Austronesian Research Articles

Genetic, Linguistic and Molecular Anthropological Study of the Indian Ocean Littoral in Austronesian Dispersal Across the Pacific

The Indian Ocean region is a critical route/corridor/barrier for the migration and settlement of people whose social, linguistic and genetic ancestry is of interest to anthropologists worldwide. Varying from the ‘little tradition’ of small isolated populations to the ‘great tradition’ of global and admixed heritage, in the field of collating evidences from culture, language and anthropological genetics this paper will examine the ‘Austronesian dispersal’ within the boundaries of the Indian ocean sporadically sprinkled across Pacific islanders.

Perubahan Bunyi Bahasa Proto Austronesia ke dalam Bahasa Melayu Riau Dialek Pasir Pengaraian

Riau Malay has language variations generating various dialects, including Pasir Pengaraian dialect, which reflects sound differences. To understand the characteristics of the dialect, it is necessary to analyze the sound changes from Proto Austronesian into Pasir Pengaraian Riau Malay dialect. The purpose of this research was first, to identify the sound changes of Proto Austronesian language into Riau Malay dialect of Pasir Pengaraian using Keraf's theory and second, to analyze the meaning changes that occur due to sound changes using Crowley & Bowern's theory. This research belonged to qualitative-descriptive research exploring thoroughly how sound changes from Proto Austronesian languages occured in detail and how these changes affect the meaning of words in cultural and social contexts which were then explained and described systematically. The data collection method used was interview method with listening technique, note-taking technique and recording technique by referring to the list of 200 Swadesh vocabularies. The results of the research obtained that (1) the types of sound changes of Proto Austronesian language into Riau Malay language were assimilation (progressive assimilation and palatalization), metathesis, afferesis, syncope, apocope, prothesis, epenthesis, paragogue, and monoftongization. (2) meaning changes that occur were pejoration, broadening, narrowing, and bifurcation.

From aspect to information structure: Non-aspectual functions of change of state markers in Austronesian and beyond

Abstract This paper discusses a phenomenon that has so far received little attention in previous literature: the presence, in several languages from different branches of the Austronesian family, of polyfunctional markers, which combine an aspectual meaning of change of state with information and discourse structuring functions. In this study, based on a comparative analysis of fifty-two Austronesian languages, I show that polyfunctional change of state markers are distributed throughout the entire family, crosscutting the major typological and geographical divide between Western and Eastern Austronesian. I argue that the development of information and discourse structuring functions of change of state markers derives from applying the notions of current relevance and transition to new situation not to eventualities, but to elements of propositions, and I also suggest that this process may be universally valid and could explain the similar development of change of state markers into information and discourse structuring devices attested in non-Austronesian languages.

Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of Philippine languages supports a rapid migration of Malayo-Polynesian languages

The Philippines are central to understanding the expansion of the Austronesian language family from its homeland in Taiwan. It remains unknown to what extent the distribution of Malayo-Polynesian languages has been shaped by back migrations and language leveling events following the initial Out-of-Taiwan expansion. Other aspects of language history, including the effect of language switching from non-Austronesian languages, also remain poorly understood. Here we apply Bayesian phylogenetic methods to a core-vocabulary dataset of Philippine languages. Our analysis strongly supports a sister group relationship between the Sangiric and Minahasan groups of northern Sulawesi on one hand, and the rest of the Philippine languages on the other, which is incompatible with a simple North-to-South dispersal from Taiwan. We find a pervasive geographical signal in our results, suggesting a dominant role for cultural diffusion in the evolution of Philippine languages. However, we do find some support for a later migration of Gorontalo-Mongondow languages to northern Sulawesi from the Philippines. Subsequent diffusion processes between languages in Sulawesi appear to have led to conflicting data and a highly unstable phylogenetic position for Gorontalo-Mongondow. In the Philippines, language switching to Austronesian in ‘Negrito’ groups appears to have occurred at different time-points throughout the Philippines, and based on our analysis, there is no discernible effect of language switching on the basic vocabulary.

