A Cross-linguistic Perspective on Emergent Possessive Constructions in Central Moluccan Languages*

Abstract

This paper investigates grammatical restructuring in language endangerment scenarios through a cross-linguistic analysis of innovative possessive constructions which are emerging in five languages indigenous to Central Maluku, eastern Indonesia. These languages are undergoing language shift in two very different social and linguistic settings in the homelands in eastern Indonesia and in the Dutch diaspora. Common to all languages is a shift from a conservative possessive paradigm and the change from a synthetic grammatical structure with an inflectional morphology to an analytic grammatical structure. However the pace and path of change varies both cross-linguistically and language internally, with a wide range of possessive constructions in use among speakers of varying fluency. Among some speakers of Alune and Haruku, we observe use of the invariant 3s enclitic as a marker of inalienable possession, and juxtaposition to mark alienable possession. In more radically restructured variants of Alune, inalienable possession is also marked by juxtaposition rather than morphologically. In Soahuku, inalienable possessive marking has been lost for certain kin relationships and inanimate objects are no longer marked as alienably possessed. Double marking strategies are also emerging in all languages. The cross-linguistic analysis of these data gives rise to the question of whether language variation and change inevitably lead to language obsolescence. In these speech communities, widespread variation exists alongside retention of complex grammatical constructions and little intrasentential code-switching. We may instead be witnessing the development of less complex structures which may stabilize and persist over time.