Prevalence of Vowel-Initiated Words in the Core Vocabulary of 100 Languages

投稿類別﹕英文寫作類

篇名﹕

Prevalence of Vowel-initiated Words in the Core Vocabulary of 100 Languages

作者﹕

趙子甯。國立台南女子高中。高一 4 班

指導老師﹕

林永芬老師 Prevalence of Vowel-Initiated Words in 100 Languages

I. Foreword

“Where there is shouting, there is no true knowledge.” (Leonardo da Vinci, n.d.) These words strike a chord with the truth if it is talking about how to take care of our voice. We believe shouting is bad for our voice not only because our doctors or voice teachers have warned us against it, but also because some of us have actually experienced losing our voice or having a croaky voice after shouting in a sports event. Specifically, bursting out voiced segments with excessive force can damage our vocal fold tissues and make us sound harsh. To promote the awareness of this counterproductive voicing behaviour, it is important to learn where and how often it can occur in a language. Therefore, this study aims to assess the occurrence rate of words where speakers may be at risk of using a “shouting” mode.

II. Thesis

This thesis starts by explaining why forceful vocal behaviour can occur in vowel-initiated words and cause voice problems. A section then follows to link this voice problem with language by addressing the speculation that some language speakers may sound harsher due to a higher occurrence rate of vowel-initiated words. Following a description of the research question and rationale for comparing this feature across languages are the method, result, and discussion sections.

Vowels and Voicing

All spoken languages consist of vowels and consonants as their building blocks. Vowels differ from consonants in that exhaled air flows through the mouth freely in the former but encounters constricted areas in the latter (Titze, 1994). Both vowels (e.g., /i/, /u/) and voiced consonants (e.g., /b/, /z/) require vocal fold vibration, but vowels are normally longer than consonants and thus may have a more substantial impact on vocal folds during vocal fold vibration.

According to the myoelastic-aerodynamic theory of phonation (Titze, 1994), vocal fold vibration involves bringing vocal folds closer together at the start of voicing. This narrowing of the space between vocal folds triggers a Bernoulli sucking effect, which then brings them even closer. While vocal folds block the airflow, air pressure below the closed vocal folds starts to build up until it is strong enough to push open the vocal folds. Once the vocal folds are blown apart, it will spring back toward the midline again and start another cycle of opening and closing. However, the way a speaker closes vocal folds at voice onset can differentially affect this vibration.

Hard Glottal Attack

Depending on whether vocal folds are loosely or tightly brought together, voice initiation can be classified as a hard, normal, or soft glottal attack (Moore, 1938; Behrman, 2007). Hard glottal attack (HGA) is a forceful vocal behaviour where vocal folds are slammed together and abruptly

Prevalence of Vowel-Initiated Words in 100 Languages opened (Behrman, 2007). Voice produced with a HGA is characterized by a sudden pitch and loudness change at voice onset (Orlikoff and Kahane, 1996; Shrivastav, 1999). Physiological measures have associated HGA with a faster time in the build-up of air pressure to blow open the vocal folds (Watson et al., 2016). Research has found voice patients to exhibit more HGAs than individuals with healthy voice (Andrade et al., 2000). To eliminate voice problems caused by tension in and around the throat, HGA is often targeted in vowel-initiated words and replaced with a soft attack (Boone et al., 2005).

Voice and Language

As vowel-initiated words present a risk for hard glottal attack, speakers of a language loaded with vowel-initiated words may sound harsher than those of other languages. This does not mean, however, that the former will necessarily show a higher rate of voice problems. The reason is that there are a myriad of factors that can adversely affect voice. Some examples are smoking, dehydration, prolonged voice use, and use of inappropriate pitch or poor respiratory support during speaking (Boone et al., 2005). The prevalence of voice disorders varies by age, profession, and other factors (Mathieson, 2001). Although it is hard to establish a link between the prevalence of voice problems and a specific language feature, it is worthwhile to investigate the prevalence of utterances predisposed to harmful vocal behaviours and compare it across languages to identify those who may be at risk.