LEXICAL AND POST-LEXICAL PROSODIC DOCUMENTATION OF EMBALOH LANGUAGE

This research investigated the prosody of the Embaloh language, which has yet to be widely explored, to document and preserve the language. The method used is data collection of spontaneous and non-spontaneous speeches from 12 native speakers. Prosodic analysis was then carried out based on visualising and observing speech sound waves using the autosegmental-metrical theory (AM) framework. The results show that prominence tends to be on the right edge at both lexical and post-lexical prosodic levels. The findings show that the Embaloh language is outside the mainstream of Austronesian languages, which places word stress at the penultimate syllable. At the post-lexical level in interrogative intonation, phrases with a question word are marked by the pitch accent located at the target question word in the nuclear contour of the phrase. The pitch accent follows the position of the question word in the intonation phrase, forward or backward, with one of the following tones: H* (high), LH* (low-high), or LHL* (low-high-low). The intonation of the question is indicated by the H(high) tone at the end of the phrase. The H (high) tone also acts as a boundary tone represented by H*% (high).

DICTIONARY-BASED COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE CHINESE “个 (GÈ)” AND THE MALAY “BUAH” NUMERAL CLASSIFIERS

Classifiers are used for categorising nouns according to animacy, form, shape, and size. As one of the Austronesian languages, Malay is said to have an extensive numeral classifier system. Past studies have classified these two classifiers as general classifiers; however, an extensive study comparing the use of these two classifiers have not been attempted. This study aims to highlight the similarities and differences by comparing the Chinese classifier “个 (gè)” and the Malay “buah” using evidence from reference classifier dictionaries of the two languages. The findings show that while some similarities exist and both classifiers can be used interchangeably with some nouns, these classifiers are unique and have distinctive semantic usage. Both个 (gè) and buah are used for organisation, products of nature, buildings and places, and artifacts (things created by humans). However, only个 (gè) can be used for organs or body parts, humans, fruits and food, time, directions, and thought and intellectual products. In contrast, only buah is used for transportation, accessories, home furniture and appliances, publications, musical instruments, and performances.

Austronesian Lexemes in Basa Latala of Borneo: A Punan Sajau Song Language

Abstract: In recent work based on a 130-item wordlist, Lansing et al. claim that Basa Latala, a Punan Sajau song language of Borneo, is not an Austronesian language. In this squib, we argue that there is no linguistic basis for this claim. Many Basa Latala words have clear Austronesian and Borneo cognates and show evidence of Austronesian cognate morphology.

Sumatran

Abstract: The island of Sumatra and the Barrier Islands lying off its west coast are home to a diverse array of Austronesian languages. For at least a century and a half, a close genetic relationship between many of the non-Malayo-Chamic languages of the region—namely the Batak languages, Simeulue, Nias, Mentawai, and Enggano—has been proposed. Evidence in support of such a group was first thoroughly detailed by Nothofer, who outlined sound correspondences and phonological innovations for a Barrier Island–Batak subgroup. Building upon Nothofer's proposal and recent observations about the languages of Sumatra, this paper proposes a far-reaching language group we call Sumatran, comprising Nothofer's Barrier Island–Batak group as well as Gayo, spoken in northern Sumatra, and Nasal, spoken in southwestern Sumatra. We also provide stronger evidence for the inclusion of Enggano, spoken on the southernmost Barrier Island, which Nothofer only tentatively included. To support this proposal, we outline shared innovations that establish the foundation of what constitutes the Sumatran language subgroup.

Five Centuries of Settlement Dynamics and Mobility in the Northern Raja Ampat Islands of West Papua

ABSTRACT We explore changes to settlement and mobility in the northern Raja Ampat Islands (Waigeo, Gam, and Batanta) over the past five centuries, a time when speakers of several Austronesian languages were moving throughout the archipelago. The evidence shows: (1) some settlement relocations were rapid, occurring within a generation, while other settlements remained fixed for hundreds of years; and (2) there were numerous clan and family scale movements that led to high levels of intermarriage between language groups and settlements. The results demonstrate that far from being a place of stasis caught between the worlds of Maluku and New Guinea, Raja Ampat settlement and mobility were highly dynamic. This dynamism prompts us to rethink the relationship between today’s settlement locations, their language affiliations, and the meta-narratives about their recent population histories. We propose that the deeper past of Raja Ampat may have also been characterized by dynamic movement and social flux.

