Pazih is a plain tribe language formerly spoken in the central-western part of Taiwan, around Fongyuan areas and along the Dajia River. Some Pazih people started to migrate to Puli, Nantou, in the central part of Taiwan in 1825. There were still nine Pazih villages and the language was still actively spoken during the Japanese period (1895-1945). Although the language has become extinct in the original settlement in the western plain, a few old speakers for both dialects, Pazih and Kaxabu, can still be found in Puli areas. It is partially remembered by only a few old people today. The Pazih language will become entirely extinct before long.

Given in this monograph are all the Pazih texts and songs that have been recorded mostly by the authors, but a few by the previous investigators, including Asai, Ino, and Ferguson for texts, and Nomura for three ritual songs. The monograph contains two main parts: Part One gives the texts and Part Two the songs. Given in the appendices are: (1) three ritual songs of ayan recorded perhaps by Nomura during the Japanese period (1895-1945), (2) the Lord's prayer in Sekhoan by Rev. Ferguson in 1896, (3) Pazih sentences by Steere in 1873, and (4) sample of previous scholars's field notes for the Pazih language.

This study was supported in part with grants for Paul Li from the Academia Sinica, National Science Council (NSC89-2411-H-001-048, NSC90-2411-H-001-027), and Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange (RG-002-D-'00). Shigeru Tsuchida was supported in part with Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas (A) The Japan Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture Endangered Languages of the Pacific Rim (Grant No.12039103). We'd like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions to improve an earlier version of our manuscripts, and Wen Chyou-chu for providing us with the musical notes for the Pazih songs.