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Article published In:
Concentric
Vol. 50:1 (2024) ► pp.57–88

Dialectal distinctions in Plngawan Atayal

Current state and history

| National Changhua University of Education
Plngawan Atayal can be subdivided into two varieties: Sami’uɹ and Macagis. This subdialectal distinction went mostly unnoticed in linguistic publications barring a short mention by Chen (2012). Despite living in the same village since 1938, elderly speakers of both varieties have retained a number of unique phonological features. These features not only allow us to distinguish contemporary varieties, but also let us identify data from older publications. An examination of works by Ferrell (1969) and Li (1981, 1985) has revealed a prevalence of Sami’uɹ data, with a small number of Macagis lexemes.
Keywords: Formosan, Atayal, dialectology, historical linguistics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Background information
      • 1.1.1Subgrouping hypotheses
      • 1.1.2Phonological structure
      • 1.1.3Sources of information
    • 1.2Historiography of Plngawan linguistic research
  • 2.Dialectal distinctions in Plngawan
    • 2.1Vowel epenthesis in Macagis
    • 2.2Cluster simplification in Macagis
    • 2.3Liquid assimilation in Macagis
    • 2.4A prefix in animal names
    • 2.5Merger of -ʔuɹ and -ɹuw in Macagis
    • 2.6Monophthongization in Sami’uɹ?
    • 2.7Debuccalization in Sami’uɹ
    • 2.8Merger of /awa/ and /uwa/ in Sami’uɹ
    • 2.9Final liquid merger in Sami’uɹ
    • 2.10Prepenultimate vowels
    • 2.11Sporadic segment differences
  • 3.Dialects in older linguistic works
    • 3.1 Ferrell (1969)
      • 3.1.1Merger of /awa/ and /uwa/
      • 3.1.2Debuccalization
      • 3.1.3Monophthongization
      • 3.1.4Syllable structure
      • 3.1.5Antepenultimate vowels
      • 3.1.6Vowels in the final foot
      • 3.1.7Law of liquids
      • 3.1.8Differences from modern speech
    • 3.2Li (1981, 1985)
      • 3.2.1Plngawan variants in Li’s (1981, 1985) publications
      • 3.2.2Li’s (1981, 1985) transcriptions
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • List of abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 21 May 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/consl.00034.god
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