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J. Sneddon H. Tadjuddin Usup Shared sound changes in the Gorontalic language group; Implications for subgrouping In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 142 (1986), no: 4, Leiden, 407-426 This PDF-file was downloaded from http://www.kitlv-journals.nl Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 03:48:08PM via free access J. N. SNEDDON and HUNGGU TADJUDDIN USUP SHARED SOUND CHANGES IN THE GORONTALIC LANGU AGE GROUP: IMPLICATIONS FOR SUBGROUPING 1. INTRODUCTION This paper describes sound changes which have occurred within the Gorontalic linguisticgroupof North Sulawesi, Indonesia.1 There are two reasons why such a study is of interest. First, no comparative study of these languages has yet been carried out and information on some of the languages is extremely limited. Secondly, a considerable number of shared sound changes have occurred among the Gorontalic languages which might appear at first to offer good evidence . for subgrouping. However, closer examination shows a rather random distribution of shared changes among the languages such that the evi- dence for subgrouping offered by some innovations conflicts with the equally impressive evidence of other innovations. Further, some lan- guages participated in a number of shared changes while not undergoing chronologically earlier changes. Thus many shared innovations must be the result of areal diffusion among the languages rather than common inheritance. The conflicting evidence for subgrouping presented by the large number of sound changes within the group means that phono- logical changes alone offer no reliable evidence for subgrouping. The Gorontalic languages provide an excellent case of areal spread of sound changes among languages which were once, but in some cases are no longer, geographically contiguous. The fact that many such changes are entirely regular and in themselves give no hint of borrowing raises the possibility of areally spread sound changes resulting in incorrect classification among other groups of Austronesian languages. J. N. SNEDDON, currently a lecturer in Indonesian language at Griffith University, obtained his Ph.D. from the Australian National University. Specialized in comparative Indonesian linguistics, he has previously published 'Proto-Minahasan: Phonology, Morphology and Wordlist', Pacific Linguistics, B.54, 1978, and 'Proto-Sangiric and the Sangiric Languages', Pacific Linguistics, B.91, 1984. Dr. Sneddon may be contacted at the School of Modern Asian Studies, Griffith University, Nathan, Q. 4111, Australia. HUNGGU TADJUDDIN USUP is a lecturer in Indonesian language and linguistics at IKIP, Manado, from which institution he has also taken his MA degree. He is specialized in the study of North Sulawesi languages. Mr. Usup may be contacted at Jln. Goropa 1, Tumumpa, Manado 95238, Sulawesi Utara, Indonesia. Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 03:48:08PM via free access o 00 I aö Si. Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 03:48:08PM via free access Shared Sound Changes in the Gorontalic Language Group 409 The individual languages of the Gorontalic group are briefly discussed in section 2 below and phonological evidence for recognizing a Goron- talic group of Austronesian languages is presented. In section 3 sound changes occurring after the dispersal of the parent Gorontalic language are described and in section 4 the relative order of changes is considered. Section 5 contains concluding remarks about the distribution of shared sound changes and questipns the reliability of evidence forsubgrouping provided by such shared changes. 2. THE GORONTALIC LANGUAGE GROUP Locations of the Gorontalic languages are shown on Map l.2 The languages are: Buol (Bul). This is the most westerly of the Gorontalic languages, occurring in the extreme north-east district of the Province of Central Sulawesi. There have been no studies specifically on Bul but the lan- guage is briefly mentioned by Adriani and Kruijt (1914:185-192), and a word list of more than a thousand items, collected in 1919 under the Holle plan, has been published (Stokhof 1983:139-181).3 A lexico- statistical list is given in Barr, Barr and Salombe (1979), who estimate the number of speakers at 63,000. Gorontalo (Gd). This is by far the most important language in the group in terms of area, number of speakers and amount of published material. Gtl occupies almost all the inhabited areas of the administrative district (Kabupaten) of Gorontalo in the Province of North Sulawesi and the number of speakers is estimated at more than half a million. Publications include Breukink (1906), Schröder (1908), Pateda (1977), Badudu (1982) and Noorduyn (1982). Charles (1974) includes Gtl in his com- parative study of the Philippine linguistic group. The dialect situation is poorly known but as a first step Kasim et al. (1981a) is useful. The data used here are from the dialect of Gorontalo