Why Tetun Prasa is not a creole

Zuzana Greksáková University of Coimbra, Portugal [email protected] Tetun in Timor-Leste

Tetun

Tetun Prasa Tetun Terik

Tetun Língua‐ Tetun Tetun Tetun Dili Franca Foho/Terik Belo/Lós

What is a ?

• Thomason & Kaufman (1988 [1991]), Holm (2004) and McWhorter (2005) • a language often derived from a pidgin which became a mother tongue of a certain community and is usually spoken in all aspects of life • arose in a specific sociolinguistic context where more than two languages were in contact. • superstrate language versus substrate languages. • vernacular languages that developed mostly throughout the 17th and the 18th century in former European colonies as a result of a language contact between communities that lacked a common language. Sociohistorical background

Thomason and Kaufman (1991:35): “it is the sociolinguistic history of the speakers, and not structure of their language, that is the primary determinant of the linguistic outcome of language contact. … [L]inguistic interference is conditioned in the first instance by social factors, not linguistic ones.” Origin of Tetun Prasa

1) Tetun was diffused by missionaries from the Soibada mission founded in 1898

2) Tetun was diffused as a língua franca from Dili when the capital was transferred there from Lifau in 1769

3) It was the tribe of Belos that spoke Tetun and then expanded from its original area prior to the 17th century and came to dominate the eastern part of Timor (Thomaz 1974, 2002) Malay influence Portuguese in SE Asia Tetun in contact with

• Malacca Creole Portuguese (MalCP) • Macau Creole Portuguese (MacCP) • European Portuguese (EP) • Bidau Creole Portuguese (BidCP)

Creole in East Timor?

• Creole languages were a result of the communication needs between two communities that lacked a common language. This way, a new language – a pidgin – arose in order to facilitate their communication. Gradually, this pidgin became a mother tongue of the community and became a creole. But this was not the case of mixed languages. • In Timor-Leste, there was no need to create a new language for the Portuguese and the Timorese being able to communicate between each other. Tetun Prasa – what language is it?

• Grimes (1997:52):“creole” = a language that has largely shifted from its original source. • Thomaz (2002:103): a Portuguese-influenced simplified form of Tetun whose characteristics are close to those of creoles and compares it to Língua Geral in Brazil, which was not a creolized form of Portuguese but rather a language of the Tupi-Guarani family enriched with Portuguese loanwords (2002:69). • Hull (1999:ix):“a fully creolized form” of Tetun and at the same time as “a hybrid language, basically Austronesian, but with a heavy Portuguese superstratum” = English after the Norman Conquest, which showed the massive French influence it had undergone. Lexicon • colloquial speech and media: ratio of Portuguese borrowings can be as high as 75% for open class words (Williams-van Klinken & Hajek 2009). • informal urban speech, there are only 10 to 20% of Portuguese loanwords (Williams-van Klinken & Hajek, 2009). • In general, the ratio of lexical borrowings correlates with the level of education and the proficiency in Portuguese language. JBP: Beni, Ita nu'udar grupu dezenvolvimentu agrikultura lokál saida mak prinsipál liu ba Ita atu halo iha fulan ida-ne'e?

“Beni, what do you, as a part of the local agricultural development group, find the most important to be done this month?“

BE: Di'ak, obrigadu ba tempu,buat importante mak ita halo no planu iha futuru mak primeiru, ita survei ita-nia rain, rai ne'ebé mak atu hala'o agrikultura nian, segundu, ita halo relasaun husu apoiu ruma ba ajénsia ne'ebé de’it mak relevante, atu nune'e bele ajuda ita-nia grupu, terseiru, ita tama ba kampu de servisu, ida- ne'e mak importante liu.

„Well, thank you for the time. What is important that we do and plan in the future is, first, that we survey the soil that is going to be used for the agriculture, third, we will, most importantly, do the fieldwork.“ Rezignasaun Xanana fo Impaktu ba Ezekusaun Orsamentu Jeral Estadu 2014. “Resignation of Xanana will impact the execution of the General State Budget 2014”

Esbosu Lei Imprensa Reprezenta Aspirasaun Komunidade Media “Draft of the Press Laws represents an aspiration of the media community.”

