•  
  •  
 

Abstract

Woirata (or Oirata, see Van Engelenhoven in this volume) is closely related to Fataluku (Timor-Leste) and belongs to the Timor-Leste subgroup of the Timor-Alor-Pantar language family (TAP) together with Makalero and Makasai (Schapper, Huber, and Van Engelenhoven 2012). It has about 1,566 speakers. Taber (1993) suggests that there are 24 languages in Southwest Maluku of which 23 are Austronesian; Woirata is the only non-Austronesian language in the area. It is interesting to research in how far Woirata has been influenced by Austronesian languages. Because the Woirata and other people who live on Kisar Island, like the Meher, are using Melayu Tenggara Jauh (MTJ) as their lingua franca, one may expect deep language contact between Woirata and MTJ. This multilingual situation suggests a contact induced language change of Woirata, imposed by MTJ. This contribution aims to describe the causative constructions in Woirata and compare them with the counterpart constructions in MTJ and Meher.

References

Blood, Cindy. 1992. “Subject-Verb Agreement in Kisar”, NUSA; Linguistic Studies of Indonesian and Other Languages in Indonesia 34: 1-20.

Christensen, John and Sylvia Christensen. 1992. “Kisar Phonology”, in: Donald A. Burquest and Wyn D. Laidig (eds), Phonological studies in four languages of Maluku, pp. 33-65. Dallas TX: The Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of Texas at Arlington, and Pattimura University.

Engelenhoven, Aone van. 2002. “Verb sequences in Melayu Tenggara Jauh; The interface of Malay and the indigenous languages of Southwest Maluku“, in: K.A. Adelaar and R.A. Blust (eds), Between worlds; Linguistic papers in memory of David John Prentice, pp. 177-191. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. [Pacific Linguistics 529.]

Engelenhoven, Aone van. 2009a. “The position of Makuva among the Austronesian languages of East Timor and Southwest Maluku”, in: K. Alexander Adelaar and Andrew Pawley (eds), Austronesian historical linguistics and culture history; A festschrift for Bob Blust, pp. 425-441. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. [Pacific Linguistics 601.]

Engelenhoven, Aone van. 2009b. “On derivational processes in Fataluku, a non-Austronesian language in East-Timor”, in: W. Leo Wetzels (ed.), The linguistics of endangered languages, contributions to morphology and morphosyntax, pp. 331-362. Utrecht: Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics. [Occasional Series 13.]

Engelenhoven, Aone van. 2010a. “The Makuva enigma; Locating a hidden language in East Timor”, Revue Roumaine de Linguistique/Romanian Review of Linguistics 80(2): 141-161.

Engelenhoven, Aone van. 2010b. “Verb serialisation in Fataluku; The case of ‘take’”, in: Sascha Völlmin, Azeb Amha, Christian J. Rapold, and Ch. Zaug- Coretti (eds), Converbs, medial verbs, clause chaining and related Issues, pp. 185-211. Köln: Köppe Verlag.

Engelenhoven, Aone van. 2015. “Kasi and bikin; Two causative strategies in Melayu Tenggara Jauh (Southwest Maluku, Indonesia)”. [In this volume.]

Faust, Vera. 2006. “Woirata, a language of Kisar; 1. Grammatical sketch, 2. Myth of creation” (glossed text). MA thesis, Leiden University.

Grenoble, Lenore A. 2011. “Language ecology and endangerment”, in: Peter K. Austin and Julia Sallabank (eds), The Cambridge Handbook of Endangered Languages, pp. 27-44. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Josselin de Jong, J.P.B. de. 1937. Studies in Indonesian Culture; I. Oirata, a Timorese settlement on Kisar. Amsterdam: Noord-Hollandsche uitgeversmaatschappij.

Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig (eds). 2014. Ethnologue; Languages of the World. Seventeenth edition. Dallas, TX: SIL International.

Minde, Donald van. 1997. Malayu Ambon; Phonology, morphology, syntax. Leiden: Research School CNWS.

Nazarudin. 2013. “Revitalisasi bahasa Oirata berbasis masyarakat”, in: Soewarsono, Leolita Masnun, dan Nazarudin, Revitalisasi Budaya dan Bahasa Oirata, pp. 57-91. Jakarta: LIPI dan PT Gading Inti Prima.

Schapper, Antoinette, Juliette Huber, and Aone van Engelenhoven. 2012. “The historical relations of the Papuan Languages of Timor and Kisar”, Language and Linguistics in Melanesia: 194-242.

Song, Jae Jung. 1996. Causative and causation; A universal typological perspectives. London: Longman.

Taber, Mark. 1993. “Toward a better understanding of the indigenous languages of Southwestern Maluku”, Oceanic Linguistics 32/2: 389-441.

Velupillai, Viveka. 2012. An introduction to linguistic typology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Download

Share

COinS