Southeast Babar | |
---|---|
Native to | Indonesia |
Region | Maluku |
Native speakers | 4,500 (2007) [1] |
Austronesian
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
vbb |
Glottolog |
sout2883 |
Southeast Babar is an Austronesian language spoken on Babar Island in South Maluku, Indonesia. [2]
Labial | Alveolar | Dorsal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k |
voiced | b | d | (ɡ) | |
Nasal | m | n | (ŋ) | |
Fricative | (f) | (s) | x | |
Trill | r | |||
Lateral | l | |||
Approximant | w | j |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i iː | u | |
Mid | ɛ ɛː | ɔ ɔː | |
Open | a aː |
Southeast Babar is notable for its drastic phonetic reshapings of inherited Austronesian vocabulary, with extensive consonant loss, unusual reflexes of surviving consonants, and syncope and apocope of vowels. Many of these changes are outlined and exemplified by Hein Steinhauer as follows: [3]
Elision of consonants in all historical positions is extensive throughout Southeast Babar. Ancestral Proto-Malayo-Polynesian sounds like *p, *k, *q, *R, *h *j and *z were simply lost in Southeast Babar with some exceptions. Examples of consonant deletions include:
The loss of *k led to a pull chain shift. Subsequently, *t shifted to k except if the *t was directly preceded by original *n; unshifted *t before *n is known from *punti > uty "banana". In turn, k produced from *t lenited to /x/ unless the *k was:
Lenited reflexes of *t > k > x include *teliŋa > xlil "ear", *mata > mox "eye", *ma-qitəm > mexm "black", *matay > -moxy "to die", *batu > waxy "stone", and *(h)əpat > wo-ax "4".
Afterwards, *s subsequently underwent fortition to t, with examples including:
The inherited Malayo-Polynesian nasal consonants *n and *ŋ merge with each other as *n, followed by a merger of that merged phoneme with *l, generally surfacing as /l/.
Post-merger /l/ subsequently underwent an inverse development to n when adjacent to t either originating from *s or borrowed from another language. This circular development leads to roots and inflectional affixes to synchronically contain alternations between l and n.
A few cases of n failing to merge with l are known, mainly in monosyllabic words where, due to medial consonant deletion and resulting vowel coalescence, there is simultaneously there is one n in the onset and a second n in the coda.
Due to *nipən "tooth" surfacing as lil and not **nin, Steinhauer suggests that the loss of *p occurred after the loss of *j and *k.
*b and *d generally become w and r, merging with original *w and *r.
All word-final *ə and *a, whether inherited as word-final or secondarily word-final due to the loss of a following consonant, are deleted in Southeast Babar.
Word-final high vowels *-u and *-i generally reduce to the glide /j/. Like with *a, the loss of a following consonant will make the high vowel count as word-final for the purposes of this reduction.
*a turns into u if it becomes the first phoneme of a word at any point in its evolution to Southeast Babar.
*a surfaces as o after nasal consonants. However, this change is blocked in the first-person singular of verbs, where a /j/ is infixed in the verbal root between the nasal and the vowel. Contrast:
If an *a is either not word-initial, not preceded by a nasal, or not subject to apocope or syncope, it will remain as a.
Southeast Babar | |
---|---|
Native to | Indonesia |
Region | Maluku |
Native speakers | 4,500 (2007) [1] |
Austronesian
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
vbb |
Glottolog |
sout2883 |
Southeast Babar is an Austronesian language spoken on Babar Island in South Maluku, Indonesia. [2]
Labial | Alveolar | Dorsal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k |
voiced | b | d | (ɡ) | |
Nasal | m | n | (ŋ) | |
Fricative | (f) | (s) | x | |
Trill | r | |||
Lateral | l | |||
Approximant | w | j |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i iː | u | |
Mid | ɛ ɛː | ɔ ɔː | |
Open | a aː |
Southeast Babar is notable for its drastic phonetic reshapings of inherited Austronesian vocabulary, with extensive consonant loss, unusual reflexes of surviving consonants, and syncope and apocope of vowels. Many of these changes are outlined and exemplified by Hein Steinhauer as follows: [3]
Elision of consonants in all historical positions is extensive throughout Southeast Babar. Ancestral Proto-Malayo-Polynesian sounds like *p, *k, *q, *R, *h *j and *z were simply lost in Southeast Babar with some exceptions. Examples of consonant deletions include:
The loss of *k led to a pull chain shift. Subsequently, *t shifted to k except if the *t was directly preceded by original *n; unshifted *t before *n is known from *punti > uty "banana". In turn, k produced from *t lenited to /x/ unless the *k was:
Lenited reflexes of *t > k > x include *teliŋa > xlil "ear", *mata > mox "eye", *ma-qitəm > mexm "black", *matay > -moxy "to die", *batu > waxy "stone", and *(h)əpat > wo-ax "4".
Afterwards, *s subsequently underwent fortition to t, with examples including:
The inherited Malayo-Polynesian nasal consonants *n and *ŋ merge with each other as *n, followed by a merger of that merged phoneme with *l, generally surfacing as /l/.
Post-merger /l/ subsequently underwent an inverse development to n when adjacent to t either originating from *s or borrowed from another language. This circular development leads to roots and inflectional affixes to synchronically contain alternations between l and n.
A few cases of n failing to merge with l are known, mainly in monosyllabic words where, due to medial consonant deletion and resulting vowel coalescence, there is simultaneously there is one n in the onset and a second n in the coda.
Due to *nipən "tooth" surfacing as lil and not **nin, Steinhauer suggests that the loss of *p occurred after the loss of *j and *k.
*b and *d generally become w and r, merging with original *w and *r.
All word-final *ə and *a, whether inherited as word-final or secondarily word-final due to the loss of a following consonant, are deleted in Southeast Babar.
Word-final high vowels *-u and *-i generally reduce to the glide /j/. Like with *a, the loss of a following consonant will make the high vowel count as word-final for the purposes of this reduction.
*a turns into u if it becomes the first phoneme of a word at any point in its evolution to Southeast Babar.
*a surfaces as o after nasal consonants. However, this change is blocked in the first-person singular of verbs, where a /j/ is infixed in the verbal root between the nasal and the vowel. Contrast:
If an *a is either not word-initial, not preceded by a nasal, or not subject to apocope or syncope, it will remain as a.