Zompist Bboard Again

Today I decided to go ahead and just publish the Diachronic Phonology of the Sataw Language. It certainly is not done definitively and it needs some editing too, but I am afraid my near future is uncertain when it comes to spare time. Also, it feels good to just have it off the table and out of my mind. All loose ends might be unloosed in a version 2 but for now; enjoy.

This looks great! I love the Formosan-Miyakoan hybrid you're going with here, and I like that it's an a-posteriori language which requires a modification to an already reconstructed proto-language, I don't think anyone else has done this before.

Let me chime in---I don't have the background to offer any useful feedback, but I read it all and was fascinated.

Thanks y'all!

Frislander wrote: ↑Mon Jul 08, 2019 5:43 am This looks great! I love the Formosan-Miyakoan hybrid you're going with here, and I like that it's an a-posteriori language which requires a modification to an already reconstructed proto-language, I don't think anyone else has done this before.

Interesting you call it a Formosan-Miyakoan hybrid. You sure have a keen eye, as it is not mentioned in the paper itself and I wanted to keep a level of mystery regarding the non-Austronesian influence in the phonology. Don't even know if that influence was Miyakoan exactly, but I picked up a fondness for syllabic fricatives somewhere thereabouts!

I wanted to avoid having to come up with my own lexemes and deriving them from Proto-Austronesian is nice enough, yet it's easy to become too constrained by a proto-language. Also, debates on the inventory are a common thing for all proto-langs. Why not develop a laryngeal-like theory that explains experimental Sataw permutations, at the cost of some ancient postvelars?

If you have any other feedback, I'd love to hear it as I do intend to expand on this document when I have some time.

This ol' thread will suffice to document some daydreaming related to the conworld.

[Note 156]

Let us imagine we are departing from the northern tip of Formosa and are sailing in oriental direction. Long after we have lost sight of the land of departure, but before our stomachs can get accustomed to the fierceness of these seas, we reach the first rocks poking out from the water, that form the boundary of the domain of the Sataw.

As we proceed, we sight the steep, carved slopes of Fuku island, covered in dense, but low reaching forests and patches of marram grass. Unlike other islands of the Kuroshio, there is no coral reef to protect Fuku and our approach by boat, or any other transport for that matter, seems particularly daunting and uninviting. The island’s south side consists of uninterrupted cliffside. The other parts of the coastline are a lot less abrupt, but there are still only a handful of sheltered points where we can land.

In this subtropical climate, there is no real dry season and Fuku's shining green summit is often surrounded in mists that together with the trailing white clouds contrast with the midnight-blue seas like the regions of color known from "multiform" expressionist paintings.

The sand of the thin stripped beach we will land on is not clear, but darkly hued by minerals and thus not very alluring from a recreational viewpoint. However, the experience one has by standing on the fringes of trees, palms, bushes and ferns, with above them stark slopes of shaded greens and with our backs to vast foam-topped seas is.. poetical.

[Note 157]

Now let us say for a minute that we are still on Formosa and we point in the direction of Fuku island, asking the Formosan natives who have gathered: “What is over there?”

The group around us collectively starts to murmur. “A land of specially wicked and arcane magic,” one says. “They are sly and treacherous, eternally smiling and seemingly very self-satisfied. Their facial features sharper, their eyes more slanted than ours.”

“Some object of trade can only be acquired from Sataw traders: king honey combs, pickled sea cucumbers, salted mushrooms, haha basking traps and ornamental wood carvings, very detailed and more intricate that our local ones.”

Another elder chimes in. “They are skilled and sought after animal doctors. When your lifestock is ailing, meeting a Sataw it is considered a good omen”.

“In older times,they would come ashore and barter with our tribe, only for the Sataw to cause a fracas and then use the commotion as a distraction to find a native girl and capture her, take her to Fuku, knowing well that their skill in conjuring, and the remoteness of their island would deter pursuers or retaliation. Nowadays, they stay away altogether.” Some men shout in approval.

Naturally our curiosity is aroused. It seems the Sataw are at the same time, at least in the eyes of these Formosans, more base and cruel, yet skilled and orphic. We must prepare well for the journey.

[Note 180]

To the Sataw, trade relationships are exclusively established between persons, not between tribes. A specific individual will recognize another as fiay ‘exchange partner’¹. In times when parties from Formosa still frequented Fuku to trade or visit, they included a chief or village elder. These groups were usually would be received in ceremonial fashion and could expect to be hosted and entertained by someone of at least equal status. When one of the partners happens to be absent, the exchange is stalled untill his or her return, or a new tsiiŋsi ‘trade arrangement’² must be forged.

A Sataw woman recalls that “about twenty years ago we travelled to the mainland (Formosa) to conduct the spring barter with the some Red Top³ clans. Once we arrived, we learned that war had broken out between clans the previous year. At the first stop we were received, but our usual host had been killed in the fight and no trade could be conducted at time, and then we travelled to the next village, but there too the partner had died.”

Rimtsiiŋsi ‘to establish a trade arrangement with so’ is a process that might take multiple visits before it is concluded. When done between Sataw it usually requires less formalities to finalize than is the case with exogamous trading. The two prospective parties first exchange speeches and ceremonial attentions. Then, a genealogy is sung that explores the question of whether forebearers already had been exchange partners, accompanied by some gift giving. Even before this process has come to a close and the tsiiŋsi is formalized, both parties implicitly can call for help or favors.

Because the organization of a tsiiŋsi is resource and time intensive, it is mostly reserved for village chiefs. A consideration is that when a partnership fails and an exchange goes south, for instance when one party cannot fulfil its side of the deal, it is ground for conflict and the disadvantaged side will want to enforce their perceived rights.

Regular villagers do also maintain trade partnerships, but these are centred around the exchange of lower value goods like common foodstuffs and it is generally agreed that day to day trading does not constitute tsiiŋsi.

Footnotes
1. Etymology unknown.
2. The noun tsiiŋsi is a back formation from the verb+noun construction r<am>ima-tsiiŋsi ‘to hand + citrus fruit sp.’
3. It is unclear what group is referred to, but it is likely it refers to a subgroup of a tribe of the northern plains, i.e. the Basay or Qautqaut.