Streams Converging Into an Ocean, 631-651 2006-8-005-026-000195-1
tu ngay kana birua “Words of the Spiritual Beings”: A Linguistic Analysis of (Nanwang) Puyuma Ritual Texts∗
Josiane Cauquelin LASEMA/CNRS
Studies of Austronesian peoples have not paid much attention to the words said by the religious practitioners. This study of the invocations of both male and female religious officiants of the Puyuma shows how the “spirits’ language” possesses a perfect matrix. The form and rhythm help them memorize the invocations which they pronounce in short, rhythmic phrases: the melodic element of the tonality or the assonances and alliterations generate an acoustic wave. All these formulas, repeated daily, insure a relative automatism. The “language of the spirits” is certainly not the sum of unused ancient elements of contemporary language, even though the Puyuma say it is an “ancient language” which only spirits and officiants understand. Some words are probably words of the past more or less transformed and used only for their phonetic value. The “language of the spirits” is not a secret one. The fact that people are unaware of its meaning does not result from a prohibition but simply from ignorance even of the officiants and especially from the indifference of those who do no use it.
Key words: Puyuma, shaman, linguistic analysis, poetical expression
1. Introduction
It is an honour for me to contribute to a festschrift dedicated to Professor Li. This study is a small contribution to his great lifetime salvation of the Formosan languages. The Puyuma inhabit the Taitung plain in the south-east of the island of Taiwan. They speak an Austronesian language, and are divided into two dialectal groups: the group “born of a stone”, and the one “born of a bamboo”. The first comprises eight villages, the second the single village of Puyuma (Nanwang for the Taiwanese administration). This village, the object of the present research, occupies a peri-urban position five kilometres from the town of Taitung.
∗ I am grateful to Prof. Cheng Chin-chuan, director of the Institute of Linguistics (2004/02- 2006/07), Academia Sinica, for his invitation, I am also thankful to the NSC for sponsoring the Archiving project on Puyuma (NSC 95-2811-H-001-001), and especially the linguistic analysis of the ritual texts I have collected over a period of 25 years.
Josiane Cauquelin
Since 1983, I have conducted an ethnographic study of the Puyuma society and cultural traditions that have led me to further investigate their religious practices (shamanism)1 and allowed me to record and transcribe ritual texts from both male and female officiants2, among which twenty five have been linguistically analyzed. The ritual language is reserved to these two categories of religious practitioners and is said to be incomprehensible by the layman. The present study outlines the different stylistic and linguistic processes that underline each invocation. Ritual functions are assumed by male called bnabulu, and female religious officiants referred as tmararamaw, the latter being shamans. In 2006, only three men and two women shamans were still practising (see the appendix for a list of the rituals performed by these two kinds of officiants). Male religious practitioners are in charge of the socio-cosmic unity of the entire society, performing the regular cyclical rites concerning the life of the group. Through their relationship with the mythical founding ancestors of the group, they are attached to their territory. Female shamans intervene on a day-to-day basis, and are concerned with immediate social relations between men, and play the role of therapists, exorcists, and sometimes soothsayers. They live in the present. The shamanistic ritual is punctual and circumstantial, hence the setting up of an altar at each intervention. It is impossible for a woman to become a shaman unless she has shaman ancestors, one of whom becomes the elector-spirit, the principal birua who will help her in her work. Up to recently, religion was the key element of Puyuma identity. No Puyuma was insensitive to the manifestations of birua3 which I have classified in three categories according to the spaces they inhabit, the kaisatan, the kaaulasan and the third category, which seems to be “homeless”. The “homeless” birua seem to be limited in number, with extensive, ill-defined functions. The most important is tmaba, “he who watches from afar”; beneath him is malaam4 “he who knows”, and puridiwan,5 “he who takes care of small details”. Birua inhabiting a named space such as the pantheon of kaisatan6 intervene in the immediate environment; superiority implies inaccessibility for ordinary human beings. Here we can find the ritual pantheon, peopled by supernatural beings defined by their territorial identity, their relations with nature or their historical dimension, such as the mythical ancestors. “Birua of the natural order” such as mialup, lit. “master of the
