Kavalan language

Kavalan (also known as Kvalan, Kebalan or Kbalan) was formerly spoken in the Northeast coast area of Taiwan by the Kavalan people (噶瑪蘭). It is an East Formosan language of the Austronesian family.

Kavalan
kbaran, kebalan (Kavalan)
Pronunciation	[kɨβaɾán]
Native to	Taiwan
Ethnicity	Kavalan
Native speakers	70 (2015)
Language family	Austronesian East Formosan Kavalanic Kavalan
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ckv
Glottolog	kava1241
ELP	Kavalan
(dark green, north) The Kavalanic languages: Basai, Ketagalan, and Kavalan

Kavalan is no longer spoken in its original area. As of 1930, it was used only as a home language. As of 1987, it was still spoken in Atayal territories. In 2000, this language was still reported to be spoken by 24 speakers but considered moribund.

In 2017, a study using the EDGE metric from species conservation found that Kavalan, although critically endangered, was among the most lexically distinct of Austronesian languages.

Dialects

Kavalan consists of the following speech communities ordered from north to south:

• Kariawan (Jialiwan 加禮宛) – near Hualien, a formerly Sakizaya-speaking area
• Patʀungan (Xinshe 新社) – located in Fungpin (豐濱鄉), Hualien
• Kulis (Lide 立德)
• Kralut (Zhangyuan 樟原)

These speech communities in eastern Taiwan were named after older settlements from the north, such as Kariawan, Sahut, and Tamayan, where the Kavalan people originally migrated from. Modern-day Kavalan speakers are surrounded by the Amis.

Tsuchida (1985) notes that word lists collected from Lamkham 南崁 (Nankan) and Poting 埔頂 (Buding) are closest to Kavalan, while Li (2001) counts them as 'Basaic' languages.

Many Kavalan can also speak Amis, Taiwanese, Mandarin, and Japanese.

Phonology

There are 15 consonants and 4 vowels in Kavalan.

Consonants

		Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular
Nasal		m	n			ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t			k	q
	voiced	b
Fricative	voiceless		s
	voiced		z	ɮ [ɮ ~ d]			ʁ
Approximant				l [l ~ ɫ ~ ɾ]	j	w

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid		ə
Open	a

In Kavalan, Proto-Austronesian phonemes have merged as follows:

• *n, *N, *j, *ɲ as n
• *t, *T, *c as t
• *d, *D, *Z as z
• *s, *S as s
• *q, *ʔ, *H are deleted

The following Proto-Austronesian phonemes are split:

• *k into q and k
• *l into r and ʁ (written as R)
• *a into i (if adjacent to q) and a

The Kavalan language is also notable for having a large inventory of consonant clusters. It is also one of the only two Formosan languages that has geminate consonants, with the other one being Basay. Consonant gemination is also common in the northern Philippine languages, but is non-existent in the Central Philippine languages except for Rinconada Bikol.

Grammar

Morphology

Kavalan nouns and verbs are distinguished by the lack of /a/ in the first syllable (nouns) or presence of /a/ (verbs). Kavalan syllables take on the structure (C)(C)V(C)(C). Kavalan is also one of two Formosan languages to have geminating consonants.

Kavalan affixes include:

• m- (agent focus)
• -um-/-m- (agent focus)
• -in/-n- as variants of ni- (patient)
• -a (irrealis patient-focus marker)
• -an (locative-focus marker, nominalizer)
• -i (imperative, patient focus)
• pa- (causative)
• qa- (future)

Unlike many other Formosan languages, there is no *-en suffix.

Syntax

Kavalan, like most other Formosan and Philippine languages, has many case markers.

• Nominative: a/ya
• Oblique: ta, tu
• Genitive: na, ni
• Locative: sa, ta- -an

Types of focus in Kavalan include:

1. Agent
2. Patient
3. Locative
4. Instrumental
5. Beneficiary

The Kavalan case markers below are from Li & Tsuchida (2006:27).

Kavalan Case Markers

Case	Nominative	Oblique	Genitive	Locative
Common	a, ya	tu	na	sa, ta- -an
Personal	a, ya	ta	ni	–

Pronouns

The Kavalan Personal pronouns below are from Li & Tsuchida (2006:30).

