Papuan Malay

Last updated
Papuan Malay
Irian Malay
Native to Indonesia
Region Western New Guinea
Native speakers
unknown; 500,000 combined L1 and L2 speakers (2007) [1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 pmy
Glottolog papu1250

Papuan Malay or Irian Malay is a Malay-based creole language spoken in the Indonesian part of New Guinea. It emerged as a contact language among tribes in Indonesian New Guinea (now Papua, Central Papua, Highland Papua, South Papua, West Papua, and Southwest Papua) for trading and daily communication. Nowadays, it has a growing number of native speakers. More recently, the vernacular of Indonesian Papuans has been influenced by Standard Indonesian, the national standard dialect. It is spoken in Indonesian New Guinea alongside 274 other languages [2] and functions as a lingua franca.

Contents

Papuan Malay belongs to the Malayic sub-branch within the Western-Malayo-Polynesian (WMP) branch of the Austronesian language family. [3]

Some linguists have suggested that Papuan Malay has its roots in North Moluccan Malay, as evidenced by the number of Ternate loanwords in its lexicon. [4] Others have proposed that it is derived from Ambonese Malay. [5]

Four varieties of Papuan Malay can be identified. [5]

Grammar

Deictic Expressions

Deictic expressions are expressions that provide orientation to the hearer relative to the extralinguistic context of the utterance. [6] The context may include features of the speech situation such as: who is speaking; the time and place of discourse; gestures of the speaker; and the location of the discourse. [6]

Demonstratives and locatives are types of deictic expressions. In Papuan Malay there exists a two-term demonstrative system and a three-term locative system. [7]

Both of these systems are distance-oriented. This means that the relative distance of the speaker in time and place ultimately defines the reference point to which the deictic expression refers.

For example, the speaker in (1) is in conversation about people living in a house and the speaker uses the proximal demonstrative ini to illustrate that the person they are talking to 'lives here' in the house.

(1) [8]

ko

2SG

tinggal

stay

ini

D.PROX

ko tinggal ini

2SG stay D.PROX

'you live here'

As (1) illustrates, demonstratives and locatives function primarily to provide spatial orientation. However, there are a number of other functions that these classes of words serve. The following table outlines the different domains of use of demonstratives and locatives.

TABLE 1 - Demonstratives and locatives and their domains of use [9]
Domains of UseFunctionDEMLOC
Spatialto provide spatial orientation to the hearerXX
Figurative locationalto signal a figurative locational endpointX
Temporalto indicate the temporal setting of the situation or event talked aboutXX
Psychologicalto signal the speakers' psychological involvement with the situation or event talked aboutXX
Idenitficationalto aid in the identification of definite or identifiable referentsX
Textual anaphoricto keep track of a discourse antecedentXX
Textual discourse deicticto establish an overt link between two prepositionsX
Placeholderto substitute for specific lexical items in the context of word-formulation troubleX

Demonstratives

Demonstratives are determiners that indicate the spatial, temporal or discourse location of a referent.

In Papuan Malay’s two-term demonstrative system, one is used to indicate proximity of the referent to the speaker and the other is used distally.

The demonstratives in Papuan Malay also have long and short forms, as illustrated in Table 2. [7]

TABLE 2 - Demonstratives in Papuan Malay
Papuan Malay DEMLong formShort form
proximal

ini

D.PROX

ini

D.PROX

'this'

ni

D.PROX

ni

D.PROX

'this'

distal

itu

D.DIST

itu

D.DIST

'that'

tu

D.DIST

tu

D.DIST

'that'

The following examples show how Papuan Malay’s two demonstratives signal either proximity or distance.

The example above, (1), and the following example (2) illustrate how ini/ni is used to indicate spatial closeness, and (3) shows how itu/tu is used to indicate distance between the referent and speaker.

(2) [10]

bawa

bring

mace

woman

ni

D.PROX

ke

to

ruma-sakit

hospital

bawa mace ni ke ruma-sakit

bring woman D.PROX to hospital

'(I) brought (my) wife here to the hospital'

(3) [11]

de

3SG

ada

exist

tu

D.DIST

de ada tu

3SG exist D.DIST

'She is over there'

By drawing the hearer’s attention to specific objects or individuals in the discourse or surrounding context, the speaker is able to use demonstratives to provide spatial orientation whether the referent is perceived as being spatially close to the speaker, or further away.

Long and Short Demonstrative Forms

In (2) and (3), the short demonstrative form has been used.

