Thao | |
---|---|
Thau a lalawa | |
Native to | Taiwan |
Ethnicity | 820 Thao (2020) [1] |
Native speakers | 4 (2021) [1] |
Dialects |
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
ssf |
Glottolog |
thao1240 |
ELP | Thao |
Thao ( /θaʊ/ thow; Thao: Thau a lalawa), also known as Sao, [2] is the nearly extinct language of the Thao people, [3] an indigenous people of Taiwan from the Sun Moon Lake region in central Taiwan. It is a Formosan language of the Austronesian family; [4] Barawbaw and Shtafari are dialects.[ citation needed]
The name Thao literally means "person", from Proto-Austronesian *Cau. It is therefore cognate with the name of the Tsou.
This section needs expansion. You can help by
adding to it. (September 2021) |
Speaking Thao was criminalised under Japanese rule of Taiwan and later the Kuomintang regime, contributing to its critically endangered status today. [5]
A Thao-English dictionary by Robert A. Blust was published in 2003 by Academia Sinica's Institute of Linguistics. [6]
In 2014, there were four L1 speakers and a fluent L2 speaker living in Ita Thaw (伊達邵) village (traditionally called Barawbaw), all but one of whom were over the age of sixty.[ citation needed] Two elderly native speakers died in December of that year, including chief Tarma (袁明智), age 75.[ citation needed] Four elderly L1 speakers and some semi-speakers were reported in 2021. [1]
Labial | Dental | Alveolar |
Post- Alveolar |
Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | p | b | t | d | k | q | ʔ | |||||||
Fricative | f | ( v) | θ | ð | s | ʃ | h | |||||||
Lateral Fricative | ɬ | |||||||||||||
Tap or Flap | ɾ | |||||||||||||
Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||||||||
Approximant | w | l | j |
Orthographic notes:
Notes:
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
High | i | u | |
High | ( e) | ( o) | |
Low | a |
Notes:
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).
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".
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."
Type of Pronoun |
Nominative | Accusative | Genitive | Agent | Patient |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1s. | yaku | yakin | nak [7] | ||
2s. | ihu | ihu-n | m-ihu [8] | uhu | uhu-n |
3s. | thithu | thithu-n | thithu [9] | ||
1p. (incl.) | ita | ita-n | m-ita | ||
1p. (excl.) | yamin | yamin | yamin | ||
2p. | maniun | maniun | maniun | ||
3p. | thaythuy | thaythuy | thaythuy |
Other pronouns include:
The following affixes are sourced from Blust (2003:92-188) and adjusted to the modern spelling.
Thao | |
---|---|
Thau a lalawa | |
Native to | Taiwan |
Ethnicity | 820 Thao (2020) [1] |
Native speakers | 4 (2021) [1] |
Dialects |
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
ssf |
Glottolog |
thao1240 |
ELP | Thao |
Thao ( /θaʊ/ thow; Thao: Thau a lalawa), also known as Sao, [2] is the nearly extinct language of the Thao people, [3] an indigenous people of Taiwan from the Sun Moon Lake region in central Taiwan. It is a Formosan language of the Austronesian family; [4] Barawbaw and Shtafari are dialects.[ citation needed]
The name Thao literally means "person", from Proto-Austronesian *Cau. It is therefore cognate with the name of the Tsou.
This section needs expansion. You can help by
adding to it. (September 2021) |
Speaking Thao was criminalised under Japanese rule of Taiwan and later the Kuomintang regime, contributing to its critically endangered status today. [5]
A Thao-English dictionary by Robert A. Blust was published in 2003 by Academia Sinica's Institute of Linguistics. [6]
In 2014, there were four L1 speakers and a fluent L2 speaker living in Ita Thaw (伊達邵) village (traditionally called Barawbaw), all but one of whom were over the age of sixty.[ citation needed] Two elderly native speakers died in December of that year, including chief Tarma (袁明智), age 75.[ citation needed] Four elderly L1 speakers and some semi-speakers were reported in 2021. [1]
Labial | Dental | Alveolar |
Post- Alveolar |
Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | p | b | t | d | k | q | ʔ | |||||||
Fricative | f | ( v) | θ | ð | s | ʃ | h | |||||||
Lateral Fricative | ɬ | |||||||||||||
Tap or Flap | ɾ | |||||||||||||
Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||||||||
Approximant | w | l | j |
Orthographic notes:
Notes:
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
High | i | u | |
High | ( e) | ( o) | |
Low | a |
Notes:
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).
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".
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."
Type of Pronoun |
Nominative | Accusative | Genitive | Agent | Patient |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1s. | yaku | yakin | nak [7] | ||
2s. | ihu | ihu-n | m-ihu [8] | uhu | uhu-n |
3s. | thithu | thithu-n | thithu [9] | ||
1p. (incl.) | ita | ita-n | m-ita | ||
1p. (excl.) | yamin | yamin | yamin | ||
2p. | maniun | maniun | maniun | ||
3p. | thaythuy | thaythuy | thaythuy |
Other pronouns include:
The following affixes are sourced from Blust (2003:92-188) and adjusted to the modern spelling.