Bunun language explained

Bunun
Nativename:	Bunun
States:	Taiwan
Ethnicity:	Bunun people
Speakers:	38,000
Date:	2002
Ref:	e18
Familycolor:	Austronesian
Iso3:	bnn
Glotto:	bunu1267
Glottorefname:	Bunun
Minority:	Taiwan
Dia1:	Isbukun
Dia2:	North–Central (Takitudu–Takbanua)
Script:	Latin script
Map:	Formosan languages 2008.png
Mapcaption:	Distribution of Bunun language (medium green, center)
Map2:	Lang Status 80-VU.svg

The Bunun language is spoken by the Bunun people of Taiwan. It is one of the Formosan languages, a geographic group of Austronesian languages, and is subdivided in five dialects: Isbukun, Takbunuaz, Takivatan, Takibaka and Takituduh. Isbukun, the dominant dialect, is mainly spoken in the south of Taiwan. Takbunuaz and Takivatan are mainly spoken in the center of the country. Takibaka and Takituduh both are northern dialects. A sixth dialect, Takipulan, became extinct in the 1970s.

The Saaroa and Kanakanavu, two smaller minority groups who share their territory with an Isbukun Bunun group, have also adopted Bunun as their vernacular.

Name

The name Bunun literally means "human" or "man".

Dialects

Bunun is currently subdivided into five dialects: Isbukun, Takbunuaz, Takivatan, Takibaka and Takituduh. Li (1988) splits these dialects into three main branches — Northern, Central, and Isbukun (also classified as Southern Bunun).^[1] Takipulan, a sixth dialect, became extinct in the 1970s. Isbukun, the prestige dialect, is also the most divergent dialect. The most conservative dialects are in the Northern branch.

Proto-Bunun
- Isbukun
- North-Central
  - Northern
    - Takituduh
    - Takibakha
  - Central
    - Takbanuaz
    - Takivatan

Bunun was originally spoken in and around Sinyi Township (Xinyi) in Nantou County. From the 17th century onwards, the Bunun people expanded towards the south and east, absorbing other ethnic groups such as the Saaroa, Kanakanavu, and Thao. Bunun is spoken in an area stretching from Ren-ai Township in Nantou in the north to Yan-ping Township in Taitung in the south. Isbukun is distributed throughout Nantou, Taitung, and Kaohsiung. Takbanuaz is spoken in Nantou and southern Hualien County. Takivatan is spoken in Nantou and central Hualien. Both Takituduh and Takibakha are spoken in Nantou.

Proto-Bunun

Shibata (2020) has a reconstruction of Proto-Bunun.^[2]

Phonology

Consonants

Consonant inventory
	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Plosive	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Plosive	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/			pronounced as /link/
Fricative	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Approximant			pronounced as /link/

Orthographic notes:

pronounced as //dʒ// as ⟨j⟩.

Notes:

The glides pronounced as //j w// exist, but are derived from the underlying vowels pronounced as //i u// to meet the requirements that syllables must have onset consonants. They are therefore not part of the consonant inventory.
The dental fricative pronounced as //ð// is actually interdental (pronounced as //ð̟//).
In the Isbukun dialect, pronounced as //χ// often occurs in final or post-consonantal position and pronounced as //h// in initial and intervocalic position, whereas other dialects have pronounced as //q// in both of these positions.
While Isbukun drops the intervocalic glottal stops (pronounced as //ʔ//) found in other dialects, pronounced as //ʔ// also occurs where pronounced as //h// occurs in other dialects. (For example, the Isbukun word [mapais] bitter is [mapaʔis] in other dialects; the Isbukun word [luʔum] 'cloud' is [luhum] in other dialects.)
The alveolar affricate pronounced as //dʒ// occurs in the Taitung variety of Isbukun, usually represented in other dialects as pronounced as //t//.^[3]

Vowels

**Vowel inventory**
	Front	Central	Back
High	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/
Mid	pronounced as /link/
Low		pronounced as /link/

Notes:

pronounced as //e// does not occur in Isbukun.