Language Classification. The number of languages spoken today has been estimated at up to 10,000 (Crystal, 1987, p. 284). To date, there are at least 7,097 languages being spoken in the world according to Ethnologue, an authoritative language database updated annually by a US- based linguistic society (SIL International, n.d.). These languages have been grouped into 152 language families (SIL International, n.d.). Crystal (1987) has described three common language grouping methods: genetic, typological, and areal classifications (p. 293). While genetic and areal classifications focus on historical lineage (p. 293) and geographical proximity (p. 24), the typological approach is based on a comparative analysis that makes no assumption about the historical or regional connections (p. 293). Despite the complexity of categorization process, the classification of languages into families provides a useful basis for language comparison.

As far as language families are concerned, the local languages used in Taiwan fall into two language families: Sino-Tibetan and Austronesian. The majority of people in Taiwan speak Mandarin as well as Taiwanese, called “Tai-gi” or “Taiwanese” by its native speakers (Liao, 2008). Ethnology (SIL International, n.d.) labels Taiwanese as “Min” and classifies both Mandarin and “Min” as subgroups of Sino-Tibetan. The largest aboriginal group in Taiwan is the Amis, followed by Paiwan (Demographics of Taiwan, n.d.). The native languages of these two aboriginal groups have both been classified as Austronesian (Formosan languages, n.d.) These languages are included in this study, along with other world languages, to allow for a comparison within Taiwan and globally.

Prevalence of Vowel-Initiated Words in 100 Languages

Research Question and Importance

The main research question is: Is there a language difference on the prevalence of vowel- initiated words? If so, how are different language families differ? Can it help explain why speakers of a certain language may sound harsher than those of other languages and thus demystify the stereotype? Can the difference be used to explain about the variability of the prevalence of voice problems? These are important questions because speakers of a language full of vowel-initiated words can benefit from being aware of the importance of using easy voice onset.

Materials and Methods

Word List. To facilitate a cross-language comparison, this study employs the Swadesh list in English as the basis to generate an equivalent list in the Roman transcriptions of another language. The Swadesh list, which is a list of 207 words identified as the core vocabulary of any language, has been widely used to compare languages and find traces of historical lineage (Swadesh List, n.d.). Appendix 1 shows a Swadesh list of the English words, along with their corresponding Mandarin, Taiwanese, Amis, and Piwan words in Roman transcription. Selection Criteria. In addition to the five languages mentioned above, languages with Roman transcriptions available in the Google Translate website are all included.

Instrument. A computer equipped with Excel and Internet access was used to perform language translation, internet search, data analysis, and graphing. The online tools used include Google Translate, Taiwanese Aboriginal Online Dictionary (Council of Indigenous People, 2017), and Taiwanese Online Dictionary (Taiwanese Ministry of Education, 2011).

Procedures. To generate the Roman transcriptions for each language, the 207 words of the Swadesh list are copied onto Google Translate, with input and output languages specified. For Taiwanese, Amis, and Paiwan, which are not available on Google Translation, the Mandarin words were copied one by one onto the two language-specific online dictionary sites as mentioned previously to obtain the Roman transcriptions for these two languages respectively.

The generated words were copied onto Excel and sorted into alphabetical order. In Excel, the “countif” function was used to tabulate the number of words starting with /a, e, i, o, u/ and vowels with letters with diacritical marks (e.g. umlaut). The percentage of vowel-initiated words was then calculated using the arithmetic function in Excel for each and every one of the languages.

Results

Language Included. This study includes a total of 100 languages, which come from a total of 16 language families (Table 1). As shown in Table 1, the largest language family included in this study is Indo-European, whose seven subgroups are included in this study. The largest Indo- European subgroup included in this study is Balto-Slavic (13 languages), followed by Germanic (11 languages), Italic (9 languages) and Indo-Iranian (9 languages), Celtic (3 languages), Albanian (1 language), Armenian (1 language), and Helena (1 language).

Prevalence of Vowel-Initiated Words in 100 Languages

The other language families included are Austronesian (11 languages), Niger-Congo (8 languages), Afro-Asiatic (6 languages), Turkic (5 languages), Dravidian (4 languages), Sino- Tibetan (3 languages), Uralic (3 languages), Tai-Kadai (2 languages), Austroasiatic (2 languages), Kartvelian (1 language), Koreanic (1 language), Japonic (1 language), Mongolic (1 language), French Creole (1 language), Hmong-Mien (1 language), Language Isolate (1 language), and Esperando (1 language).

