| Basay | |
|---|---|
| Ketagalan | |
| Native to | Taiwan |
| Ethnicity | Basay,Qauqaut |
| Extinct | mid-20th century |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | byq |
byq.html | |
| Glottolog | basa1287 |
 (dark green, north) The Kavalanic languages: Basai, Ketagalan, and Kavalan | |
Basay was aFormosan language spoken around modern-dayTaipei in northernTaiwan by theBasay,Qauqaut, andTrobiawan peoples. Trobiawan, Linaw, and Qauqaut were other dialects (seeEast Formosan languages).
Basay data is mostly available from Erin Asai's 1936 field notes, which were collected from an elderly Basay speaker in Shinshe,Taipei, as well as another one inYilan who spoken the Trobiawan dialect.[1] However, the Shinshe informant's speech was heavily influenced by Taiwanese, and the Trobiawan informant, named Ipai, had heavy Kavalan influence in her speech.
Li (1992) mentions four Basaic languages: Basay, Luilang, Nankan, Puting.[2] Nankan and Puting are close toKavalan, whereasLuilang is divergent.[3]
There are four optional case markers in Basay.[4]
Some function words include:[1]
Trobiawan negators include:[1]
Yes–no questions are marked byu ~ nu.[5]
Basay verbs, like Kavalan verbs, distinguish between agent-focus (AF) and patient-focus (PF) verbs.[1] The perfective prefixes na- and ni- areallomorphs.
| Type of prefix | Neutral | Perfective | Future |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agentive focus (AF) | -um-, m- | na-mi- | -um- ... -a, m- ... -a |
| Patient focus (PF) | – | ni- | -au |
| Locative focus (LF) | -an | ni- ... -an | -ai |
The Basay pronouns below are from Li (1999).[6]
| Neutral | Nominative | Genitive | Oblique | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | singular | yaku | kaku, -ku | maku-, -aku; naku, -ak | yakuan, kuan, kuanan | |
| plural | excl. | yami | -mi | yami, -ami; nami, -am | yamian, mian, mianan | |
| incl. | mita | kita, -ita | mita, -ita; nita, -ta | ... , ... , tianan | ||
| 2nd person | singular | isu | kisu, -su | misu, -isu; nisu, -su ~ -is | isuan, suan, isuanan, suanan | |
| plural | imu | kimu, -mu | -imu; nimu, -im | imuan, ... , imuanan | ||
| 3rd person | singular | – | -ia | – | – | |
| plural | – | -ia | – | – | ||
Based in part on recordings and field notes made byAsai Erin [eo] in 1936, classes teaching Basay were offered in Taiwan starting in 2025.[7]
