| Tsou | |
| Nativename: | Cou |
| States: | Taiwan |
| Region: | Alishan |
| Ethnicity: | Tsou |
| Date: | 2002 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Austronesian |
| Fam2: | Tsouic ? |
| Iso3: | tsu |
| Glotto: | tsou1248 |
| Glottorefname: | Tsou |
| Map: | Formosan languages 2009.png |
| Mapcaption: | (yellow) Tsou |
| Map2: | Lang Status 80-VU.svg |
| Notice: | IPA |
Tsou (Cou) is a Austronesian language spoken by the Tsou people of Taiwan. Tsou is a threatened language; however, this status is uncertain. Its speakers are located in the west-central mountains southeast of the Chiayi/Alishan area in Taiwan.[1]
The name Tsou literally means "person", from Proto-Austronesian *Cau through regular sound changes. It is therefore cognate with the name of the Thao.
Tsou has traditionally been considered part of a Tsouic branch of Austronesian. However, several recent classifications, such as Chang (2006)[2] and Ross (2009)[3] dispute the Tsouic branch, with Tsou more divergent than the other two languages, Kanakanabu and Saaroa.
Tsou does not have much dialectal variation. There are four recorded dialects: Tapangʉ, Tfuya, Duhtu and Iimcu, of which Tapangʉ and Tfuya are still spoken. Iimcu has not been well described. The grammar of the other three dialects is nearly identical, and phonological variation is marginal: In certain environments, Tapangʉ pronounced as //i// corresponds to Tfuya and Duhtu pronounced as //z// or pronounced as //iz//, and Duhtu had pronounced as //r// for Tfuya and Tapangʉ pronounced as //j// (Actually, older speakers had been recorded to vary between pronounced as /[ɹ]/ and pronounced as /[j]/, but at that point the dialect was moribund.).
Tsou is spoken in the following villages:[4] All of the villages are located in Alishan Township, Chiayi County except for Mamahavana (Jiumei), which is located in Hsinyi/Xinyi Township, Nantou County. Both the native Tsou names and Chinese names are given.
Tapangʉ (Tapaŋʉ)
Tfuya (Tfuya)
Duhtu (Luhtu)
Iimucu – extinct
The description of Tsou phonology below is from Wright & Ladefoged (1994).
Tsou has six vowels, pronounced as //i ɨ u e o ɑ//. Vowel sequences occur, including sequences of like vowels (pronounced as //ii/ /uu/ /ee// etc.), but these are separate moras rather than long vowels or diphthongs. Vowels, especially back vowels, are centralized when flanked by voiceless alveolar consonants (pronounced as //t, ts, s//). This may involve a central offglide, so that pronounced as //o// is pronounced as a diphthong pronounced as /[öə̯]/ or pronounced as /[ɵə̯]/ in this environment. The sound pronounced as //ɨ// ~ pronounced as //ʉ// has been written
| 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/ | pronounced as /link/ ~ pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Affricate | pronounced as /link/ ~ pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ ~ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ ~ pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ ~ pronounced as /link/ | ||||
The approximants pronounced as //w// and pronounced as //j// may surface as non-syllabic mid vowels pronounced as /[e̯]/ and pronounced as /[o̯]/, even (for pronounced as //j//) in initial position (pronounced as //jo~joskɨ/ [e̯oˈe̯oskɨ]/ "fishes"; pronounced as //w// does not occur in initial position), explaining the spelling Tfuea (pronounced as //tfuja//) for the name of the dialect. However, stress assignment (pronounced as /[ˈtfue̯a]/) and restrictions on consonant clusters (see stress and phonotactics below) demonstrate that they behave as consonants.
The plosives are not aspirated. Phonetically aspirated stops are actually sequences of stop plus pronounced as //h//, as can be seen by the fact that they cannot cluster with a third consonant (see phonotactics below), and by morphological alternations such as pronounced as //phini// ~ pronounced as //mhini// "to trade".
According to spectrum analysis, pronounced as //h// appears to be a glottal fricative in most environments, but approaches a velar pronounced as /[x]/ next to the central vowel pronounced as //ɨ//, as in pronounced as //tsaphɨ// 'palm, sole'. However, the fact that the sequences pronounced as //hʔ// and pronounced as //ʔh// occur, when no other homorganic sequence is allowed, suggests that pronounced as //h// and pronounced as //ʔ// may not both be glottal. (Additional evidence that pronounced as //h// might best be analyzed as velar is the fact that pronounced as /
The voiceless sibilants, pronounced as //ts// and pronounced as //s//, are palatalized to pronounced as /[tʃ]/ and pronounced as /[ʃ]/ before the front vowels pronounced as //i// and pronounced as //e//. However, the voiced sibilant pronounced as //z// is not affected by this environment.
