Basay language
Extinct Formosan language of northern Taiwan
Basay was a Formosan language spoken around modern-day Taipei in northern Taiwan by the Basay, Qauqaut, and Trobiawan peoples. Trobiawan, Linaw, and Qauqaut were other dialects (see East Formosan languages).
Basay data is mostly available from Erin Asai's 1936 field notes, which were collected from an elderly Basay speaker in Shinshe, Taipei, as well as another one in Yilan who spoken the Trobiawan dialect. However, the Shinshe informant's speech was heavily influenced by Taiwanese, and the Trobiawan informant, named Ipai, had heavy Kavalan influence in her speech.
Li (1992) mentions four Basaic languages: Basay, Luilang, Nankan, Puting. Nankan and Puting are close to Kavalan, whereas Luilang is divergent.
01Syntax
There are four optional case markers in Basay.
- a, nominative, ligature (Shinshe dialect)
- ta, nominative (Trobiawan dialect)
- li, locative (Shinshe dialect)
- u, oblique (Trobiawan dialect)
Some function words include:
- pai 'future'
Trobiawan negators include:
- mia 'not' (Shinshe dialect: mayu 'not (yet)')
- asi 'don't' (Shinshe dialect: manai 'don't')
- (m)upa 'not to want'
- (Shinshe dialect: kualau 'not exist')
Yes-no questions are marked by u ~ nu.
02Morphology
Basay verbs, like Kavalan verbs, distinguish between agent-focus (AF) and patient-focus (PF) verbs. The perfective prefixes na- and ni- are allomorphs.
| Type of prefix | Neutral | Perfective | Future |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agentive focus (AF) | -um-, m- | na-mi- | -um- ... -a, m- ... -a |
| Patient focus (PF) | , | ni- | -au |
| Locative focus (LF) | -an | ni- ... -an | -ai |
03Pronouns
The Basay pronouns below are from Li (1999).
| Neutral | Nominative | Genitive | Oblique | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | singular | yaku | kaku, -ku | maku-, -aku; naku, -ak | yakuan, kuan, kuanan | |
| plural | excl. | yami | -mi | yami, -ami; nami, -am | yamian, mian, mianan | |
| incl. | mita | kita, -ita | mita, -ita; nita, -ta | ... , ... , tianan | ||
| 2nd person | singular | isu | kisu, -su | misu, -isu; nisu, -su ~ -is | isuan, suan, isuanan, suanan | |
| plural | imu | kimu, -mu | -imu; nimu, -im | imuan, ... , imuanan | ||
| 3rd person | singular | , | -ia | , | , | |
| plural | , | -ia | , | , | ||
04Revival
Based in part on recordings and field notes made by Asai Erin in 1936, classes teaching Basay were offered in Taiwan starting in 2025.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Basay language”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Formosan languages 2008.png by Kwamikagami, CC BY-SA 3.0
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