Grammar

Overview

Bunun is a verb-initial language and has an Austronesian alignment system or focus system. This means that Bunun clauses do not have a nominative–accusative or absolutive–ergative alignment, but that arguments of a clause are ordered according to which participant in the event described by the verb is 'in focus'. In Bunun, three distinct roles can be in focus:

the agent: the person or thing that is doing the action or achieving/maintaining a state;
the undergoer: the person or thing that is somehow participating in the action without being an agent; there are three kinds of undergoers:
- patients: persons or things to whom an action is done or an event happens
- instruments: things (sometimes persons) which are used to perform an action
- beneficiaries (also called recipients): the persons (sometimes things) for whom an action is done or for whom an event happens
the locative participant: the location where an action takes place; in languages with a Philippine-style voice system, spatial location is often at the same level in a clause as agents and patients, rather than being an adverbial clause, like in English.

Which argument is in focus is indicated on the verb by a combination of prefixes and suffixes.

a verb in agent focus is often unmarked, but can get the prefix ma- or – more rarely – pa- or ka-
a verb in undergoer focus gets a suffix -un
a verb locative focus gets a suffix -an

Many other languages with a focus system have different marking for patients, instruments and beneficiaries, but this is not the case in Bunun. The focussed argument in a Bunun clause will normally always occur immediately after the verb (e.g. in an actor-focus clause, the agent will appear before any other participant) and is in the Isbukun dialect marked with a post-nominal marker a.

Bunun has a very large class of auxiliary verbs. Concepts that are expressed by auxiliaries include:

negation (ni 'be not' and uka 'have not')
modality and volition (e.g. maqtu 'can, be allowed')
relative time (e.g. ngausang 'first, beforehand', qanaqtung 'be finished')
comparison (maszang 'the same, similarly')
question words (e.g. via 'why?')
sometimes numerals (e.g. tatini '(be) alone, (be) only one')

In fact, Bunun auxiliaries express all sorts of concepts that in English would be expressed by adverbial phrases, with the exception of time and place, which are normally expressed with adverbial phrases.

Word classes

Takivatan Bunun has the following word classes (De Busser 2009:189). (Note: Words in open classes can be compounded, whereas those in closed classes cannot.)

Open classes

Nouns
Verbs
Adjectives

Closed classes

Demonstratives
Anaphoric pronouns
Personal pronouns
Numerals
Place words
Time words
Manner words
Question words
Auxiliaries

Affixes

Bunun is morphologically agglutinative language and has a very elaborate set of derivational affixes (more than 200, which are mostly prefixes), most of which derive verbs from other word classes. Some of these prefixes are special in that they do not only occur in the verb they derive, but are also foreshadowed on a preceding auxiliary. These are called lexical prefixes or anticipatory prefixes and only occur in Bunun and a small number of other Formosan languages.

Below are some Takivatan Bunun verbal prefixes from De Busser (2009).

Neutral!c=02
Causative	c=03	Accusative
Movement from	c=01	mu-	c=02	pu-	c=03	ku-
Dynamic event	c=01	ma-	c=02	pa-	c=03	ka-
Stative event	c=01	ma- / mi-	c=02	pi-	c=03	ka- / ki-
Inchoative event	c=01	min-	c=02	pin-	c=03	kin-

In short:

Movement from: Cu-
Dynamic event: Ca-
Stative event: Ci-
Inchoative event: Cin-
Neutral: mV-
Causative: pV-
Accusative: kV-

A more complete list of Bunun affixes from De Busser (2009) is given below.

Focus

agent focus (AF): -Ø
undergoer focus (UF): -un (also used as a nominalizer)
locative focus (LF): -an (also used as a nominalizer)

Tense-aspect-mood (TAM) affixes

na- irrealis (futurity, consequence, volition, imperatives). This is also the least bound TAM prefix.
-aŋ progressive (progressive aspect, simultaneity, expressing wishes/optative usage)
-in perfective (completion, resultative meaning, change of state, anteriority)
-in- past/resultative (past, past/present contrast)
-i- past infix which occurs only occasionally

Participant cross-reference

-Ø agent
-un patient
-an locative
is- instrumental
ki- beneficiary

Locative prefixes

Stationary ‘at, in’: i-
Itinerary ‘arrive at’: atan-, pan-, pana-
Allative ‘to’: mu-, mun-
Terminative ‘until’: sau-
Directional ‘toward, in the direction of’: tan-, tana-
Viative ‘along, following’: malan-
Perlative ‘through, into’: tauna-, tuna-, tun-
Ablative ‘from’: maisna-, maina-, maisi-, taka-

