A grammar sketch of Batuley: An Austronesian language of Aru, eastern Indonesia Benjamin T. Daigle a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Linguistics (Research) Leiden University Supervisor: Dr. Antoinette Schapper Second Reader: Dr. Aone van Engelenhoven May 2015 Title: A grammar sketch of Batuley: An Austronesian language of Aru, eastern Indonesia Author: Benjamin T. Daigle Thesis for MA Linguistics (Research) Leiden University Faculty of Humanities Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL) Supervisor: Dr. Antoinette Schapper Second Reader: Dr. Aone van Engelenhoven Submitted May 1st, 2015 Cover photograph of Benjuring village by Benjamin T. Daigle i This work contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by another person, expect where due reference has been made in the text. All errors are my own. ii Eg tamata damdam Gwatle kal Untuk penduduk Batuley For the Batuley people Tuf i ja arna tuf i Satu generasi mengajar kepada generasi berikutnya -Pepatah Batuley From one generation to another -Batuley proverb iii Abstract This thesis is an introductory description of the Batuley language (ISO 639-3: bay). Batuley is an Austronesian language spoken by approximately 4000 people in seven low-lying island villages on the eastern side of the Aru Islands in the province of Maluku in eastern Indonesia. Some minor differences in accent and vocabulary exist between the Batuley villages. This thesis concentrates primarily on the variety of the two most northern Batuley villages of Kabalsiang and Benjuring. The topics covered in this grammatical sketch include phonology (chapter 2), verbal morphology (chapter 3), nouns, noun phrases and pronouns (chapter 4), the clause (chapter 5), clause combining (chapter 6), serial verbs and related constructions (chapter 7), and functions of reduplication (chapter 8). The appendices contain a Batuley-English glossary and two transcribed texts. Batuley has five vowel phonemes and fifteen consonant phonemes. Verbs, nouns and numerals exhibit root mutations which are conditioned by suffixation. Batuley is an agglutinating language. Synchronically, there are numerous sets of suffixes for verbs, nouns and numerals. Batuley has semantic alignment in its verbal agreement system based on an active-stative split. While A and SA are coded with agreement prefixes, (most) SP are coded with agreement suffixes. P is also coded with suffixes, but these are pronominal markers rather than agreement markers. Nouns are divided into two genders: ANIMATE and INANIMATE. Noun class gender is only evident on the targets of gender marking. The gender system has a strong semantic basis. Demonstratives make a four-way distinction between proximal visible, medial visible, distal visible, and non- visible. Batuley has a base-10 numeral system with complex numerals for ‘seven’ and ‘eight’ and irregular forms for ‘ten’, ‘twenty’ and ‘thirty’. The possessive classification system is labile in that some nouns can be either alienably or inalienably possessed or both. Serial verb constructions are widespread. The line between serial verbs and prepositions is blurry. There are several different functions of reduplication in Batuley, and it is especially common in modifier formation. The topics presented in this thesis illustrate several major features of the language and highlight subjects for future investigation particularly in the area of cross-linguistic research. iv Abstrak (Indonesian abstract – translated by Jermy Balukh) Tesis ini merupakan deskripsi awal tentang bahasa Batuley (ISO 639-3: bay). Batuley merupakan salah satu bahasa rumpun Austronesia dengan jumlah penutur sekitar 4000 orang yang bermukim di tujuh daerah perkampungan di bagian timur Pulau Aru, Provinsi Maluku, Indonesia Timur. Di antara daerah-dearah di Batuley tersebut, terdapat beberapa perbedaan dalam hal aksen dan kosakata. Tesis ini menyoroti khususnya variasi bahasa pada dua daerah di bagian paling utara Batuley, yaitu Kabalsiang dan Benjuring. Tatabahasa sekilas ini mencakup fonologi (Bab 2), morfologi verba (Bab 3), nomina, frasa nomina, dan pronomina (Bab 4), klausa (Bab 5), dan klausa majemuk (Bab 6), verba rangkap dan konstruksi terkait (Bab 7), dan fungsi reduplikasi (Bab 8). Lampiran mencakup glosarium bahasa Batuley-Inggris dan dua teks yang ditranskripsi. Bahasa Batuley memiliki lima fonem vokal dan 15 fonem konsonan. Verba, nomina dan numeralia menunjukkan adanya mutasi akar kata yang mengikuti syarat sufiksasi. Batuley merupakan bahasa aglutinasi. Secara sinkronis, terdapat sejumlah sufiks untuk verba, nomina, dan numeralia. Batuley memiliki aliansi semantis pada sistem persesuaian verba berdasarkan