Grammar Notes on Siraya, an Extinct Formosan Language

Abstract

This is an attempt to unravel the grammar of a gospel text in Siraya, an extinct West Formosan language. It includes a discussion of the historical setting, the spelling, phonological features, function words, relation markers, morphosyntax of the verb, and the use of deictic verbs as prepositions. Regarding verbal morphosyntax, special attention is given to case marking suffixes, verbal classifiers, compound verbs, and anticipating sequences. Verbal classifiers are lexical elements prefixed to a root (a verb, adverb, or noun) with which they constitute the overall meaning of the resulting verb (mattdy- 'talking, saying' + vli 'reciprocating, doing in return'-< mattdy-vili 'to answer'; mattdy- + rx 'mind' -X mattdy-rtx 'talk to oneself'). Compound verb constructions are constructions in which auxiliaries assume the functions of adverbs in English. These auxiliaries form an open class and are in fact the head of the verb phrase, as they carry most of the marking. An anticipating sequence is an element of a verb that is prefixed to the preceding auxiliary. 1. INTRODUCTION. This article is a report on work in progress on the linguistic analysis of Siraya. Together with Favorlang, another extinct Formosan language, Siraya was used for missionary purposes during the occupation of West Formosa by the Dutch East India Company between 1624 and I66I. Section 2 presents a historical background against which Siraya was used by Calvinist missionaries; section 3, an account of the language materials that the latter collected and that have survived time, as well as an account of previous linguistic work on Siraya; section 4, an outline of the procedure that I am following for their analysis; section 5, a treatment of some of the orthographic and phonemic difficulties involved in their analysis; and section 6, a short outline of Siraya grammar. 2. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND.2 In the early seventeenth century, the Dutch East India Company tried to establish trade relations with China. It wanted to monopolize trade between China and Europe. It also hoped to be able to monopolize trade between China and Japan, as the Chinese emperor prohibited direct trade contacts between the Japanese and the Chinese. But the Chinese, who were not particularly interested in opening up their economy to western countries