1 For details, see Cauquelin (2004). 2 Cf. Appendice, table of rituals performed by the two officiants. 3 birua is an asexual term. 4 < laam: “to know”. 5 632 tu ngay kana birua “Words of the Spiritual Beings” hunting-ground”, rbanbanaw, lit. “the rising sun”, etc. “Birua of the social order”, such as temuadkal/tmuadatar, lit. “those who make the village”, tinuadkal, lit. “those who made the first village”, miadatar/miadkal, lit. “those who have the village”, etc. “Birua of everyday life”, such as bini, “seed”, bnabais/mauun, “masters of change”. Birua who are ancestors, such as tmuamuan/maidaidaan, “the ancestors/the old persons”. The list is not exhaustive, and each place calls forth a birua, the “master of the place”. The formulation of its name reveals its function: /mi/: “have” + place or object, e.g., miawakal 7 There, where the shaman ancestors live, those to whom she speaks. 8 633 Josiane Cauquelin For the female shamans, each new problem generates a ritual previously unknown. The relevance of the ritual is focussed to such an extent on a temporary indisposition that a new ritual may be invented12 to solve a problem generated by contemporary life. In reality the arrangement of the sequences of a seance is always the same: informing/ summoning13 the spirits, pakalaam, diagnosis, cure, thanksgiving: kmadadaus, and sending back the spirits: pntik. 2. The stylistic forms of the ritual language The stylistic analysis of the language shows clearly that each invocation proceeds of six different types: systematic doublings, metonimies, loans, archaisms, assonances and metaphors. The rythmic of words coupled with the systematic use of doubling makes a perfect matrix for the overuse of synonyms. The automatism of doublings confers to the invocations a sense of poetry and seems to leave the words with nothing else but their sonority. This aesthetic aspect is necessary to make the performance efficient. The patients let themselves be carried away by the rapid fluidity of the words, which they do not wish to remember anyhow, for they are reserved to the religious practitioners. As will become clear below, the language is neither mysterious nor income- prehensible although it looks so. It belongs, rather, to another level. The affixation and phonological processes belong to the common language and can be easily retrieved. What renders the ritual language dense and obscur are the specialized lexical corpus and the sequencing of terms without construction markers. 2.1 Systematic doublings Many invocations represent doublings. The wealth of the systematic use of synonyms or pseudo synonyms generates an iteratio style which consists in diversifing one thought. In the long enumeration of the names of the spirits, the systematic 12 The shaman is the spirits’ interlocutor, and they are supposed to communicate to her, in dreams, the organisation of a new ritual. For several years, the river had been overflowing frequently, flooding a field, but no ritual existed since this kind of disaster had never occurred in the past. The doyenne of the shamans dreamed of the rite, the arrangement of the areca nuts, and the invocations. The rite was successfully performed. 13 They not only inform the spirits that they are working but more, they summon them to help. The spirits work, not the shamans, the latter are only their spokeperson. 634 tu ngay kana birua “Words of the Spiritual Beings” parallelism combined with the omission of the construction markers14 generate a rapid pronunciation, cf. the long invocation said by the doyen in 1993: pakalaam- ku/pasltu-ku, kana miaais/kana miaklp, mibabuyul mibabuay, tmuadatar/ tmuadkal, mibaisin/misaikid: I inform/I inform, the master of the sky/the master of the hunting grounds, master of the territory/master of (undecipher term), maker of the village/maker of the village, master of the gates/master of the gates.15 According to the officiants, the second term, if known, does usually not bring any new information to the content of the doubling. Its existence is conditioned by verbal prosody. It is put into synonymy even if its meaning is somewhat different, cf. verses 6 and 23 in kmaayaman (enclosed herein) maka ribriban/maka tinibtiban: the first term means “a slopy path” and the second “a river bank path”; cf. also verse 23 kagrgran/kararaa: the first word means “to be afraid” and the second “to dislike”. There are also complementary dyadic sets such as kandi mara-itul/mara-maida “the youngest, the oldest” or maiabklan/maialbakan “inside every furrow and upon every butte”. 