Event-type prefixes

ma- Marks dynamic events
ma- Marks stative events
mi- Marks stative negative events
a- Unproductive stative prefix
paŋka- Marks material properties (stative)
min- Marks result states (transformational)
pain- Participatory; marks group actions

Causative

pa- causative of dynamic verb
pi- causative of stative verb
pu- cause to go towards

Classification of events

mis- burning events
tin- shock events
pala- splitting events
pasi- separating events
kat- grasping events

Patient-incorporating prefixes

bit- 'lightning'
kun- 'wear'
malas- 'speak'
maqu- 'use'
muda- 'walk'
pas- 'spit'
qu- 'drink'
sa- 'see'
tal- 'wash'
tapu- 'have trait'
tastu- 'belong'
taus-/tus- 'give birth'
tin- 'harvest'
tum- 'drive'

Verbalizers

pu- verbalizer: 'to hunt for'
maqu- verbalizer: 'to use'
malas- verbalizer: 'to speak'

Pronouns

Takivatan Bunun personal pronoun roots are (De Busser 2009:453):

1s: -ak-
2s: -su-
3s: -is-
1p (incl.): -at-
1p (excl.): -ðam-
2p: -(a)mu-
3p: -in-

The tables of Takivatan Bunun personal pronouns below are sourced from De Busser (2009:441).

Root!c=01
Foc. Agent (bound)	c=02	Non-Foc. Agent (bound)	c=03	Neutral	c=04	Foc. Agent	c=05	Locative	c=06	Possessive
1s.	c=rt	-ak-	c=01	-(ʔ)ak	c=02	-(ʔ)uk	c=03	ðaku, nak	c=04	sak, saikin	c=05	ðakuʔan	c=06	inak, ainak, nak
2s.	c=rt	-su-	c=01	-(ʔ)as	c=02	–	c=03	suʔu, su	c=04	–	c=05	suʔuʔan	c=06	isu, su
1p. (incl.)	c=rt	-at-	c=01	–	c=02	–	c=03	mita	c=04	ʔata, inʔata	c=05	mitaʔan	c=06	imita
1p. (excl.)	c=rt	-ðam-	c=01	-(ʔ)am	c=02	–	c=03	ðami, nam	c=04	ðamu, sam	c=05	ðamiʔan	c=06	inam, nam
2p.	c=rt	-(a)mu-	c=01	-(ʔ)am	c=02	–	c=03	muʔu, mu	c=04	amu	c=05	muʔuʔan	c=06	imu, mu

Singular!c=02
Plural
[Root]	c=01	-is-	c=02	-in-
Proximal	c=01	isti	c=02	inti
Medial	c=01	istun	c=02	intun
Distal	c=01	ista	c=02	inta

Iskubun Bunun personal pronouns are somewhat different (De Busser 2009:454).

Agent!c=02
Undergoer	c=03	Possessive
1s.	c=01	saikin, -ik	c=02	ðaku, -ku	c=03	inak, nak
2s.	c=01	kasu, -as	c=02	su	c=03	isu, su
3s.	c=01	saia	c=02	saiʤa	c=03	isaiʤa, saiʤa
1p. (incl.)	c=01	kata, -ta	c=02	mita	c=03	imita
1p. (excl.)	c=01	kaimin, -im	c=02	ðami	c=03	inam
2p.	c=01	kamu, -am	c=02	mu	c=03	imu
3p.	c=01	naia	c=02	inaiʤa	c=03	naiʤa

Demonstratives

Takivatan Bunun has the following demonstrative roots and affixes (De Busser 2009:454):

Demonstrative suffixes

Proximal: -i
Medial: -un
Distal: -a

Demonstrative roots

aip-: singular
aiŋk-: vague plural
aint-: paucal
ait-: inclusive generic

Demonstrative prefixes

Ø-: visible
n-: not visible

Place words

ʔiti here
ʔitun there (medial)
ʔita there (distal)

Function words

sia anaphoric marker, "aforementioned"; also used as a hesitation marker
tu attributive marker
duma "others"
itu honorific marker

Takivatan Bunun also has definitive markers.

