Kwalia language
| Tayam | |
|---|---|
| Teyam, Taiyam, Enaawata | |
| Region | southern Awating |
| Ethnicity | Tayam |
| Native speakers | unknown: - possibly extinct (2009) - about 590 speakers claimed (2020) |
| Language family | Language isolate (previously classified as Ngerupic) |
| CWS code | ytm |
 | |
Tayam (autonym: táhɨyám), previously known as Taiyam, Teyam, or Enaawata, is a language isolate spoken in southeastern Awating.
Origins and discovery
Tayam's origins are unknown and the subject of controversy. Study of Tayam began in 1961 with the Awatese linguist Kama Řąziya Ngunim Ningną. Kama disappeared under mysterious circumstances after venturing from Kąkoma to the valleys of southern Awating, and his notes were published posthumously as Characteristics of the Teyam Language: A Preliminary Sketch. This put off many other linguists from attempting further study, and information from then on was few and far between. There were very few speakers willing to provide the linguists with any information, and Tayam was thought to be extinct from about the 1990s until about 2014.
Pre-Ngerupic hypothesis
In 2012, in Nguxi and Nąnim provinces near the Tayam-speaking villages, archaeologists discovered multiple stone tablets and palm leaves with some form of symbols or proto-writing inscribed thereon, dating to about the 4th-5th centuries BCE. They predate Awatese arrival on the Awatese coast by at least two centuries, and the symbols are unrelated to any Ngerupic script. If these symbols are proven to be proto-writing, this may provide evidence for possible Tayam literacy before Ngerupic settlement of the area.
Classification and number of speakers
Tayam has been proven to be a language isolate, unrelated to any other languages. There have been numerous controversies about its classification, stemming from prior lack of reliable information about the language.
Debate on Tayam as a Ngerupic language
From when study of the language began in the early 1960s to about 2014, very little reliable data was available about the language, due to the relative inaccessibility and isolation of the Tayam-speaking area and small number of speakers. While the sparse data did suggest that it may have been an isolate, linguists at the time generally classified Tayam as a Ngerupic language, owing to shared areal features in common with the Ngerupic languages of Awating.
Debate on Tayam as an Aga-Buod language
A few linguists, primarily Amang Řąziya Ngunrą Zahang, have posited that Tayam is related to the Ngigu language of southern coastal Awating, and therefore related to the Aga-Buod languages of Lahan via a Trans-Umo-Aga-Buod language macrofamily. This has not been accepted by mainstream academia and is regarded as a fringe theory.
Debate on Tayam as a constructed or artificial language
Some scholars have claimed that Tayam was invented by groups of rural bandits as a method of concealing information, citing its areally unusual phonology and grammar and lack of consensus about the language's mysterious origins. They also believe that the suspected proto-writing found near the Tayam-speaking area may have been a system of symbols used for the same purpose.