Phonological Variation and Sound Change in Atayal

The spread of raised (ay) and (aw) in Yami: From regional distinctiveness to ethnic identity marker

“…This paper is structured around three specific research objectives. First, we provide further justification for why the S-N dialect classification as presented in Lai & Gooden (2016b is preferred over a SW-NE division as presented in Rau & Chang (2006) and Rau et al (2009). This is a crucial step because clearly defining dialect boundaries is essential to explaining the directionality of linguistic change between communities (Dinkin, 2013).…”

“…The first difference lies in the geographic distribution of word-final (ay) and (aw) variables. 2 Studies by Rau and Chang (2006) and Rau et al (2009) proposed a southwestnortheast (SW-NE) division, grouping Imowrod and Iratay speakers (on the southwest coast) into the unraised area, and Yayo, Iraralay, Iranmilek, and Ivalino speakers (on the northeast coast) into the raised area (Map 2). Gooden (2016b, 2017), however, suggested a southnorth (S-N) division since the data analysis showed that Ivalino speakers, in fact, patterned similar to Imowrod and Iratay speakers by overwhelmingly using the unraised variants for both diphthongs (Map 3).…”

“…Second, although Imowrod has long been the administrative center of the island, due to continued contact with Mandarin speakers, Imowrod and neighboring Iratay speakers had been suffering from rapid language shift toward Mandarin by the time the road was completed (Li & Ho, 1988). Today, only older speakers in these villages still preserve Yami in their oral communication (Chen, 1998;Rau & Chang, 2006;Lin, 2007;Rau et al, 2009;Lai, 2011). Furthermore, under the raised > unraised hypothesis, we might reasonably expect to see some residuals (raised forms) in older Ivalino speakers' speech (aged 80 and 81 at the time of recording), yet, this was not seen in the data.…”

“…There is strong evidence for contact-induced segmental change in Yami where the voiced alveolar lateral fricative [ɮ] has largely been replaced by the plain lateral [l] among younger speakers due to heavy contact with Mandarin (Lai & Hsu, 2013;Lai & Gooden, 2014). However, transfer from Mandarin cannot be the source of nucleus raising as it is difficult to explain why the raised variants are extensively used on the north coast, where Yami is best preserved (Li & Ho, 1988;Rau, 1995;Chen, 1998;Rau & Chang, 2006;Lin, 2007;Rau et al 2009;Lai, 2011), and only sporadically used in the south area, where the speakers are undergoing rapid language shift toward Mandarin.…”

“…This economic restructuring perhaps also explains why age was not selected as a predictor of vowel raising in earlier reports. For example, Rau and Chang (2006) and Rau et al (2009) collected data sometime between 1995 and 2000-a time that predates the tourism explosion and presented a relatively stable linguistic ecosystem that better secured the "territories" of raised and unraised forms respectively. 7 Accommodation-based processes do not fully account for dialect leveling either (Trudgill, 1986: 1-4;Giles & Powesland, 1997[1975; Kerswill, 2002Kerswill, , 2003Kerswill, , 2006Kerswill & Trudgill, 2005), as there is an emic perception of Yami as an egalitarian society rather than hierarchically-based (Rau et al, 2009), as is the case with many rural indigenous communities (Stanford, 2016).…”