| Also Known As: Pazeh-kahabu,Lekwhan,Pazex,Pazzehe,Shekhoan,Sek-hwan,Pazehe,Kulun
Description:
Pazeh (Pazih) is the language of the Pazeh, a tribe of indigenous people on Taiwan (see Taiwanese aborigines). It is a Formosan language of the Austronesian languages language family. Kulun was a dialect. As there is only one speaker of Pazeh proper, 95-year-old Pan Jin-yu, the language is moribund.
While Pazeh contrasts voiced and voiceless obstruents, this contrast is neutralized in final position for labial and velar plosives, where only /p/ and /k/ occur respectively (/d/ is also de-voiced but a contrast is maintained). /l/ and /n/ are also neutralized to the latter. Voiceless plosives are unreleased in final position.
Mid vowels ([ɛ] and [o]) are allophones of close vowels (/i/ and /u/ respectively).
/a/ is somewhat advanced and raised when adjacent to /i/. Prevocally, high vowels are semivocalized. Most coronal consonants block this, although it still occurs after /s/. Semivowels also appear post-vocally.
The most common morpheme structure is CVCVC where C is any consonant and V is any vowel. Consonant clusters are rare and consist only of a nasal plus a homorganic obstruent or the glide element of a diphthong.
intervocalic voiceless stops are voiced before a morpheme..... full article at Wikipedia |
