User:Ijcima/saisiyat language

Saisiyat (sometimes spelled Saisiat) is the language of the Saisiyat, a Taiwanese indigenous people. It is a Formosan language of the Austronesian family. It has approximately 4,750 speakers.

The Saisiyat language is an Austronesian Formosan language that is spoken in Northeast Taiwan. The Saisiyat language is a highly endangered Formosan language.The Saisiyat tribe is mainly located in the mountains of Taiwan. They live between 500 to 1,500 meters in altitude with a total population of around 6,000 people. The language is divided into two dialects, north (Taai) and South (Tungho). The Saisiyat are very much involved in language preservation, but there is a language gap between people over 80 due to them having their own ways of speaking and intonations compared to populations that are under 80 years of age. The language has 3,000 Native Speakers worldwide. The Saisiyat culture is one of Taiwan’s most endangered indigenous cultures. A big reason as to why the language is endangered is due to the lack of speakers within the younger generation. Rather than these children using their tribal language to speak, they will speak in Mandarin.

Distribution
The language area of Saisiyat is small, situated in the northwest of the country between the Hakka Chinese and Atayal regions in the mountains (Wufeng, Hsinchu; Nanchuang and Shitan, Miaoli). There are two main dialects: Ta'ai (North Saisiyat) and Tungho (South Saisiyat). Ta'ai is spoken in Hsinchu and Tungho is spoken in Miao-Li. Kulon, an extinct Formosan language, is closely related to Saisiyat but is considered by Taiwanese linguist Paul Jen-kuei Li to be a separate language.

Usage
Today, one thousand Saisiyat people do not use the Saisiyat language. Many young people use Hakka or Atayal instead, and few children speak Saisiyat. Hakka Chinese speakers, Atayal speakers and Saisiyat speakers live more or less together. Many Saisiyat are able to speak Saisiyat, Hakka, Atayal, Mandarin, and, sometimes, Min Nan as well. Although Saisiyat has a relatively large number of speakers, the language is endangered.

Orthography

 * a - [ä]
 * ae - [æ]
 * b - [β]
 * e - [ə]
 * ng - [ŋ]
 * oe - [œ]
 * s - [s/θ]
 * S - [ʃ]
 * y - [j]
 * z - [z/ð]
 * ' - [ʔ]


 * aa/aː - [aː]
 * ee/eː - [əː]
 * ii/iː - [iː]

Consonants
Orthographic notes:
 * is a retroflex lateral approximant, while is a palato-alveolar fricative.

Syntax
Although it also allows for verb-initial constructions, Saisiyat is a strongly subject-initial language (i.e., SVO), and is shifting to an accusative language, while it still has many features of split ergativity (Hsieh & Huang 2006:91). Pazeh and Thao, also Northern Formosan languages, are the only other Formosan languages that allow for SVO constructions. Saisiyat's case-marking system distinguishes between personal and common nouns (Hsieh & Huang 2006:93).

Pronouns
Saisiyat has an elaborate pronominal system (Hsieh & Huang 2006:93).

Verbs
The following are verbal prefixes in Saisiyat (Hsieh & Huang 2006:93). Saisiyat verbs can be nominalized in the following ways.