Kanakanavu language

Kanakanavu (also spelled Kanakanabu) is a Southern Tsouic language spoken by the Kanakanavu people, an indigenous people of Taiwan (see Taiwanese aborigines). It is a Formosan language of the Austronesian family.

Kanakanavu
Native to	Taiwan
Region	Maya Village, Namasia District, Kaohsiung City
Ethnicity	360 (2020)[1]
Native speakers	4 (2012)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Tsouic ? Saaroa–Kanakanabu Kanakanavu
Language codes
ISO 639-3	xnb
Glottolog	kana1286
ELP	Kanakanavu
Kanakanavu is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

The Kanakanavu live in the two villages of Manga and Takanua in Namasia District (formerly Sanmin Township), Kaohsiung.^[2]

The language is moribund, with only 4 speakers (2012 census).^[3]

History

The native Kanakanavu speakers were Taiwanese aboriginals living on the islands. Following the Dutch Colonial Period in the 17th century, Han-Chinese immigration began to dominate the islands population. The village of Takanua is a village assembled by Japanese rulers to relocate various aboriginal groups in order to establish easier dominion over these groups.^[4]

Phonology

There are 14 different consonant phonemes, containing only voiceless plosives within Kanakanavu. Adequate descriptions of liquid consonants become a challenge within Kanakanavu. It also contains 6 vowels; phonetic diphthongs and triphthongs occur where vowels are adjacent. Vowel length is often not clear if distinctive or not, as well as speakers pronouncing vowel phonemes with variance. As most Austronesian and Formosan languages, Kanakanavu has a CV syllable structure (where C = consonant, V = vowel). Very few, even simple words, contain less than three to four syllables.^[5]

Consonants

Kanakanavu consonants^[5]

		Labial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n			ŋ
Plosive		p	t			k	ʔ
Affricate			t͜s
Fricative	voiceless	(f)	s				(h)
	voiced	v
Rhotic			ɾ	ɽ
Approximant					j	w

/s/ is pronounced [ʃ] before /i/ and /t͜s/ is pronounced [t͜ʃ] before /i/ and /ʉ/.^[5]

Vowels

Vowels^[5]

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ɨ~ʉ	u
Mid	e		o
Open		a

Orthography

Several texts have been transcribed by outsiders in the orthography of the Council of Indigenous Peoples of Taiwan, and a dictionary is available. ⟨C⟩ is used for /t͜s/, ⟨ng⟩ for /ŋ/, ⟨r⟩ and ⟨l⟩ for /ɾ/ and /ɽ/, ⟨ꞌ⟩ for /ʔ/, and ⟨ʉ⟩ for the central vowel.