The implosives pronounced as //ɓ// and pronounced as //ɗ// are uncommon. Both may be glottalized (pronounced as /[ʔɓ], [ʔɗ]/ or maybe pronounced as /[ʔb], [ʔd]/) in intervocalic position. In addition, alveolar pronounced as //ɗ// has some unusual allophony: About a third of speakers pronounce it with a lateral release, or before pronounced as //a// as a lateral approximant pronounced as /[l]/, as in pronounced as //ɗauja/ [lauja]/ "maple". Indeed, Tsuchida (1976) transcribed it as a preglottalized lateral, pronounced as /[ˀl]/.
With a few exceptions, stress is not only predictable, but shifts when suffixes are added to a word. It falls on the penultimate vowel, or on the penultimate mora if a moraic analysis is adopted. That is, a final heavy syllable (double vowel) receives stress (pronounced as /[eˈmoo]/ "house"); otherwise, stress falls on the penultimate syllable (pronounced as /[oˈkosi]/ "his child"). Additional stress falls in a trochaic pattern: Every other light syllable (single vowel) also receives stress. Unstressed vowels are deleted, except at word boundaries (initial or final vowel) and unless doing so would create a forbidden consonant cluster (see below).
For example, the verb pronounced as /⫽seʔe-nətəh-a⫽/ "to cut with a bolo" takes stress on the syllables pronounced as /⫽tə⫽/ and pronounced as /⫽ʔe⫽/, and is realized as pronounced as /[sʔenˈtəha]/. However, this does not explain all consonant clusters, many of which are lexically determined.
The most complex syllable in Tsou is CCVV. Tsou is unusual in the number of consonant clusters that it allows. Homorganic clusters are not allowed, unless one is a nasal consonant, and a maximum of two consonants may occur together, but otherwise about half of possible sequences are known to occur. For example, all non-homorganic sequences starting with pronounced as //t// and pronounced as //ts// are found. Missing clusters may not be allowed, or may simply be accidental gaps due to limited knowledge of the lexicon.
| Initial or medial | Medial only | |
|---|---|---|
| pronounced as //pt, pts, ps, pn, pk, pŋ, pʔ, ph// | pronounced as //pz// | |
| pronounced as //ft, fts, fk, fŋ, fʔ// | pronounced as //fn//[5] | |
| pronounced as //vts, vh// | pronounced as //vn, vʔ// | |
| pronounced as //ɓn// | pronounced as //ɓk// | |
| pronounced as //mp, mf, mts, ms, mz, mn, mʔ, mh// | pronounced as //mɓ, mt// | |
| pronounced as //tp, tf, tv, tm, tn, tk, tŋ, tʔ, th// | pronounced as //tɓ// | |
| pronounced as //tsp, tsf, tsv, tsm, tsn, tsk, tsŋ, tsʔ, tsh// | pronounced as //tsɓ// | |
| pronounced as //sp, sv, sɓ, sm, sn, sk, sŋ, sʔ// | — | |
| — | pronounced as //zʔ// | |
| pronounced as //nm, nt, ns// | pronounced as //np, nv, nts, nz, nk, nʔ, nh// | |
| pronounced as //ks, kn// | pronounced as //kts, kʔ// | |
| pronounced as //ŋv, ŋh// | pronounced as //ŋm, ŋt, ŋts, ŋs, ŋz, ŋk//[6] | |
| pronounced as //ʔp, ʔv, ʔm, ʔt, ʔts, ʔs// | pronounced as //ʔf, ʔɗ, ʔn, ʔk, ʔh// | |
| pronounced as //hp, hv, hm, ht, hts, hn, hŋ, hʔ// | pronounced as //hs, hz, hk, hŋ// |
Stops, oral or nasal, may or may not have a release burst before a nasal stop, depending on the speaker. The initial clusters pronounced as //hp, ht, hʔ// are unusual cross-linguistically. The spectrum shows that the tongue moves towards an alveolar articulation during the pronounced as //h// of pronounced as //ht//, demonstrating that it is not articulated as a velar. The initial clusters pronounced as //pʔ// and pronounced as //tʔ// are sometimes realized as two released stops, but sometimes with a single release, resembling ejective consonants in other languages. (pronounced as //kʔ// is again notably missing, except intervocalically, despite the fact that pronounced as /[kʼ]/ is the most common ejective cross-linguistically.)
Like most other Austronesian languages, Tsou displays a predicate-initial syntax.
