Tsou language

Tsou
Spoken in	Taiwan
Region	Alishan
Ethnicity	Tsou people
Native speakers	3000 (as of 1994)  (date missing)
Language family	Austronesian Tsou
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tsu
(yellow) Tsou

Tsou is a divergent Austronesian language spoken by the Tsou people of Taiwan.

Classification

Tsou has traditionally been considered part of a Tsouic branch of Austronesian. However, several recent classifications, such as Chang (2006) and Ross (2009) dispute the Tsouic branch, with Tsou more divergent than the other two languages, Kanakanabu and Saaroa.

Dialects

The dialectal variation of Tsou is not great. There are four recorded dialects, Tapangu, Tfuea, Duhtu, and Iimcu, of which Tapangu and Tfuea are still spoken. Iimcu is not well described. The grammar of the other three dialects is nearly identical, and phonological variation is marginal: In certain environments, Tapangu /i/ corresponds to Tfuea and Duhtu /z/ or /iz/, and Duhtu had /r/ for Tfuea and Tapangu /j/. (Actually, older speakers were recorded to vary between [r] and [j], but at that point the dialect was moribund.)

The Tsou language is spoken in the following villages (Li 1979, Zeitoun 2005). All of the villages are located in Alishan Township 阿里山鄉, Chiayi County 嘉義縣 except for Mamahavana 久美 (Jiumei), which is located in Hsinyi/Xinyi Township 信義鄉, Nantou County 南投縣. Both the native Tsou names and Chinese names are given.

Tapangu (Tapaŋʉ)

• Tapangu 達邦 (Dabang)
• Nia'ucna/Nibiei 里佳 (Lijia)
• Saviki 山美 (Shanmei)
• Sinvi 新美 (Xinmei)

Tfuea (Tfuya)

• Cayamavana 茶山 (Chashan)
• Dadauya 樂野 (Leye)
• Ranguu/Punguu/Dadangia 來吉 (Laiji)

Duhtu (Luhtu)

• Mamahavana 久美 (Jiumei)

Iimucu - extinct

Phonology

The description of Tsou phonology below is from Wright & Ladefoged (1994).

Vowels

Tsou has six vowels, /i ɨ u e o ɑ/. Vowel sequences occur, including sequences of like vowels (/ii/ etc.), but these are separate moras rather than long vowels or diphthongs. Vowels, especially back vowels, are centralized when flanked by voiceless alveolar consonants (/t, ts, s/). This may involve a central offglide, so that /o/ is pronounced as a diphthong [öə̯] or [ɵə̯] in this environment.

Consonants

	labial	alveolar	velar	glottal
nasal	m	n	ŋ
plosive	p	t	k	ʔ
implosive	ɓ	ɗ~ˀl
affricate		ts~tʃ
fricative	f v	s~ʃ z~ʒ	h
approximant	w	ɹ~j

The approximants /w/ and /j/ may surface as non-syllabic mid vowels [e̯] and [o̯], even (for /j/) in initial position (/jo~joskɨ/ [e̯oˈe̯oskɨ] "fishes"; /w/ does not occur in initial position), explaining the spelling Tfuea (/tfuja/) for the name of the dialect. However, stress assignment ([ˈtfue̯a]) and restrictions on consonant clusters (see stress and phonotactics below) demonstrate that they behave as consonants.

The plosives are not aspirated. Phonetically aspirated stops are actually sequences of stop plus /h/, as can be seen by the fact that they cannot cluster with a third consonant (see phonotactics below), and by morphological alternations such as /phini/ ~ /mhini/ "to trade".

According to spectrum analysis, /h/ appears to be a glottal fricative in most environments, but approaches a velar [x] next to the central vowel /ɨ/, as in /tsaphɨ/ 'palm, sole'. However, the fact that the sequences /hʔ/ and /ʔh/ occur, when no other homorganic sequence is allowed, suggests that /h/ and /ʔ/ may not both be glottal. (Additional evidence that /h/ might best be analyzed as velar is the fact that */kh/ is not found, and that /hk/ is only found medially, in the single known word /kuhku/ "fox".)

The voiceless sibilants, /ts/ and /s/, are palatalized to [tʃ] and [ʃ] before the front vowels /i/ and /e/. However, the voiced sibilant /z/ is not affected by this environment.

