Paiwan Every Day 85: kuya // nakuya

This is very sad. 

nakuya a semanpalak tua zuma, 

nakuya a marepaselapai itjen. 

In English:
Do not hurt others.
Do not abuse our own.

Paiwan Every Day 84: kiljivak

This is what I have to say to many.

masalu tua su kiljivak. 

In English:

Thank you for your love.

Paiwan Every Day 83: qulu

saqetju a ku kulu. 

In English:
My head hurts.

Paiwan Every Day 82: dravadrava

a ku salasaladj a kivangavangavang mavan a ku dravadrava.

In English:
Those who I have fun with are my best friends.

Paiwan Every Day 81: meljaianga

nu meljaianga a qudjalj, 

maqati aken a vaik a sema taihuku a kivangavang. 

In English:
If rain stops, I can go to Taipei to play.

Paiwan Every Day 80: kaljakaliman

nu kaljakaliman, iputjatjeketjekan a qudjalj. 

In English:
If it's rainy season, it rains non-stop.

Paiwan Every Day 79: undu

So I joined Fitness Factory. 

a icu a undu a ljemita tua qadaw, 

sikananguanqan nua tja kinacavacavan. 

In English:
Exercise every day makes us physically healthy.

Paiwan Every Day 78: semenai

senasenaii a timaimanga,

ulja tjen a natemalidu. 

sa mareziani patjatjiatjiaki, 

paiwan itjen a pimapuljatan. 

In English:
Let us all sing,
Hope we will have fun.
Let us dance together,
We are all Paiwan.

Paiwan Every Day 77: cabukan

In his "Prehistory of the Austronesian-Speaking People" (1995), Robert Blust uses comparative linguistic evidence to reconstruct nature, material culture, social organization, disease and death, and the spirit world of Early Austronesian society (EAN).

He concludes in the spirit of W. H. R. Rivers who made the same observation some eighty years ago that some features of Austronesian culture disappear along the route of migration, though culture loss is hardly unusual. Two notable examples are pottery and very-long distance sailing. In fact, only a handful of Austronesian languages in Taiwan still retain a few words that may infer navigation.

When discussing warfare, Blust cites the PMP reconstruction *qaRta, which means outsiders, alien people, and slave, but emphasizes that 'slave' in Austronesian "had none of the economic implications associated with slavery in the Western World and probably little of the cruelty. A slave was rather an outsider by birth who remained an outsider after capture..." (p. 491).

What is "slave" in Paiwan? I am curious.

• In CIP Online Dictionary, I found cabukan. I have never heard of this word, and I am going to ask mom and aunties if they have. 
• In Ferrell's "Paiwan Dictionary", I found semaneqemuzimuzip, to enslave. the root "quzip" means to nurture, and "qemuzimuzip" means animals. Morphologically, [semane-qemuzimuzip] means to make (someone into) an animal, that is to make one less than a human being. In this sense, I find it not so much different from the Western way. 

titjen a paiwan neka nu kakudan ta semancabukan. 

In English: 

We Paiwan do not practice slavery (according to Masegseg Zengror Gadu).

Paiwan Every Day 76: king

Today is difficult, though again very interesting.

With crop, one naturally pictures a farmer working in the field using tools like a hoe or a rake. With tool, Robert Blust starts to talk about metals that might have been available in Early Austronesian (EAN) societies for the making of farming implements, especially iron, copper et cetera. Linguistic evidence leads him and some others to consider "Proto Austronesians as literate metallurgists", though not without skepticism from archaeologists (p. 483, "Prehistory of the Austronesian-Speaking Peoples").

Most of Blust's examples for metal come from Proto-Western Malayo-Polynesian (PWMP) outside Taiwan. For Paiwan, the dictionaries and notebooks at my hand offer me the following:

Metal            Paiwan (Ferrell 1982)        Paiwan (CIP Online 2020)      Paiwan (Valjeluk Mavaliu)
iron                  vatjuljayan                            vatjuljayan                                        tjinar               
copper             paliljuk, liun                           vuljavan
lead                     tsiqi                                      ciqi
gold                                                                 king (borrowing)
tin                   vatjukun, banban                      tjinar
aluminum         vatjukun                                 arumi (borrowing)

While vatjuljayan, tsiqi/ciqi, king, and arumi appear consistent, the rest are contradictory and need explanation. How did the Paiwan acquire these words? Did they - obviously excluding the loaned king and arumi - exist in the society or were they introduced? Answers to these questions might tell us how literate Paiwan people were in metallurgy.

pazangal a kakavelian nua king tucu?

