Puyuma language


The Puyuma language, or Pinuyumayan, is the language of the Puyuma, an indigenous people of Taiwan. It is a divergent Formosan language of the Austronesian family. Most speakers are older adults.
Puyuma is one of the more divergent of the Austronesian languages and falls outside reconstructions of Proto-Austronesian.

Dialects

The internal classification of Puyuma dialects below is from. Nanwang is usually shown to be the relatively phonologically conservative dialect but grammatically innovative, as it preserves proto-Puyuma voiced plosives but syncretize the use of both oblique and genetive case.
Puyuma-speaking villages are:
;Puyuma cluster
;Katipul cluster
Puyuma has 18 consonants and 4 vowels:
FrontCentralBack
Closeiu
Midə
Opena

Grammar

Morphology

Puyuma verbs have four types of focus:
  1. Actor focus: Ø, -em-, -en-, me-, meʔ-, ma-
  2. Object focus: -aw
  3. Referent focus: -ay
  4. Instrumental focus: -anay
There are three verbal aspects:
  1. Perfect
  2. Imperfect
  3. Future
There are two modes:
  1. Imperative
  2. Hortative future
Affixes include:
Puyuma has a verb-initial word order.
Articles include:
The Puyuma personal pronouns are:
Type of
Pronoun		NominativeOblique:
Direct		Oblique:
Indirect		Oblique:
Non-Subject		Neutral
1s.nankukanku, kanankudraku, dranankukankukuiku
2s.nanukanu, kananudranu, drananukanuyuyu
3s.nantukantu, kanantudratu, dranantukantawtaytaw
1p. nantakanta, kanantadrata, dranantakantataita
1p. naniamkaniam, kananiamdraniam, drananiamkaniammimi
2p.nanemukanemu, kananemudranemu, drananemukanemumuimu
3p.nantukantu, kanantudratu, dranantukantaw–

Type of
Pronoun		Nominative
Nominative
Genitive
1s.=kuku=ku=
2s.=yunu=nu=
3s.–tu=tu=
1p. =tata=ta=
1p. =miniam=mi=
2p.=mumu=mu=
3p.–tu=tu=

Affixes

The Puyuma affixes are:
;Prefixes
;Suffixes
;Infixes
;Circumfixes