Nanwang Puyuma-English Dictionary

簡介

This work is not the result of an extensive lexicographic project. If it were, more attention would have been given to certain types of data such as floral and faunal identifications. For better or worse, with whatever lacunae, it represents instead data collected over many years of hearing and speaking the Nanwang Puyuma dialect with emphasis on the sorts of intimate details of everyday (and night) speech not ordinarily accessible to outsiders. Li & Tsuchida (2006:2) aptly note in their dictionary of another Formosan language that: ‘Kavalan is still an actively spoken language. As a result, it seems there is no end to what we can add to the Dictionary. We can always find a few new lexical items, forms, and examples on each field trip.’ This observation is particularly apposite for Nanwang Puyuma, where speakers admit they enjoy playing with words. As they say, sagar-ta parbua Da ngai ‘we love creating new words’, and misasa na Taw, sasaya tu-ngai ‘each person has his own words’.

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