city. Suwawa (Sww). This language is spoken by about 14,000 people in a number of villages in the south-east of Gorontalo district. The language is sometimes referred to as Bunda, following the indigenous name Bonda. The only publications of which we are aware are two word lists, one together with a Gtl list (Schröder 1908) and a Holle list (Stokhof 1983:3-20), and a brief statement on grammar (Kasim et al. 1981b), although passing reference is also made in a number of works on Gtl. Kaidipang (Kdp). This is spoken in the north-west of Bolaang-Mongon- dow district, to the east of Gorontalo district. There are two dialects, usually referred to as Kaidipang and Bolaang Itang, with a total of about 24,000 speakers. The dialects are very closely related and there appear to be no differences in their phonological systems. The language is briefly discussed by Adriani and Kruijt (1914:192-206) and there is a word list in Stokhof (1983:217-239). Atinggola (Atg) and Bolango (Big). Although these are usually listed Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 03:48:08PM via free access 410 J. N. Sneddon and Hunggu Tadjuddin Usup separately, they are closely related dialects, sharing 90% cognates on a lexicostatistics list and showing no differences in their phonological systems. Atg is spoken by about 16,000 people in the extreme north-east of Gorontalo district and in a few villages across the border in Bolaang- Mongondow district. The only publications of which we are aware are Wahidji (1977) and a Holle list (Stokhof 1983:183-199). Big is spoken by about 7,000 people in a small area on the south coast of Bolaang-Mongondow district. It was sometimes earlier called Bo- laang Uki or Bulanga Uki. A brief discussion can be found in Adriani and Kruijt (1914:206-217). According to Wahidji, Atg and Big were previously spoken in adja- cent kingdoms somewhat south of the present-day Atg territory. About two hundred years ago the two groups moved to their present Iocalities. Because of their close relationship there is no need to constantly refer to both dialects here, and only Atg examples are given unless Big material is of interest for comparative purposes or information on Atg is unavail- able. Bintauna (Bnt). This language is spoken on the north coast immediately east of Kdp, by about 7,000 people. We are unaware of any publications on this language. The languages involved in this study are demonstrably more closely related to one another than to any other language. They thus constitute a linguistic subgroup, exclusively sharing a common parent language, here called Proto-Gorontalic (PGtl). The Gorontalic languages are most closely related to Mongondow (Mdw) and Ponosakan (Psk), two languages spoken further east in North Sulawesi, and these form two branches of a larger Gorontalic- Mongondow group, descendants of Proto-Gorontalic-Mongondow (PGM).4 The Gorontalic and Mongondow languages share a number of phonological innovations, including the following. Evidence for PGM reconstructions is not presented here. (a) Proto-Austronesian 5 (PAN) *e (schwa) > PGM *o, e.g. PAN *qatep 'roof' > PGM *atop; PAN *enem 'six' > PGM *onom. (b) In repeated monosyllables the first consonant of the medial cluster was lost if not a nasal: PAN * bulbul 'body hair' > PGM *bubul; PAN *kiskis 'scrape' > PGM > *kikis. (c) Nasals assimilated to following consonants: PAN *dif)diw, 'wall' > PGM *dindiq; PAN *kemkem 'handful' > PGM *ko^kom. (d) In repeated monosyllables PAN *a > pre-PGM *e in the first syllable. This then became *o under (a) above. The ordering of (a) and (b) is not shown here: PAN *DapDap 'tree sp.' > pre-PGM *depdap > PGM *dodap; PAN *tadtad 'chop up' > pre-PGM *tedtad > PGM *totad. Some of the phonological innovations in the Gorontalic group, which Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 03:48:08PM via free access Shared Sound Changes in the Gorontalic Language Group 411 set them apart from other Austronesian languages, including Mdw and Psk, are given below. In examples corresponding forms in Mdw or Psk are given for comparison. Evidence in the modern languages for the PGtl reconstructions is not given. (a) All Gorontalic languages have a paragogic vowel following pre- viously final consonants, although the vowel is now in the process of loss in Bul (see section 3.19). The languages all reflect a previous paragogic vowel *o, which is reconstructed for PGtl6: PAN *bukid 'mountain' > PGtl *bukido [Mdw bukid]; PAN *inum 'drink' > PGtl *inumo [Mdw inum]; PAN * bethel 'deaf > PGtl *bot$olo [Mdw boqol). (b) PAN *ay became *e (mid front vowel) in PGtl. This change oc- curred after the dispersal of PGM, *ay being reflected as oy in Mdw and Psk: PAN *balay 'house' > PGtl *bale [Mdw baloy]; PAN *sur>,ay 'hom' > PGtl *suyi,e [Psk suqoy]. (c) PAN *aw became PGtl *o. This change was probably via PGM *ow, as still occurs in Mdw and Psk: PAN *lan,aw 'fly' > PGtl *law,o [Mdw lan,ow]\ PAN *siaw 'nine' > PGtl *sio [Psk siow].