Komandu Geral PNTL Lansa Planu Estrategiku PNTL “PNTL General Command launches a strategic plan for PNTL.”

(all examples from Suara Timor Lorosae, February 11th 2014, pgs. 1-3) Lexicon in creole languages

• high number of foreign lexical elements is one of the most salient characteristic of creole languages = the superstrate language provides the overwhelming majority (75% to 95%) of a creole’s vocabulary. • Tetun Prasa = most of its vocabulary is still native rather than derived • McWhorter (2005:267): “…[L]exical mixture itself does not equate with creolization. Languages can borrow massive amounts of lexicon and even morphology without evidencing any traits that would suggest the label creole to any linguist…” Structural features

McWhorter (2005:10): three characteristics that distinguish creole from other languages in terms of structure: • little inflectional morphology • no tones • semantically regular derivational morphology.

Languages spoken in Flores and Timor = present a very creole- like features =>McWhorter calls them Nonhybrid Conventionalized Second-Language varieties – NCSLs (McWhorter 2011:246). Possessive constructions

1. possessor + POSS (-(ni)nia) + possessum 2. possessum + possessor + POSS (-(ni)nian)

= two factors affecting them: • the alienability/inalienability of the possessor • the lexical nature of the possessor (pronominal versus nominal).

• Tetun Terik does not require any possessive marker, weather the possessor is nominal or pronominal = simple juxtaposition ‘possessor + possessum’ (gloss) (Hull & Eccless 2005:36). POSS with preposed pronominal possessors

• only Tetun Prasa makes use of a possessive marker with preposed pronominal possessors = possibly influenced by a creole (Esperança 2001:33) • similar construction also found in restructured varieties of Malay and Portuguese spoken in the region: • Paauw (2008:408): Malay (AmbM) - possessive marker pung, e.g. antua pung rambut = 3S.FORMAL POSS hair ‘her hair’. • Hull and Eccles (2005:20) that the possessive marker -nia used in Tetun Prasa originated indeed in Malay punya and then assimilated to the 3S personal pronoun. POSS with preposed pronominal possessors • similar parallel in all Asian varieties of Creole Portuguese, including Malacca CP, Macau CP (Batalha 1959:188) and Bidau CP. • Baxter (1988:91-93): Malacca CP - two possessive markers: => sa: follows the possessor (possessor + sa + possessum) => di: precedes the possessor (possessum + di + possessor) • sa is possibly a contracted form of Port. sua ‘3S.POSS.FEM’ = ‘her’ (Rêgo 1998:66) or of Port. vossa/nossa ‘2S.HON.FEM/1P.FEM’ = ‘your/our’ (Baxter 1988:92-93), di comes from Port. de ‘of, from’ Plural marking

1. no plural marking 2. postposing the native definite plural marker sira ‘they’ 3. the Portuguese plural marker –s/-es 4. reduplication as found in Malay/Indonesian 5. the Tetun Terik plural suffix –r/-n (1) Ha’u bá sosa fahi 1S go buy pig “I’m going to buy pigs.” (Costa 2015:53)

(2) ema estudante tékniku agrikultura sira person student technical agriculture PL “technical students of agriculture” (JBP_0005)

(3) ita-nia atividades loroloron (…) 2S.HON-POSS activity.PL RDP-day “your everyday activities” (JBP_0014)

(4) seluk – seseluk (‘other - others’) hotu – hotu-hotu (‘everything – everybody’) ai-fuan ‘fruit’ – ai-fufuan ‘fruits’

(5) ema – emar ‘person - people’ belu – belun ‘friend - friends’ Conclusions

• both sociolinguistic and linguistic aspects • the number of lexical borrowings nor the innovative grammatical features are determinant = many scholars believe that the grammar of creole is not necessarily much different from non-creole languages. • McWhorter (2005:???): creole is not only a linguistic class but also a sociohistorical one. • Thomason and Kaufman (1991:214): we need to “interpret linguistic facts based on social context.” => Tetun Prasa is indeed a rather unusually complex contact language/variety which emerged within a heterogenous linguistic context. References

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