The Pronominal System of Mantauran (Rukai)

Abstract

Rukai includes six dialects, Tanan, Budai, Labuan, Maga, Tona, and Mantauran, of which more is known about some than others. The position of Mantauran in the Rukai network remains controversial because its structure has been obscured by drastic phonological and syntactic changes. Phonologically, its voiced stops have been spirantized: PR *b > Mt v ; PR *d and d > Mt o ; PR *g > Mt h. Syntactically, it has undergone a process of grammaticalization whereby bound pronouns have coalesced with the verb stem, and third singular/plural oblique pronouns have been reanalyzed as nonagent agreement markers. Li (1977, 1996) has proposed two different versions of the Mantauran pronominal system in an attempt to shed some light on the position of this dialect among Rukai. Li 1996 maintains that there is sufficient evidence to support the claim that Mantauran is the first offshoot of Rukai. The present paper attempts to show that this conclusion may have been premature. Li's accounts of the pronominal system are reassessed and an alternative analysis is presented that permits greater cross-linguistic generalization among the Formosan languages. Comparative data and analyses from other Rukai dialects and other Formosan languages are presented