Puyuma language

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title: "Puyuma language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["formosan-languages", "languages-of-taiwan", "puyuma-people"] description: "Austronesian language spoken in Taiwan" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puyuma_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Austronesian language spoken in Taiwan ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]

Field	Value
name	Puyuma
altname	Pinuyumayan
states	Taiwan
ethnicity	Puyuma people
speakers	8,500
date	2002
ref	e18
familycolor	Austronesian
iso3	pyu
glotto	puyu1239
glottorefname	Puyuma
lingua	30-JAA-a
map	Formosan languages 2009.png
mapcaption	(red) Puyuma
map2	Lang Status 80-VU.svg
mapcaption2
::

|name=Puyuma |altname=Pinuyumayan |states=Taiwan |region= |ethnicity=Puyuma people |speakers=8,500 |date=2002 |ref=e18 |familycolor=Austronesian |iso3=pyu |glotto=puyu1239 |glottorefname=Puyuma |lingua=30-JAA-a |map=Formosan languages 2009.png |mapcaption=(red) Puyuma |map2=Lang Status 80-VU.svg |mapcaption2=

The Puyuma language or Pinuyumayan (), is the language of the Puyuma, an indigenous people of Taiwan. It is a language of the Austronesian family. Most speakers are older adults.

Puyuma is one of the more divergent of the Austronesian languages and falls outside reconstructions of Proto-Austronesian.

Dialects

The internal classification of Puyuma dialects below is from . Nanwang Puyuma is considered to be the relatively phonologically conservative but grammatically innovative, as in it preserves proto-Puyuma voiced plosives but syncretizes the use of both oblique and genitive case.

• Proto-Puyuma
  • Nanwang
  • (Main branch)
    • Pinaski–Ulivelivek
      • Pinaski
      • Ulivelivek
    • Rikavung
    • Kasavakan–Katipul
      • Kasavakan
      • Katipul

Puyuma-speaking villages are:

;Puyuma cluster ('born of the bamboo')

• Puyuma ()
• Apapulu ()

;Katipul cluster ('born of a stone')

• Alipai ()
• Pinaski (); 2 km north of Puyuma/Nanwang, and maintains close relations with it
• Pankiu ()
• Kasavakan ()
• Katratripul ()
• Likavung ()
• Tamalakaw ()
• Ulivelivek ()

Phonology

Puyuma has 18 consonants and 4 vowels:

::data[format=table title="Puyuma Consonants{{sfnp|Teng|2008|pp=11, 18}}"]

Bilabial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal	Nasal	Plosive	Voiceless	Voiced	Fricative	Trill	Approximant
::

::data[format=table title="Puyuma Vowels{{sfnp|Teng|2008|pp=11, 18}}"]

Front	Central	Back	Close	Mid	Open
::

Note that Teng uses for and for , unlike in official version. The official orthography is used in this article.

Grammar

Morphology

Puyuma verbs have four types of focus:

1. Actor focus: Ø (no mark), -em-, -en- (after labials), me-, meʔ-, ma-
2. Object focus: -aw
3. Referent focus: -ay
4. Instrumental focus: -anay

There are three verbal aspects:

1. Perfect
2. Imperfect
3. Future

There are two modes:

1. Imperative
2. Hortative future

Affixes include:

• Perfect: Ø (no mark)
• Imperfect: Reduplication; -a-
• Future: Reduplication, sometimes only -a-
• Hortative future: -a-
• Imperative mode: Ø (no mark)

::data[format=table title="Verb conjugation example for ''trakaw'' "to steal"{{sfnp|Teng|2008|p=112}}"]

Active	Patient	Locative	Causative	Realis	Unmarked	Progressive	Durative	Irrealis	Imperative	Hortative
tremakaw	''trakaw'''aw'''''	''trakaw'''ay'''''	''trakaw'''anay'''''
trematrakaw	tratrakawaw**	tratrakaway**	tratrakawanay**
trematratrakaw	tratratrakawaw**	tratratrakaway**	tratratrakawanay**
tratrakaw	tratrakawi**	tratrakawan**
trakaw	''trakaw'''i'''''	''trakaw'''u'''''	''trakaw'''an'''''
''tremakaw'''a'''''	—
::

Syntax

Puyuma has a verb-initial word order.

