Basay language

Basay was a Formosan language spoken around modern-day Taipei in northern Taiwan by the Basay, Qauqaut, and Trobiawan peoples. Trobiawan, Linaw, and Qauqaut were other dialects (see East Formosan languages).

Basay data is mostly available from Erin Asai's 1936 field notes, which were collected from an elderly Basay speaker in Shinshe, Taipei, as well as another one in Yilan who spoken the Trobiawan dialect (Li 1999). However, the Shinshe informant's speech was heavily influenced by Taiwanese, and the Trobiawan informant, named Ipai, had heavy Kavalan influence in her speech.

Syntax

There are four optional case markers in Basay (Li 1999:646).

• a - nominative, ligature (Shinshe dialect)
• ta - nominative (Trobiawan dialect)
• li - locative (Shinshe dialect)
• u - oblique (Trobiawan dialect)

Some function words include (Li 1999):

• pai 'future'

Trobiawan negators include (Li 1999):

• mia 'not' (Shinshe dialect: mayu 'not (yet)')
• asi 'don't' (Shinshe dialect: manai 'don't')
• (m)upa 'not to want'
• (Shinshe dialect: kualau 'not exist')

Yes-no questions are marked by u ~ nu (Li 1999:657).

Morphology

Basay verbs, like Kavalan verbs, distinguish between agent-focus (AF) and patient-focus (PF) verbs (Li 1999:650). The perfective prefixes na- and ni- are allomorphs.

Pronouns

The Basay pronouns below are from Li (1999:639).

References

Notes

General references

• Li, Paul Jen-kuei (1999). Some problems in the Basay language. In Zeitoun, E., & Li, P. J-K., Selected Papers From the 8th International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics. Taipei, Taiwan: Academica Sinica.
• Inō Kanori [伊能嘉矩] & Yang Nanjun [楊南郡] (trans). 2012. Research trips among the Plains Aborigines: Selections from Inō Kanori's Taiwan diaries [平埔族調查旅行: 伊能嘉矩<台灣通信>選集]. Taipei: Yuanliu Press [遠流出版公司]. ISBN 9789573268932

External links

Languages of Taiwan
Austronesian	Formosan Atayalic Atayal Seediq Truku Kankei Rukaic Rukai Northern Formosan Luilang Kulon Saisiyat Pazeh Kaxabu Thao Hoanya Papora Babuza Favorlang Taokas East Formosan Basay Ketagalan Kavalan Qauqaut Sakizaya Amis Siraya Taivuan Makatto Southern Formosan Bunun Puyuma Paiwan Tsouic Tsou Kanakanabu Saaroa Malayo-Polynesian Yami
Sino-Tibetan	Mandarin Taiwanese Mandarin Min Southern Min Taiwanese Hokkien Teochew dialect Eastern Min Fuzhou dialect Matsu dialect Pu-Xian Min Putian dialect Hakka Taiwanese Hakka Sixian dialect Hailu dialect Dabu dialect Raoping dialect Zhao'an dialect
Auxiliary	Taiwanese Sign Language Taiwanese Braille
Other languages	English Filipino Japanese Indonesian Malay Thai Vietnamese

Formosan languages
Rukaic	Rukai
Tsouic	Tsou Kanakanabu Saaroa
Northern Formosan	Atayalic Atayal Seediq Northwest Formosan Saisiyat Pazeh † Kulon † Thao Babuza † Favorlang †
East Formosan	Ketagalan † Basay † Kavalan Amis Siraya †
Southern	Puyuma Paiwan Bunun
Bold indicates languages with more than 1 million speakers ? indicates classification dispute † indicates extinct status