Prevalence of Vowel-Initiated Words. Table 1 lists the prevalence of vowel-initiated words in the core vocabulary of these languages, along with their respective language family. As shown in Table 1, the prevalence of vowel-initiated words ranges from 0 (Thai) to 63.29 (Zulu), with a mean of 15.25% (SD = 10.32).

Among the four languages used in Taiwan, Amis has the highest prevalence of vowel-initiated words (almost 13%), followed by Taiwanese and Paiwan, which have similar proportion of vowel- initiated words, at around 7%. Mandarin has the lowest prevalence of vowel-initiated words, with a value below 4%.

Table 1

Prevalence of Vowel-Initiated Words (VIW) in 100 Languages, ordered from low to high

Language Language Family VIW Prevalence (in %)

Thai Tai–Kadai (Tai) 0.00 Ukrainian Indo-European (Balto-Slavic) 2.42 Mandarin Chinese Sino-Tibetan (Sinitic) 3.86 Vietnamese Austroasiatic (Vietic) 3.86 Hmong Hmong–Mien (Hmongic) 4.35 Khmer Austroasiatic (Khmer) 4.35 Haitian Creole French Creole 4.83 Swahili Niger–Congo (Atlantic–Congo) 4.83 Belarusian Indo-European (Balto-Slavic) 5.31 Hausa Afro-Asiatic (Chadic) 6.28 Nepali Indo-European (Indo-Iranian) 6.76 Slovak Indo-European (Balto-Slavic) 6.76 Lao Tai–Kadai (Tai) 7.25 Paiwan Austronesian (Formosan) 7.35 Taiwanese (Min) Sino-Tibetan (Sinitic) 7.73 Tajik Indo-European (Indo-Iranian) 7.25 Kurdish Indo-European (Indo-Iranian) 7.73 Frisian Indo-European (Germanic) 7.73 Czech Indo-European (Balto-Slavic) 8.21 English Indo-European (Germanic) 8.21

Prevalence of Vowel-Initiated Words in 100 Languages

Norwegian Indo-European (Germanic) 8.21 Danish Indo-European (Germanic) 8.70 Afrikaans Indo-European (Germanic) 8.70 Swedish Indo-European (Germanic) 8.70 Polish Indo-European (Balto-Slavic) 8.70 Punjabi Indo-European (Indo-Iranian) 8.70 Esperanto -- 9.18 Gujarati Indo-European (Indo-Iranian) 9.18 Hindi Indo-European (Indo-Iranian) 9.18 Bengali Indo-European (Indo-Iranian) 9.66 Georgian Kartvelian (Karto-Zan) 9.66 Marathi Indo-European (Indo-Iranian) 10.14 Bulgarian Indo-European (Balto-Slavic) 10.63 Macedonian Indo-European (Balto-Slavic) 10.63 Estonian Uralic (Finnic) 10.63 Indonesian Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) 11.11 Chichewa Niger–Congo (Atlantic–Congo) 11.11 Lithuanian Indo-European (Balto-Slavic) 11.11 Russian Indo-European (Balto-Slavic) 11.11 Dutch Indo-European (Germanic) 11.59 Sesotho Niger–Congo (Atlantic–Congo) 11.59 Shona Niger–Congo (Atlantic–Congo) 11.59 Malay Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) 11.59 Yiddish Indo-European (Germanic) 11.59 Japanese Japonic 12.08 Finnish Uralic (Finnic) 12.08 Slovenian Indo-European (Balto-Slavic) 12.08 Serbian Indo-European (Balto-Slavic) 12.56 Somali Afro-Asiatic (Cushitic) 12.56 Welsh Indo-European (Celtic) 12.56 Amis Austronesian (Formosan) 12.90 Icelandic Indo-European (Germanic) 13.04 Luxembourgish Indo-European (Germanic) 13.04 Latvian Indo-European (Balto-Slavic) 13.53 Maori Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) 13.53 Armenian Indo-European (Armenian) 14.01 Korean Koreanic (Buyeo) 14.49 Bosnian Indo-European (Balto-Slavic) 14.49 German Indo-European (Germanic) 14.49 Italian Indo-European (Italic) 14.49 Sinhala Indo-European (Indo-Iranian) 14.49 French Indo-European (Italic) 14.98 Telugu Dravidian (Southern) 14.98 Corsican Indo-European (Italic) 15.46 Somali Afro-Asiatic (Cushitic) 15.46 Irish Indo-European (Celtic) 15.94 Kannada Dravidian (Southern) 16.43 Myanmar Sino-Tibetan (Lolo-Burmese) 16.43 Maltese Afro-Asiatic (Semitic) 16.91 Spanish Indo-European (Italic) 16.91

