台灣南島語言的多樣性

The Great Diversity of Formosan Languages

國際南島語言學界一般都認為台灣南島語言的差異性最大，遠非其他地區（包括菲律賓、馬來西亞、印尼）的南島語言所能比。一個地區的語言歧異性愈大，顯示其時代的縱深愈長，就愈有可能是該語族的起源地和擴散中心。因此，各種台灣南島語言，包括已消失的幾種平埔族語言，都值得做深入的研究。本文首次全面檢驗各種台灣南島語言各層次的多樣性，包括詞序、焦點系統、助動詞、數詞、人稱代詞、複合詞、詞綴、音韻等，並且儘量涵蓋較少人知道的語言，如巴宰、巴賽、法佛朗、西拉雅。

Formosan languages are extremely diverse at all linguistic levels, from phonology to morphology to syntax. In fact, the Formosan languages are the most diverse within the entire Austronesian language family. This great linguistic diversity indicates a great time depth for an early settlement on the island, so as to make Taiwan the prime candidate for Austronesian homeland and the center of Austronesian dispersal. In this paper, we shall briefly survey the diversity of the Formosan languages, highlighting eight linguistic features: word order, focus systems, auxiliaries, numerals, personal pronouns, compounding, affixation, and phonology.