In English:
Is the price of gold expensive now?

Paiwan Every Day 75: silji

To continue with crops Paiwan people will also cultivate for consumption with the WorldVeg breeding lines demonstrated to seed companies, universities, and agricultural research institutes today at the field day:

English                               Paiwan

tomato                                tumatu (loanword), tjamunimuni

pepper (habanero)              silji

pumpkin                             siak, ljasiak, tjangkui, tjangtjang

bitter gourd                        kawkuy

Corns are planted around the fields to protect crops from wind. Corn in Paiwan is vudai, ljapanai, punug, or vaquvaqu. Looking at a colorful field in the rain is as beautiful as hearing an indigenous language used in daily life. そう思います。

a icu a silji izua laruaruq, izua lipurupuru. 

In English: 

Some peppers are long, some peppers are round.

Paiwan Every Day 74: vaqu

Linguistic evidences attest that in the early Austronesian society, grain crops, root crops, sugarcane, and various tree crops were cultivated (page 468 in Robert Blust's 1995 "The Prehistory of the Austronesian-speaking Peoples").

• PAN *pajay "rice"; in Paiwan today, rice is padai or qasalj. 
• PAN *baCaR "millet"; in Paiwan today, millet is vaqu. 
• PAN *biRaq "wild taro"; in Paiwan today, taro is vasa. 
• PAN *CebusS "sugarcane"; in Paiwan today, sugarcane is tjevus. 

While rice and sugarcane sound close, millet and taro are quite different.

namasanpazangal aravac a vaqu i kacalisian. 

In English: 

Millet is very important in indigenous villages.

Paiwan Every Day 73: djameq // nadjemameq

To continue with Professor Robert Blust's "Prehistory of the Austronesian-Speaking Peoples" (1995), in "Biotic Environment", Blust cites more examples, as follows:

• Proto-Austronesian (PAN) *Cumay "bear"; in Paiwan now, bear is also cumai. 
• PAN *lukeNaw "clouded leopard"; in Paiwan now, clouded leopard is also likuljaw. 
• PAN *Sidi "serow, wild goat"; in Paiwan now, goat is also sizi. 
• PAN *lutuk "hare"; in Paiwan now, rabbit is also lutjuk. 
• PAN luCuη "monkey"; in Paiwan now, monkey is drail, karang, ljavingan, or pucawan. 
• PAN *buhet "squirrel"; in Paiwan now, squirrel is also vutj. 
• PAN *qiSu "shark"; in Ferrell's Paiwan Dictionary (1982), shark is also qisu. 

I did not find the Paiwan words for PAN *buqaya "crocodile", which is as particularly noteworthy as "shark". 

Compared with examples for the physical environment, words for fauna appear more closely related to PAN. The curious thing is monkey; none of the Paiwan words spoken nowadays resembles the PAN form. Why? 

nadjemameq        tua     cumai         ti          vuvu               sapai. 

    caught-AV           OBL     bear        NOM     grandfather      sapai-name. 

In English: 

Grandfather sapai caught a bear. 

Paiwan Every Day 72: pukasivan

I am reading Professor Robert Blust's "The Prehistory of the Austronesian-Speaking Peoples: A View from Language" (1995). His aim is to discuss for non-linguists all aspects of the Austronesian culture history that can be inferred from the available linguistic reconstructions of Proto-Austronesian (PAN) and Proto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP).

In "Physical Environment", Blust's examples include:

• PAN *baRiuS "typhoon"; in Paiwan now, typhoon is vali, raljiz, or buhu 
• PAN *SuReNa "snow, ice, frost"; in Paiwan now, snow or ice is sulja or kuli
• PAN *Nabek "breakers, surf"; in Paiwan now, surf is viviq or liljau
• PAN * bukij "mountain; forested inland mountain areas"; in Paiwan now, forest is vukid, kasikasiven, or pukasivan

Based on a well-tested claim that "sound change is largely regular" (p. 455), Blust et al. are able to reconstruct PAN or PMP by citing and comparing indigenous languages spoken in Taiwan and elsewhere in the large Austronesian-speaking region. Some examples sound quite close to Paiwan now, while some don't. Change is also very interesting. 

pukasivan aravac a zua i kavulungan. 

In English: 

Mount kavulungan is full of prime forest.