Prevalence of Vowel-Initiated Words in 100 Languages

Albanian Indo-European (Albanian) 17.39 Portuguese Indo-European (Italic) 18.35 Javanese Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) 18.36 Malayalam Dravidian (Southern) 18.36 Scottish Gaelic Indo-European (Celtic) 18.84 Hungarian Uralic (Finno-Ugric) 18.84 Cebuano Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) 18.84 Latin Indo-European (Italic) 20.29 Greek Indo-European (Hellenic) 20.29 Malagasy Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) 20.29 Tamil Dravidian (Southern) 20.29 Samoan Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) 20.77 Azerbaijani Turkic (Common Turkic) 20.77 Kyrgyz Turkic (Common Turkic) 20.77 Galician Indo-European (Italic) 21.74 Arabic Afro-Asiatic (Semitic) 21.74 Turkish Turkic (Common Turkic) 21.74 Amharic Afro-Asiatic (Semitic) 22.22 Filipino Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) 22.22 Uzbek Turkic (Common Turkic) 23.19 Catalan Indo-European (Italic) 23.67 Romanian Indo-European (Italic) 24.15 Kazakh Turkic (Common Turkic) 25.12 Hawaiian Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) 30.43 Mongolian Mongolic (Mongolian) 31.40 Basque Language Isolate 34.78 Yoruba Niger–Congo (Atlantic–Congo) 36.23 Xhosa Niger–Congo (Atlantic–Congo) 55.07 Igbo Niger–Congo (Niger–Congo) 57.00 Zulu Niger–Congo (Atlantic–Congo) 63.29

Comparison between Language Subgroups

To better understand whether some language groups tend to have a higher proportion of vowel-initiated words, language subgroups with three or more than three languages in the group were compared. As a result, nine of the language subgroups are included for further comparison. Figure 1 shows a box plot of this set of data.

As shown in Figure 1, the Niger-Congo language subgroup stands out as having the greatest range on this measure, indicating that this group is most variable on the prevalence of vowel- initiated words. A closer look at Table 1 shows that the four languages showing the highest prevalence of vowel-initiated words all belong to this group—these are Zulu, Igbo, Xhosa, and Yoruba. In contrast, Swahili has a relatively low prevalence of vowel-initiated words, with a value no more than 5%.

Prevalence of Vowel-Initiated Words in 100 Languages

Figure 1. The prevalence of vowel-initiated words (in percentage) in the Swadesh list across a selection of language groups, with the median value for each group shown as the line within the box, the first and third quartiles as the top and bottom lines of the box, and the maximum and minimum as the top and bottom whiskers. The language families included are Indo-European (IE), Niger-Congo (NC), Austronesian (A), Turkic (T), and Afro-Asiatic (AA).

Based on a comparison of the medians, three Indo-European subgroups (Germanic, Indo- Iranian, and Balto-Slavic) stand at the lower end of the prevalence value (around 10%) while two other Indo-European subgroups (Celtic and Italic), along with the Austronesian (Malayo- Polynesian) subgroup are in the middle range, between 15 and 20%. The two language subgroups with a median prevalence at the higher end are Turkic (Common Turkic) and Afro-Asiatic (Semitic), with a value between 20 and 25%.

Discussion

The proportion of vowel-initiated words in the core vocabulary was indeed found to vary by language. There was evidence indicating that some language families have a higher prevalence compared with others, especially the finding that the Niger-Congo family which tends to be high in this measure and Sino-Tibetan tends to be low. However, the prevalence of vowel-initiated words can vary greatly even within a language family while languages belonging to different language families can be similar in this measure. Even languages found in speakers living in close geographic proximity, such as Mandarin, Taiwanese, Amis, and Paiwan, can differ in the prevalence value. These findings suggest that even though the prevalence of vowel-initiated words varies across language, this measure is unlikely to serve as a basis for language classification unless some other common traits between languages with similar prevalence of vowel-initiated words can be identified.