Kavalan Personal Pronouns

			Nominative	Genitive	Oblique	Locative
1st person	singular		aiku, =iku	zaku, -ku	timaiku	tamaikuan
	plural	excl.	aimi, =imi	zanyaq, -nyaq	timaimi	tamaimian
		incl.	aita, =ita	zata, -ta, -kita	timaita	tamaitan
2nd person	singular		aisu, =isu	zasu, -su	timaisuanzen	tamaisuan
	plural		aimu, =imu	zanumi, -numi	timaimu	tamaimuan
3rd person	singular		aizipna tiyau	zana, -na	timaizipna tiyau	tamaizipan tiyauan
	plural		qaniyau	zana, -na	qaniyau	taqaniyauan

Affixes

The Kavalan affixes below are from Li & Tsuchida (2006:14–24).

Prefixes

• i-: stative, having to do with location
• kar-: rapid motion; defective, not perfect
• ki-, qi-: pluck, pick
• kin-: number of humans
• lu-: flat
• luq(e)-: bumpy, rough (used with stative verbs)
• m-, -m-, mu-, -u-, -um-: agent-focus
• ma-, m-: stative
• maq-: where from
• mar-: sine kind of shape
• mi-: discharge something from the body
• mri-: settle down; to shrink, huddle up
• mrim-: a division of (a numeral)
• nan-: two people (kinship); distributive numeral
• ni-, n-, -in-, -n-: past, perfective
• pa-: causative (used with active verbs)
• pa- -an: agentive
• pa-ti: personal marker for the dead
• paq-, paqa-: causative (used with stative verbs)
• paq-: get on (a boat)
• pa-qi-: cause to become
• pat-: make a change
• pi-: put into, put away; do something to protect a body part; every (time)
• qa-: immediate future; ride, take (means of transportation)
• qa- -an: place of/for
• qaRu-: become, transform into; transformable into
• qi-: pick, gather, get
• qna-: nominaizer (used with stative verbs; -an is used with active verbs)
• Ra-: to transform into
• Ra-CV-: light color of
• Ri-: catch, get
• Ru-: just now; for the first time
• sa-: have the event (natural phenomena); do, make, produce, have; secrete (body fluid); tool
• sam-CV-: pretend
• saqa-: ordinal (numeral)
• si-: wear, own, possess
• sia-: go towards (place/direction); go to the side (often euphemistic for urinating/defecating)
• sim-: reciprocal
• siqa-: (number of) times
• smu-: finger
• sna-: model of, copy of
• su-: remove; move downwards, upside down, slanting
• su-CV-: stink or smell of
• tan-: speak the language
• taRi-: position, people in such a position
• ti-: instrumental-focus; to take each other (?)
• ti- (-an): beneficiary-focus
• tRi-CV(C)- (-an): discharge (body discharge) with control
• u-: agent-focus; non-human numeral

Suffixes

• -a: irrealis patient-focus marker
• -an: locative-focus marker, nominalizer
• -i: irrealis non-agent-focus imperative

Infixes

• -m-, -um-: agent-focus
• -n-, -in-, ni-: perfective

References

General references

• Li, Paul Jen-kuei 李壬癸; Tsuchida, Shigeru 土田滋 (2006). Kavalan Dictionary (PDF). Language and Linguistics Monograph Series A-19. Taipei, Taiwan: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica. ISBN 978-986-00-6993-8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-07-16.
• Blust, Robert (2009). The Austronesian Languages. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-85883-602-0. ISBN 978-0-85883-602-0
• Chang, Yungli 張永利 (2000). Gámălányŭ cānkăo yŭfă 噶瑪蘭語參考語法 [A Reference Grammar of Kavalan] (in Chinese). Taibei Shi: Yuanliu chuban shiye yuxian gongsi. ISBN 957-32-3898-5.
• Hsieh, Fuhui 謝富惠 (2018). Gámǎlányǔ yǔfǎ gàilùn 噶瑪蘭語語法概論 [Introduction to Kavalan Grammar] (in Chinese). Xinbei Shi: Yuanzhuminzu weiyuanhui. ISBN 978-986-05-5692-6. Archived from the original on 2022-02-28. Retrieved 2021-07-06 – via alilin.apc.gov.tw.

External links

• Taiwan government publications: Kavalan dictionary (in Chinese)
• The Academy in Taipei press release: Kavalan dictionary published (in Chinese)
• Yuánzhùmínzú yǔyán xiànshàng cídiǎn 原住民族語言線上詞典 (in Chinese) – Kavalan search page at the "Aboriginal language online dictionary" website of the Foundation for the Research and Development of Indigenous Languages
• Kavalan teaching and leaning materials published by the Council of Indigenous Peoples of Taiwan Archived 2022-02-28 at the Wayback Machine (in Chinese)
• Kavalan translation of President Tsai Ing-wen's 2016 apology to indigenous people – published on the website of the presidential office