Proto-Siraya language


The Proto-Siraya language is the reconstructed ancestor of the Sirayaic languages, one of the sub-branches under the Austronesian languages. Both Blust and Li considers Proto-Siraya belongs to East Formosan languages, along with Kavalanic and Amis languages.
Proto-Siraya includes at least three languages: Siraya, Taivoan, and Makatao. Li claimed Proto-Siraya might have split from the other East Formosan languages around 3,500 years ago, and began to develop nowadays Siraya, Taivoan, and Makatao 3,000 years ago.

Classification

Raleigh Farrell believes there were at least five indigenous peoples in the south-western plain of Taiwan at that time:
Based on the latest corpora, Li attempted two classification trees for Sirayaic languages:
1. Tree based on the number of phonological innovations
2. Tree based on the relative chronology of sound changes
Adelaar published his reconstruction of Proto-Siraya phonology in 2014:

Sound changes

Based on the comparison of the available corpora, Adelaar proposed a summary of sound correspondences between Proto-Austronesian and Proto-Siraya, comapared with Siraya or Taivoan in the 17th century, accompanied with the other three East Formosan languages, Basay, Kavalan, and Amis, proposed by Li :
Proto-AustronesianProto-SirayaSiraya Siraya or Taivoan BasayKavalanAmis
*p*pppppp
*t, *C*tttttt
*c--
*k*kkkk, h /_ak, qk
*qØØØQ
*b*bb/vb/vbbf
*d*ðs/d, -s-, -sd/r, -r-, -r/d
*-D--r, lzd
*z*dddr, lzd
*j*nnnnnn
*g--
*m*mmmmmm
*n*nnnnnn
*ñ?*nnnnnd
*ŋ*ŋŋŋŋŋŋ
*hØØØh, ?
*S*sØ, -s-Ø, -h-sss
*s*ss/h-, -s/h/x-, -xs/h-, -s/h/x-, -Øcsc
*R*xxh/Ø-, -h/Ø-, -xr, lr, l, Rl
*l*rrrcr, l, Rl
*r--
*N*łllnnd
*w*w, *uwwwwv
*y*yyyyyy
*a*aaaaa, i / *qa
*ə*əØØ
*i*ii, -i/ei, -i/eiii
*u*uuu/aw-, -u-, -u/awuuu

Comparison chart

Below is a chart comparing list of numbers of 1-10 in Sirayaic languages, including different dialects of Siraya, Taivoan, and Makatao language, spoken from Tainan to Pingtung in southwestern Taiwan, and from Hualian to Taitung in eastern Taiwan: