| Also Known As: Tso,Tibolak,Tsuou,Tsu-wo,Tibolah,Tibola,Tibolal,Namakaban,Tsoo,Niitaka,Tzo,Tsu-u
Description:
The Tsou language is the Austronesian language of the aboriginal Taiwanese Tsou people.
The dialectal variation of Tsou is not great. There are four recorded dialects, Tapangu, Tfuea, Duhtu, and Iimcu, of which Tapangu and Tfuea are still spoken. Iimcu is not well described. The grammar of the other three dialects is nearly identical, and phonological variation is marginal: In certain environments, Tapangu /i/ corresponds to Tfuea and Duhtu /z/ or /iz/, and Duhtu had /r/ for Tfuea and Tapangu /j/. (Actually, older speakers were recorded to vary between [r] and [j], but at that point the dialect was moribund.)
Tsou has six vowels, /i ɨ u e o ɑ/. Vowel sequences occur, including sequences of like vowels (/ii/ etc.), but these are separate moras rather than long vowels or diphthongs. Vowels, especially back vowels, are centralized when flanked by voiceless alveolar consonants (/t, ts, s/). This may involve a central offglide, so that /o/ is pronounced as a diphthong [öə̯] or [ɵə̯] in this environment.
There are in addition the approximants /w/ and /j/. They surface as non-syllabic mid vowels [e̯] and [o̯], even in initial position (/jo~joskɨ/ [e̯oˈe̯oskɨ] "fishes"), explaining the..... full article at Wikipedia |