Articles include:

• i – singular personal
• a – singular non-personal
• na – plural (personal and non-personal)

Pronouns

The Puyuma personal pronouns are:

::data[format=table title="Puyuma Personal Pronouns (Free)"] | Type of Pronoun | Nominative | Oblique: Direct | Oblique: Indirect | Oblique: Non-Subject | Neutral | 1s. | 2s. | 3s. | 1p. (incl.) | 1p. (excl.) | 2p. | 3p. | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | nanku | kanku, kananku | draku, drananku | kanku | kuiku | | | | | | | | | | nanu | kanu, kananu | dranu, drananu | kanu | yuyu | | | | | | | | | | nantu | kantu, kanantu | dratu, dranantu | kantaw | taytaw | | | | | | | | | | nanta | kanta, kananta | drata, drananta | kanta | taita | | | | | | | | | | naniam | kaniam, kananiam | draniam, drananiam | kaniam | mimi | | | | | | | | | | nanemu | kanemu, kananemu | dranemu, drananemu | kanemu | muimu | | | | | | | | | | nantu | kantu, kanantu | dratu, dranantu | kantaw | – | | | | | | | | | ::

::data[format=table title="Puyuma Personal Pronouns (Bound)"] | Type of Pronoun | Nominative (Subject) | Nominative (Possessor of subject) | Genitive | 1s. | 2s. | 3s. | 1p. (incl.) | 1p. (excl.) | 2p. | 3p. | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | =ku | ku= | ku= | | | | | | | | | | =yu | nu= | nu= | | | | | | | | | | – | tu= | tu= | | | | | | | | | | =ta | ta= | ta= | | | | | | | | | | =mi | niam= | mi= | | | | | | | | | | =mu | mu= | mu= | | | | | | | | | | – | tu= | tu= | | | | | | | | | ::

Affixes

The Puyuma affixes are:

;Prefixes

• ika-: the shape of; forming; shaping
• ka-: stative marker
• kara-: collective, to do something together
• kare-: the number of times
• ki-: to get something
• kir-: to go against (voluntarily)
• kitu-: to become
• kur-: be exposed to; be together (passively)
• m-, ma-: actor voice affix/intransitive affix
• maka-: along; to face against
• mara-: comparative/superlative marker
• mar(e)-: reciprocal; plurality of relations
• mi-: to have; to use
• mu-: anticausative marker
• mutu-: to become, to transform into
• pa-/p-: causative marker
• pu-: put
• puka-: ordinal numeral marker
• piya-: to face a certain direction
• si-: to pretend to
• tara-: to use (an instrument), to speak (a language)
• tinu-: to simulate
• tua-: to make, to form
• u-: to go
• ya-: to belong to; nominalizer

;Suffixes

• -a: perfective marker; numeral classifier
• -an: nominalizer; collective/plural marker
• -anay: conveyance voice affix/transitive affix
• -aw: patient voice affix/transitive affix
• -ay: locative voice affix/transitive affix
• -i, -u: imperative transitive marker

;Infixes

• -in-: perfective marker
• -em-: actor voice affix/intransitive affix

;Circumfixes

• -in-anan: the members of
• ka- -an: a period of time
• muri- -an: the way one is doing something; the way something was done
• sa- -an: people doing things together
• sa- -enan: people belonging to the same community
• si- -an: nominalizer
• Ca- -an, CVCV- -an: collectivity, plurality

Notes

References

References

1. {{Glottolog. puyu1239. Puyuma
2. Possessor of subject

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