Inheritance of Consonant Phonemes from PAN to Mandailing Language

This study aims to examine the inheritance of consonant phonemes from Proto-Austronesian (PAN) to Mandailing Language (BM), as part of the Austronesian language family. The method used is the comparative historical method with a focus on analyzing basic Swadesh vocabulary collected from native speakers in Panyabungan, Mandailing Natal. The diachronic analysis shows that BM preserved some phonemes from PAN while undergoing significant changes in some consonants. The results show patterns of phonetic changes of PAN to BM consonants, including changes of /b/ to /b/ or /m/, /k/ to /h/ in the penultima position, /z/ to /j/ in the ultima position, /l/ to /n/ in the ultima position, and changes of /h/ to missing in the ultima position. These changes provide deep insights into phonological evolution in BM, indicating a PAN linguistic heritage with innovative variations in word phonology and morphology. The findings support the theory of language evolution and make an important contribution to the understanding of Austronesian historical linguistics.

Sound Change of Batahan Language as Malay Dialect in Mandailing Natal Regency

This research deals with comparative historical linguistic studies that discuss the types of sound changes from Proto-Austronesian into Batahan Malay. This research uses qualitative methods with listening and recording techniques. Data sources were obtained from informants who are native speakers of Batahan Coastal Malay. Vocabulary taken from the speakers' recordings are those listed in the swadesh list. In the sound changes of the Austronesian language into Batahan Coastal Malay based on sound position, there are only six changes out of seven changes namely metathesis, apheresis, syncope, apocope, prothesis, and paragogue.

Malay Lexicon Project 3: The impact of orthographic-semantic consistency on lexical decision latencies.

Theories of word processing propose that readers are sensitive to statistical co-occurrences between spelling and meaning. Orthographic-semantic consistency (OSC) measures provide a continuous estimate of the statistical regularities between spelling and meaning. Here we examined Malay, an Austronesian language that is agglutinative. In Malay, stems are often repeated in other words that share a related meaning (e.g., sunyi/quiet; ke-sunyi-an/silence; makan/eat; makan-an/foods). The first goal was to expand an existing large Malay database by computing OSC estimates for 2,287 monomorphemic words. The second goal was to explore the impact of root family size and OSC on lexical decision latencies for monomorphemic words. Decision latencies were collected for 1,280 Malay words of various morphological structures. Of these, data from 1,000 monomorphemic words were analysed in a series of generalised additive mixed models (GAMMs). Root family size and OSC were significant predictors of decision latencies, particularly for lower frequency words. We found a facilitative effect of root family size and OSC. Furthermore, we observed an interaction between root family size and OSC in that an effect of OSC was only apparent in words with larger root families. This interaction has not yet been explored in English but has the potential to be a new benchmark effect to test distributional models of word processing.

Reassessing pseudosluicing in Austronesian

AbstractPseudosluicing diagnostics have played an important role in wider debates about sluicing. Sluicing is the term used to describe the deletion of an embedded clausal constituent, which leaves only a wh‐phrase overt. Genuine sluicing requires syntactic or semantic identity between the sluiced clause and its antecedent, contrasting with pseudosluicing, in which pro‐drop creates the appearance of a sluice but no identity is required. The underlying structure of sluicing in several Austronesian languages has been argued to be pseudoclefts, which involve a nominal wh‐predicate and a headless relative clause argument. Both Malagasy and Nukuoro have been analysed as having pseudocleft sluicing, and on the basis of this, claims about the type of identity required in sluicing have been made. Both analyses rely on diagnostics that rule out the possibility of pseudosluicing. This paper reexamines the pseudosluicing diagnostics used for Malagasy and Nukuoro and concludes that they have been insufficiently controlled for. This is supported by data from Madurese showing that pseudosluicing diagnostics are inconclusive in these Austronesian languages. Language‐internal support is needed for such diagnostics, especially as they play an important role in the conclusions drawn from Austronesian languages on the wider identity requirement for sluicing. Three language‐specific diagnostics are given which are successfully able to identify pseudosluicing in Madurese.

