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    Regular sound change: the evidence of a single example
    Adelaar, A (Faculty of Humanities. University of Indonesi, 2018-01-01)
    The Neogrammarians of the Leipzig School introduced the principle that sound changes are regular and that this regularity is without exceptions. At least as a working hypothesis, this principle has remained the basis of the comparative method up to this day. In the first part of this paper, I give a short account of how historical linguists have defended this principle and have dealt with apparent counter evidence. In the second part, I explore if a sound change can be regular if it is attested in one instance only. I conclude that it is, provided that the concomitant phonetic (and phonotactic) evidence supporting it is also based on regularity. If the single instance of a sound change is the result of developments which are all regular in themselves, it is still in line with the regularity principle.
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    The Lisbon book of pantuns
    Castro, I ; Cardoso, HC ; Koster, G ; Adelaar, A ; Baxter, A ; Castro, I (Imprensa Nacional, 2019)
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    [Review of the Book Histoire et voyages des plantes cultivées à Madagascar, by Philippe Beaujard]
    Adelaar, S (University of Hawaii Press, 2019-06-01)
    This book is written by one of the most prolific and versatile scholars of Malagasy culture and language of our era. Its French title translates as “the history and travels of the cultivated plants in Madagascar”, which is an understatement of the wealth of information it provides.
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    Dual *Kita in the history of east Barito languages
    Adelaar, A (Project MUSE, 2019-12-01)
    In many Philippine, northern Sulawesi, and northern Bornean languages, Proto Austronesian *kita ‘first-person inclusive plural’ became a first-person inclusive dual pronoun. Robert Blust and Hsiu-chuan Liao attribute this semantic change to drift (a change happening in various related languages independently). However, Lawrence Reid contends that it had already happened in Proto Malayo-Polynesian, and that the ensuing gap in the pronominal system of this ancestral language had been filled by the formation of a new first-person inclusive plural pronoun, which was based on *kita combined with a pronominal clitic (or “extender”) *=mu. The latter was a second-person plural pronoun in Proto Austronesian, but after it had lost its plural meaning in Proto Malayo-Polynesian, it was often combined with or replaced by other pronominal extenders. In this squib I show that in East Barito languages (including Malagasy) the first-person inclusive plural pronoun also derives from a dual *kita with a second-person plural extender. Taken in conjunction with the fact that reflexes of *kita also have a dual meaning in various languages in northern Borneo, this suggests that *kita already had a dual meaning in the early history of the West Indonesian subgroup.
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    Malagasy Genetic Ancestry Comes from an Historical Malay Trading Post in Southeast Borneo
    Brucato, N ; Kusuma, P ; Cox, MP ; Pierron, D ; Purnomo, GA ; Adelaar, A ; Kivisild, T ; Letellier, T ; Sudoyo, H ; Ricaut, F-X (OXFORD UNIV PRESS, 2016-09)
    Malagasy genetic diversity results from an exceptional protoglobalization process that took place over a thousand years ago across the Indian Ocean. Previous efforts to locate the Asian origin of Malagasy highlighted Borneo broadly as a potential source, but so far no firm source populations were identified. Here, we have generated genome-wide data from two Southeast Borneo populations, the Banjar and the Ngaju, together with published data from populations across the Indian Ocean region. We find strong support for an origin of the Asian ancestry of Malagasy among the Banjar. This group emerged from the long-standing presence of a Malay Empire trading post in Southeast Borneo, which favored admixture between the Malay and an autochthonous Borneo group, the Ma'anyan. Reconciling genetic, historical, and linguistic data, we show that the Banjar, in Malay-led voyages, were the most probable Asian source among the analyzed groups in the founding of the Malagasy gene pool.
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    Malagasy Personal Pronouns: A Lexical History
    Adelaar, A ; Ritsuko, K (UNIV HAWAII PRESS, 2014-12)
    This paper traces the history of pronouns in various regional forms of Malagasy and proposes a reconstruction of Proto-Malagasy pronouns. Four sets of pronouns are reconstructed for Proto-Malagasy: a default nominative set marked with Ø, a topicalized nominative set in which 1st person pronouns are marked with a form *i, a genitive set marked with *=n-, and an oblique set marked with *an=. The development of some pronouns is shown to provide clues for the internal classification of Malagasy varieties. The Proto-Malagasy pronouns are also compared with external references and higher-order reconstructions, namely pronouns from the closely related Southeast Barito languages in Borneo and Proto–Malayo-Polynesian. Finally, an attempt is made to reconstruct Proto-Southeast Barito pronouns.
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    Reviving Siraya: A Case for Language Engineering
    Adelaar, A (UNIV HAWAII PRESS, 2013)
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    Malagasy dialect divisions: Genetic versus emblematic criteria
    Adelaar, K (University of Hawai'i Press, 2013-12-01)
    This paper gives an overview of the literature on Malagasy dialect variety and the various Malagasy dialect classifications that have been proposed. It rejects the often held view that the way Malagasy dialects reflect the Proto-Austronesian phoneme sequences *li and *ti is a basic criterion for their genetic division. While the linguistic innovations shown in, respectively, central dialects (Merina, Betsileo, Sihanaka, Tanala) and southwestern dialects (Vezo, Mahafaly, Tandroy) clearly show that these groups form separate historical divisions, the linguistic developments in other (northern, eastern, and western) dialects are more difficult to interpret. The differences between Malagasy dialects are generally rather contained and do not seem to be the result of separate migration waves or the arrival of linguistically different migrant groups. The paper ends with a list of subgrouping criteria that will be useful for future research into the history of Malagasy dialects. © by University of Hawai'i Press. All rights reserved.
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    Javanese -ake and -akan: A Short History
    Adelaar, A (UNIV HAWAII PRESS, 2011-12)
    Evidence from various Javanese dialects is presented to show that the standard Javanese transitive suffixes - aké and - akən have only recently become part of the Javanese morpheme inventory. They have replaced an earlier transitive suffix *-(ʔ)ən, which is still reflected in Tengger Javanese and in marginal positions in standard Javanese. The acquisition of - aké and - akən in standard Javanese happened independently of the acquisition of - akən in Old Javanese. This allows a different perspective on the position of Old Javanese in the classification of Javanese dialects: it is most likely not a direct predecessor of standard Javanese. The spread of - akən to Javanese and other languages is an areal feature. The replacement of *-(ʔ)ən by - akən may have been motivated by a need to reduce the high functional load of *-(ʔ)ən. The form - aké is tentatively explained as a low register back-formation from - akən .