Paiwan Every Day 71: kudraw, kuzulj, taitai

Pastor ljumeg's sermon at Tava Tavan Kiukai today was brief. She used COVID-19 raging in the States now and Titanic swallowed by the Atlantic in 1912 as examples to remind congregation of the virtue of sacrifice. 

kemeljang  mun      tua       ljayar     tucu   imaza       i          amirika       sakayama?
know-AV      you-P   OBL     plague    now      here       in-LOC  America            still

namakudakuda   a          caucau    a          mavannasaqetju         tucu? 
how                      NOM    people    LIG        have became sick         now

azua    namacai         tua   ljayar      imaza     i            amirika,
those  have died-AV   OBL  plague     here     in-LOC   America,

izua   alu a     kudraw    sa     lima   a     kuzulj   sa      siva  a    taitai   katua  lima   a      caucau. 
have   8   LIG  10,000    then     5     LIG   1,000    then     9    LIG   100     and      5    NOM  people

In English: 
Do you know what's happening with COVID-19 in the United States now?
How are the people, those who are infected?
Those who have died of COVID-19 in the United States amount to 85,905.

Paiwan Every Day 70: qidung

When I was a little child, we lived with grandparents. In Paiwan, grandparents and elders in the village are all vuvu irregardless of gender or blood ties.

Great-great-mother was also living with us at that time in late 1970s. Instead of vuvu, vuvu madraw and mother naluku taught me to call her vuvu qidung. I always thought it was because her skin was as dark as qidung or charcoal in English. I was so wrong! It is simply because qidung also means great-great-parent or great-great-child. 

Could these two meaings - charcoal and great-great-parent - be somehow related? I don't know, but I feel interested. 

navaikanga ti vuvu qidung. 

In English: 

Great-great-mother has passed.

Paiwan Every Day 69: peluseq

nu singlit aken tjanusun, peluseq aken. 

In English: 
When I miss you, tears well up in my eyes.

Paiwan Every Day 68: qemaung

a ku qemauqaung aken. 

In English:
Why am I crying?

Paiwan Every Day 67: vuvu

Reconstruction of Proto Austronesian (PAn) by linguists has been much cited by Taiwan's indigenous activists to back up the claim of "indigeneity". It is the theory that proposes with scientific evidences that Taiwan is the home of Austronesian-speaking peoples.

Yet, reconstructing a hypothetical proto language is laborious. Robert Blust reconstructs PAn via the study of personal pronouns (1977); Malcolm Ross attempts the same with PAn morphosyntax (2002); and today, I read Ross's paper looking at case-markers and case-marked pronoun sets for the same purpose (2006). There are still many other contributors.

Paiwan case-markers
NOM      GEN       ACC      OBL         LOC      Ligature
    a         nua/na      ---      tua/ta/tu     ---             a

Paiwan Personal case-markers
      NOM      GEN      ACC      OBL      LOC   
S      ti             ni           ---         tjai         ---  
P      tia          nia          ---         tjai         ---   

ti madraw a ngadan nua nia vuvu. 

In English:
The name of our grandmother is madraw.

Paiwan Every Day 66: gang

Also from Malcolm Ross's "The history and transitivity of western Austronesian voice and voice-marking" (2002), page 23, with word choice and spelling modified as per how Southern Paiwan is written now.

Ross was using this passage to explain the Paiwan patient voice does not share a major function of the English passive tense in suppressing the actor.

a        zua    a     ti     sa                 pucauan    cəkaljən     a         zua     a         qaciljai, 
SPEC that   LIG  PN   RESPECT     monkey   loosen-PV   SPEC  that     LIG       stone

maljimek            a          zaljum, 
PASSIVE-mud    SPEC    water

pacunan  a         zua     a       gang, 
see-PV    SPEC   that      LIG   crab

qucəqucən       sa             kani           aya. 
DUR-crush-PV   and.then    eat-PV.AT    thus.

Free translation: 
That Mr. Monkey, he loosened some stones, the water became muddy, he saw the crabs, and crushed and ate them.

Paiwan Every Day 65: qali

I've been reading Professor Malcolm Ross's paper on western Austronesian languages (2002) because he cites Paiwan as main examples. Though I follow the examples, the analysis replete with professional expressions is very advanced for me. Austronesian linguistics, my new Mount Everest.

Paiwan root "kan" (eat)
k<əm>an (keman)   actor voice neutral   'eater', 'someone who eats' 
kan-ən (kanen)   patient voice neutral    'food', something to be eaten'
k<in>an (kinan)   patient voice perfective    'consumed food', 'something eaten'
kan-an (kanan)   location voice neutral   'place where one eats'
si-kan (sikan)   circumstantial voice neutral   'eating utensil', 'something to eat with'

temekel a qaliqali tua vava. 

