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Thao (/θaʊ/; Thao: Thau a lalawa), also known as Sao, is the nearly extinct language of the Thao people, an indigenous people of Taiwan from the Sun Moon Lake region in central Taiwan. It is a Formosan language of the Austronesian family; Barawbaw and Shtafari are dialects.

Thao
Thau a lalawa
Native to	Taiwan
Ethnicity	820 Thao (2020)[1]
Native speakers	4 (2021)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Western Plains Formosan Thao
Dialects	Brawbaw Shtafari
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ssf
Glottolog	thao1240
ELP	Thao

Name

The name Thao literally means "person", from Proto-Austronesian *Cau. It is therefore cognate with the name of the Tsou.

History

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (September 2021)

In 2014, there were four L1 speakers and a fluent L2 speaker living in Ita Thaw (伊達邵) village (traditionally called Barawbaw), all but one of whom were over the age of sixty.^{[citation needed]} Two elderly native speakers died in December of that year, including chief Tarma (袁明智), age 75.^{[citation needed]} Four elderly L1 speakers and some semi-speakers were reported in 2021.[1]

Phonology

Consonants

Consonant inventory

	Labial		Dental		Alveolar		Post- Alveolar		Velar		Uvular		Glottal
Plosive	p	b			t	d			k		q		ʔ
Fricative	f	(v)	θ	ð	s		ʃ						h
Lateral Fricative					ɬ
Tap or Flap						ɾ
Nasal		m				n				ŋ
Approximant		w				l		j

Orthographic notes:

• /θ ð ʃ/ are written ⟨th z sh⟩. /θ/ is though written ⟨c⟩ in Blust's dictionary.
• /ɬ/ is written ⟨lh⟩
• /ŋ/ is written ⟨ng⟩. It's though written ⟨g⟩ in Blust's dictionary.
• /ʔ/ is written ⟨'⟩

Notes:

• The glides /j w/ are derived from the underlying vowels /i u/ to meet the requirements that syllables must have onset consonants and to indicate stress placement accurately.
• [v] is an allophone of /w/ occurring intervocalically.

Vowels

Vowel inventory

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
High	(e)		(o)
Low		a

Notes:

• Stress is penultimate, otherwise can be written ⟨á í ú⟩ as in "dadú", but doubling ⟨aa ii uu⟩ is also frequently used, as in "daduu".
• [e] and [o] occur as allophones of /i/ and /u/, respectively, when preceded or followed either by /q/ or /r/.

Morphology

Thao has two or arguably three patterns of reduplication: Ca-reduplication, full reduplication, and rightward reduplication (which is sometimes considered to be a form of full reduplication).

Thao verbs have the following types of focus (Blust 2003:239).

1. Actor: -um- (present), ma- (future)
2. Patient: -in, -in-
3. Locative: -an

Syntax

Thao word order can be both SVO and VSO, although the former is derived from Taiwanese Hokkien (Blust 2003:228).

The Thao personal marker is "ti" (Blust 2003:228). Negatives include "ani" and "antu"; "ata tu" is used in "don't" constructions. The perfect is marked by "iza", the past by an infix just after the primary onset consonant "-in-" and the future by the prefix "a-". Imperatives are marked by "-í" and softer imperatives or requests roughly translated as "please" by "-uan" sometimes spelled "-wan" which can co-occur with "-í".

Pronouns

The Thao personal pronouns below are from Blust (2003:207). Note that there is only 1 form each for "we (exclusive)," "you (plural)" and "they."

Thao Personal Pronouns

Type of Pronoun	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Agent	Patient
1s.	yaku	yakin	nak[2]
2s.	ihu	ihu-n	m-ihu[3]	uhu	uhu-n
3s.	thithu	thithu-n	thithu[4]
1p. (incl.)	ita	ita-n	m-ita
1p. (excl.)	yamin	yamin	yamin
2p.	maniun	maniun	maniun
3p.	thaythuy	thaythuy	thaythuy

Other pronouns include:

Affixes

The following affixes are sourced from Blust (2003:92-188) and adjusted to the modern spelling.

Notes

References

External links

• Robert Blust's audio recordings of Thao are archived with Kaipuleohone
• Yuánzhùmínzú yǔyán xiànshàng cídiǎn 原住民族語言線上詞典 (in Chinese) – Thao search page at the "Aboriginal language online dictionary" website of the Indigenous Languages Research and Development Foundation
• Thao teaching and leaning materials published by the Council of Indigenous Peoples of Taiwan (in Chinese)
• Thao translation of President Tsai Ing-wen's 2016 apology to indigenous people – published on the website of the presidential office

На других языках

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- [en] Thao language

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[fr] Thao (langue)

Le thao (autonyme caw) est une langue austronésienne parlée à Taïwan, au Sud du lac du Soleil et de la Lune. C'est une des langues de la branche des langues formosanes de la famille des langues austronésiennes.

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[it] Lingua thao

La lingua thao, conosciuta anche come sao, è la lingua parlata dal popolo Thao di aborigeni taiwanesi, residenti nella regione del lago Riyue, nella Taiwan centrale. Nel 2000 erano stimati circa 5-6 parlanti Thao, tutti sopra i 60 anni di età.La lingua thao è una delle lingue formosane, della più grande famiglia delle lingue austronesiane, ed ha due dialetti denominati brawbaw e shtafari.

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