The implosives /ɓ/ and /ɗ/ are uncommon. Both may be glottalized ([ʔɓ], [ʔɗ] or maybe [ʔb], [ʔd]) in intervocalic position. In addition, alveolar /ɗ/ has some unusual allophony: About a third of speakers pronounce it with a lateral release, or before /a/ as a lateral approximant [l], as in /ɗauja/ [lauja] "maple". Indeed, Tsuchida (1976) transcribed it as a preglottalized lateral, [ˀl].

Stress

With a few exceptions, stress is not only predictable, but shifts when suffixes are added to a word. It falls on the penultimate vowel, or on the penultimate mora if a moraic analysis is adopted. That is, a final heavy syllable (double vowel) receives stress ([eˈmoo] "house"); otherwise, stress falls on the penultimate syllable ([oˈkosi] "his child"). Additional stress falls in a trochaic pattern: Every other light syllable (single vowel) also receives stress. Unstressed vowels are deleted, except at word boundaries (initial or final vowel) and unless doing so would create a forbidden consonant cluster (see below).

For example, the verb //seʔe-nətəh-a// "to cut with a bolo" takes stress on the syllables //tə// and //ʔe//, and is realized as [sʔenˈtəha]. However, this does not explain all consonant clusters, many of which are lexically determined.

Phonotactics

The most complex syllable in Tsou is CCVV. Tsou is unusual in the number of consonant clusters that it allows. Homorganic clusters are not allowed, unless one is a nasal consonant, and a maximum of two consonants may occur together, but otherwise about half of possible sequences are known to occur. For example, all non-homorganic sequences starting with /t/ and /ts/ are found. Missing clusters may not be allowed, or may simply be accidental gaps due to limited knowledge of the lexicon.

Initial or medial	Medial only
/pt, pts, ps, pn, pk, pŋ, pʔ, ph/	/pz/
/ft, fts, fk, fŋ, fʔ/	/fn/
/vts, vh/	/vn, vʔ/
/ɓn/	/ɓk/
/mp, mf, mts, ms, mz, mn, mʔ, mh/	/mɓ, mt/
/tp, tf, tv, tm, tn, tk, tŋ, tʔ, th/	/tɓ/
/tsp, tsf, tsv, tsm, tsn, tsk, tsŋ, tsʔ, tsh/	/tsɓ/
/sp, sv, sɓ, sm, sn, sk, sŋ, sʔ/	—
—	/zʔ/
/nm, nt, ns/	/np, nv, nts, nz, nk, nʔ, nh/
/ks, kn/	/kts, kʔ/
/ŋv, ŋh/	/ŋm, ŋt, ŋts, ŋs, ŋz, ŋk/
/ʔp, ʔv, ʔm, ʔt, ʔts, ʔs/	/ʔf, ʔɗ, ʔn, ʔk, ʔh/
/hp, hv, hm, ht, hts, hn, hŋ/	/hs, hz, hk, hŋ/

In clusters of oral stops, both have a release burst. This is true even between vowels, an environment where the first stop is unreleased in most languages, supporting an analysis of these clusters as part of the syllable onset, with no syllable codas occurring in the language.

Stops, oral or nasal, may or may not have a release burst before a nasal stop, depending on the speaker. The initial clusters /hp, ht, hʔ/ are unusual cross-linguistically. The spectrum shows that the tongue moves towards an alveolar articulation during the /h/ of /ht/, demonstrating that it is not articulated as a velar. The initial clusters /pʔ/ and /tʔ/ are sometimes realized as two released stops, but sometimes with a single release, resembling ejective consonants in other languages. (/kʔ/ is again notably missing, except intervocalically, despite the fact that [kʼ] is the most common ejective cross-linguistically.)

Grammar

Syntax

Like most other Austronesian languages, Tsou displays a predicate-initial syntax.

Tsou has three main types of questions (Zeitoun 2005:282).

1. Yes-no questions
2. Alternative questions
3. Wh-questions (information questions)

Tsou has the following types of clauses:

1. Verbal
   1. Declarative
   2. Imperative
   3. (Verbal) interrogative
2. Equational
3. Existential (no auxiliary verbs are allowed)

Important function words are:

• zou - "to be"
• 'a - "it is in case that"
• o'ta - (it is) not (in case that)"
• pan - "there is" / existential
• uk'a - negative existential (usually followed by ci)
• o'a - negation of a fact or event
• ci - relativizer
• 'o - prohibition (AV constructions)
• av'a - prohibition (UV constructions)

Case markers are as follows, with nominative forms placed before slashes and oblique forms placed after them (Zeitoun 2005:274). The nominative form is given when there are no slashes.

