| Abui | |
| Nativename: | Abui tanga |
| Region: | Alor Island |
| Ethnicity: | Abui |
| Speakers: | 16,000? |
| Date: | 1981 |
| Ref: | [1] |
| Familycolor: | Papuan |
| Fam1: | Trans–New Guinea ? |
| Fam2: | West Bomberai ? |
| Fam3: | Timor–Alor–Pantar |
| Fam4: | Alor–Pantar |
| Fam5: | Alor |
| Script: | Latin |
| Iso3: | abz |
| Glotto: | abui1241 |
| Glottorefname: | Abui |
Abui is a non-Austronesian language of the Alor Archipelago. It is spoken in the central part of Alor Island in Eastern Indonesia, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province by the Abui people. The native name in the Takalelang dialect is Abui tanga which literally translates as 'mountain language'.
Abui is a member of the Alor–Pantar languages, within the Timor–Alor–Pantar language family. Based on shared phonological consonant innovations, Abui is part of the Alor subgroup along with Blagar, Adang, Klon, Kui, Kamang, Sawila, and Wersing. Contrary to earlier claims, there is still no conclusive evidence linking the Timor-Alor-Pantar languages to the Trans-New-Guinea family.
The Alor-Pantar languages are, at the most, ~3,000 years old.
It appears as though Proto-AP speakers borrowed certain Austronesian words prior to the breakup of Proto-AP; these loan words underwent regular sound change and can therefore be reconstructed for Proto-AP.[2]
Abui is spoken by approximately 16,000 speakers in the central part of the Alor Island in Eastern Indonesia, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province.
Abui has a number of dialects: Northern, Southern and Western.[3] Northern dialects spoken around villages of Mainang, Masape, Takalelang and Atimelang have been subject of linguistic study.Southern dialects are spoken around Kelaisi and Apui; western dialects are spoken around Mataru, Fanating and Moru. These dialects remain unstudied.
Abui has a relatively simple phonemic inventory with 16 native and 3 loan consonants. There are 5 short vowels each of them having a long counterpart. In a number of cases lexical tone is found. All information in this section is from Kratochvíl 2007.
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| Plosive/ Affricate | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | (pronounced as /ink/) | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | (pronounced as /ink/) | (pronounced as /ink/) | ||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| Trill | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||
The consonants /cç/, /ɟʝ/, and /g/ are non-native, having been borrowed from Malay in recent decades. As indicated by the chart above, Abui has /r/ and /l/ as separate phonemes.
| Short | Long | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Back | Front | Back | |||
| Close | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |
| Mid | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |
| Open | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Starting with pronounced as //u// | align=center | pronounced as /uɪ/ | align=center | pronounced as /uɑ/ | align=center | pronounced as /uɔ/ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting with pronounced as //ɪ// | align=center | pronounced as /ɪɑ/ | align=center | pronounced as /ɪɛ/ | align=center | pronounced as /ɪɔ/ | |
| Starting with pronounced as //ɑ// | align=center | pronounced as /ɑɪ/ | |||||
| Starting with pronounced as //ɛ// | align=center | pronounced as /ɛɪ/ | align=center | pronounced as /ɛɑ/ | |||
| Starting with pronounced as //ɔ// | align=center | pronounced as /ɔɪ/ |
Abui is a head-marking language; pronominal prefixes mark the possessors on nouns and undergoer arguments on verbs. Nominal morphology is restricted to possessor inflection; number, case and gender inflections do not appear. Verbal morphology is elaborate including person and aspect inflection. Verb compounding and serialization are common.
