizations ([ħ]) and is sometimes difficult to distinguish from /x/
Although Pazeh contrasts voiced and voiceless obstruents, this contrast is neutralized in final position for labial and velar stops, where only /p/ and /k/ occur respectively (/d/ is also devoiced but a contrast is maintained). /l/ and /n/ are also neutralized to the latter.[10] Voiceless stops are unreleased in final position.
/a/ is somewhat advanced and raised when adjacent to /i/. Prevocally, high vowels are semivocalized. Most coronal consonants block this, although it still occurs after /s/. Semivowels also appear post-vocally.[13]
The most common morpheme structure is CVCVC where C is any consonant and V is any vowel. Consonant clusters are rare and consist only of a nasal plus a homorganic obstruent or the glide element of a diphthong.[10]
Intervocalic voiceless stops are voiced before a morpheme boundary (but not following one) .[14] Stress falls on the ultimate syllable.[10]
Like Bunun, Seediq, Squliq Atayal, Mantauran Rukai, and the Tsouic languages,[15] Pazeh does not distinguish between common nouns and personal names, whereas Saisiyat does (Li 2000). Although closely related to Saisiyat, the Pazeh language does not have the infix -um- that is present in Saisiyat.
Pazeh makes ready use of affixes, infixes, suffixes, and circumfixes, as well as reduplication.[16] Pazeh also has "focus-marking" in its verbal morphology. In addition, verbs can be either stative or dynamic.
There are four types of focus in Pazeh (Li 2000).
Agent-focus (AF): mu-, me-, mi-, m-, ma-, ∅-
Patient-focus (PF) -en, -un
Locative-focus (LF): -an
Referential-focus (RF): sa-, saa-, si-
The following affixes are used in Pazeh verbs (Li 2000).
Pazeh and Saisiyat are the only Formosan languages that do not have a bipartite numerical system consisting of both human and non-human numerals (Li 2006).[17] Pazeh is also the only language that forms the numerals 6 to 9 by addition (However, Saisiyat, which is closely related to Pazeh, expresses the number 7 as 6 + 1, and 9 as 10 − 1.)
1 = ida adang
2 = dusa
3 = turu
4 = supat
5 = xasep
6 = 5 + 1 = xaseb-uza
7 = 5 + 2 = xaseb-i-dusa
8 = 5 + 3 = xaseb-i-turu
9 = 5 + 4 = xaseb-i-supat
The number "five" in Pazeh, xasep, is similar to Saisiyat Laseb, Taokas hasap, Babuza nahup, and Hoanya hasip (Li 2006). Li (2006) believes that the similarity is more likely because of borrowing rather than common origin. Laurent Sagart considers these numerals to be ancient retentions from Proto-Austronesian, but Paul Jen-kuei Li considers them to be local innovations. Unlike Pazeh, these Plains indigenous languages as well as the Atayalic languages use 2 × 4 to express the number 8. (The Atayalic languages as well as Thao also use 2 × 3 to express the number 6.) Saisiyat, Thao, Taokas, and Babuza use 10 − 1 to express 9, whereas Saisiyat uses 5 + 1 to express 6 as Pazeh does.[18] The Ilongot language of the Philippines also derives numerals in the same manner as Pazeh does (Blust 2009:273).[19]
Furthermore, numerals can function as both nouns and verbs in all Formosan languages, including Pazeh.
^Li, Paul Jen-kuei. (1997).『A Syntactic Typology of Formosan Languages – Case Markers on Nouns and Pronouns.』In Li, Paul Jen-kuei. (2004). Selected Papers on Formosan Languages. Taipei, Taiwan: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica.
^Li, Jen-kuei 李壬癸 (2006b). "Táiwān nándǎo yǔyán de àomì" 台灣南島語言的奧秘(PDF). Zhōngyāng Yánjiùyuàn xuéshù zīxún zǒnghuì tōngxùn 中央研究院學術諮詢總會通訊 (in Chinese). 15 (1): 59–62. Archived from the original(PDF) on September 27, 2011.
Li, Paul Jen-kuei (2000). "Some Aspects of Pazeh Syntax". In De Guzman, V. P.; Bender, B. (eds.). Grammatical Analysis: Morphology, Syntax, and Semantics. Studies in Honour of Stanley Starosta. Oceanic Linguistics Special Publications No. 29. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press. pp. 89–108. JSTOR20000143.
Li, Paul Jen-kuei (2013). "The Last Text of the Last Pazih Speaker"(PDF). In Cao, Guangshun; Chappell, Hilary; Djamour, Redouane; Wiebusch, Thekla (eds.). Breaking Down the Barriers: Interdisciplinary Studies in Chinese Linguistics and Beyond. Language and Linguistics Monograph Series 50. Taipei: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica. pp. 1133–1147. ISBN978-986-03-7678-4.