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Northern Formosan
(proposed)
Geographic distribution	Taiwan
Linguistic classification	Austronesian Northern Formosan
Language codes
Glottolog	west2572  (Western Plains) nort2899  (Northwestern) atay1246  (Atayalic)
(orange) Li's Northern Formosan

The Northern Formosan languages is a proposed grouping of Formosan languages that includes the Atayalic languages, the Western Plains languages (Papora, Hoanya, Babuza, and Taokas), and the Northwest Formosan languages (Pazeh and Saisiyat; Li places Western Plains with this grouping).

The Northern Formosan subgroup was first proposed by Paul Jen-kuei Li in 1985. Blust (1999) rejects the unity of the proposed Northern Formosan branch. A 2008 analysis of the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database, however, supports the unity of the Northern Formosan branch with a 97% confidence level (see Austronesian languages#Classification).

Evidence

The following sound changes from Proto-Austronesian occurred in the Northern Formosan languages (Li 2008:215).

• *S₂, *H₁ > h
• *S₂, *H₁, *s > h (Atayalic languages and Saisiyat only)

Also, Pazeh, Saisiyat, and Thao are only Formosan languages that allow for SVO constructions, although this may be due to intensive contact with Taiwanese.

Also, the Atayal, Seediq, and Pazeh languages have devoiced final consonants that were present in the Proto-Austronesian (Blust 2009:616).

Northwestern Formosan

Li (2003, 2008) concludes the six western Plains languages split off from Proto-Northwestern Formosan. The classification is as follows.

The four coastal languages of Taokas, Babuza, Papora, and Hoanya share the following innovations (Li 2003).

1. Loss of *k
2. Loss of *-y
3. Merger of *s and *t in non-final position
4. Complete merger of *ŋ and *n

Thao shares the following innovations with the four coastal languages (Li 2003).

1. Merger of *s and *t
2. Merger of *ŋ and *n

Pazih has undergone the following two sound changes.

1. Merger of *j and *s as /z/
2. Merger of *C and *S₁ as /s/

Li (2003) does not consider Pazih to be very closely related to Saisiyat (Li 2003:946).

However, Shibata (2022) argues that the "Western Plains" languages in fact form a convergence area or linguistic area rather than a true subgroup.

Notes

1. Li, Paul Jen-kuei (1985). "The position of Atayal in the Austronesian family." In Li, Paul Jen-kuei. 2004. Selected Papers on Formosan Languages, vol. 2. Taipei, Taiwan: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica.
2. Li, Paul Jen-kuei. 2008. "Time perspective of Formosan Aborigines." In Sanchez-Mazas, Alicia ed. Past human migrations in East Asia: matching archaeology, linguistics and genetics. Taylor & Francis US.
3. Li, Paul Jen-kuei. 1998. "台灣南島語言 ." In Li, Paul Jen-kuei. 2004. Selected Papers on Formosan Languages. Taipei, Taiwan: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica.
4. Shibata, Kye. 2022. Reexamining the historical relationships of the "Western Plains" languages. Presentation given at the 31st Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (SEALS 31), University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, May 18–20, 2022.

References

• Li, Paul Jen-kuei (2003). "The Internal Relationships of Six Western Plains Languages." In Li, Paul Jen-kuei. 2004. Selected Papers on Formosan Languages, vol. 2. Taipei, Taiwan: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica.

• Formosan languages
• Languages of Taiwan