All information in this section is from Kratochvíl 2007.[4] Nouns are usually morphologically simple, while verbs can have affixes indicating person and aspect. Verb roots also combine with each other.Some words are monomorphemic, consisting of one free root, such as nee 'eat.' Others are more morphologically complex:
prefix-bound.root-bound.root-suffix
ha-bek-d-i
'got it broken'
prefix-free.root-bound.root-suffix
ha-bui-d-a
'get it shortened'
Abui has possessor-possessum word order. Different classes of prefixes on the possessum designate alienable and inalienable possession. Inalienably-possessed items consist of most body part terms, two kinship terms, and the words ne 'name' and mol 'enemy'. Alienably-possessed items consist of almost all common nouns, parts of wholes, and most kin terms.
ha- as pronominal prefix marking inalienable possessive:
he- as pronominal prefix marking alienable possessive:
The same series of prefixes on the possessum are used when possessors are expressed as nouns. he- as prefix marking alienable possessive:
Abui has a semantic alignment driven by the semantic features of the participants. A language with such a 'fluid alignment' is often referred to as an active–stative language. In semantic alignment, instigating, controlling and volitional participants are realized as the A argument in both transitive and intransitive construction. In Abui, they are expressed with NPs and free pronouns. The affected participants are realized as the U argument. U arguments are expressed by NPs and pronominal prefixes on the verb. There are three types of pronominal prefixes distinguishing the following types of U arguments: patients (PAT), recipients or goals (REC), and benefactives or locations (LOC).
Abui syntax is characterized by strict constituent order. In an NP, the modifiers follow the head noun with the exception of deictic demonstratives and possessors. The NP template is given in below:
NP template: DEMs/NMCs (POSS-) N N/ADJ/V/QUANT ba + NMC DEMa
The deictic demonstrative indicates the spatial location of the referent and together with the possessor marking precede the head (N). Adjectives (A), stative verbs (V) and quantifiers (QUANT) follow the head. The final constituent of an NP is usually an anaphoric demonstrative (DEMa) that indicates the 'discourse location' of the referent. Noun-modifying clauses (NMC) normally occur following the head linked with ba. However, a NMC elaborating on the location of the referent (NMCs) occurs in the same position as the deictic demonstrative, preceding the head noun.
In a clause, the arguments always precede the predicate. The constituent order is strict; the clause template is given below.
Clause template: ADV NP PROA ADV/DEMs NPU VP NEG DEMt
Note that the deictic demonstrative (DEMs) indicating the spatial location of the event always precedes the predicate. The demonstrative (DEMt) indicating the temporal location of an event is the final clause constituent.The constituent order in the clause is pragmatically motivated, and the prominent arguments that occur in the preceding discourse are omitted. The topical arguments can be left-dislocated. In a sentence, the main clause (MC) may contain marking of tense, aspect and mood. In subordinate clauses (SC), the marking of tense, aspect and mood is reduced and shared with the MC. The position of a SC with respect to the MC is determined by its semantic type. SCs specifying the temporal location or other settings of the event expressed in the MC must precede the MC. SCs expressing non-factive complements or purpose follow the MC. In discourse, there is a preference for clause chains, with the final fully inflected MC. In narratives, strategies such as tail-head linkage are relied on. More details can be found in Kratochvíl (2007).
Abui, like most Papuan languages, lacks an active-passive voice distinction.
Most verbs can occur in transitive or intransitive constructions. Abui has no ditransitive verbs.
Abui orthography is based on Indonesian. Long vowels are spelled as double vowels. High tone is markedwith an acute accent on the vowel, and low tone is marked with a grave one.
