A Grammar of Mualang: An Ibanic Language of Western Kalimantan, Indonesia

457 Pages·2007·5.167 MB·

by  Johnny Tjia

A G M :
RAMMAR OF UALANG
A I L
N BANIC ANGUAGE OF
W K ,
ESTERN ALIMANTAN
I
NDONESIA
Published by
LOT phone: [phone]
Janskerkhof 13 fax: [phone]
3512 BL Utrecht e-mail: [email protected]
The Netherlands http://www.lotschool.nl

Cover illustration: Mualang men carrying rice in a lanyik basket. Photo courtesy of
R. Allen Drake.

ISBN 978-90-78328-24-7
NUR 632

Copyright © 2007: Johnny Tjia. All rights reserved.
A Grammar of Mualang:
An Ibanic Language of
Western Kalimantan, Indonesia

Proefschrift

ter verkrijging van
de graad van Doctor aan de Universiteit Leiden,
op gezag van Rector Magnificus prof.mr. P.F. van der Heijden,
volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties
te verdedigen op woensdag 25 april 2007
klokke 15.00 uur

door

JOHNNY TJIA

geboren te Obi, Noord Molukken (Indonesië),
in 1965
Promotiecommissie

promotor: prof. dr. W.A.L. Stokhof

medepromotor: prof. dr. H. Steinhauer

co-promotor: dr. D. van Minde

referent: prof. dr. B. Nothofer (Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität
Frankfurt am Main)

overige leden: prof. dr. W.F.H. Adelaar
dr. A. Th. P. G. van Engelenhoven
dr. M.A.F. Klamer
dr. G. P. Reesink
prof. dr. L. J. de Vries

Research for this doctoral dissertation was made possible by a grant from the
Research School CNWS, School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies and the
assistance of the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL).
Tanda kenangan buat
Linda, Yosua dan Yehu
Acknowledgements

