1. Dialects

2. Phonology

3. Grammar
    Morphology  Syntax  Pronouns  Affixes 

4. Notes

5. References

The Puyuma language, or Pinuyumayan ({{zh|c=卑南語|p=Bēinán Yǔ}}), is the language of the Puyuma, an indigenous people of Taiwan (see Taiwanese aborigines). It is a divergent Formosan 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 {{harvcol|Ting|1978}}. Nanwang is usually shown to be the relatively phonologically conservative dialect but grammatically innovative, as it preserves proto-Puyuma voiced plosives but syncretize the use of both oblique and genetive case {{sfnp|Teng|2009|pp=839, 841}}.

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

Puyuma-speaking villages are:{{sfnp|Zeitoun|Cauquelin|2006|p=655}}

Puyuma cluster ('born of the bamboo')

• Puyuma ({{zh|Nanwang 南王}})
• Apapulu ({{zh|Paosang 寶桑}})

Katipul cluster ('born of a stone')

• Alipai ({{zh|Pinlang 賓朗}})
• Pinaski ({{zh|Hsia Pinlang 下賓朗}}); 2 km north of Puyuma/Nanwang, and maintains close relations with it
• Pankiu ({{zh|Pankiu}})
• Kasavakan ({{zh|Chienhe 建和}})
• Katratripul ({{zh|Chihpen 知本}})
• Likavung ({{zh|Lichia 利嘉}})
• Tamalakaw ({{zh|Taian 泰安}})
• Ulivelivek ({{zh|Chulu 初鹿}})

Phonology

Puyuma has 18 consonants and 4 vowels:

Grammar

Morphology

Puyuma verbs have four types of focus:{{sfnp|Cauquelin|2004|p=25–26}}

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:{{sfnp|Cauquelin|2004|p=25–26}}

1. Perfect
2. Imperfect
3. Future

There are two modes:{{sfnp|Cauquelin|2004|p=25–26}}

1. Imperative
2. Hortative future

Affixes include:{{sfnp|Cauquelin|2004|p=25–26}}

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

Syntax

Puyuma has a verb-initial word order.

Articles include:{{sfnp|Cauquelin|1991|p=27}}

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

Pronouns

The Puyuma personal pronouns are:{{sfnp|Teng|2008|p=61–64}}

Affixes

The Puyuma affixes are:{{sfnp|Teng|2008|p=282-285}}

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

• {{cite book |last1=Cauquelin |first1=Josiane |title=Dictionnaire puyuma-français |date=1991 |publisher=Ecole Française d'Extreme-Orient |location=Paris |isbn=9782855395517 |ref=harv}}
• {{cite book |last1=Cauquelin |first1=Josiane |title=Aborigines of Taiwan: the Puyuma - From Headhunting to the Modern World |date=2004 |publisher=RoutledgeCurzon |location=London |isbn=9780203498590 |ref=harv}}
• {{cite book |last=Teng |first=Stacy Fang-Ching |year=2008 |title=A reference grammar of Puyuma, an Austronesian language of Taiwan |series=Pacific linguistics |volume=595 |place=Canberra |publisher=Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University |isbn=9780858835870 |ref=harv}}
• {{cite book |last=Teng |first=Stacy Fang-Ching |year=2009 |title=Case Syncretism in Puyuma |series=Languages and Linguistics |volume=10(4) |ref=harv}}
• {{cite journal |last=Ting |first=Pang-hsin |date=Sep 1978 |title=Reconstruction of Proto-Puyuma Phonology |url=http://www.airiti.com/ceps/ec/ecjnlarticleView.aspx?jnlcattype=1&jnlptype=1&jnltype=1&jnliid=3326&issueiid=71526&atliid=1225995 |journal=Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology |publisher=Academia Sinica |volume=49 |issue= |pages=321–391 |oclc=4938029239 |accessdate=5 December 2014 |ref=harv}}

• Ernst Kaiser (author)
• Ernst Kaiser (disambiguation)
• Ernst Kaltenbach
• Ernst Kaps
• Ernst Kaps Pianos
• Ernst Kaufmann
• Ernst Klimt
• Ernst Knebel
• Ernst Knobil
• Ernst Knoll
• Ernst Kohlschutter
• Ernst Kohlschütter
• Ernst, Konstantin L.
• Ernst Kopf
• Ernst Kozlicek
• Ernst Kretschmer (linguist)
• Ernst Kreuder
• Ernst Kreuz
• Ernst Krieck
• Ernst Kuehnel
• Ernst Kuhnel
• Ernst Kuppinger
• Ernst Kuster
• Ernst K. Zinner
• Ernst Köpf