Text analysis of Favorlang by Paul Jen-kuei Li (review)

The monograph under review, Text analysis of Favorlang, by Paul Jen-kuei Li is an important grammatical description of Favorlang, an extinct Formosan language. The monograph elaborates 19 texts, 271 pages long, for the analysis of the Favorlang language.

The monograph consists of an introduction (including 9 sections), 14 short catechistic texts, and 5 longer sermons. I will first pay special attention to reviewing the introduction, consisting of a general background of the Favorlang language, the nature of the written documents, the problems of Dutch orthography, the linguistic position of Favorlang, and, more attentively, the language description of Favorlang. The language description is composed of phonology, morphology, and syntax. Next, I will provide comments on the text analysis and add some observations based on the texts that are not mentioned or discussed in the monograph. These additional observations will help readers have a better understanding of the Favorlang language.

The introduction consists of nine sections: (1) general background, (2) Favorlang written documents, (3) the linguistic position of Favorlang, (4) Favorlang orthography and its phonetic interpretations, (5) historical phonology, (6) morphology, (7) syntax, (8) miscellaneous problems, and (9) work on Favorlang texts.

The first section of the introduction addresses Favorlang's status as a language; it was at one time spoken in the central-western plain of Taiwan, but the last known native speaker passed away at the end of the nineteenth century, and the language is now dormant. There is little language material documented for Favorlang and other closely related Western Plains languages, Taokas, Babuza, Papora, and Hoanya. The 14 short catechistic texts and 5 longer sermons with interlinear glosses and translations are the most significant data for text analysis of Favorlang and allow for a better understanding of the now-dormant Favorlang language.

The second section introduces written documents of Favorlang. During the Dutch period (1624–1662), the only two Formosan languages that were documented were Siraya and Favorlang. The remaining written documents of Favorlang include (1) a Favorlang vocabulary by Gilbertus Happart (1650) and (2) prayers, catechisms on Christianity, and sermons by Jacobus Vertrecht (1888).

The third section focuses on the linguistic position of Favorlang. Ogawa (1930) hypothesized that Favorlang was closely related to Babuza, by comparing wordlists of these two languages. Favorlang and Babuza share some phonological innovations that have not been unearthed in most Formosan languages.

The fourth section discusses orthography and phonetic interpretations of Favorlang. Li describes the orthography in the documents as inconsistent. Different forms are used for the same lexical items, for example, macha ∼ magcha 'eye' and imoch ∼ imogh 'weeds'. He also mentions that no clear distinction can be made on free variations of voiced and voiceless obstruents (e.g., parras ∼ barras 'to let go' and t<umm>akal ∼ d<umm>akal 'to put on a woman's head-band'), free variations of affricates and fricatives (e.g., bottos 'cat', bottots o adda 'a musk cat'), and free variations of ch ∼ gh ∼ gch ∼ g (e.g., chach ∼ chagh 'powder of a ground seed', borroch ∼ borrog 'a bump', and bigh ∼ big 'scabby'). Note that in the Dutch orthography, ch ∼ gh ∼ gch ∼ g all indicate the velar fricative [x] (p. 6). For more discussion on phonology and orthography, readers are referred to Li (forthcoming), to appear in 'Favorlang', in Handbook on Formosan languages, ed. by Paul J.-K. Li, Elizabeth Zeitoun, and Rik De Busser.

Six sound changes that have taken place in Favorlang are mentioned in the fifth section. Taokas, Babuza, Papora, Hoanya, and Thao, five Western Plain languages, exclusively share the sound changes (a–d) and (f). These are (a) merger of *n and *ŋ as n; (b) partial merger of *t, *s, and *Z as t; (c) merger of *N and *S₁ as s; (d) complete loss of *k, *q, and *H; (e) partial loss of *R, *j, including loss of final *-y and *-w; and (f) *s (in initial and medial positions) > t (p...