It is noteworthy, though, that all the four languages used in Taiwan have a relatively low prevalence of vowel-initiated words. Also, some Indo-European subgroups, such as the Germanic language, appear to have a low prevalence. If speakers in these groups sound harsher than those in language with a higher prevalence of vowel-initiated words, other sources of noise generation in

Prevalence of Vowel-Initiated Words in 100 Languages voice may be suspected. Further studies need to examine sounds produced in the back of the mouth to see whether constrictions in that area of the oral or pharyngeal region may be responsible for the harsh voice quality.

As for whether the difference in the prevalence of vowel-initiated words can be used to explain about the variability of the prevalence of voice problems. We find no evidence that it can. The reason is that we found some countries that use the same language or use languages that exhibit similar prevalence of vowel-initiated words actually have very different prevalence of voice problems, which can probably be explained more readily with other risk factors of voice problems. A discussion of this evidence is as below.

Portuguese vs. Greek

Since smoking has been identified as a strong risk factor for voice problems (Byeon et al., 2016), countries that have one of the highest or lowest prevalence of tobacco smoking and have known prevalence of voice problems are selected for comparison. According to the most recent data (OECD, 2017), the prevalence of tobacco smoking is high in Greece (above 25%) and low in Brazil (below 10%). Likewise, the prevalence of voice problems is high in the population of Greece (38.5%) (Spantideas, 2015) and relatively low in Brazil, ranging from 7.5% for nonteachers and 11.6% for teachers (Behlau et al., 2012). These findings suggest that the occurrence of voice problem is highly attributable to smoking. As for prevalence of vowel-initiated words, there is not much difference between Greek, the dominant language in Greece, and Portuguese, the dominant language in Brazil, with both being around 20% (see Table 1).

The observation that the prevalence of voice problem is more strongly related to smoking rate than language is also supported by the high smoking rate and high prevalence of voice problems found in Portugal, another country where Portuguese is a dominant language. Compared with Brazil, Portugal has a higher smoking rate (between 15 and 20%) and a higher prevalence of voice problems, at 20.1-31.5% for non-teachers and 45.2-52% for teachers (Mendes et al., 2009). This finding indicates that a higher smoking rate may be associated with an increased prevalence of voice problems, and the problem can be aggravated in individuals who use voice quite frequently on their jobs.

III. Conclusion

This study has demonstrated that the prevalence of vowel-initiated words varies by language and that there is a trend for certain language groups to have a higher prevalence of vowel-initiated words than other language groups. However, as predicted at the beginning of the study, no relationship can be found between the prevalence of vowel-initiated words in a language and that of voice problems in its speakers. The implication of these findings is that people should be aware of the high occurrence rate of vowel-initiated words in some languages and get into the habit of using easy voice onset especially when speaking this type of language.