• 'e - visible and near speaker
• si / ta - visible and near hearer
• ta - visible but away from speaker
• 'o / to - invisible and far away, or newly introduced to discourse
• na / no ~ ne - non-identifiable and non-referential (often when scanning a class of elements)

Word classes

Tsou nouns are distinguished from verbs by the presence of case markers and suffixed genitive pronouns, both of which cannot be applied to verbs (Zeitoun 2005:264). Verbs, on the other hand, have elaborate voice marking. Adjectives and certain adverbs actually function as verbs, since they also undergo voice inflection and are placed at the same positions within clauses as verbs (i.e., predicate-initial).

Tsou is unique for not having any preposition-like elements, instead using nouns or verbs to express these notions.

Verbs

Main verbs can take on three types of voices (Zeitoun 2005:284).

1. Patient voice: -a
2. Locative voice: -i
3. Instrumental/benefactive voice: -(n)eni

Tsou verbs can be divided into five major classes (I, II, III-1, III-2, IV, V-1, V-2) based on morphological alternations (Zeitoun 2005:285). Tsou verbs do not have as many morphological distinctions as other Formosan languages do, since the Tsou language makes more extensive use of auxiliary verbs. For instance, there are no temporal/aspectual distinctions, separate markings for imperatives, and stative/dynamic distinctions. Nevertheless, Tsou still preserves the causative poa- (allomorphs: p-, pa-).

Tsou auxiliary verbs can carry temporal/aspectual and modal information as well as voice. They are marked for the following voices:

1. Actor voice (AV)
2. Undergoer voice (UV)

These auxiliary verbs can be divided into three classes:

1. AV constructions - mio, mo, mi-, moso, mo(h)-
2. UV constructions - i-, o(h)-
3. AV/UV constructions - te, ta, tena, nte, ntoso, nto(h)-, la

Tsou has the following aspectual suffixes:

1. -cu/-c'u - already
2. -n'a - still, just, about to
3. -la - once

Pronouns

The personal pronouns below are from the Tfuya dialect of Tsou, and are sourced from Zeitoun (2005:265). Note that third-person pronouns are distinguished between those that are visible (abbreviated vis. below) or non-visible.

Tfuya Tsou Personal Pronouns

Type of Pronoun	Free (neutral)	Bound (nominative)	Bound (genitive)
1s.	a'o	-'o/-'u	-'o/-'u
2s.	suu	-su/-ko	-su/-ko
3s. (vis.)	taini	-ta	-taini
3s. (not vis.)	ic'o	-	-si
1p. (incl.)	a'ati	-to	-to
1p. (excl.)	a'ami	-mza	-mza
2p.	muu	-mu	-mu
3p. (vis.)	hin'i	-hin'i	-hin'i
3p. (not vis.)	hee	-	-he

Numerals

Tfuya Tsou numerals are (Zeitoun 2005:265):

1. coni ; 10. m-as-kʉ
2. yuso ; 20. m-pus-ku
3. tuyu ; 30. m-tuyu-hu
4. sʉptʉ ; 40. m-sʉptʉ-hʉ
5. eimo ; 50. m-eimo-hʉ
6. nomʉ ; 60. m-onmʉ-hʉ
7. pitu ; 70. m-pʉtvʉ-hʉ
8. voyu ; 80. m-voyvʉ-hʉ
9. sio ; 90. m-sio-hʉ

Tens are derived with the circumfix (confix) m- -hʉ. There is also a u/ʉ vowel harmony phenomenon.

See also

• Formosan languages
• Tsouic languages

References

• Richard Wright & Peter Ladefoged (1994). "A phonetic study of Tsou". In UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics 87: Fieldwork Studies of Targeted Languages II.
• Zeitoun, Elizabeth. 2005. "Tsou". In Adelaar, K. Alexander and Nikolaus Himmelmann, eds. 2005. The Austronesian languages of Asia and Madagascar. London: Routledge.

Further reading

• Dong Tonghe (董同龢). 1964. A descriptive study of the Tsou language, Formosa. Taipei, Taiwan: Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica.
• Tsuchida, S. (1976). Reconstruction of Proto-Tsouic phonology. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo Gaikokugo Daigaku.