Complex diachronies of final nasalization in Austronesian and Dakota

Final nasalization of voiced stops is phonetically unmotivated (i.e. not a consequence of universal articulatory or perceptual tendencies). As such, final nasalization has been deemed an impossible sound change. Nonetheless, Blust (2005; 2016) proposes that final nasalization took place in four Austronesian languages: Kayan-Murik, Berawan dialects, Kalabakan Murut, and Karo Batak. In this paper, we argue final nasalization in these languages is not a single sound change and reduce it to a combination of phonetically grounded changes. We demonstrate that in Austronesian, final nasalization involved four steps: (i) fricativization of voiced stops, (ii) devoicing of the fricatives, (iii) spontaneous nasalization before voiceless fricatives, and (iv) occlusion of the nasalized fricatives to nasal stops. Finally, we extend our account to final nasalization in Dakota (Siouan) and propose a new explanation for the development of the unnatural final voicing in the related Lakota language. Our results shed light on the role of phonetic naturalness in diachrony and synchrony. We maintain that while phonetically unnatural phonological processes may arise via a sequence of sound changes or analogical extension, sound changes are always natural and phonetically grounded.

The Malagasy phrasal comparative

AbstractThere is no consensus in the literature on the analysis of phrasal comparatives. Both reduced clause analyses, in which the standard phrase contains elided clausal structure, and direct analyses, in which the standard of comparison is a direct complement to the standard marker, have been proposed. This paper argues for a direct analysis of the phrasal comparative in Malagasy, an Austronesian language spoken on the island of Madagascar. Evidence for the direct analysis comes from the lack of overt clausal comparatives, Binding Theory, scope, and Malagasy‐specific characteristics of the standard. The conclusion contributes to the rapidly expanding picture of cross‐linguistic variation in comparative syntax.

The influence of Chinese idioms on the grammar of the modern Malay language

Malaysia is a multiethnic country in Southeast Asia with a population of 33.4 million people, where Chinese make up 22.6%. This article focuses on the grammatical structures that have emerged in the Malay language (ML) as a result of Malay-Chinese language contact. The object of this study is colloquial ML. Previous research has noted that due to the influence of Chinese idioms in "low" spoken varieties of ML, new structures have emerged that break traditional Malay grammar rules. The impact of colloquial and slang forms on modern ML leads to a simplification of its grammatical constructions. It is observed that Chinese idioms primarily influence spoken ML, while in the standard or literary variant, their influence is limited to the lexical sphere. This study examines the usage of such structures in the standard and coloquial variants of modern ML. An analytical approach was applied to analyze data from prescriptive (grammars, dictionaries, textbooks) and descriptive (corpora) sources, as well as conducting experiments with ML speakers. The results of the study indicate that the previously described changes in "low" ML variants have exceeded their boundaries and are actively used in modern colloquial language both orally and in written form. The findings contribute to the analysis of the degree of simplification of grammatical structures in ML due to language contact with other idioms, helping to determine the direction of ML development in terms of the synthesis-analytic spectrum: moving away from the typical Austronesian language structure characterized by rich verbal morphology. The results of the article can be used for developing educational materials and teaching methods for Malay, as well as be useful in studying interference phenomena and language evolution processes.