The short forms are largely a result of fast-speech phenomena and they serve the same syntactic function as the long forms. [12]

In terms of their domains of use, the short forms share all the same domains of use as the long forms except for identificational and placeholder uses where the short forms are not employed. [10]

The following examples, (4) and (5), show how demonstratives may be used as placeholders. In these cases, only the long form may be used.

(4)
Placeholder for a proper noun [13]

saya

1SG

ingat

remember

ini

D.PROX

Ise

Ise

saya ingat ini Ise

1SG remember D.PROX Ise

'I remembered, what's-her-name, Ise'

(5)
Placeholder for a verb [13]

skarang

now

sa

1SG

itu

D.DIST

simpang

store

sratus

one.hundred

ribu

thousand

skarang sa itusimpang sratus ribu

now 1SG D.DIST store one.hundred thousand

'Now I (already), what's-its-name, set aside one hundred thousand (rupiah)'

Locatives

Locatives are a class of words that signal distance, both spatial and non-spatial, and consequently provide orientation for the hearer in a speech situation. [14]

Papuan Malay’s three-term locative system consists of the locatives as outlined in Table 4. [7]

TABLE 4 - Locatives in Papuan Malay
Papuan Malay LOC
proximal

sini

L.PROX

sini

L.PROX

'here'

medial

situ

L.MED

situ

L.MED

'there'

distal

sana

L.DIST

sana

L.DIST

'over there'

The functions and uses of locatives include the following:

  • Spatial uses
  • Figurative locational uses
  • Temporal uses
  • Psychological uses
  • Textual uses
Spatial Uses of Locatives

Spatial locatives have the role of designating the location of an object or individual in terms of its relative position to the speaker, and they focus the attention of the hearer to the specified location. [15]

In general, proximal sini indicates a referent’s closeness to the deictic centre and distal sana indicates distance from this reference point. For medial situ, the distance signalled is somewhat mid-range. That is, the referent is further away from the speaker than the referent of sini but not as far as that of sana.

In (6), sini is used to indicate the close location of an entity to the speaker, while (7) highlights the semantic distinctions between sini and sana.

(6)
Spatial uses of sini'L.PROX' [16]

sa

1SG

su

already

taru

put

di

at

ember

bucket

sini

L.PROX

sa su taru di embersini

1SG already put at bucket L.PROX

'I already put (the fish) in the bucket here'

(7)
Spatial uses of sini and sana [16]

dong

3PL

juga

also

duduk

sit

di

at

sana

L.DIST

tong

1PL

juga

also

duduk

sit

di

at

sini

L.PROX

dong juga duduk di sana tong juga duduk di sini

3PL also sit at L.DIST 1PL also sit at L.PROX

'They also sit (outside) over there, we also sit (outside) here'

In context, the distances signalled by these terms are variable considering such distances are relative to the speaker. The use of these spatial deictics are also dependent on the speaker’s perception of how near or far a referent is.

The following example, (8), demonstrates how the use of these spatial deictics are dependent on perception, using situ and sana to illustrate this. In (8), the speaker discusses the construction work that has reached the village of Warmer.

(8)
Spatial uses of situ and sana [17]

yo.

yes

mulay

start

menuju

aim.at

jembatang

bridge

Warmer

Warmer

...kalo

if

dari

from

situ

L.MED

ke

TO

sana

L.DIST

yo. mulay menuju jembatang Warmer ...kalo dari situ ke sana

yes start aim.at bridge Warmer if from L.MED TO L.DIST

'Yes, (they) started working towards the Warmer bridge ... when (they'll work the stretch of street) from there to over there' Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);

Syntactically, locatives in Papuan Malay only occur in prepositional phrases. These prepositional phrases can be peripheral adjuncts, prepositional predicates, or adnominal prepositional phrases.

The following examples – (9), (10), and (11) – demonstrate each of the prepositional phrases in which locatives can occur. In (10), the first clause shows how the locative can be embedded in a peripheral adjunct, whilst the second clause illustrates its occurrence in prepositional predicates.