2.2 Metonymies Series of metonymies are often used to refer to hunting activities because wild animals do not know how to decode them. The Puyuma, in spite of all the forbidden laws are still hunting. Preparations for hunting are organized in the greatest secret because animals are said to possess a keen sense of smell and sharp hearing. Animals’ names are not pronounced because otherwise “they would flee”. One may talk of the boar’s head as surgirgis/surburubut, or refer to its “tusks”, cf. wali. Deers are mentioned through their “antlers”, cf. suaalan/subaulan. As for dogs, they become pakakarunan/pakasasunan “the ones which receive orders”. For surgirgis the translation is “a frightening thing”, thus it should be derived from gerger “to be all of a sudden afraid”,16 vowels having been changed to create an esoteric language. When mentioning their sacred bag, the shamans use a pinayapay, a niyubayub. The term pinayapay, which represents the nominalized form of the verb paypay “to float in the wind”, refers to the ribbons of the shaman’s bag. The meaning of the second term has not been worked out yet. 14 In Puyuma, each noun or noun phrase must always be linked to the verb or any other word or phrase in the sentence by an appropriate construction marker. 15 I am very thankful to Dr. E. Zeitoun for offering much helpful advice for improving the entire manuscript. 16 Isaw, my late informant, translate this term as “boars with fluffed hair”. 635 Josiane Cauquelin 2.3 Words borrowed from neighbouring languages The ritual language displays words borrowed from neighbouring languages. Some of these loans come from Japanese and express modernity, e.g., kikay “sewing machine” in the doubling kana misi, kana kikay, whereby the shaman informs the spirits of her using a machine for sewing the ritual bags. Other words come from neighbouring groups. For example, in the doubling: kana biki, kana puran, puran is the Puyuma term for “betel nut” while biki is, according to the Puyuma, a word borrowed from the Paiwan, although it is a widespread term around Taiwanese aborigines.17 Whenever a woman is concerned in a ritual, both officiants refer to her as: kan buay/kan asin. The former is used daily and means “beautiful”, but the daily word for young lady is buabuayan, not buay. The latter, asin, is a male surname which is also found in Pazih18 as a personal male name. 2.4 Archaisms Archaisms are certainly the most difficult words to detect and to analyze. When their meaning is known and understood, what is hard to determine is whether they represent reflexes of PAn, belong to an older linguistic substratum or should be analyzed as loans. I give a few examples below. Whenever the invocations mention men, the shamans say: kan basar, kan manasaw, where basar means handsome for a young man, though the daily word for “young man” is basaran; the origin of manasaw is opaque. The term manasaw can tentatively be decomposed as mana- ‘prefix with unknown meaning’ and saw (< aw “person” in the everyday life language). One reason to postulate such a hypothesis is that PAn *C has become // in Puyuma, but is reflected as /s/ in the ritual language, e.g., Puy: angi < PAn *langiC “sky” corresponds to angis in the ritual texts (L. Sagart, p.c.). Another possibility is that manasaw is a loan from a neighbouring group. In other doublings such as datar/dkal “village”, the second term is used daily while the first belongs to an older linguistic substratum: datar has been reconstructed by J. Wolff (1999:189) in languages ranging throughout the Austronesian area as “flat land”. 17 Cf. R. Ferrell (1982:259) saviki: “Areca catechu (tree and nut). But it is a commun term in Taiwan Cf. Blust (2003:903) PAn *Sawiki “the areca palm and its nut”; Dyen (1995:498) *]abigi[, Bab[O] abigi, Hoa[O] abigi “areca nut”. 