In English:

The stranger will drink wine.

Paiwan Every Day 64: puvaljaw

Yes, irregardless of culture, the only question a single will be asked in a wedding is this. Today every elder that I greeted asked me of this; one strongly recommended his brother-in-law. I smiled.

nungida sun a puvaljaw?

In English:
When will you marry?

Paiwan Every Day 63: quras

Cousin is getting married tomorrow, so I have to go home. To keep relatives' and villagers' grilling to the minimum, I scheduled a beauty massage, bought new Paiwan-style clothes, and had my hair dyed. Mostly, I just don't want people to gossip about the way I look behind my back and make mother sad. I begin to care.

pequras aken ka tjelu a puluq a ku cavilj.  

In English: 
My hair started to turn grey while I was thirty.

Paiwan Every Day 62: ari a mapuljat senasenai

ari a mapuljat senasenai, 

ari a mapuljat zianziani. 

ari a mapuljat kivangavangi, 

ari a mapuljat ljakaljakai. 

In English:

Let's sing. 

Let all of us dance. 

Everybody, come play. 

Come, everybody, let's play swing.

Paiwan Every Day 61: inamirikan

While looking for Paiwan words for the Paiwan social hierarchy - mazangil (chief), pualju (the noble and professional), and qaqetitan (commoners) - I came across with the words for any Occidental (how 古い) country and English, any European language:

amirika and in-amirika-n. (p. 57; Raleigh Ferrell's Paiwan Language, 1982)

It too follows the same morphological rule as paiwan and pinaiwanan, and does not distinguish an American from an English or a Spanish from a Dutch. They are all amirika people. Interesting enough for a paper of social history.

saigu aken a ikai ta inamirikan. 

In English:
I can speak English (or Spanish, or Dutch, or Danish, or Finnish).

Paiwan Every Day 60: vinecikan

The word "writing" also follow the same morphology rule as Paiwan and the Paiwan language.

But do indigenous peoples have writing? Some writers would say yes. The Easter Island (Rapa Nui) tablet writing Rongorongo is said to have high correlation with the Indus Script from Northern India, thanks to trade, commerce, and migration across large bodies of waters over many centuries.

izua maretimaljimalji a vinecikan i kacauan. 

In English: 
There are many different writing systems in the world.

Paiwan Every Day 59: siking (しけん 試験)

I passed.

mapuzangal ti aken ta ku sinparian ta siking tua rinipungan. 

In English: 
I am glad that I passed the Japanese test.

Paiwan Every Day 58: maculju

Temperature is higher than 36 degree Celsius all over Taiwan. Like summer!

maculju aravac a tucu a qadaw, maru kaljaculjuan. 

In English: 
Today is very warm, like summer.

Paiwan Every Day 57: palalaut

Pastor Ljumeg is like Professor Shigehiko. Her Paiwan is so advanced and elegant. Even if it will take me a lifetime to master the language of my mother and grandmother, I am doing it. That's my commitment; that's my prayer.

kitulu aken tua pinaiwanan kemasi tucu patje a palalautanga, amin. 

In English:
I am studying Paiwan from now until forever, amen.

Paiwan Every Day 56: sasupuin

I think I can pass N2, though my score will not be as impressive as that of N3. たぶんぎりぎりかもしれない。

What drew my eyes in the mock today is the name 外山滋比古 とやましげひこ (1923-). Now 96 years old and an Emeritus Professor of English literature and linguistics in retirement, Professor Shigehiko is still much quoted for his comments of the society. In the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) alone, I have come across with excerpts of his articles several times already. 

Professor Shigehiko writes sophisticatedly. His Japanese is not as accessible as that of reporters writing for newspapers like 朝日新聞 あさひしんぶん or 読売新聞よみうり しんぶん. But that’s why I continue to read him. 

kisamuljau tua su sasupuin. 

In English:
Work hard on your reading. 

Paiwan Every Day 55: saladj

Team is important. A good team makes the work more worthwhile for not only will the work be done, but team members will also become better motivated and prepared for new challenges here or elsewhere. Capacity building, so it is called.

It takes a good leader to build such a team. I received a call this evening in which the caller was persuading me to take up my previous role again. For them, I am the one. I said it will not happen soon, but it will. I promise.

tjengelai aken ta ku saladj a masengseng i ILRDC. 

In English: 
I like my colleagues at ILRDC.