Kavalan (also known as Kvalan, Kebalan or Kbalan) was formerly spoken in the Northeast coast area of Taiwan by the Kavalan people (噶瑪蘭). It is an East Formosan language of the Austronesian family.

Kavalan is no longer spoken in its original area. As of 1930, it was used only as a home language. As of 1987, it was still spoken in Atayal territories. In 2000, this language was still reported to be spoken by 24 speakers but considered moribund.

In 2017, a study using the EDGE metric from species conservation found that Kavalan, although critically endangered, was among the most lexically distinct of Austronesian languages.

Dialects Kavalan consists of the following speech communities ordered from north to south:

Kariawan (Jialiwan 加禮宛) – near Hualien, a formerly Sakizaya-speaking area Patʀungan (Xinshe 新社) – located in Fungpin (豐濱鄉), Hualien Kulis (Lide 立德) Kralut (Zhangyuan 樟原)

These speech communities in eastern Taiwan were named after older settlements from the north, such as Kariawan, Sahut, and Tamayan, where the Kavalan people originally migrated from. Modern-day Kavalan speakers are surrounded by the Amis.

Tsuchida (1985) notes that word lists collected from Lamkham 南崁 (Nankan) and Poting 埔頂 (Buding) are closest to Kavalan,Tsuchida, Shigeru. 1985. Kulon: Yet another Austronesian language in Taiwan?. Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica 60. 1-59. while Li (2001) counts them as 'Basaic' languages.

Many Kavalan can also speak Amis, Taiwanese, Mandarin, and Japanese.

Phonology There are 15 consonants and 4 vowels in Kavalan.

+ConsonantsBilabialDentalAlveolarPalatalVelarUvularNasalPlosiveFricative [ɮ ~ d]Approximant [l ~ ɫ ~ ɾ]

+VowelsFrontCentralBackCloseMidOpen

In Kavalan, Proto-Austronesian phonemes have merged as follows:

*n, *N, *j, *ɲ as n *t, *T, *c as t *d, *D, *Z as z *s, *S as s *q, *ʔ, *H are deleted

The following Proto-Austronesian phonemes are split: *k into q and k *l into r and ʁ (written as R) *a into i (if adjacent to q) and a

The Kavalan language is also notable for having a large inventory of consonant clusters. It is also one of the only two Formosan languages that has geminate consonants, with the other one being Basay. Consonant gemination is also common in the northern Philippine languages, but is non-existent in the Central Philippine languages except for Rinconada Bikol.

Grammar Morphology Kavalan nouns and verbs are distinguished by the lack of /a/ in the first syllable (nouns) or presence of /a/ (verbs). Kavalan syllables take on the structure . Kavalan is also one of two Formosan languages to have geminating consonants.

Kavalan affixes include: m- (agent focus) -um-/-m- (agent focus) -in/-n- as variants of ni- (patient) -a (irrealis patient-focus marker) -an (locative-focus marker, nominalizer) -i (imperative, patient focus) pa- (causative) qa- (future)

Unlike many other Formosan languages, there is no *-en suffix.

Syntax Kavalan, like most other Formosan and Philippine languages, has many case markers.

Nominative: a/ya Oblique: ta, tu Genitive: na, ni Locative: sa, ta- -an

Types of focus in Kavalan include:

Agent Patient Locative Instrumental Beneficiary

The Kavalan case markers below are from . +Kavalan Case Markers Case Nominative Oblique Genitive Locative Common a, ya tu na sa, ta- -an Personal a, ya ta ni –

Pronouns The Kavalan personal pronouns below are from .

+Kavalan Personal Pronouns Nominative Genitive Oblique Locative 1st person singular aiku, =iku zaku, -ku timaiku tamaikuan plural excl. aimi, =imi zanyaq, -nyaq timaimi tamaimian incl. aita, =ita zata, -ta, -kita timaita tamaitan 2nd person singular aisu, =isu zasu, -su timaisuanzen tamaisuan plural aimu, =imu zanumi, -numi timaimu tamaimuan 3rd person singular aizipna tiyau zana, -na timaizipna tiyau tamaizipan tiyauan plural qaniyau zana, -na qaniyau taqaniyauan

Affixes The Kavalan affixes below are from .

Prefixes i-: stative, having to do with location kar-: rapid motion; defective, not perfect ki-, qi-: pluck, pick kin-: number of humans lu-: flat luq(e)-: bumpy, rough (used with stative verbs) m-, -m-, mu-, -u-, -um-: agent-focus ma-, m-: stative maq-: where from mar-: sine kind of shape mi-: discharge something from the body mri-: settle down; to shrink, huddle up mrim-: a division of (a numeral) nan-: two people (kinship); distributive numeral ni-, n-, -in-, -n-: past, perfective pa-: causative (used with active verbs) pa- -an: agentive pa-ti: personal marker for the dead paq-, paqa-: causative (used with stative verbs) paq-: get on (a boat) pa-qi-: cause to become pat-: make a change pi-: put into, put away; do something to protect a body part; every (time) qa-: immediate future; ride, take (means of transportation) qa- -an: place of/for qaRu-: become, transform into; transformable into qi-: pick, gather, get qna-: nominaizer (used with stative verbs; -an is used with active verbs) Ra-: to transform into Ra-CV-: light color of Ri-: catch, get Ru-: just now; for the first time sa-: have the event (natural phenomena); do, make, produce, have; secrete (body fluid); tool sam-CV-: pretend saqa-: ordinal (numeral) si-: wear, own, possess sia-: go towards (place/direction); go to the side (often euphemistic for urinating/defecating) sim-: reciprocal siqa-: (number of) times smu-: finger sna-: model of, copy of su-: remove; move downwards, upside down, slanting su-CV-: stink or smell of tan-: speak the language taRi-: position, people in such a position ti-: instrumental-focus; to take each other (?) ti- (-an): beneficiary-focus tRi-CV(C)- (-an): discharge (body discharge) with control u-: agent-focus; non-human numeral

Suffixes -a: irrealis patient-focus marker -an: locative-focus marker, nominalizer -i: irrealis non-agent-focus imperative

Infixes -m-, -um-: agent-focus -n-, -in-, ni-: perfective

References

Notes

General references

External links

The Academy in Taipei press release: Kavalan dictionary published Yuánzhùmínzú yǔyán xiànshàng cídiǎn 原住民族語言線上詞典 – Kavalan search page at the "Aboriginal language online dictionary" website of the Foundation for the Research and Development of Indigenous Languages Kavalan teaching and leaning materials published by the Council of Indigenous Peoples of Taiwan Kavalan translation of President Tsai Ing-wen's 2016 apology to indigenous people – published on the website of the presidential office