Tsou has three main types of questions.[7]
Tsou has the following types of clauses:
Important function words are:
Case markers are as follows, with nominative forms placed before slashes and oblique forms placed after them (Zeitoun 2005:274). The nominative form is given when there are no slashes.
Tsou nouns are distinguished from verbs by the presence of case markers and suffixed genitive pronouns, both of which cannot be applied to verbs.[8] Verbs, on the other hand, have elaborate voice marking. Adjectives and certain adverbs actually function as verbs, since they also undergo voice inflection and are placed at the same positions within clauses as verbs (i.e., predicate-initial).
Tsou is unique for not having any preposition-like elements, instead using nouns or verbs to express these notions.
Main verbs can take on four types of voices, the actor voice and three undergoer voices, which are marked by suffixes.[9] [10]
Tsou verbs can be divided into five major classes (I, II, III-1, III-2, IV, V-1, V-2) based on morphological alternations (Zeitoun 2005:285). Tsou verbs do not have as many morphological distinctions as other Formosan languages do, since the Tsou language makes more extensive use of auxiliary verbs. For instance, there are no temporal/aspectual distinctions, separate markings for imperatives, and stative/dynamic distinctions. Nevertheless, Tsou still preserves the causative poa- (allomorphs: p-, pa-).
Tsou auxiliary verbs can carry temporal/aspectual and modal information as well as voice. They are marked for the following voices:
These auxiliary verbs can be divided into three classes:
Tsou has the following aspectual suffixes:
The personal pronouns below are from the Tfuya dialect of Tsou, and are sourced from Zeitoun (2005:265). Note that third-person pronouns are distinguished between those that are visible or non-visible.
| Free | Bound | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| neutral | nominative | genitive | |||
| 1st person | singular | a'o | -'o/-'u | -'o/-'u | |
| plural | exclusive | a'ami | -mza | -mza | |
| inclusive | a'ati | -to | -to | ||
| 2nd person | singular | suu | -su/-ko | -su/-ko | |
| plural | muu | -mu | -mu | ||
| 3rd person | visible | singular | taini | -ta | -taini |
| plural | hin'i | -hin'i | -hin'i | ||
| not visible | singular | ic'o | – | -si | |
| plural | hee | – | -he | ||
Tfuya Tsou numerals are:[11]
Tens are derived with the circumfix (confix) m- -hʉ. There is also a u/ʉ vowel harmony phenomenon.
These people live in the mountainous areas because dominating colonizers were in Taiwan for over 380 years. Outsiders have killed the indigenous people, burned villages, and forced them to move as the colonizers claimed more and more spaces. Some such colonizers were the Dutch, Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese. The outside rulers imposed their own education systems on the indigenous people, but the most notable influence came from the Kuomintang era, where Taiwanese people were forced to use Mandarin and where children were punished at school if they used their own indigenous language. This forced the original Taiwanese people to give up their language in order to survive in the new, imposed environment.[12]
Due to globalization, people are always in search of finding better lives if they're not completely happy, and young people are leaving the villages and looking for jobs in big cities. Because of this, children are not using the language and are not getting exposed to the culture as frequently, which means the language is not getting passed down to future generations.
One survey from 1999 found that only 9% of the indigenous children could speak their native language, and most children preferred to use Mandarin, which is the official Taiwan language. Tsou is mostly used by community elders in ceremonies and certain gatherings. Unfortunately, since the parents are not fluent and do not view the language as practical for children, the language is rarely spoken at home. The language is found more in school settings where children attend cultural learning programs.[13]
The Tsou language is recognized by the government. The government has allocated money dedicated to bring language programs to elementary and junior high schools, but the funds are sometimes inconsistent, which negatively affects the programs. It helped that the Martial law was lifted in 1987 and that people could freely speak their native languages again, however, so many other dominant languages were used that several native indigenous languages disappeared.
The elders care about their language and worry that it may not survive in the future, so they welcome any help linguists may provide. In addition, the community has programs to maintain the language. One example is when children get to sing Tsou folk songs in kindergarten and continue to become exposed to other cultural programs through elementary school. People are relying heavily on these kids to keep the language, music, and culture alive. There are programs for elementary and middle school kids to learn the language. Community members are very willing to get involved with events. It is difficult to teach the language because there is a lack of good teaching materials. Schools do not make learning the indigenous language a priority because if an event deemed more important occurs, teachers are likely to put off the language lesson. In addition, students have to worry about studying English, Mandarin, and entrance exam materials, so time is limited and the ethnic language is not a priority in the minds of the younger generation.