18 Cf. Li and Tsuchida (2001:73): asin: “male personal name; plant sp. Ardisia sieboldii Miq.” 636 tu ngay kana birua “Words of the Spiritual Beings” During the maayaw festival, men do not use the usual term utu for monkey, but uay or uaw which they translate as “monkey-friend”. However, uay19 is still in use in the villages of Kasabakan and Katipul. The term mibabuyul, classified as “old word” by the Puyuma, might also represent an archaism cf. *buyuQ2 (Dyen 1995:486). In March 2006, one informant, aged 70 years old, said that when he was young, the Puyuma would say nanta babuyul for nanta dadar “our territory”. This has been confirmed by Irubai’s mother, aged over 80, but Irubai, who is one of the two last shamans, does not know the meaning of this term.20 Another possibility is that mibabuyul represents a loan from Amis (Sakizaya dialect), cf. buyuq, mountain (Dyen 1995:486). It seems that certain words are the product of the imagination or are “fabricated” through phonological transformation: e.g. ataiyan/ataiyap is translated as “to walk like a drunk man”. The first term may come from maiay “to be drunk”, but for the second, the officiants just reply “it is an ancient word” or “it is the word of the spirits”. One difficulty encounted in my work is that words are often distorted. I usually have to ask again and again until one can correct a distorted word. My late informant, temamataw Shetiang, a male officiant, used to say aniuniu “to forget”. Irubai, on the other hand, pronounces it as aliuliu “to take something on the way”. This term is always used in the negative form and mean “not to take on the way”, i.e., “to forget”. Temamataw Shetiang later admitted that transcribing the words into Japanese katana distorted them more easily. 2.5 Assonances which facilitate memorization are combined with a trend in consonantal or vocalic alliterations Examples of alliterations are numerous, e.g. the doublings na kuku, na kuku “a puppy”, mialup, miaklp “master of the hunting grounds”. Up to now, I have never received a satisfactory explanation to account for the meaning of miaklp. According to the officiant, it means “the spiritual entity of one hunting-ground” or “... of the plains” or “... of the borders”. Another informant gave two different meanings “nest” and “to reside”. But when I constructed sentences with klp – which in that case should be the root – he just laughed. To me, it seems that the officiants play with the glottal stop, accentuating it until one hears the voiceless stop consonnant /k/. The repetition of the words accompanies this custom. There is a strong tendancy to consonantal or vocalic alliteration, i.e. supra sugirgis. Besides, alliterations are often accompanied by onomatopoeias or are themselves 19 Cf. R. Blust 1995:598. 20 In one generation, the Puyuma have simplified their vocabulary. 637 Josiane Cauquelin onomatopoeic, e.g. a gutgut < gugut “incisor teeth”; in the invocations it means “scandalmongering” but in English one would say “blab”; cf. also a nirara, a dmdm for “heart”. For the first, the Puyuma explain that it comes from ar “feelings”. The Hakka people are called uuay, because they speak with a nasal accent. In maiabklan, maialbakan, the first term bkl can be translated as “butte”; mai- means “to gather together” The suffix -an refers to a “location”; the second term maialbakan is formed the same way, with the root lbak “furrow”. The same vowels and consonnants are used to help construct the doubling. 2.6 An extended use of metaphors The Puyuma make plenty use of metaphors, whereby the real meaning of a concept is dissimulated by a symbolic image. For instance, in the doublings a amian, a buan or a amian, a bkaan which translate as “one year” the first term a amian means “the duration of a year” (cf. ami ‘year’ + -an “TempNmz”) while a buan refers to a “bamboo inter-nod” and a bkaan can be glossed as “new, start”. In the doubling a maap, a murabarabak “deceased shamans”, the first term maap is formed of the verbal base ap “to lie down”, which is reduplicated (cf. Ca- reduplication) and is infixed with <m> “AF”; the second term murabarabak is formed of the root rabak “to encircle”, which undergoes CVCV- reduplication and prefixed by the the AF mu-. To understand the meaning of this second term, an ethnographic note is in order: for a newly enthroned shaman, the villagers say that “she is not yet encircled”, ai ia murabarabak, which suggests that “her prayers are not yet correctly said”. Thus, the literal translation for this doubling is “those who lay down” -- we could add “for ever” -- those who are “encircled with”. For their sanctuary, the shamans use kadi saaan/kadi dawayan: “here on your creation/here on your body”; kadi suudan/kadi lawinan : “here in the hanger/here in the hanger”; kadi turikan/kadi ayaran : “here on the shelf/here on the shelf” — saa/daway “to make/body (in the sense of creation); suud/lawin “to hang over”; turik/ayar “row/to line up”. 