Northeast Barito languages

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Northeast Barito
Geographic
distribution
Indonesia (Central Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, and South Kalimantan)
EthnicityVarious subgroups of Dayaks
Linguistic classification Austronesian
Subdivisions
Language codes
Glottolog nort2888

The Northeast Barito languages (Indonesian : rumpun bahasa Barito Timur Laut) consist of several East Barito languages belonging to distinct Dayak subgroups. The languages include Bentian, Benuaq, Lawangan (most notable), Paser, and Tawoyan (or Taboyan), all of them are spoken in southeastern Kalimantan. [1]

Contents

By far, only Lawangan and Tawoyan have received their own ISO 639-3 codes, lbx and twy, respectively. Because of this, all Northeast Barito languages but Tawoyan, are grouped as 'dialects' of Lawangan for convenience reasons, by Glottolog , for example.

Characteristics

This section primarily deals with Benuaq, Taboyan, and Paser, based on Alexander D. Smith's paper in 2018.

Rhotacism

In Paser, Taboyan, and Benuaq, *-d and *l went rhotacised into -r. On the last two examples, the instances of *j had been already merged with *d. [2]

PMP Daughter
*kapal 'thick'Benuaq kapar
*quləj 'maggot, worm'Paser ulor
*pusəj 'navel'Taboyan pusər

Status of schwa

Before the following occurred, final *a had become . Paser rounded all instances of schwa () into o, while Taboyan and Benuaq follow that but only in penultimate syllables. In final syllables, Benuaq lowered *-ə and *-əC into -aʔ and -aC (and effectively reverting the previous change), while Taboyan preserved the schwa (-əʔ, -əC). [3]

PMP Daughter
*duha 'two'Taboyan duəʔ
*kaʀəm 'capsize'Paser kayom

References

  1. Smith 2018, p. 16.
  2. Smith 2018, p. 21–23.
  3. Smith 2018, p. 24.

Bibliography