Excerpt from moku mayol, a bride price negotiation text
The Abui ethnic group has attracted the attention of foreign researchers since the 1930s. American cultural anthropologist Cora DuBois lived between 1937 and 1939 in the village of Atimelang. Her research is documented in her monograph 'The People of Alor'.[5] Cora DuBois was accompanied by the Dutch sociologist Martha Margaretha Nicolspeyer who conducted a study of the social structure of Abui people.[6]
After World War II, W.A.L. Stokhof and H. Steinhauer conducted a linguistic survey of Alor and Pantar.[7] Later, W.A.L. Stokhof published and analyzed one of the texts collected by Nicolspeyer.[8] Linguistic documentation efforts have been undertaken recently by Leiden University. As one of the results of the Alor and Pantar Project, a description of Abui grammar appeared in 2007.[9] The dictionary was accompanied by a tri-lingual collection of stories from Takalelang and Tifolafeng.[11]
Due to language shift among the young generation, Abui is considered "threatened"[12] and it is being taught as a subject in local schools.[13]
1SG:first person singular pronoun1PL:first person plural pronoun2SG:second person singular pronoun2PL:second person plural pronoun3I:third person bound pronoun expressing the U argument or possessor with the same reference as the A argument in the same clause3II:third person bound pronoun expressing the U argument or possessor with a distinct reference from the A argument in the same clause3A:third person free pronoun realizing the A argumentA:actor argumentAL:alienable possessionCC:complement clauseCNT:continuative verb stemsCONJ:conjunction markerCPL:completive verb stem or completive aspectual markerDISTR:distributive bound pronouns (ta-, te-, to-)DST:distal deictic (oro) or deictic verb (ya) indicating a distal location of an entity, or index verb (ha, hi, hu)DSTH:distal deictic (wó) indicating a high and distal locationDSTL:distal deictic (wò) indicating a low and distal locationDUR:durative aspectual suffix (-a)E:exclusive reference of first person plural pronounsI:inclusive reference of first person plural pronounsINAL:inalienable possessionICP:inceptive verb stemINCPC:inceptive completive aspectual marker teINCPI:inceptive inchoative aspectual marker seIPFV:imperfective aspectual suffix (-e)LNK:sequence linker (ba) with intersective reference indicating that the linked elements belong to the same domainLOC:bound pronoun realizing U argument identified as location or benefactiveMD:medial deictic, anaphoric demonstrative (o, lo), deictic verb (la), or an index verb (wa, wi)MDAD:medial anaphoric demonstrative (yo) based in the addressee, deictic verb (fa)MDH:deictic demonstrative (ó) indicating a medial high locationMDL:deictic demonstrative (ò) indicating a medial low locationNEG:negator verb (naha)NP:noun phraseOS:indicates opposite gender in possessor based kinship term uraQNT:quantity indicating verb ning ‘be.QNT’PAT:bound pronoun realizing U argument identified as patient undergoing a change of state or conditionPFV:perfective aspectual suffix (-i)PL:plural quantifier (loku)PHSLC:phasal completive aspectual marker (ti)PHSLI:phasal inchoative aspectual marker (si)PRH:prohibitive marker (he)PRX:proximal deictic (do), anaphoric demonstrative (do), deictic verb (ma), or index verb (na, ni, nu)PRXAD:proximal deictic (to), anaphoric demonstrative (to), or deictic verb (ta) indicating the location of an entity as proximate for the addresseePRF:perfect aspectual suffix (-u)PNCT:punctual aspectual marker (-o)RC:relative clauseREC:bound pronoun realizing U argument identified as recipient or goalRED:reduplicated morpheme or number of morphemesSEQ:sequence linker (ya) indicating that the linked constituents belong each to its own domainSPC:anaphoric demonstrative (hu) indicating a specific reference (typically information new for the addressee)SPCAD:anaphoric demonstrative (nu) indicating a specific reference also known to the addresseeSS:indicates same gender in possessor based kinship terms such as muknehiU:undergoer argument
Of these word classes, only verbs and nouns can combine with pronominal prefixes. Only verbs take one of the set of pronominal prefixes (type), and only verbs combine with aspectual suffixes. Some stems can serve as both nouns and verbs, like tur 'spoon/scoop' below.
tur as a noun:
tur as a verb:
Unlike other verbs, stative verbs do not require the intersective linker ba when they modify a noun.
Abui has a small class of adjectives. Adjectives can modify NPs but they can not head a VP. Stative verbs, on the other hand, can both modify NPs and serve as predicates. In order for an adjectival stem to be used predicatively, the addition of the generic verb -i is required. Compare the adjective akan 'black', with the stative verb fing 'be eldest', below.
akan as NP modifier:
akan-i as predicate:
fing as NP modifier:
fing as predicate:
Abui is agglutinating and polysynthetic.