638 tu ngay kana birua “Words of the Spiritual Beings” 3. Poetical expression: Two case studies Two texts are examined below to show the poetical expression of the ritual texts.21 The first, kmaayaman, belongs to the sacred songs, pairairaw, and is only sung by elderly men and heard only during the ceremonial cycle of maayaw. The second one is a prayer that was said by the shaman Irubai. 3.1 First case study: kmaayaman “the sayings of birds”, by tematataw Shetiang (recorded in 1983) 1. kaayaman kadran the genuine Bird the genuine name 2. isua idu imama idu where this what this 3. na spuspuy na aiai the Sepusepuy the ali’ali 4. kadini ami kadini away here north here ahead 5. maibaiyan mailbsan strong wind season wind 6. maka niribriban maka tinibtiban on the sloppy path along the river bank 7. kana mananayun kana maaapus of the uninterrupted mountain ranges of the untie mountain ranges 8. maka naya ta maka dinanuma ta we go along the water we go along the water 9. tardkaw tarunuaw we have arrived we have reached 10. kadi ibaibal kadi mnanan here the mountain slopes here the mountains 11. imamata kadi isuata kadi what are we here where are we here 12. imarabinaw imanabinb at imarabinaw at imanabinb 13. tmiatiaw muinainaw we are swaying round we are going round in circles 21 For a morphophonemic analysis of the ritual texts, see Cauquelin (forthcoming). 639 Josiane Cauquelin 14. maka suaa ta maka imaya ta where do we come from where do we come from 15. maka tiniwanaana ta maka tinimaana ta somewhere from the mountain pass somewhere from the forest glade 16. kana malalamu kana mananayun of the endless mountains of the uninterrupted mountains 17. tabatabaaw tuutuuraw looking from above looking from far away 18. isua kadiu imama kadiu where is it over there what is it over there 19. smdsd muraduradum looking like eyebrows -- 20. tapakumawata tapakudiawata we confirm it we are doing it that way 21. ai ku pakumaw ai ku pakudiaw I have not understood clearly I have not confirm it 22. kala dian kirunuaw i rdkaw try again to reach it to arrive 23. kagrgra[y]an kararaaan the frightening place the disliked place 24. kadi baiwan kadi duduan here the village here Dungdungan 25. smpapila smpapali the entangle woods and bamboos the entangle woods and bamboos 26. tinrma[y]an tinirisan with bamboo full of worms where there is plenty of running shit 27. pialiaan piarunnan where the mud sticks on the sole where the drinking water place is sticking The text is written continuously in order to show the alternations of concentration and rarefaction of alliterations and anaphora. In what follows, the very first syllabe is in bold letters: Verse 1-2 kaayaman kadran isua idu imama idu ka ka i i 640 tu ngay kana birua “Words of the Spiritual Beings” Verse 3-10 na spuspuy na aiai kadini ami kadini awai maibaiyan mailbsan na na ka ka ma ma maka niribriban maka tinibtiban kana mananayun kana maaapus ma ma ka ka maka nayata maka dinanumata tardkaw tarunuaw kadi ibaibal kadi mnanan ma ma ta ta ka ka Verses 11-12 imamata kadi isuata kadi imarabinaw imanabinb i i i i Verse 13 tmiatiaw muinainaw t mu Verses 14-16 maka suaata maka imayata maka tiniwanaanata maka tinimaanata ma ma ma ma kana malalamu kana mananayun ka ka Verse 17-18 tabatabaaw tuutuuraw isua kadiu imama kadiu ta tu i i Verse 19 smdsd muraduradum s mu Verses 20-21 tapakumawa ta tapakudiawa ta ai ku pakumaw ai ku pakudiaw ta ta a a Verse 22 kala dian kirunuaw i rdkaw ka i 641 Josiane Cauquelin Verses 23-24 kagrgrayan kararaaan kadi baiwan kadi duduan ka ka ka ka Verses 25-27 smpapila smpapali tinrmayan tinirisan pialiaan piarunnan s s ti ti pi pi At the beginning of each verse, the combination of consonants and vowels create a series of “tiling” anaphora, which has an incidence on the phonology and the grammar of the ritual language. 3.1.1 Stylistic tiling Throughout the text, ka appears 15 times, ma 10 times, na 2 times, ta 3 times. When these first syllables are added together, we note that there are 30 occurrences of the vowel /a/. On the other hand, the syllables te, mu, and i occur 19 times but from verse 11 on to the end, ka appears only 7 times, ma 4 times, ta 3 times (in all, 14 occurrences) while na does not appear. On the basis of this counting, we thus observe that: (i) for the first 10 verses (besides verse 1 “the information” and verse 2 “the question”, as well as verses 14 to 16, and 20 to 24), ka- and ma- are dominating, i.e., the vowel /a/ is the dominant vowel. (ii) for verses 11 to 13, 18-19 and for the last three verses 25 to 27, the series with the vowels //, /i/ and /u/, cf. s, t, mu, ti, pi are prevailing. The tiling is realised within a constant background which frequencies differ along the text. Verse 2 comes after the “information” given in 1. The invocation starts with the vowel /i/: isua, a question. Verses 3 to 10 are composed exclusively of a series of anaphora with the vowel /a/: na-, ma-, ta-, ka-. Verse 11 represents a new question, beginning as well with /i/: imama/isua? In verses 12 and 13, the answer offers a pair of /i/, followed by 2 synonyms starting with // and /u/. In verses 14 to 16, the singer goes back to a series of anaphora with the vowel /a/: ma-, ka-, ta- ; but na- disappears. Verse 17 is a mixed verse, cf. ta – tu. In verse 18, a new question starting with /i/, cf. isua? Is asked. Verse 19 is followed as before by an answer beginning with //, smdsd and /u/, muraduradum. From verse 20 to 24, we observe the resumption of the anaphora ka-, ta-. But ma- disappears, and a appears. Verse 22 is a mixed verse. Verses 25 to 27 represent the end of the invocation and takes only // and /i/. In other words, 8 verses begin with the anaphora ka-, ma-, ta-, na-; followed by 4 with ka-, ma-, ta-, and 5 with ka-, ta-, a, this tiling yielding a decrease of the 642 tu ngay kana birua “Words of the Spiritual Beings” dominating vowel /a/ and its stability. Every section accepts the only low-central /a/, along with voiced nasal and voiceless consonants /m/, /n/, /k/, /t/. But its rupture is announced by the high and middle vowels /i/, /u/ and // for two or three verses with the coming out of /p/ and /s/, followed by the resumption of /a/ with the same consonants as before, cf. /m/, /n/, /k/, /t/. The decreasing of /a/ is mentionned with /i/ in verses 11 and 12, but the pair in 13 mixing // and /u/ announces the coming back of /a/ for 4 verses. The subtile tiling of 17 with /a/ and /u/ as parallel foreshadow an interruption and thus the presence of /i/, // and /u/ in verses 18 and 19. The singing ends the way it started with dyadic sets starting with /i/. Thus, it seems that the momentary disparition of /a/ is being replaced with /i/ and its coming back is announced with doublings using // and /u/. 3.1.2 Incidence on phonology As far as phonology is concerned, we observe: a. pairs of simple oppositions playing on the variation of one vowel or one consonant either in the root or in the grammar: -- verse 6: niribriban/tinibtiban (ni-/ 3.1.3 Incidence on grammar For a pair of parallel verses, the singer must use the same affixes, i.e., the circumfix ka-…-an “The prototype of bird, of its name” in verse 1, 643 Josiane Cauquelin 3.2 Second case study: pntik “splashing” by Irubai (recorded in 1983) 1. ma-tmr ma-diks hold in hand hold and caress 2. kana ni-uaban kana niutbu the wine the foods 3. pakasagara ku dia pakakalayua ku dia I make you now happy I make you now happy 4. a mialup a miaklup the master of the hunting-ground the master of (unknown term) 5. a mibabuay a mibabuyul the master of (unknown term) the master of the territory 6. rbrb adaadaw fire stopper fire stopper 7. tmuadatar tmuadkal makers of the village makers of the village 8. mibanisin misaiki master of the gates master of the gates 9. mutualipapa mutualibubun change into laid down change into (unknown term) 10. murks gather together 11. idi na aranan idi na dinkalanan this the outsiders this the villagers 12. murabarabak <m>a-ap encircled laid down 13. muti-uas muti-aulas change into dew change into the world of the dead shamans 14. mutiak change into corpse 15. nantu daway nantu dr his body his body 16. kinialian kiniuulan electing spirit electing ancestor 17. nanku kiniatipan nanku kiniabalan my helpings my surroundings 644 tu ngay kana birua “Words of the Spiritual Beings” 18. a inukayan the places passed through 19. parpudra parpuaad going to give name going to give name 20. nantu tinasbran nantu inuyaan to his buds to his failures 21. murialayan muriawan mixed with all the strangers mixed with all the villagers 22. uauay uuu Hakka people strangers 22 23. lapilapi udauda non local people (unknown term) In this invocation, the number of occurences of dominating syllables in initial syllables is as follows: /a/ occurs 21 times, /u/ 12 times, /i/ 6 times, and // only 4 times. But from the first to the last verse, we observe an alternation of increasing and decreasing phonemes leading to an inversion of the dominating vowels. The occurrence of the vowel /a/ drops from 11 (up to verse 6, cf. explanation below) down to 8; for /i/ and /u/, it increases from 0 at the beginning of the invocation to 15 at the end of the