Yami language

Yami language, also known as Tao language , is a Malayo-Polynesian and Philippine language spoken by the Tao people of Orchid Island, 46 kilometers southeast of Taiwan. It is a member of the Ivatan dialect continuum.

Yami is known as ciriciring no Tao 'human speech' by its native speakers. Native speakers prefer the 'Tao' name.

Classification
Yami is the only native language of Taiwanese indigenous peoples that is not a member of the Formosan grouping of Austronesian; it is one of the Batanic languages also found in Batanes province of northern Philippines, and as such is part of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of Austronesian.

Phonology
Yami has 20 consonants and 4 vowels:

Vowels

 * can be heard as after labial stop consonants.

Iraralay Yami, spoken on the north coast, distinguishes between geminative consonants (e.g., opa 'thigh' vs. oppa 'hen' form one such minimal pair).

Consonants

 * can also be heard as sounds when between vowel  intervocalically.
 * Sounds can be heard as sounds  before.

Pronouns
The following set of pronouns is found in the Yami language.

Verbs
The following list are verbal inflections found in Yami.


 * Dynamic intransitive
 * -om-/om- (subjunctive: N-)
 * mi-
 * ma-
 * maN-
 * maka-
 * maci-/masi-/macika-/macipa-


 * Stative
 * ma- (subjunctive: a-)
 * ka- ... -an (subjunctive: ka- ... -i)


 * Dynamic
 * pi-
 * pa-
 * paN- (subjunctive: maN-)
 * paka- (subjunctive: maka-)
 * paci- (subjunctive: maci-)


 * Transitive
 * -en (subjunctive: -a)
 * -an (subjunctive: -i)
 * i- (subjunctive: -an)


 * Stative functioning as transitive
 * ma- (subjunctive: a- ... -a)
 * ka- ... -an (subjunctive: a- ... -a)

Affixes
The following is a list of affixes found in Yami.


 * icia- 'fellows such and such who share the same features or fate'
 * ikeyka- 'even more so'
 * ika- 'feel such and such because...'
 * ika- 'ordinal number'
 * ipi- 'multiple number'
 * ji a- 'negation or emphatic'
 * ka- 'company, as ... as, abstract noun'
 * ka- 'and then, just now, only'
 * ka- 'stative verb prefix reappearing in forming transitive verbs'
 * ka- (reduplicated root) 'very'
 * ka- (reduplicated root) 'animals named after certain features'
 * ka- ... -an 'common noun'
 * ma- ... -en 'love to do such and such'
 * mapaka- 'pretend to be such and such'
 * mapi- 'do such and such as an occupation'
 * mi-/mala- 'kinship relationships in a group of two or three'
 * mika-/mapika-/ipika- 'all, gradually, one by one'
 * mala- 'taste or look like...'
 * mipa- 'getting more and more...'
 * mipipa- 'even more...'
 * mapi-/mapa-/pa- ... -en/ipa- 'causative verb affixes'
 * ni- 'perfective'
 * ni- ... na 'superlative'
 * noka- 'past'
 * noma- 'future (remote)'
 * sicia- 'present'
 * sima- 'future (proximal)'
 * tey- 'direction'
 * tey- 'very, too'
 * tey- (reduplicated root) 'amount allocated to each unit