Reconstruction of “parent” and “grandparent” in Atayalic languages

Atayal

アイヌ・先住民研究

This paper concerns the kinship terms “father,” “mother,” “grandfather,” and “grandmother” in the Atayalic languages, Atayal and Seediq, which belong to the Austronesian language family. This paper reconstructs the Proto-Atayalic forms for “parent” and “grandparent.” First, neither “father” nor “mother” in Proto-Atayalic are reconstructed through comparison with Atayal aba or Seediq tama for “father” and Atayal aya or Seediq bubu for “mother.” However, a form *aya can be reconstructed as “parent” in Proto-Austronesian, and Atayal aya is a retention of this form with a semantic change to a female parent. The other forms, aba, tama, and bubu, are shown to be innovations. Likewise, neither “grandfather” nor “grandmother” in Proto-Atayalic can be reconstructed through comparison with Atayal utas or Seediq baki for “grandfather” and Atayal aki or Seediq pai for “grandmother.” However, a form *aki can be reconstructed as “grandparent” in Proto-Austronesian, and Atayal aki is a retention of this form with a semantic change to a female grandparent. The other forms, utas, baki, and pai, are shown to be innovations. Thus, the Proto-Austronesian as well as the Proto-Atayalic forms for “parent” and “grandparent” are *aya and *aki. These forms are genderless. In addition, in the course of reconstructing these terms, previously reconstructed Proto-Austronesian forms *ama “father” and *ina “mother” are modified to meanings “son-in-law” and “daughter-in-law.”