struktur alir aktif-statif. Jika S dan SA menggunakan prefiks persesuaian, maka (kebanyakan) Sp menggunakan sufiks persesuaian. P juga menggunakan sufiks tetapi sufiks-sufiks tersebut merupakan pemarkah pronomina, bukan pemarkah persesuaian. Nomina dibagi menjadi dua gender: ANIMAT dan TAK-ANIMAT. Gender dari kelas nomina hanya muncul pada target pemarkahan gender. Sistem gender memiliki dasar semantis yang kuat. Demonstratif dibedakan dalam empat macam, yaitu antara kelihatan, kelihatan dekat, kelihatan jauh, dan tak-kelihatan. Batuley memiliki sistem numeralia yang berbasis-10 dengan numeralia kompleks pada ‘tujuh’ dan ‘delapan’ dan bentuk tak-beraturan pada ‘sepuluh’, ‘dua puluh’, dan ‘tiga puluh’. Sistem klasifikasi daripada posesif tidak stabil dalam arti bahwa beberapa nomina bisa menempati posisi milik baik yang mudah diganti (alienable) atau yang tak-tergantikan (inalienable) atau keduanya. Konstruksi verba rangkap menyebar. Batasan antara verba rangkap dan preposisi tidak tampak jelas. Reduplikasi di Batuley memiliki beberapa fungsi yang berbeda, dan biasanya pada pembentukan pewatas. Topik-topik yang disajikan dalam tesis ini menunjukkan beberapa fitur utama dari bahasa tersebut dan menyoroti hal-hal tertentu untuk penelitian lanjutan, khususnya di bidang penelitian lintas-bahasa. v Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been possible without the support of many people. Firstly, I would like to acknowledge some of the Batuley people who helped make this grammar sketch what it is. A special thanks to Pak Fidelis and Ibu Regina Djonler and their daughters Maria and Familia for hosting me during my stay in Gwatle kal. I am very grateful for their warm hospitality, for the conversations we had and for looking after me during my time in Kaben. Pak Sonny Ananias Djonler deserves my heartfelt thanks. Without his patience, linguistic skills and resourcefulness, this thesis would be lacking in so many areas. Sonny went above and beyond in helping arrange the practical matters of my fieldwork and in taking the time to explain many aspects of the Batuley language and culture that were a mystery to me. My sincere thanks goes especially to Ibu Gitruda Mangar, Pak Robert Mangar and Ibu Yurina Saloi and their son Laharoi Mangar for sharing their knowledge of Batuley folktales and traditions. And to all the Batuley people who made my brief stay so enjoyable, thank you for making me feel so welcome. I hope that this grammar sketch will contribute to something more practical down the road, even if it does nothing more than to serve as a written snapshot of your beautiful language for the generations of Batuley people to come: Tuf i ja arna tuf i. Among the other Indonesians of Aru that deserve a thank you here, I am sincerely grateful to Pastur Chris from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ambon, who serves the communities of Gwatle kal and other parts of Aru, for offering me a lift to some of the more remote villages of Aru. I am also indebted to Pak Eka and Pak Nus Tubay from Yayasan Pengembangan Sar Abil for their help with practical matters in Dobo and for discussions about Aru. Huge thanks goes out to Antoinette Schapper for being willing to supervise me and for suggesting taking on Batuley as a thesis topic. Without her good guidance, patience and generous use of time and resources, this thesis would certainly not be what it is today. Funding for fieldwork was provided by the DoBeS-sponsored “Aru Languages Documentation Project” (Projekt 86 277) of the Volkswagen Foundation through the General Linguistics Department of the University of Cologne and the Leids Universiteit Fonds (LUF). Thanks goes to Nikolaus Himmelmann and Antoinette Schapper for kindly providing me the opportunity to participate in the project. I am also grateful to Maarten Mous for encouraging me to consider going on fieldwork during courses I had with him and for supporting my LUF application when the time came. LUF has been helping students go on fieldwork and carry out research projects for many years. I am especially indebted to all of its members. Jakub and Barča Pszczolka were instrumental in paving the way for this grammar sketch. They did all the hard work. I just picked up at the last stretch from where they left off. This thesis would not be what it is if it were not for their tireless and committed work over the years in vi Maluku. Thank you also for sharing your knowledge and experiences of the Batuley language and culture. Your practical tips on life in Kaben saved me a great deal of trouble. Finally thanks for your very warm hospitality and for introducing me to panah ikan. Moc vám děkuji! Rick and Susan Nivens