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Kavalan
kbaran, kebalan (Kavalan)[1]
Pronunciation	[kɨβaɾán]
Native to	Taiwan
Ethnicity	Kavalan
Native speakers	70 (2015)[2]
Language family	Austronesian East Formosan Kavalanic Kavalan
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ckv
Glottolog	kava1241
ELP	Kavalan
(dark green, north) The Kavalanic languages: Basai, Ketagalan, and Kavalan
Kavalan is classified as Critically Endangered by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger
This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA.

Kavalan (also known as Kvalan, Kebalan or Kbalan) was formerly spoken in the Northeast coast area of Taiwan by theKavalan people (噶瑪蘭). It is anEast Formosan language of theAustronesian family.

Kavalan is no longer spoken in its original area. As of 1930, it was used only as ahome language. As of 1987, it was still spoken inAtayal territories. In 2000, this language was still reported to be spoken by 24 speakers but consideredmoribund.

In 2017, a study using theEDGE metric from species conservation found that Kavalan, although critically endangered, was among the most lexically distinct of Austronesian languages.^[3]

Kavalan consists of the following speech communities ordered from north to south:^[4]

• Kariawan (Jialiwan 加禮宛) – nearHualien, a formerly Sakizaya-speaking area
• Patʀungan (Xinshe 新社) – located inFungpin (豐濱鄉),Hualien
• Kulis (Lide 立德)
• Kralut (Zhangyuan 樟原)

These speech communities in eastern Taiwan were named after older settlements from the north, such as Kariawan, Sahut, and Tamayan, where the Kavalan people originally migrated from. Modern-day Kavalan speakers are surrounded by theAmis.

Tsuchida (1985) notes that word lists collected from Lamkham 南崁 (Nankan) and Poting 埔頂 (Buding) are closest to Kavalan,^[5] while Li (2001) counts them as 'Basaic' languages.^[6]

Many Kavalan can also speakAmis,Taiwanese,Mandarin, andJapanese.^[4]

There are 15 consonants and 4 vowels in Kavalan.^[7]

In Kavalan,Proto-Austronesian phonemes have merged as follows:^[8]

• *n, *N, *j, *ɲ as n
• *t, *T, *c as t
• *d, *D, *Z as z
• *s, *S as s
• *q, *ʔ, *H are deleted

The following Proto-Austronesian phonemes are split:

• *k into q and k
• *l into r and ʁ (written as R)
• *a into i (if adjacent to q) and a

The Kavalan language is also notable for having a large inventory of consonant clusters. It is also one of the only two Formosan languages that hasgeminate consonants, with the other one being Basay.^[9] Consonant gemination is also common in thenorthern Philippine languages, but is non-existent in theCentral Philippine languages except forRinconada Bikol.^[10]

Kavalan nouns and verbs are distinguished by the lack of /a/ in the first syllable (nouns) or presence of /a/ (verbs).^[8] Kavalan syllables take on the structure (C)(C)V(C)(C).^[11] Kavalan is also one of two Formosan languages to havegeminating consonants.

Kavalan affixes include:

• m- (agent focus)
• -um-/-m- (agent focus)
• -in/-n- as variants of ni- (patient)
• -a (irrealis patient-focus marker)
• -an (locative-focus marker, nominalizer)
• -i (imperative, patient focus)
• pa- (causative)
• qa- (future)

Unlike many other Formosan languages, there is no *-en suffix.

Kavalan, like most other Formosan and Philippine languages, has many case markers.

• Nominative: a/ya
• Oblique: ta, tu
• Genitive: na, ni
• Locative: sa, ta- -an

Types of focus in Kavalan include:^[12]

1. Agent
2. Patient
3. Locative
4. Instrumental
5. Beneficiary

The Kavalan case markers below are fromLi & Tsuchida (2006:27).

The Kavalan Personal pronouns below are fromLi & Tsuchida (2006:30).

The Kavalan affixes below are fromLi & Tsuchida (2006:14–24).

Kavalan language test ofWikipedia atWikimedia Incubator

• Taiwan government publications: Kavalan dictionary(in Chinese)
• The Academy in Taipei press release: Kavalan dictionary published(in Chinese)
• Yuánzhùmínzú yǔyán xiànshàng cídiǎn 原住民族語言線上詞典(in Chinese) – Kavalan search page at the "Aboriginal language online dictionary" website of the Foundation for the Research and Development of Indigenous Languages
• Kavalan teaching and leaning materials published by the Council of Indigenous Peoples of TaiwanArchived 2022-02-28 at theWayback Machine(in Chinese)
• Kavalan translation of President Tsai Ing-wen's 2016 apology to indigenous people – published on the website of the presidential office

• Endangered Austronesian languages
• Formosan languages

• CS1 uses Chinese-language script (zh)
• CS1 Chinese-language sources (zh)
• Language articles citing Ethnologue 24
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Pages with non-English text lacking appropriate markup and no ISO hint
• Pages with non-English text lacking appropriate markup from March 2021
• Articles containing Kavalan-language text
• Pages with plain IPA
• Articles with Chinese-language sources (zh)
• Webarchive template wayback links