A fossilized personal article in Atayal : With a reconstruction of the Proto-Atayalic patronymic system

Atayal

アイヌ・先住民研究

In Atayalic languages (Austronesian), including Atayal and Seediq, one’s full name is expressed by a patronymic system. For example, Kumu Watan literally means “Kumu, the child (daughter) of Watan.” This paper reconstructs the patronymic system of the Atayalic languages by dissecting personal names into a root and attached elements such as a fossilized personal article y- and a possessive marker na. Regarding the fossilized personal article, y-initial personal names and kin terms in Atayal (e.g., Yumin [a male name], and yama “son-in-law”) are compared with those in Seediq, which lack the initial y (e.g., Umin [a male name], ama “son-in-law”). The initial y in Atayal derives from the personal article i only when the root begins with the back vowels, a or u, and the attached i became y by resyllabification. This initial y- is referred to as a “fossilized personal article” in this paper. That marker seems to have lost its function as the personal article since these y-initial personal names or kin terms can further be preceded by an element derived from the personal article i, i.e., i (a nominative case marker), ni (a genitive case marker), and ki (a coordinator). One example is k-i Y-umin “with Yumin.” There is other evidence that the fossilized personal article y- is dropped under certain conditions, such as direct address and the attachment of the possessive marker na, and the prefixation of ka- “late.” In addition, this paper examines extensive data of a patronymic system recorded in Atayalic genealogies (Utsushikawa et al. 1935) in order to investigate the actual occurrences of the fossilized personal article and the possessive marker. Based on these analyses, the patronymic system is reconstructed in Proto-Atayalic.