Abai

First record Banzoku chosa hokokusho vol. 1, 1913, Puyuma word list: "abai" glossed as cake (D); first found, word only; Rukai "to-abai", to make cakes, in Ogawa & Asai 1935

Sources

• A

  蕃族調査報告書 〔第1〕 阿眉族南勢蕃・阿眉族馬蘭社・卑南族卑南社 (1913), 卑南社 word list p. 6 (frame 178)

  Archaeological or primary source · 臨時臺灣舊慣調査會第一部 · 1913

  Round 2. Primary, page image read (frame 178, p. 6 of the separately paged word list that closes the 卑南族卑南社 section): in the food words, "飯 ムタイヤ ... 肉 バタカ、酒 ラヲ、餅 アバイ、團子 ペニラウド、粥 ナンナイ ...", i.e. rice-cake (mochi) = abai,…

  Round 2. Primary, page image read (frame 178, p. 6 of the separately paged word list that closes the 卑南族卑南社 section): in the food words, "飯 ムタイヤ ... 肉 バタカ、酒 ラヲ、餅 アバイ、團子 ペニラウド、粥 ナンナイ ...", i.e. rice-cake (mochi) = abai, with a different word for round dumplings (dango). The phrase list on the next frame has "汝ハ餅ヲ食マスカ" (do you eat cake?) with アバイ (OCR text only). Identity match: PARTIAL. It is the Puyuma word abai for a sticky pounded cake, in the village the atlas names; no filling, leaf wrapper or grain is specified.
• A

  原語による臺灣高砂族傳說集 (東京, 刀江書院, 1935), frames 161, 170, 178, 185 (about pp. 300-349)

  Archaeological or primary source · 臺北帝國大學言語學研究室 編 (小川尚義・淺井惠倫) · 1935

  Round 2. Primary, OCR text read through the NDL full-text service (page images not checked): Rukai grammar sketch, under the prefix to- 'to make, to do': "to-abai 餅を作る" (to make cakes), frame 178; Rukai text from 大南社…

  Round 2. Primary, OCR text read through the NDL full-text service (page images not checked): Rukai grammar sketch, under the prefix to- 'to make, to do': "to-abai 餅を作る" (to make cakes), frame 178; Rukai text from 大南社 (Taromak): "ikai abai si botol" glossed "此の餅と肉を" (this cake and meat), frame 185; Puyuma grammar sketch: "pala-abai 餅を多く食ふ" (to eat a lot of cake), frame 161; and a Puyuma (卑南社) tale about people pounding cakes, with ?abai glossed 餅, frame 170. Identity match: PARTIAL, as above: the same word in both the languages the atlas credits, always glossed simply 'cake (mochi)'. Cake and meat are named side by side in the Rukai text, but not as a filling.
• D

  番族慣習調查報告書 第五卷: 排灣族 (Chinese translation, Academia Sinica)

  Dated text · 臺灣總督府臨時臺灣舊慣調查會; trans. 中央研究院民族學研究所 · 1920-1922

  POSSIBLE LEAD, NOT VERIFIED: a search summary says the colonial survey of the Paiwan records 'avai', grain wrapped round meat into a ball (original 1920-22). If confirmed it would date the abai/qavay family to the 1920s.

• S

  Travel article on indigenous dumplings (search-result summary)

  Secondary consensus · uptogo.com.tw

  Search summary of a Taiwanese travel article: 'abai' is mainly a Rukai-language term; in Taitung abai and cinavu refer to basically the same food, while in Pingtung abai is made from finely ground millet or glutinous rice and is sticky like mochi. No dates.

Found by research in October 2026; awaiting editorial review.

History sources are from the atlas and not yet independently checked.