A comparative typology of verbal affixes in Riau-Malay and Sundanese

This study presents a comprehensive comparative analysis of verbal affixes in two Austronesian languages, Riau-Malay and Sundanese, with a focus on their morphological, syntactic, and semantic properties. Both languages are spoken in the Indonesian archipelago, and while they share certain linguistic characteristics, they exhibit intriguing differences in their verbal affixation systems. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of linguistic diversity within Austronesian languages and to reveal on the mechanisms underlying verb formation in these two distinct linguistic systems. By comparing and contrasting the verbal affixation systems in these languages, this study aims to reveal striking differences in terms of affix types, attachment patterns, and grammatical functions. The analysis explored the morphology of verbal affixes used in Riau-Malay and its comparison in Sundanese. It identifies clear distinctions in the ways affixes are employed to mark tense, aspect, mood, and other grammatical categories. Furthermore, the study also investigated the syntactic roles of verbal affixes, exploring how they affect word order and argument structure in sentences. This analysis exposes intriguing patterns of valency-changing operations in Riau-Malay and Sundanese. The findings of this study are expected to enhance people’s understanding of Riau-Malay and Sundanese and to contribute to the broader typological and theoretical discussions in linguistics. The comparative analysis of these two languages provides valuable insights into the ways in which languages within the Austronesian family can diverge and adapt to their unique cultural and historical contexts. Ultimately, this study may be valuable to advance our knowledge of linguistic diversity and variation, offering a deeper appreciation of the intricate web of languages that shape human communication in the Indonesian archipelago and beyond.

Differentiated genomic footprints suggest isolation and long-distance migration of Hmong-Mien populations

BackgroundThe underrepresentation of Hmong-Mien (HM) people in Asian genomic studies has hindered our comprehensive understanding of the full landscape of their evolutionary history and complex trait architecture. South China is a multi-ethnic region and indigenously settled by ethnolinguistically diverse HM, Austroasiatic (AA), Tai-Kadai (TK), Austronesian (AN), and Sino-Tibetan (ST) people, which is regarded as East Asia’s initial cradle of biodiversity. However, previous fragmented genetic studies have only presented a fraction of the landscape of genetic diversity in this region, especially the lack of haplotype-based genomic resources. The deep characterization of demographic history and natural-selection-relevant genetic architecture of HM people was necessary.ResultsWe reported one HM-specific genomic resource and comprehensively explored the fine-scale genetic structure and adaptative features inferred from the genome-wide SNP data of 440 HM individuals from 33 ethnolinguistic populations, including previously unreported She. We identified solid genetic differentiation between HM people and Han Chinese at 7.64‒15.86 years ago (kya) and split events between southern Chinese inland (Miao/Yao) and coastal (She) HM people in the middle Bronze Age period and the latter obtained more gene flow from Ancient Northern East Asians. Multiple admixture models further confirmed that extensive gene flow from surrounding ST, TK, and AN people entangled in forming the gene pool of Chinese coastal HM people. Genetic findings of isolated shared unique ancestral components based on the sharing alleles and haplotypes deconstructed that HM people from the Yungui Plateau carried the breadth of previously unknown genomic diversity. We identified a direct and recent genetic connection between Chinese inland and Southeast Asian HM people as they shared the most extended identity-by-descent fragments, supporting the long-distance migration hypothesis. Uniparental phylogenetic topology and network-based phylogenetic relationship reconstruction found ancient uniparental founding lineages in southwestern HM people. Finally, the population-specific biological adaptation study identified the shared and differentiated natural selection signatures among inland and coastal HM people associated with physical features and immune functions. The allele frequency spectrum of cancer susceptibility alleles and pharmacogenomic genes showed significant differences between HM and northern Chinese people.ConclusionsOur extensive genetic evidence combined with the historical documents supported the view that ancient HM people originated from the Yungui regions associated with ancient “Three-Miao tribes” descended from the ancient Daxi-Qujialing-Shijiahe people. Then, some have recently migrated rapidly to Southeast Asia, and some have migrated eastward and mixed respectively with Southeast Asian indigenes, Liangzhu-related coastal ancient populations, and incoming southward ST people. Generally, complex population migration, admixture, and adaptation history contributed to the complicated patterns of population structure of geographically diverse HM people.

