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Plenary talk 3
Toward a reconstruction of Proto-Rukai morphosyntax
Elizabeth Zeitoun Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica
Rukai, spoken across southern Taiwan, forms a small communalect among the Formosan languages, both in terms of population and diffusion of the language. However, it differs from these by its overall complexity: it includes only six dialects (Tanan, Labuan, Budai, Maga, Tona and Mantauran) but their internal relationships have, to date, not been completely clarified and they have developed morphosyntactic features not found in other Formosan languages. These two observations have led to the following paradoxical conclusions: while Ferrell (1969) and Shelley (1979) questioned the validity of this linguistic group, Starosta (1995) proposed that Proto Rukai – because of the relative simplicity of its grammar, and in particular its lack of a focus system – should be regarded as the ancestor of all the Austronesian languages. My purpose in this paper is two-fold: first, reassess the linguistic unity of the Rukai dialects, based on phonological, lexical and morphosyntactic evidence; second, reconstruct the morphosyntax of Proto-Rukai – following the comparative method – by showing that Mantauran does neither subgroup with Tona and Maga nor does it represent the first offshoot of this group as earlier hypothesized (Li, 1977 and 1996) and by taking into account the linguistic influence of geographically adjacent languages (Saaroa, Bunun, Paiwan, Puyuma and Amis). Morphosyntactic reconstruction has never been attempted for any Formosan language, though a better grasp of the dialectal variation that these various linguistic groups display might be one of the key to reassess the classification of the Formosan languages and to reach a better understanding of the Proto-Austronesian grammar.
Selected referencesFerrell, Raleigh. 1969. Taiwan aboriginal groups: problem in cultural and linguistic classification. Taipei: Institute of Ethnology Monograph No. 17. Li, P. J.-K. 1977. The internal relationships of Rukai. Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, 48.1: 1-42. _____. 1996. The pronominal systems in Rukai. In Reconstruction, classification, description: Festschrift in honour of Professor Isidore Dyen, ed. by Bernd Nothofer, 209-230. Hamburg: Abera Verlag. Shelley, George. 1979. Wudai êukai, the language, the context and its relationships. Ph.D dissertation, Hartford University. Starosta, Stanley. 1995. A grammatical subgrouping of Formosan languages. In Li, Jen-kuei; Cheng-hwa Tsang; Ying-kuei Huang; Ho Dah-an; Chiu-yu Tseng (eds). Austronesian Studies Relating to Taiwan. Symposium Series of the Institute of History and Philology. 3. Taipei: Academia Sinica.
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