The Atayal language is spoken by the Atayal people of Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

. Squliq and C’uli’ (or Ts’ole’, which includes the well-documented Mayrinax) are two major dialects. The Mayrinax and Paʔkualiʔ dialects of Atayal are unique for having separate male and female registers that have differing vocabulary.

Currently there is an Atayal-English dictionary by Søren Egerod as well as a several grammars (see References). In 2002, a Bible text was published. Atayal is written in the Latin alphabet

Latin alphabet

The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...

.

Orthography

The Atayal language is most commonly written in the Roman alphabet. There is one digraph

Digraph

Digraph may refer to:* Digraph , a pair of characters used together to represent a single sound, such as "sh" in English* Typographical ligature, the joining of two letters as a single glyph, such as "æ"...

, ng, representing the velar nasal /ŋ/, and an apostrophe (') is used to represent the glottal stop

Glottal stop

The glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. In English, the feature is represented, for example, by the hyphen in uh-oh! and by the apostrophe or [[ʻokina]] in Hawaii among those using a preservative pronunciation of...

.

The schwa

Schwa

In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa can mean the following:*An unstressed and toneless neutral vowel sound in some languages, often but not necessarily a mid-central vowel...

 /ə/ is normally omitted, often resulting in long strings consonants (e.g. pspngun /pəsəpəŋun/). With the exception of ng, when there are two consonants in a row, the existence of a schwa between them is implied. [Rau, D. V. (1992). "A Grammar of Atayal". Cornell University dissertation. pp. 22–23]

The pronunciations of certain letters differ from their IPA pronunciations. The letter b represents [β], c is [ts], g is [ɣ], y is [j], and z is [ʒ]. On the other hand, q represents the uvular stop [q] and x represents the velar fricative [x].

Phonology

Vowels

	Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also...	Central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel...	Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark...
High	i iː		u uː
Mid Mid vowel A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an open vowel and a close vowel...	e	ə	o
Low		a

Consonants

Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:...	Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...	Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate...	Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum)....	Uvular Uvular consonant Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be plosives, fricatives, nasal stops, trills, or approximants, though the IPA does not provide a separate symbol for the approximant, and...	Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider...
Stop Stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...		p	t		k	q	ʔ
Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :...			ts
Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or...	Voiceless		s		x		h
	Voiced	β			ɣ
Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...		m	n		ŋ
Lateral Lateral consonant A lateral is an el-like consonant, in which airstream proceeds along the sides of the tongue, but is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth....			l
Flap Flap consonant In phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of consonantal sound, which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator is thrown against another.-Contrast with stops and trills:...			ɾ
Trill Trill consonant In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr> as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular....			r
Semivowel Semivowel In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel is a sound, such as English or , that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.-Classification:...		w		j

Verbs

Mayrinax Atayal (a Cʔuliʔ dialect spoken in Chinshui Village, Taian Hsiang [Township], Miaoli County

Miaoli County

Miaoli County is a county in western Taiwan. The name Miaoli was coined using two Hakka words, cat and raccoon dog , which phonetically approximate Pali , a community of Taokas people...

) has 4 types of focus (Huang 2000b).

1. Agent focus (AF)
2. Patient focus (PF)
3. Locative focus (LF)
4. Instrumental/Beneficiary focus (IF/BF)

The following list of focus markers are used in Mayrinax Atayal.

• Agent focus (AF)
  • Realis: m-, -um- (more dynamic); ma-, ø (less dynamic / more stative)
  • Irrealis: m-, ma-, -um- ... -ay (projective/immediate); pa- (future)
• Patient focus (PF)
  • Realis: -un (neutral), ø (perfective)
  • Irrealis: -aw (projective/immediate); -un (future)
• Locative focus (LF)
  • Realis: -an
  • Irrealis: -ay (projective/immediate); -an (future)
• Instrumental/Beneficiary focus (IF/BF)
  • Realis: si-
  • Irrealis: -anay (projective/immediate); ø (future)

Aspect markers include:

• -in-: perfective
• pa-: irrealis (also serves as a causative marker)
• kiaʔ and haniʔan: progressive

Other verbal markers include:

• ka-: stative marker
• i-: locative marker
• ø- (null marker): agent-focus imperative

Dynamic and stative verbal prefixes run along a continuum. Here, they are listed from most dynamic to most stative.

