The Great Diversity of Formosan Languages

Formosan languages are extremely diverse at all linguistic levels, from phonology to morphology to syntax. In fact, the Formosan languages are the most diverse within the entire Austronesian language family. This great linguistic diversity indicates a great time depth for an early settlement on the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Language and linguistics (Taipei) 2008-07, Vol.9 (3), p.523-546
Main Author: 李壬癸(Li, Paul Jen-kuei)
Format: Article
Language:chi ; eng
Subjects:
Austronesian homeland
A＆HCI
Formosan languages
linguistic structure
MEDLINE
Scopus
SSCI
THCI
南島語
台灣南島語
多樣性
祖居地
語言結構
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Summary:Formosan languages are extremely diverse at all linguistic levels, from phonology to morphology to syntax. In fact, the Formosan languages are the most diverse within the entire Austronesian language family. This great linguistic diversity indicates a great time depth for an early settlement on the island, so as to make Taiwan the prime candidate for Austronesian homeland and the center of Austronesian dispersal. In this paper, we shall briefly survey the diversity of the Formosan languages, highlighting eight linguistic features: word order, focus systems, auxiliaries, numerals, personal pronouns, compounding, affixation, and phonology.
ISSN:1606-822X