Northern Formosan Languages - Northwestern Formosan

Northwestern Formosan

Li (2003) considers six western Plains languages to have split off from Proto-Northwestern Formosan. The classification is as follows.

• Northwestern
  • Pazih
  • (Branch)
    • Thao
    • (Branch)
      • Hoanya
      • (Branch)
        • Papora
        • (Branch)
          • Babuza
          • Taokas

The four coastal languages of Taokas, Babuza, Papora, and Hoanya share the following innovations (Li 2003).

1. Loss of *k
2. Loss of *-y
3. Merger of *s and *t in non-final position
4. Complete merger of *ŋ and *n

Thao shares the following innovations with the four coastal languages (Li 2003).

1. Merger of *s and *t
2. Merger of *ŋ and *n

Pazih has undergone the following two sound changes.

1. Merger of *j and *s as /z/
2. Merger of *C and *S₁ as /s/

Li (2003) does not consider Pazih to be very closely related to Saisiyat (Li 2003:946).