Singular!c=02
Plural
Proximal	c=01	-ti	c=02	-ki
Medial	c=01	-tun	c=02	-kun
Distal	c=01	-ta	c=02	-ka

References

Adelaar . K. Alexander . 2004 . The Coming and Going of 'Lexical Prefixes' in Siraya . dead . Language and Linguistics / Yǔyán jì yǔyánxué . en . 5 . 2 . 333–361 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210510150418/http://www.ling.sinica.edu.tw/files/publication/j2004_2_02_2907.pdf . 2021-05-10 .
De Busser . Rik . Towards a Grammar of Takivatan: Selected Topics . 2009 . Ph. D. . La Trobe University . 10.17613/M68D2H . free . en . hcommons.org.
Book: Jeng, Heng-hsiung . Topic and Focus in Bunun . 1977 . Academia Sinica . Taipei . en.
Nojima . Motoyasu . 1996 . Lexical Prefixes of Bunun Verbs . Gengo Kenkyu: Journal of the Linguistic Society of Japan . en . 110 . 1–27 . 10.11435/gengo1939.1996.110_1 . free.
Li . Paul Jen-kuei . 1988 . A Comparative Study of Bunun Dialects . Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica . en . 59 . 2 . 479–508 . 10.6355/BIHPAS.198806.0479 . 2021-07-27 . 2020-08-18 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200818064600/http://www2.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/file/3408qrcSMiG.pdf . dead .
Book: Schachter, Paul . Tagalog Reference Grammar . Otanes . Fe T. . 1972 . University of California Press . Berkeley . en.
Book: Zeitoun, Elizabeth 齊莉莎 . Bùnóngyǔ cānkǎo yǔfǎ . 2000 . Yuan liu . 957-32-3891-8 . Taibei Shi . zh . zh:布農語參考語法 . Bunun Reference Grammar.
Book: Lin, Tai 林太 . Isbukun: Bùnóngyǔ gòucífǎ yánjiū . Zeng . Si-qi 曾思奇 . Li . Wen-su 李文甦 . Bukun Ismahasan Islituan . 2001 . Du ce wenhua . Taibei . zh . zh:Isbukun: 布農語構詞法研究 . Isbukun: A Study on Word Formation in Bunun . Bukun Ismahasan Islituan 卜袞‧伊斯瑪哈單‧伊斯立瑞.
Book: Anu Ispalidav . Bùnóngzú yǔ dúběn: Rènshí jùn qún Bùnóngzú yǔ . 2014 . Shitu chuban she . Taibei Shi . zh . zh:布農族語讀本: 認識郡群布農族語 . Bunun Reader: Understanding the Bunun Language.
Book: Huang, Hui-chuan 黃慧娟 . Bùnóngyǔ yǔfǎ gàilùn . Shih . Chao-kai 施朝凱 . 2018 . Yuanzhu minzu weiyuanhui . 978-986-05-5687-2 . Xinbei Shi . zh . zh:布農語語法概論 . Introduction to Bunun Grammar . alilin.apc.gov.tw . 2021-07-27 . 2022-02-17 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220217161610/https://alilin.apc.gov.tw/files/ebook/1412649485b6aae5a59f16/HTML5/pc.html . dead .

External links

Kaipuleohone's Robert Blust collection includes elicited materials on Bunun.
Yuánzhùmínzú yǔyán xiànshàng cídiǎn 原住民族語言線上詞典 – Bunun search page at the "Aboriginal language online dictionary" website of the Indigenous Languages Research and Development Foundation
Bunun teaching and leaning materials published by the Council of Indigenous Peoples of Taiwan
Bunun translation of President Tsai Ing-wen's 2016 apology to indigenous people – published on the website of the presidential office

Notes and References

Li, Paul Jen-kuei. 1988. A Comparative Study of Bunun Dialects. In Li, Paul Jen-kuei, 2004, Selected Papers on Formosan Languages. Taipei, Taiwan: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica.
Shibata. Kye. 2020. A Reconstruction of Proto-Bunun Phonology and Lexicon. M.A. dissertation. Hsinchu. National Tsing Hua University.
De Busser . Rik . 14 May 2011 . Introduction to the Bunun language . Languages of Taiwan, 2011 . en . 7–8.