1. m-, -um-
2. ma₁-, ø₁
3. ma-₂
4. ø₂

Case markers

Mayrinax Atayal has an elaborate case marking system. The Mayrinax case markers below are sourced from Huang (2002).

Mayrinax Atayal Case Markers

Case	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive/ Oblique	Comitative
Proper noun	ʔiʔ	ʔiʔ	niʔ	kiʔ
Common noun (referential)	kuʔ	ckuʔ	nkuʔ	-
Common noun (non-referential)	aʔ	cuʔ	naʔ	-

Wulai Atayal (a Squliq Atayal dialect spoken in Wulai District, New Taipei City) has a much simpler case-marking system (Huang 1995).

Wulai Atayal Case Markers

Case	Nominative	Instrumental	Genitive	Comitative	Locative
Markers	quʔ	naʔ	naʔ, nquʔ	kiʔ	te, squʔ, sa

Pronouns

The Mayrinax and Wulai Atayal personal pronouns below are sourced from Huang (1995). In both varieties, the nominative and genitive forms are bound while the neutral and locative ones are free (unbound).

Mayrinax Atayal Personal Pronouns

Type of Pronoun	Nominative	Genitive	Locative	Neutral
1s.	sakuʔ, kuʔ	makuʔ, mu, kuʔ	knan	kuzing, kun
2s.	suʔ	suʔ	sunan	isuʔ
3s.	-	nyaʔ	hiyan	hiyaʔ
1p. (incl.)	taʔ	taʔ	itan	itaʔ
1p. (excl.)	sami	myan	sminan	sami
2p.	simu	mamu	smunan	simu
3p.	-	nhaʔ	hgan	hgaʔ

Wulai Atayal Personal Pronouns

Type of Pronoun	Nominative	Genitive	Neutral
1s.	cu, ciʔ	mu, miʔ	kuing
2s.	suʔ, siʔ	suʔ	isuʔ
3s.	-	niaʔ	hiyaʔ
1p. (incl.)	taʔ, tiʔ	taʔ, tiʔ	itaʔ
1p. (excl.)	cami	niam	cami
2p.	cimu	mamu	cimu
3p.	-	nhaʔ	nhaʔ

Affixes

The following list of Mayrinax Atayal affixes is sourced from the Comparative Austronesian Dictionary (1995).

• Note: Some affixes are unglossed.

Verbal prefixes

• ma- 'stative'
• ma- 'active'
• man-
• mana-
• maɣ-
• ma-ša- 'reciprocal, mutual'
• ma-ši 'natural release or movement'
• pana-
• ma-ti-
• ʔi-
• pa- 'causative'
• ši- 'benefactive'
• ga- 'verbalizer'
• kan- + RED + N (body parts) 'body movement'
• ma-ka- 'mutual, reciprocal'
• maki- 'active verb'
• mat- 'to turn'
• mi-
• paš-
• ta- ... -an 'location'
• tiɣi- 'to release gas'
• tu- 'for some to...'

Verbal infixes

• -um- 'agent focus'
• -in- 'completive'

Verbal suffixes

• -an 'locative focus'
• -un 'object focus'
• -i 'imperative'
• -aw 'future or mild request'
• -ani 'polite request'

Nominal affixes

• -in- 'nominalizer'
• -in- ... -an 'nominalizer to indicate a completed action'

• Male affixes (i.e., male forms of speech in Mayrinax Atayal) include (Comparative Austronesian Dictionary): -niḳ, -iḳ, -ʔiŋ, -hiŋ, -iŋ, -tiŋ, -riʔ, -ḳiʔ, -niʔ, -nux, -ux, -hu, -u, -al, -liʔ, -kaʔ, -ha, -il, -in-, -il-, -i-, -a-, -na-.

External links

• Entry for Atayal at Rosetta Project
• Ci'uli Atayal Wordlist at the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database