The Buru language of Eastern Indonesia
Date
1991
Authors
Grimes, Charles E.
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Abstract
Buru is an Austronesian (Central Malayo-Polynesian) language spoken by around
45,000 people on the island of Buru in eastern Indonesia. Typologically, the language can be
characterised as S V 0 (X), prepositional, with modifiers following the head noun in an NP
and the genitive occurring before the noun. Analysis of Buru phonology [Chapter 5] shows the language to have seventeen
consonants [C] and five vowels [V]. Canonical syllable types are (C)V(C). Monomorphemic
roots are distinguished between lexical roots, which are overwhelmingly composed of two
syllables (with a few trisyllables), and grammatical functors, which may be one or two
syllables. Content words (such as nouns and verbs) are based on lexical roots and carry stress
on the penultimate syllable of the word. Clitics behave as phonological satellites to stress-bearing
roots and do not effect stress shift. Productive cliticisation is pervasive in Buru,
dropping the final syllable and the word stress from a lexical root as it combines with a
following lexical root. This process, along with several other morphophonemic processes
involving verbal [Chapter 7] and nominal [Chapter 8] morphology yield a complex variety of
derived syllable types. It becomes necessary to distinguish between the phonological word/ and
the grammatical word, as there are many environments in Buru in which there is not a one-to-one correlation between the two [Chapter 6]. The pronominal systems are described [Chapter 9], noting that Buru is developing
from a split-S system toward a switch-reference system. Spatial and temporal deictics
[Chapter 10] are concerned with definiteness and reference-tracking in discourse and are used
in a variety of constructions. In NPs [Chapters 8 & 11], most nominal modifiers, including
relative clauses, follow their head noun. Two constructions, the possessive and the genitive, are
discussed in detail [Chapter 14]. Given the word order patterns found elsewhere in the
language, Buru is typologically unusual in having the genitive and the possessive occurring
before the head noun [Chapter 1'1]. The Buru clause is composed of a Subject and a Predicate. The Predicate may be nonverbal,
semi-verbal, or verbal [Chapters 18 & 19]. Verbs are divided into two types: in active
verbs the syntactic subject is in the semantic macrorole of Actor; in non-active verbs the
syntactic subject is in the semantic macrorole of Undergoer [Chapters 7 & 12]. Active verbs
further subdivide into active-transitive and active-intransitive, depending on their unmarked
valence of core arguments. Active transitive clauses are prototypically S V 0 (X) in their
order, with non-core arguments being marked as prepositional phrases [Chapter 13]. Buru has a rich variety of mechanisms for relating and integrating clauses [Chapter 20]
through degrees of a variety of parameters which are more complex than a simple binary
opposition of [±dependent], or (±embedded]. There is also a rich variety of mechanisms for
putting elements of a clause into greater or lesser pragmatic prominence [Chapters
18, 21, 23]. A variety of different speech acts and styles are also described [Chapter 22].
The grammaricisario11 of several different subsystems is examined. Tense-aspect-mood
proclitics [Chapter 12], post-verbal auxiliaries [Chapter 12], and some prepositions
[Chapter 13], are all shown to have developed through verb serialisation.
Introductory chapters describe the purposes and mechanics of the study [ Chapter 1],
previous studies [Chapter 2], historical issues relevant to language use on the island
[Chapter 3], and dialect geography and related sociolinguistic issues [Chapter 4]. Texts and
additional supporting material are found in the appendices. The question of the linguistic
classification of Buru is examined in the Epilogue, noting that there is very little published on
the !50 or so languages of the Central Malayo-Polynesian subgroup, to which Buru is
purported to belong.
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