Prevalence of Vowel-Initiated Words in 100 Languages

IV. References

Andrade, D. F., Heuer, R., Hockstein, N. E., Castro, E., Spiegel, J. R., Sataloff, R. T. (2000). The frequency of hard glottal attacks in patients with muscle tension dysphonia, unilateral benign masses and bilateral benign masses. Journal of Voice, 14(2), 240-6. Behlau, M., Zambon, F,, Guerrieri, A. C., & Roy, N. (2012). Epidemiology of voice disorders in teachers and nonteachers in Brazil: prevalence and adverse effects. Journal of Voice, 26(5), 665. Behrman, A. (2007). Speech and Voice Science. San Diego, USA: Plural Publishing. Boone, D.R., McFarlane, S.C., & Von Berg, S. (2005). The voice and voice therapy (7th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Byeon H., Lee, D., & Cho, S. (2016). Relationship between women's smoking and laryngeal disorders based on the urine cotinine test: results of a national population-based survey. British Medical Journal. Open 6 (11) e012169. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2016-012169 Council of Indigenous People (2017). Taiwanese Aboriginal Online Dictionary. Retrieved March 20, 2018, from https://e-dictionary.apc.gov.tw/Index.htm Crystal, D. (1987). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Demographics of Taiwan (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved March 15, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Taiwan Formosan Languages (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved March 15, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formosan_languages Leonardo da Vinci quotes. (n.d.). In BrainyQuotes. Retrieved 20 March, 2018, from https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/leonardo_da_vinci_379159 Liao, S. (2008). A perceptual dialect study of Taiwan Mandarin: Language attitudes in the era of political battle. Proceedings of the 20th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-20), 1. Available at: https://naccl.osu.edu/sites/naccl.osu.edu/files/21_liao-s.pdf Mathieson, L. (2001). The Voice and Its Disorders. London and Philadelphia: Whurr Publishers. Mendes, A., Salema, L., Rodrigues, A., Conceição, I., B, Í., & Santos, M. (2009). Prevalence of vocal problems in Portuguese primary and secondary school level teachers. Revista Distúrbios da Comunicação, 21, 315-325. Moore, P. (1938). Motion picture studies of the vocal folds and vocal attack. Journal of Speech Disorders, 3, 235-238. OECD (2017). Smoking among adults, In Health at a Glance 2017: OECD Indicators. Paris: OECD Publishing. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/health_glance-2017-16-en Orlikoff, R. F. & Kahane, J. C. (1996). Structure and function of the larynx. In N. J. Lass (ed.), Principles of Experimental Phonetics. St Louis: Mosby, 112–81. SIL International (n.d.). In Ethnology: Languages of the World. Retrieved March 12, 2018, from https://www.ethnologue.com/guides/how-many-languages Swadesh List. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved 9 February, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swadesh_list. Taiwan Ministry of Education (2011). In Online Dictionary of Taiwanese Common Vocabularies. Retrieved March 11, 2018, from http://twblg.dict.edu.tw/holodict_new/index.html Titze, I. (1994). Principles of voice production. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

Prevalence of Vowel-Initiated Words in 100 Languages

Watson, B. C., Baken, R. J., & Roark, R. M. (2016). Effect of voice onset type on vocal attack time. Journal of Voice, 30 (1), 11–14.

Prevalence of Vowel-Initiated Words in 100 Languages

Appendix 1: Swadesh List in English and four languages spoken in Taiwan (Mandarin, Taiwanese, Amis, and Paiwan)

Item English Mandarin Taiwanese Amis* Paiwan** No. 1 I wǒ guá kako ken- 2 you nǐ lí kiso su 3 he tā i cira madju 4 we wǒmen lán kami tja 5 you nǐmen lín kamo mun 6 they tāmen in cangra tjaya- 7 this zhè tse nini icu 8 that nà he haloya azua 9 here zhèlǐ tsia kini maza- 10 there nàlǐ hia kira azua 11 who shuí siánn cima ma 12 what shénme siánn-mih maan anema 13 where nǎ toh cowa nema- 14 when héshí hô-sî hacowa ngida 15 how rúhé lû-hô makena kemuda 16 not bù bô eca ini 17 all suǒyǒu sóo-ū haop qemuang 18 many duō tsē mayafayaf liav 19 some īxiē tsi̍ t-kuá mamang adjuqianga 20 few shǎo tsió mamang keri 21 other qítā kî-thann roma zuma 22 one ī tsi̍ t cecay ita 23 two èr nn̄ g tosa drusa 24 three sān sann tolo sang 25 four sì sì spat sepatj 26 five wǔ gōo lima lima 27 big dà tuā ta'ak kudral 28 long zhǎng tn̂g kakaya' laruq 29 wide kuān khuah lihwayay qaca 30 thick hòu kāu kifetolay tjakudral 31 heavy zhòng tāng kareteng sadjelung- 32 small xiǎo sè miming keri 33 short duǎn té kamoko' rikitj 34 narrow zhǎi e̍ h romot kuljai 35 thin báo po̍ h kohepic kuljai 36 woman nǚ tsa-bóo fafahi vavayan 37 man nán tsa-poo fa'inayan uqaljai 38 person rén lâng 'aloman caucau 39 child értóng gín-á wawa aljak 40 wife qī-zi bóo fafahi madju 41 husband zhang-fū ang fa'inay madju 42 mother mǔ lāu-bú ina kina

