In an age of increasing mobility, language contact is unavoidable. Despite fruitful discussion in morpho-syntactic and phonological (segmental) variation, prosodic aspects of language contact have received far less attention. This paper thus intends to (1) describe key aspects of Yami intonation, an endangered Austronesian language spoken in Taiwan and (2) investigate Yami-Mandarin bilingual intonation patterns, given Yami-Mandarin contact. Three parameters are considered: final boundary tone, F 0 slope, and pitch height. Yami-monolinguals produced falling contours in statements and neutral questions, but produced confirmationseeking questions and default statement questions with a rising pattern. Bilingual speakers show evidence of Mandarin influence in two respects. First, they transfer the Mandarin-like (level) intonation to their Yami neutral questions; second, a non-Yami-native question type has also been "transplanted" into Yami by bilinguals. Interestingly, the newly-added question type is fused with pre-existing Yami intonation to form an innovative hybrid system. This seems to indicate a new direction in the evolution of the intonation system. If these variations continue and strengthen, present-day Yami intonation may evolve over time into a new-styled one.

It is well known that in many Indo-European languages speakers manipulate acoustic cues to encode different prosodic phrase boundaries. However, no such attempt has been made to investigate these effects in Austronesian languages. Therefore, this paper reports on preliminary research on the prosodic structure of Yami, an endangered Austronesian language spoken on Orchid Island, Taiwan. Two acoustic parameters were examined: pre-boundary syllable duration and phrase-final F0 slope. The results provide evidence for a three-layered prosodic hierarchy in Yami: Word, AP, and IP. These levels differ significantly in syllable duration, particularly when the pre-boundary syllables bear lexical stress. The phrase-final F0 slope also serves as a cue to prosodic boundaries since the IP boundary tones (H% and L%) are characterized by steeper F0 curves, whereas the corresponding AP tones (Ha and La) are typified by steady pitch curves. The results we report not only offer a basic understanding of the prosodic structure of Yami, but contribute to the research on Austronesian language prosody more generally.

This article extends previous analyses on (ay) and (aw) raising in Yami, an endangered Austronesian language spoken on Orchid Island, Taiwan. Two patterns of (ay) and (aw) variation co-exist in Yami—the more conservative/unraised variants and the innovative/raised forms—each of which indexes an authentic regional identity. Results from recent data suggest that Yami has undergone significant changes in just one generation as the raised variants are now preferred by younger islanders and have started permeating through non-raising areas. Traumatic shifts in the ecological context on Orchid Island help explain this sound change. Economically, rapid shift from fishing/farming to tourism trades promotes daily face-to-face communications among younger islanders, which has catalyzed the spread of nucleus raising to non-raising areas. Sociopsychologically, ongoing intergroup conflicts between islanders and mainland Taiwanese may further trigger the sound change, altering nucleus raising into a new communal system which highlights Yami identity in opposition to Others.

Language change manifests itself in various ways. The majority of studies on language change in Yami, an endangered Austronesian language spoken on Orchid Island, Taiwan, have centered on the rapid language shift from Yami to Mandarin within the speech community (Chen 1998, Li and Ho 1988, Lin 2007, Rau 1995). The present study, however, aims to explore whether the sound change of [ɮ] to [l] in Yami (e.g., soli [ʂuɮi] > [ʂuli] 'taro') is triggered by language contact between Mandarin and Yami. Three variables were considered: Mandarin competence, Mandarinspeaking frequency, and social network integration. The results showed that the three variables were strongly correlated with sound change. Participants possessing advanced Mandarin competence, higher Mandarin-speaking frequency, and/or weaker social network integration into the Yami community (i.e., greater exposure to Mandarin) tended to exhibit the highest rate of sound change, which might be attributed to a cross-linguistic influence from Mandarin to Yami through extensive language contact.

Yami, an endangered Austronesian language spoken on Orchid Island in Taiwan has been under heavy influence from Mandarin for several decades. In the current linguistic ecology, the pressure of Mandarin on Yami is increasing and its influence has been reported in Yami intonation. This study, on the flip side, examines whether Yami influence has also diffused through the Mandarin spoken on Orchid Island. Taiwan Mandarin speakers make a three-way distinction in sentence intonation: (1) falling statements, (2) level neutral questions and statement questions conveying lighter incredulity, and (3) high-rising default statement questions. Orchid Islanders showed deviation in their default statement question intonation by using a high-level intonation. Interestingly, we observed two hybridization patterns in Yami-Mandarin bilingual intonation: one that fuses Yami phono-syntax with Mandarin intonation in Orchid Island Mandarin, and one that incorporates Mandarin phono-syntax with Yami intonation in young islanders' Yami speech. This provides crucial evidence showing that in addition to the overwhelming phenomenon of transfer/borrowing, speakers may combine discrete (sub)strates from different sources. If the innovative, hybrid pattern continues, present-day Yami intonation may evolve over time into a newly-styled system.