Throughout the years which finally resulted in the publication of the present study I
have received abundant help from many parties and persons.
I would like to express my gratitude first of all to the Research School of Asian,
African, and Amerindian Studies (CNWS), Leiden University, for having provided
me with a scholarship to attend the Advanced Masters Program (2000-2001), and
subsequently with a PhD grant (2001-2005) to study the Mualang language.
Especially I wish to thank Prof. Dr. Jarich Oosten, Dr. Sabine Luning, Dr. Willem
Vogelsang, Dr. Alex de Voogt, Mrs. Ilona Beumer-Grill, and Mrs. Wilma
Trommelen for their help and understanding during the years.
It was Prof. Dr. James T. Collins who first draw my attention to the languages
of West Kalimantan. For his encouragement to undertake the research resulting in
the present study I shall always remain grateful.
Special thanks I owe to my good friend Drs. Betty Litamahuputty, who gave me
lots of assistance and advise, also before I actually set foot in the Netherlands. My
thanks also go to the many friends at SIL International for their prayers and for their
support for my family during the periods I was in Leiden or in the field.
I would further like to express my sincere appreciation to the following kind
people in the Netherlands: to Heidy Samallo with her children who accepted me as a
member of their family; to Oom Ed Walbeehm who offered me his home as my
own; to Oom Jan and Tante Edith Visser for their help, prayers and the many things
they have done for me.
I owe a smooth start of my research in the field to Prof. Dr. Syarif Ibrahim
Alqadrie, M.Sc., of Universitas Tanjung Pura, who with his family kindly hosted me
in their home, and who sponsored my research locally. A helpful sponsorship was
also gained through Dr. Chairil Effendi of the Pusat Kajian Melayu of Universitas
Tanjung Pura.
This book would never have been written without the constant help of the
Mualang community. My deepest feelings of gratitude therefore go to the Mualang
people, especially to my friends in the village of Tabuk Hulu, who welcomed me
into their midst. In particular I am indebted to the family of Apay Daniel Tagang and
Inay Rahel for having adopted me as their son in their home, and to my main
language helpers, Kristianus Demong and Mr. Kawit, who helped me in many ways
(including transcribing texts) and who were never tired answering to my persistent
questions. Mr. Sulaiman, Mr. Nabas, and Mr. Elisa Sura were also very helpful in
providing me with lots of information. Tomy Aquino accompanied me travel around
many places. I also thank the Reverend David of the Gereja Kemah Injil at Balai
Sepuak and to Mr. Bilai and family who kindly provided me with their home every
time I had to stay overnight on my way to villages.
I am grateful to the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL),
especially its coordinator, Dr. Jeroen van de Weijer, for enabling me to publish this
dissertation. For technical assistance during the final stages leading to the
examination of this thesis I am grateful also to Drs. Amis Boersma of the Leiden
office of the International Institute for Asian Studies.
In particular I thank Helen Miehle, PhD., of SIL International Indonesia. I
cannot imagine how I could have managed finishing this thesis without her kind
help in checking and correcting my English.
Akhirnya, dengan penuh suka cita saya sampaikan terima kasih untuk keluarga
saya: Linda, Yosua, dan Yehu, dan juga Uning, yang turun berkelana dalam suka
dan susah selama masa studi ini. Buku ini dipersembahkan untuk kalian semua.
Above all, I sincerely thank God in Christ for His goodness during all these
years of study and for having blessed my family with these wonderful, though
tough, times.
Conventions and Abbreviations
[ ] phonetic representation; contextual information (in sentence
examples); chunks of clauses (e.g. in complement clauses)
( ) additional information (as given in English translation for
sentence examples
/ / phonemic representation
. syllable boundary; symbol connecting English words in
glosses for a single Mualang morpheme
= clitic boundary
~ varies with
(cid:1) is realized as
∅ zero or deleted sound (in phonology); zero or the gap (in
relative clauses); zero anaphora (participant reference)
+ morpheme boundary
{ } either environment in the curly brackets operates
(phonology)
* ungrammatical form; reconstructed proto form
? questionable form (in front of an example sentence)
1d.excl first person dual exclusive
1d.incl first person dual inclusive
1p.excl first person plural exclusive
1p.incl first person plural inclusive
1s first person singular
2d second person dual
2p second person plural
2s.fem second person singular female
2s.hon second person singular honorific
2s.masc second person singular masculine
3d third person dual
3p third person plural
3s third person singular
3s.indef.hum third person singular indefinite human
3s.indef.nonhum third person singular indefinite non-human
A agent
ACT active voice marker
adv adverb
ADVR adversative passive voice marker
ANPAS antipassive voice marker
asp aspectual marker
B base form
C consonant
CAUS causative prefix
CLASS classifier
conj conjunction
CONT.NEG contrastive negator
DEM demonstrative
excl exclamatory word; exclusive
EXIST.NEG existential negator
FUT future tense marker
HAB.INAB habitual inability
illoc illocutionary marker
INCH inchoative voice marker
incl inclusive
intr interrogative word
IO indirect object
LOC locative; locative preposition
MEAS measure word
MI Mualang Ili’ (Downstream Mualang)
MID unvolitional-resultative middle voice marker
mod modal
MU Mualang Ulu (Upstream Mualang)
N noun; nasal morphophoneme; nasal phoneme
n noun (used in the wordlist)
NEG clausal negator
NOM nominalizer (prefix)
NP noun phrase
num numeral
O (direct) object
ORD ordinal number marker
P patient
part particle
PASS passive voice marker
PC participial complement
PERF perfect aspect marker
POSS possessive marker
PP prepositional phrase
PREC precategorial form
pref prefix
PREP preposition
PROG progressive aspect marker
pron pronoun
QP quantifying phrase
quan quantifier
RC relative clause
RED reduplication
REL relativizer
S subject
SVC serial verb construction
TOA term of address
TOP topic marker
V verb; vowel
vi/vt intransitive/transitive verb
VP verb phras
CONTENTS

Acknowledgements
Conventions
Table of Contents

1 General Introduction 1
1.1 The speakers and their country 1
1.2 Daily life and culture 5
1.3 Genetic affiliation 6
1.4 Sociolinguistic situation 7
1.4.1 Dialects 7
1.4.2 Language in use 8
1.5 Previous studies 9
1.6 Aims and theoretical framework 10
1.7 Field methods and data base 11

2 Phonology 13
2.1 Phoneme inventory 13
2.1.1 Consonant inventory 13
2.1.2 Vowel inventory 17
2.2 Segmental Phonology 18
2.2.1 Consonants 18
2.2.1.1 Stops 18
2.2.1.2 Nasals 20
2.2.1.2.1 Plain Nasals 20
2.2.1.2.2 Postploded Nasals 24
2.2.1.3 Fricatives 25
2.2.1.4 Lateral 26
2.2.1.5 Approximants 26
2.2.2 Vowels 27
2.2.2.1 Vowel sequences 31
2.2.2.2 Status of diphthongs 31
2.2.2.3 Curious clusters 32
2.3 Syllable and root structure 33
2.4 Stress 36
2.5 Morphophonemics 38
2.5.1 Alternation of vowel segments in prefixes and prepositions 38
2.5.2 Vowel deletion 39
2.5.3 Glottal stop insertion 40
2.5.4 Nasal assimilation in N-prefixation 40
2.5.4.1 Nasal assimilation in partial reduplication 42
2.5.4.2 Problem of (cid:1)(cid:2)N- form 42
2.5.5 Alternate forms of prefixes and prepositions 44
2.5.5.1 Antipassive ba- 44