Prevalence of Vowel-Initiated Words in 100 Languages

43 father fù lāu-pē mama ama 44 animal dòngwù tōng-bu̍ t pinanowang qemuzimuzip 45 fish yú hî foting ciqav 46 bird niǎo tsiáu 'ayam qayam 47 dog gǒu káu waco vatu 48 louse shī sat ca'enget qatimtim 49 snake shé tsuâ 'oner qatjuvi 50 worm chóng thâng cacopi qatjuvitjuvi 51 tree shù tshiū kilang kasiv 52 forest sēn-lin sim-lîm calecalengan kasiv 53 stick zhī ki ca'ang ricing 54 fruit guǒ kó fonor lum 55 seed zhǒng-zi tsí loma vat 56 leaf yè hio̍ h karapapah maurag 57 root gēn kin lamit kapaz 58 bark shùpí tshiū-phuê cidap N/A 59 flower huā hue falo hana 60 grass cǎo tsháu rengos cemel 61 rope shéng soh-á saso'ot qadjai 62 skin pi phuê fanges ngicu 63 meat ròu bah titi vutjulj 64 blood xuè hueh remes djamuq 65 bone gǔ kut 'okak cuqelalj 66 fat pàng puî so^so qalum 67 egg dàn nn̄ g fita'ol qecilu 68 horn jiǎo kak waa' tequng 69 tail wěi bué wikol iku 70 feather yǔ ú opih palalj 71 hair fà thâu-tsang cifokes quvalj 72 head tóu thâu fongoh qulu 73 ear ěr hīnn tangila calinga 74 eye yǎn ba̍ k mata maca 75 nose bí phīnn ngoso' ngudjus 76 mouth kǒu kháu ngoyos angalj 77 tooth yá khí wadis aljis 78 tongue shé tsi̍ h N/A sema 79 fingernail zhǐjiǎ tsíng-kah kanoos kaljuskusan 80 foot jiǎo kha wa'ay kula 81 leg tuǐ thuí cepi' djapalj 82 knee xī kha-thâu-u tosor cungal 83 hand shǒu tshiú kamay lima 84 wing chì si̍ t N/A valjanga 85 belly fù pak N/A qamudru 86 guts cháng tn̂g tinayi' kuljai 87 neck jǐng kún li'el liqu 88 back bèi puē fafa uqulj 89 breast rǔ ne coco tutu 90 heart xīn sim faloco' qavuvung

Prevalence of Vowel-Initiated Words in 100 Languages

91 liver gān kuann 'atay qacai 92 drink hē lim minanom temekel 93 eat chī tsia̍ h kaen keman 94 bite yǎo kā kalat kemac 95 suck xī suh cepcep qemetep 96 spit tǔ phuì misopa' djemilai 97 vomit ǒu thóo ota' mutjaq 98 blow chuī tshue iyof djapes 99 breathe hūxī tshuán-khuì hanahan minasi 100 laugh xiào tshiò lawla djemeli 101 see kàn khuànn pihineng pacun 102 hear tīng thiann tengil lemangda 103 know zhī tsai mafana' keljang 104 think xiǎng siūnn miharateng tanadam 105 smell xiù phīnn angcohen semequ 106 fear pà kiann 'angi magagalj 107 sleep shuì khùn mafoti' qemreng 108 live zhù tuà maro' tjaljuzuanga 109 die sǐ sí patay macai 110 kill shā thâi pacok culju- 111 fight dòu tàu 'odot qizing- 112 hunt liè la̍ h ma'adopay qaljup- 113 hit jī phah setol cual- 114 cut qiè tshiat kerit vuciq 115 split fēn hun mipakilac pendi 116 stab cì tshì ceka djui 117 scratch zhuā liàu korahot djemakuc 118 dig wā óo karkar kiqatjurai 119 swim yóu siû dangoy ljangui- 120 fly fēi pue efer miperper 121 walk zǒu tsáu rakat sau 122 come lái lâi tayni ngetjez 123 lie down tǎng tó matali'enang kitjelangalj 124 sit down zuò tsē maro' qiladj- 125 stand up zhàn khiā tomireng gacalj- 126 turn zhuǎn tńg liyon penid- 127 fall luò lak kefoh celu- 128 give gěi hōo feli vai- 129 hold ná the̍ h mililam djakuc- 130 squeeze jǐ tsik hetec kiqetim 131 rub mó buâ cadiw tataq- 132 wash xǐ sé faca' senav- 133 wipe cā tshit sisit semumuqic 134 pull lā khiú cayaten remakac 135 push tuī e cekeroh zemurung 136 throw rēng tàn fahekol sivuljuq 137 tie xì hē kaos vengetj- 138 sew fèng thīnn kopit caqis

