{"id":687,"date":"2007-04-12T12:54:36","date_gmt":"2007-04-12T04:54:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pinyin.info\/news\/2007\/truku-dictionary-released\/"},"modified":"2018-08-22T17:10:14","modified_gmt":"2018-08-22T09:10:14","slug":"truku-dictionary-released","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pinyin.info\/news\/2007\/truku-dictionary-released\/","title":{"rendered":"Truku dictionary released"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is reportedly Taiwan’s first dictionary of language of the Truku (Tàilǔgé<\/span> 太魯閣) tribe was released yesterday. The Truku are also known as the Sediq. They live mainly in Xiulin, Hualian County, site of the Taroko Gorge, one of Taiwan’s most scenic areas, which takes its name from the tribe (or perhaps vice versa). <\/p>\n

The work is based in part on a lexicon compiled in the 1950s, when a pastor at a local church began to translate the Bible into Truku. Six pastors at a local church have been working on the dictionary since 1999. <\/p>\n

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Words in Truku are created by adding prefix, postfix and midfix to root words. A root word can develop into as many as 40 words, Jiru [Haruq, one of the authors of the dictionary,] explained.<\/p>\n

Midfix is added into the middle of a root word by separating the root word.<\/p>\n

Taking an example from the dictionary, hakawis<\/em> a root word meaning “bridge” in Truku, hmhakaw<\/em> becomes “bridge-building”, mhakaw is a bridge builder, shakaw<\/em> is the reason to build a bridge and hkagan<\/em> is the location where the bridge is built.<\/p>\n

“Verb tenses and different parts of speech are also constructed by adding prefixes, postfixes or midfixes to a rood word,” Iyuq [Ciyang, another of the authors of the dictionary,] said.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Until recently, the Truku were seen as being part of the Atayal tribe.<\/p>\n

sources: <\/p>\n