邵族生活在中台灣日月潭湖畔，目前能說邵語的人數不足廿人，是瀕危的台灣原住民語。本論文旨逐步描述邵語之音韻，包括語音描述、音韻現象(重音選擇，滑音形成)、而後深入討論邵語的構詞音韻變化。再者，本論文倚重以優選理論來解釋邵語在音韻以及構詞音韻上的複雜變化。
本論文解決了邵語中的基本音韻現象。首先，詳盡的描述各個音素的在表層的語音變化，包括同位音與自由變異。再者，提供了加前綴詞和加後綴詞的語料來引證：邵語中詞根首的喉塞音是音素，而詞根尾的喉塞音則是語音加插。由於邵語並不允許表層的母音串，所以必須產生滑音來避免表層的母音串。邵語有兩個形成滑音的機制：雙母音化或是由母音串中在前位的母音傳遞一個同位的滑音作為後位母音的聲母。邵語中大多數的母音串採用雙元音化的機制，反應了ONSET >> INTERGRITY >> V-NUC的制約排序。但有些母音串因為韻步的考量能採用兩種機制，而韻律制約與滑音形成的制約互動所產生的制約排序：RHTYPE(T) >> FTBin-σ >> Integrity能夠解釋兩種機制如何選擇。
邵語中，複雜的構詞音韻變化能歸納為兩類：第一類是詞綴在加綴後，詞綴中的母音會刪去，包括主事焦點前綴/um/、受事焦點後綴/in/；第二類則是詞綴中的音段全部都在表層中實現，包括完成貌前綴/in/、處所焦點後綴/an/，以及絕大部分的詞綴。而筆者利用Cophonology模式，提出兩個排序不同的次文法來解釋兩類的變化。次文法一(MPARSE, DEP-μ-IO(GrWd) >> MAX-IO)，會造成非詞根的母音在表層刪略，用以解釋第一類詞綴。而次文法二(MPARSE, MAX-IO >> DEP-μ-IO(GrWd))則使底層的音段全部實現在表層，用以解釋第二類詞綴。而兩個次文法都會和排序較高的有標制約(Markedness constraints)互動，因而產生複雜的構詞音韻變化。
命令式後綴加綴後有三種表層的模式，然而三種變化的成因乃是由於構詞句法上的不同所導致。而本文尚討論了兩個時貌標記，完成貌/iða/和持續貌/uan/，兩者加綴後，有兩種主要的變化：帶一個重音的字或是帶兩個重音的詞；前者發生於母音結尾的詞根，而後者發生於子音結尾的詞根。形成的原因可能有兩種；一是發音人心理上處理附著/iða/或/uan/的結構時，因為音韻上處理的困難度不一而產生的變化；二是兩個雙元音的標記本質上可能接近一個字(word)，而使發音人將附著/iða/或/uan/的結構，處理成一個包含兩個字的詞。文獻中所提及的第二人稱附著式/u/被證明是第二人稱附著式/uhu/的縮略體。而第一人稱附著式/wak/在語意上，有可能是歷史上/uan+ak/的結合，然而音韻上頭的證據不足，而無法支持這樣說法，因此尚需更深入的研究。

This thesis serves as a phonological research, step by step deciphering the articulation, phonological patterns and various morphophonemic alternations of Thao. Thao, having resided around the Sun-Moon Lake regions in central Taiwan, is one of the most endangered Formosan languages. Throughout this thesis, the analyses of phonological issues will be couched within Optimality Theory.
This thesis will begin with a discussion of the general phonology of Thao. First, the phoneme inventory and the phonetic description will be provided. Then, the dispute on whether stem-initial and stem-final glottal stops stand in underlying representation will be clarified by adducing evidence of the □-initial/final stems in prefixed/suffixed forms. Surface glides in Thao come from three sources: 1.) underlying glides, 2.) glided vowels, /VV/ □ [VG]/ [GV], and 3.) homorganic glides spread by a precedent vowel, /VV/ □ [VGV]. Two strategies of glide formation are mentioned as in 2.) and 3.), and in fact most of the possible vowel clusters will be diphthongized in response to the ranking ONSET >> INTERGRITY >> V-NUC. However, the process /ua/ □ [uwa] results from the /u/-idiosyncrasy. Regarding stress assignment, the constraint ranking RHTYPE(T) >> FTBin-σ >> Integrity will capture the alternations of glide formation strategies of some vowel clusters.
There are four voice/aspect markers in Thao, including the AV prefix /um/, the Perf prefix /in/, the LV suffix /an/ and the PV suffix /in/. To explicate whether or not the vowel of affixes is deleted in affixed form, I will propose two subgrammars under the cophonology model of a set of faithfulness constraints. Subgrammar 1 (MPARSE, DEP-μ-IO(GrWd) >> MAX-IO) accounts for AV prefixation, AV-Perf prefixation and PV suffixation. Subgrammar 1 implies that all input segments but non-stem mora will be parsed and thus result in vowel deletion of affixes. Subgrammar 2 (MPARSE, MAX-IO >> DEP-μ-IO(GrWd)) requires all input segments being parsed, applied to Perf prefixation and LV suffixation. Both subgrammars of faithfulness constraints relating to input-output segments will interact with higher-ranked markedness constraints so that various morphophonemic alternations will be induced.
To make the morphophonemic alternations more complete, many relative suffixes and enclitics will be included. The imperative /i/ has three alternations, which are syntactically driven. The completive marker /iða/ and the durative marker /uan/ exhibit mainly two different alternations: the single-stress pattern and the dual-stress pattern, resulted from the degree of difficulty in phonological parsing. The 2nd personal enclitic /u/ reported in former studies is actually the truncated form of the 2nd personal enclitic /uhu/. The 1st person singular /wak/ may historically be composed of the durative marker /uan/ and the 1st person marker; however, the phonological evidence of /wak/-encliticized words is lack and thus needs further investigation.

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