Basay language

Basay
Native to	Taiwan
Ethnicity	Basay, Qauqaut
Extinct	mid-20th century
Language family	Austronesian East Formosan Kavalanic Ketagalan Basay
Dialects	Basay proper Trobiawan Linaw–Qauqaut
Language codes
ISO 639-3	byq
Glottolog	basa1287
(dark green, north) The Kavalanic languages: Basai, Ketagalan, and Kavalan

Basay was a Formosan language spoken around modern-day Taipei in northern Taiwan by the Basay, Qauqaut, and Trobiawan peoples. Trobiawan, Linaw, and Qauqaut were other dialects (see East Formosan languages).

Basay data is mostly available from Erin Asai's 1936 field notes, which were collected from an elderly Basay speaker in Shinshe, Taipei, as well as another one in Yilan who spoken the Trobiawan dialect (Li 1999). However, the Shinshe informant's speech was heavily influenced by Taiwanese, and the Trobiawan informant, named Ipai, had heavy Kavalan influence in her speech.

Syntax

There are four optional case markers in Basay (Li 1999:646).

• a - nominative, ligature (Shinshe dialect)
• ta - nominative (Trobiawan dialect)
• li - locative (Shinshe dialect)
• u - oblique (Trobiawan dialect)

Some function words include (Li 1999):

• pai 'future'

Trobiawan negators include (Li 1999):

• mia 'not' (Shinshe dialect: mayu 'not (yet)')
• asi 'don't' (Shinshe dialect: manai 'don't')
• (m)upa 'not to want'
• (Shinshe dialect: kualau 'not exist')

Yes-no questions are marked by u ~ nu (Li 1999:657).

Morphology

Basay verbs, like Kavalan verbs, distinguish between agent-focus (AF) and patient-focus (PF) verbs (Li 1999:650). The perfective prefixes na- and ni- are allomorphs.

Basay Focus System

Type of prefix	Neutral	Perfective	Future
Agentive focus (AF)	-um-, m-	na-mi-	-um- ... -a, m- ... -a
Patient focus (PF)	-	ni-	-au
Locative focus (LF)	-an	ni- ... -an	-ai

Pronouns

The Basay pronouns below are from Li (1999:639).

Basay Personal Pronouns

Type of Pronoun	Neutral	Nominative	Genitive	Oblique
1s.	yaku	kaku, -ku	maku-, -aku; naku, -ak	yakuan, kuan, kuanan
2s.	isu	kisu, -su	misu, -isu; nisu, -su ~ -is	isuan, suan, isuanan, suanan
3s.	-	-ia	-	-
1p. (incl.)	mita	kita, -ita	mita, -ita; nita, -ta	...., ...., tianan
1p. (excl.)	yami	-mi	yami, -ami; nami, -am	yamian, mian, mianan
2p.	imu	kimu, -mu	-imu; nimu, -im	imuan, ...., imuanan
3p.	-	-ia	-	-

References

General references

• Li, Paul Jen-kuei (1999). Some problems in the Basay language. In Zeitoun, E., & Li, P. J-K., Selected Papers From the 8th International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics. Taipei, Taiwan: Academica Sinica.
• Inō Kanori [伊能嘉矩] & Yang Nanjun [楊南郡] (trans). 2012. Research trips among the Plains Aborigines: Selections from Inō Kanori's Taiwan diaries [平埔族調查旅行: 伊能嘉矩<台灣通信>選集]. Taipei: Yuanliu Press [遠流出版公司]. ISBN 9789573268932

External links

• The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: From Bioinformatics to Lexomics
• ABVD: Basai/Laurent Sagart
• ABVD: Basay/Paul Jen-kuei Li(李壬癸)