prayer. The composition of the rythm can be analyzed as follows: -- verses 1 to 5: an unbroken series of anaphora: ma, pa, a, ka, -- verse 6: a break with r which appears in doubling with an isolated /a/ to indicate that this latter phoneme is decreasing, -- verses 7 to 14: a pair of t to introduce a series of: t, mi, mu, i, -- verses 15 and 16: back for only one dyadic set to na and ki, -- verses 17 to 20: resumption of a series of anaphora: pa, a, na; both ma and ka disappear, -- verses 21-22: the coming back of u -- verse 23: mixing of u and a (last verse). When the shaman quits the vowel /a/ in verse 6: rbrb/adaadaw, she composes a mixed verse with // and /a/ to introduce the switch, which means that she is leaving this dominating vowel and is introducing those never pronounced before, and thus for 9 dyadic sets. We find a succession of vowels high and mid-high but no /a/ 22 This is not a puyuma word, it is borrowed from the neighboring Paiwan. Cf. R. Ferrell (1982: 134) lapi-lapi: “be neighboring, in vicinity”. 645 Josiane Cauquelin low-central. The latter expels the other vowels which, somehow, overlap without any problem. 4. Conclusion The analysis of phonetic compoundings presented herewith shows the systematic aspect of the stylistic technique used by the officiants in order to obtain an acoustic wave. We see how the dominating anaphora decreases to give room to others. This tiling system is made on constant weft and allows the acoustic wave; the overlapping of phonemes alerts the listener of a switch without rupture. The care for anaphora defies all grammatical rules because this continuum has to remain. Thus, construction markers are sometimes omitted to avoid a “parasite” vowel. The officiants have to show their knowledge and their capability at handling the ritual language as well as their empower to match assonances, anaphora, rimes, and put together series of parallelisms and doublings inscribing them in tropes. The rapid flow which combines with a non-breathing speech play an important role; hesitation is indicated by a scour of the throat or a succession of names, spirits, place names, which give officiants time to catch on well-known series. What counts for the listener is this accoustic wave -- the aesthetic aspect is necessary to make a performance efficient -- no matter what the words mean. It is a language that only officiants have the right to manipulate. They have a love for words as words. 646 tu ngay kana birua “Words of the Spiritual Beings” Appendix Ritual performed by the male and female practitioners (male) benabulu (female) tmararamaw Everyday, non-collective rites Everyday, non-collective rites punay, purification of objects by water punay, purification of humans by water smpa offerings, “giving the share” smpa offerings, “giving the share” kiatia, explanation of a dream puuum, reinforcing the vital energy of a puuum, reinforcing the vital energy of any soldier individual but a soldier pasbr, for a good harvest smirap, cleaning a house kisuap, purifying a house and mourners after a bereavement dmiks, healing ritual pnlin, separation ritual purinakp, attraction ritual partinuas, separation, distancing ritual kinalalgi, catching bad luck parpu breaking, cutting off ritual Exceptional, non-collective rites pamtk, installation of the “protector of a pamtk, installation of the “protector of a house” shamans’ sanctuary” aakaw tu tinabawan, recall of the lost tinabawan of a living person pnai, recall of the tinabawan of a person dead of an unfortunate death, for explanation pnasuii/pnasuaaw, installation of the tinabawan of a person dead of an unfortunate death on the altar yaulas, “voyage to the aulas” 647 Josiane Cauquelin Cyclic, collective rites Exceptional collective rites pubiaw, “rite of the deer” maagan, investiture of a shaman tmu a dkal, offering to the mountain- munay, purification by water of the ritual bag ancestor pakaudal, calling for rain to start or stop Annual collective rites Annual collective rites muaiaban, “going to the beach” muagamut, annual women’s festival pakan Takio, pakan na dnan, “feeding Takio”, or “feeding the mountain” maayaw, rites performed include: pualasakan, annual shamans’ festival • pubaaw, renewal of life • smirap kana dkal, cleaning the village • tinuadkal, re-consecration of “those who made the village” • smaiki, setting up the “masters of the village gates” • gmamu, thanking the rice-giving ancestors 648 tu ngay kana birua “Words of the Spiritual Beings” References Benedict, Paul, K. 1995. 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