Nasal Vowels in Solor Dialect of Lamaholot Language and Their Morpho-Syntactic Significance

The Lamaholot language spoken in East Flores and Lembata has several interesting distinctive features, compared to its neighboring languages. One of these features is nasal vowels. Nasal vowels in this language are phonemic, in that they show distinct meanings in contrasted minimal-pair words. Because of this phonemic characteristic, the nasal vowels in the dialect have significant influences on the Lamaholot linguistics. This research will examine the importance of nasal vowels in Solor dialect of Lamaholot morphologically and syntactically. Two research problems this study has tried to answer are (1) what are the morphologic and syntactic significances of the nasal vowels of Solor Dialect of Lamaholot Language, and (2) what meanings do these nasal vowels indicate when they involve in morphological processes? Apart from being an additional linguistic reference for the study of languages in eastern Indonesia in particular, and Austronesian languages at a broader level, this research also contributes to the efforts to maintain regional languages in East Nusa Tenggara. The approach to be used in this study is descriptive. The theory referred to is functional typology with the concepts of Basic Linguistic Theory based on generative structural grammar. References to the theory can be read, among others, in Payne (1997), Dixon (2010a), Comrie (1989) and Sophen (2007a, 2007b, 2007c). Data for this study was collected through recording and elicitation from the native speakers of Solor dialect. The collected corpus in the form of audio data is analyzed and stored electronically with the Praat application, and then transcribed into text form. The text data is sorted, then analyzed and stored electronically with the Toolbox application, which can later be used as additional data for the Solor – Lamaholot dialect dictionary database, which the author is currently working on. The research results show that the presence of nasal vowels in the Solor dialect of the Lamaholot language gives very significant and influential contribution to the communication and speech of speakers of this dialect. This grammatical feature is so important that its presence can give rise to different interpretations by listeners. Morphosyntactically, the nasal vowels in Solor dialect of the Lamaholot language express five functions, namely (1) to express the pronominal form of ownership; (2) to express the form of alienable ownership; (3) to express the enclitic form of third person singular possession in common nouns; (4) to state the participial function derived from the verb; and (5) to express the attributive function of adjectives in the Solor dialect of the Lamaholot language.

Understanding through the Numbers: Number Systems, Their Evolution, and Their Perception among Kula People from Alor Island, Southeastern Indonesia

This paper aims at documenting and reconstructing the linguistic processes generating and substantiating the use of number systems, numbers in general, elementary arithmetic, and the related concepts and notions among the Kula people from Alor Island, Southeastern Indonesia. The Kula is a Papuan population from the Alor–Pantar Archipelago (Timor area). The name of their language, Kula (or Kola), corresponds to the ethnonym. The language is, currently, endangered and not completely documented. At the level of linguistic features, numeral systems and the terms for numerals from Eastern Alor exhibit, to some extent, unique characteristics, if compared to other languages spoken in other sectors of the island. Therefore, the Kula numbering system is not only significant at the lexicological and lexicographic level, but also represents the essential role of cognitive strategies (e.g., the choice of the base for the numbering systems and the visual representation of counting with the aid of actual ‘objects’, like hands and fingers) in the coinage of numerical terms among the local speakers. Indeed, the development of numeral systems reflects the evolution of human language and the ability of humans to construct abstract numerical concepts. The way numerals are encoded and expressed in a language can impact the patterns according to which numerical notions are conceptualized and understood. Different numeral systems can indicate variations in cognitive processes involving notions of quantities and measurements. Therefore, the structure and characteristics of a numeral system may affect how numeral concepts are mentally represented and developed. This paper focuses on the number system of the Kula people and the lexical units used by the local speakers to indicate (and to explain) the numbers, with the related concepts, notions, and symbolism. The investigation delves into the degrees of abstraction of the Kula numeral system and tries to ascertain its origins and reconstruct it. Moreover, the article applies to the analysis a comparative approach, which takes into account several Papuan and Austronesian languages from Alor Island and Eastern Timor, with the dual aim of investigating, at a preliminary level, a possible common evolution and/or divergent naming processes in local numbering systems and their historical–linguistic and etymological origins.