Prevalence of Vowel-Initiated Words in 100 Languages

139 count suàn sǹg 'osi supu 140 say shuō kóng sowal qivu 141 sing chàng tshiùnn romadiw semnai 142 play wán sńg holol kivangavang 143 float fú phû manawnaw ramalj 144 flow liú lâu lesa' zengzeng- 145 freeze dòng tàng fedi' N/A 146 swell zhǒng tsíng malifawa puqut 147 sun rì ji̍ t cidal qadaw 148 moon yuè gue̍ h folad qiljas 149 star xīng tshinn fo'is vitjuqan 150 water shuǐ tsuí nanom zaljum 151 rain yǔ hōo 'orad qudjalj 152 river hé hô 'alo pana 153 lake hú ôo fanaw papavanavan 154 sea hǎi hái riyar vaung 155 salt yán iâm cilah qatia 156 stone shí tsio̍ h fokeloh qaciljai 157 sand shā sua aped vudas 158 dust chén tîn malangkes buljang 159 earth de tē dafdaf kadjunangan 160 cloud yún hûn 'o'ol qerepus 161 fog wù bū carofacof kerebaw 162 sky tiān thinn kakarayan kalevelevan 163 wind fēng hong fali vali 164 snow xuě she N/A sulja 165 ice bīng ping koli kiaping 166 smoke yān ian 'acefel kicevulj 167 fire huǒ hué lamal sapui 168 ashes huī hu 'afo lavu 169 burn shāo sio coraf ljengis 170 road lù lōo lalan djalan 171 mountain shān suann lotok gadu 172 red hóng âng kahengang qudjilj 173 green lǜ li̍ k kangdaway liljuas 174 yellow huáng n̂g kaliyalaw qulivai 175 white bái pe̍ h kohecalay vuteqilj 176 black hēi oo koheting qucengecengel 177 night yè àm-mê lafii qezemetj- 178 day zhòu ji̍ t N/A muqadaw 179 year nián nî miheca cavilj 180 warm nuǎn un-luán diheko ljaveljav- 181 cold lěng líng li^tec ljaljeqel 182 full mǎn buán tomes mapeljuq 183 new xīn sin fa^eloh vaquan 184 old jiù kū telang supisupilanga 185 good hǎo hó fangcal nguaq- 186 bad huài pháinn tastas kuya-

Prevalence of Vowel-Initiated Words in 100 Languages

187 rotten fǔ tshàu maponi' mavuk 188 dirty zāng thái-ko ma'oningay kungai 189 straight zhí ti̍ t moecel sevec- 190 round yuán înn kimolmol lipurupuru 191 sharp jiān tsiam macidemay pacek 192 dull dùn tun linot runpenpenl 193 smooth huá ku̍ t makamelengay dalut 194 wet shī tâm ma'opicay tjevetjeveng 195 dry gān ta 'icang metad 196 correct duì tio̍ h so'elin mavan 197 near jìn kīn samangataay dedet 198 far yuǎn hn̄ g raay pasacadja 199 right yòu tsiànn-píng wanan tjainavalj 200 left zuǒ tsó wili tjaiviri 201 at zài tī ira tjari- 202 in lǐ lāi-té lalinik pinitjaladj 203 with yǔ kap ato katua 204 and hé hām aci katua 205 if ru-go nā-tsún ano N/A 206 because īn-wei in-uī lalengatan ayatua 207 name míng miâ ngangan ngadan Vowel-initiated words are bold-faced. *Five of the 207 Amis words were not retrievable from the translation website. **Three of the 207 Paiwan words were not retrievable from the translation website.