Taokas-10 Revisited: Taokas or Atayal?

Abstract

This paper reexamines the genetic affiliation of Taokas-10 using the comparative method. Taokas-10 is a wordlist of a Formosan language recorded near Miaoli, Taiwan, in the beginning of the twentieth century by the Japanese linguist Naoyoshi Ogawa. It was assumed to be a dialect of Taokas due to its geographic position, and although later researchers noted its resemblance to another Formosan language—Atayal—no evidence has been presented to justify this claim. This paper presents a thorough examination of its phonology, lexicon, and parts of its morphosyntax. The evidence is clear that the language in the Taokas-10 dataset was in fact a dialect of Atayal, with some lexical borrowings from neighboring Formosan languages (Saisiyat, Taokas, and other Atayal dialects). Although it is most closely related to Matu’uwal (Mayrinax) Atayal, it still shows peculiarities in both phonology and lexicon. It was likely a remnant of a larger Atayal population living in the lowlands of Miaoli that was later assimilated by Hakka Chinese, who now dominate the region.