Difference between revisions of "User:Gzhang1/Language selection"

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== ''Tolai'' ==
 
== ''Tolai'' ==
 
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==== Basic Information ====
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Tolai, or Kuanua, is the language of the Tolai people who live on the Gazelle Peninsula of Papa New Guinea. Technically speaking, Tolai is the name of the people, and they refer to their language as ''tinata tuna''. According to the [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolai_language Tolai language wiki page], there were 61,000 native speakers as of 1991 and 20,000 L2 speakers.
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Unlike many languages in Papa New Guinea, Tolai is a healthy language that is not in danger of dying out, though it does have a lot of loanwords from Tok Pisin and English. All in all, Tolai is considered a prestigious language and is even the language of communication in two major towns in the area.
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Tolai appears to have a normative orthography and uses the Latin script.
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==== Morphological Typology ====
 
==== Morphological Typology ====
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follows basic SVO
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I'm not sure what the morphological typology of Tolai is, though it does seem to follow SVO word order.
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==== Available Corpora ====
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* Here's a corpus of syntactic features in Tolai: https://grambank.clld.org/languages/kuan1248
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* Here's a language course for Tolai by the SIL: https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/10/50/59/105059360329381320479935647445767547320/Tolai_Language_course.pdf
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* Another outline for a course for Tolai: https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/35/87/98/35879858529647957862859826149381852770/TolaiLang1968.pdf
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* A sample of text in Tolai: https://www.language-museum.com/encyclopedia/k/kuanua.htm
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* A blog with text in Tolai: https://ismaelkisikel.blogspot.com/
  
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==== Basic Information ====
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I believe it shouldn't be too difficult to find materials and sources in Tolai.
  
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==== Available Corpora ====
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==== Sources ====
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* Ager, Simon. “Tolai (Tinata Tuna).” Tolai Language and Alphabet, www.omniglot.com/writing/tolai.htm. Accessed 26 Jan. 2025.
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* “Tolai Language.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Nov. 2024, en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolai_language.
  
 
== ''Yami'' ==
 
== ''Yami'' ==

Revision as of 16:31, 26 January 2025

Hellos!

I'm open to working with anyone who has an interest in the languages I've listed below. I'm also interested in other Austronesian languages!

The languages that I might like to work on this semester are as follows:

  1. Paiwan: a Formosan language of the Austronesian language family native to southern Taiwan | ISO: </code>pwn</code>
  2. Tolai: an Oceanic language of the Austronesian language family spoken on the Gazelle Penninsula of Papua New Guinea | ISO: </code>ksd</code>
  3. Yami (Tao): a Malayo-Polynesian and Philippine language of the Austronesian language family native to Orchid Island off the coast of Taiwan | ISO: </code>tao</code>


Paiwan

Basic Information

Paiwan is a native language of southern Taiwan. The language has many dialects and is roughly divided into northern, southern, eastern, and central varieties. Some scholars believe this categorization is inaccurate and suggest categorizing the dialects by a consonant distinction. According to the Paiwan language wiki page, there were 96,000 L1 speakers of Paiwan in 2014. These native speakers are the ethnic Paiwan, Taiwan Indigenous people, and the language was historically a second language of many people in southern Taiwan. Paiwan is also an official language of Taiwan.

Though Paiwan seems to have a decent number of speakers and is an official language of Taiwan, it is classified as an endangered language. Like many other Indigenous languages existing alongside more widely used languages, many of the L1 speakers are of the older generations, while younger generations favor Taiwanese Mandarin over Paiwan.

Paiwan has a normative orthography and uses the Latin script.

Morphological Typology

Paiwan is an agglutinative language with a lot of affixes, so many that one could make a case that the language is polysynthetic (it's really not).

Available Corpora

There should be plenty of corpora available for Paiwan!

All in all, there should be no issue finding texts in Paiwan.

Sources

  • “Paiwan Language.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Dec. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paiwan_language.
  • Zui. “Languages of Taiwan - Paiwan (Vinuculjan, Pinayuanan).” The Language Closet, 17 Sept. 2023, thelanguagecloset.com/2020/12/19/languages-of-taiwan-paiwan-vinuculjan-pinayuanan/.

Tolai

Basic Information

Tolai, or Kuanua, is the language of the Tolai people who live on the Gazelle Peninsula of Papa New Guinea. Technically speaking, Tolai is the name of the people, and they refer to their language as tinata tuna. According to the Tolai language wiki page, there were 61,000 native speakers as of 1991 and 20,000 L2 speakers.

Unlike many languages in Papa New Guinea, Tolai is a healthy language that is not in danger of dying out, though it does have a lot of loanwords from Tok Pisin and English. All in all, Tolai is considered a prestigious language and is even the language of communication in two major towns in the area.

Tolai appears to have a normative orthography and uses the Latin script.

Morphological Typology

I'm not sure what the morphological typology of Tolai is, though it does seem to follow SVO word order.

Available Corpora

I believe it shouldn't be too difficult to find materials and sources in Tolai.

Sources

  • Ager, Simon. “Tolai (Tinata Tuna).” Tolai Language and Alphabet, www.omniglot.com/writing/tolai.htm. Accessed 26 Jan. 2025.
  • “Tolai Language.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Nov. 2024, en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolai_language.

Yami

Basic Information

Yami, also known as Tao, is the only Indigenous language of Taiwan that is not a Formosan language but rather a Malayo-Polynesian language, specifically a member of the Batanic languages also found in the Batanes of northern Phillippines. As such, the Yami language has many cognates with Phillippine languages. It also contains a few Japanese and Chinese loanwords.

According to the Yami language wiki page, there were about 4,000 native speakers of Yami in 2012. These native speakers are the Tao people living on Orchid Island off the coast of Taiwan. Many of them are also bilingual in Taiwanese Mandarin, and due to heavy contact with Taiwanese Mandarin, the Yami language is moribund. While much of the older generations are L1 Yami speakers, the younger generations of the Tao people are L1 Mandarin speakers and L2 Yami speakers. In daily life, more and more people use Mandarin, with Yami used predominantly during religious services and traditional ceremonies.

Yami has a normative orthography and uses the Latin script. There are three different orthographies, all based on the Latin script with minor differences. However, Yami orthography is not commonly used by the community.

Morphological Typology

Yami is an agglutinative language with a lot of affixes, and word order in Yami is variable. Yami declaratives typically follow SVO word order, though the subject is often dropped.

Available Corpora

There are several sources online with texts in Yami:

I'm sure it won't be too difficult to track down corpora in Yami.

Sources

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