(9)
Locatives in peripheral adjuncts [18]

kam

2PL

datang

come

ke

to

sini,

L.PROX

kam

2PL

biking

make

kaco

be.confused

saja

just

kam datang ke sini, kam biking kaco saja

2PL come to L.PROX 2PL make be.confused just

'You come here, you're just stirring up trouble'

(10)
Locatives in peripheral adjuncts and prepositional predicates [18]

ko

2SG

datang

come

ke

to

sini

L.PROX

nanti

very.soon

bapa

father

ke

to

situ

L.MED

ko datang ke sini nanti bapa ke situ

2SG come to L.PROX very.soon father to L.MED

'You come here, then I ('father') (go) there'

(11)
Locatives in adnominal prepositional phrases [18]

orang

person

dari

from

sana

L.DIST

itu

D.DIST

...dorang

3PL

itu

D.DIST

kerja

work

sendiri

be.alone

orang dari sanaitu ...dorang itu kerja sendiri

person from L.DIST D.DIST 3PL D.DIST work be.alone

'Those people from over there, ... they work by themselves'

History of Papuan Malay locative forms

As with the demonstratives, the locative forms in Papuan Malay are present in some other languages in the Austronesian language family tree.

For each of the locatives, the forms can be traced back to Proto-Western-Malayo-Polynesian (PWMP).

The proximal locative sini is reconstructed in PWMP as *si-ni and has retained the semantic function of indicating closeness. A number of other WMP languages also share the form and meaning of sini including: Aborlan Tagbanwa, Sangil, Kayan, and Malay.

Whilst the Papuan Malay medial and distal locatives, situ and sana, share the same form as the reconstructed forms in PWMP, there are notable differences in terms of spatial reference when comparing cognates in other WMP languages.

For medial situ, the corresponding reflexes in Ifugaw and Kenyah both indicate closeness rather than medial distance. On the other hand, for the Malay language, situ is used distally rather than proximally or medially. The WMP language that is most similar to Papuan Malay in this regard is Aborlan Tagbanwa where both the form and designated spatial distance are shared.

TABLE 5 - Reflexes of situ in WMP languages [19]
WMP LanguageReflexMeaning
Ifugawhitúhere; this
Aborlan Tagbanwas-ituthere
Kenyah (Long San)s-itewhere
Malaysituposition over there

For distal sana, Papuan Malay shares the same form and meaning with a number of other WMP languages including Kankanaey and Malay. It cannot be assumed, however, that this is the case for all WMP languages as Bontok shares the form sana but is used to indicate proximity to the hearer rather than just distance from the speaker.

TABLE 6 - Reflexes of sana in WMP languages [20]
WMP LanguageReflexMeaning
Kankanaeysánathat, there, thither
Malaysanayonder, over there, yon
Bontoksanathat one, close to hearer; there, close to hearer

Morpho-syntax

Possession

Possession is encoded by the general structure POSSESSOR-punya-POSSESSUM, where the 'possessum' is the 'thing' being possessed by the possessor - the unit preceding punya). A typical example is shown below; [21]

(12)

nanti

eventually,

Hendro

Hendro

pu

POSS

ade

ySb

prempuang

woman

kawin...

marry.unofficially

nanti Hendropuadeprempuang kawin...

eventually, Hendro POSS ySb woman marry.unofficially

'eventually, Hendro's younger sister would marry ...'

In the canonical form, similar to (12), a lexical noun, personal pronoun or demonstrative pronoun form the POSSESSOR and POSSESSUM noun phrases.

A further example is presented below;

(13)

Fitri

Fitri

pu

POSS

ini

D.PROX

Fitri pu ini

Fitri POSS D.PROX

Fitri's (belongings,right.there)*

*words in brackets indicate the understood referent of a personal pronoun or demonstrative, established from the context of the utterance

As shown in (13), the long punya possessive marker can also be reduced to the short pu, an alteration which appears to be independent of the syntactic or semantic properties of the possessor and possessum.

A further reduction to =p is possible, but only if the possessor noun phrase ends in a vowel, shown below;

(14)

sa

1SG

bilang,

say

i,

ugh!

sa=p

1SG=POSS

kaka

oSb

 

3SG

 

say

ko=p

2SG=POSS

kaka

oSb

sa bilang, i, sa=pkaka {} {} ko=pkaka

1SG say ugh! 1SG=POSS oSb 3SG say 2SG=POSS oSb

'I said 'ugh!, (that's) my older sister', she said, 'your older sister?

This is most common when the possessor is a singular personal pronoun (two instances of which are found in (14)), and provides an explanation for why 'Hendro punya ...'

is observed in (11), rather than the reduced theoretical possibility of 'Hendro=p'.

A final canonical possibility is the total omission of the possessive marker (indicated with a ø symbol), but this is generally restricted to inalienable possession of body parts and

kinship relations, the former seen in (4) below;

(15)

adu,

oh.no!

bapa

father

ø

 

mulut

mouth

jahat

be.bad

skali

very

adu, bapaømulut jahat skali

oh.no! father {} mouth be.bad very

'oh no, father's language is very bad' (lit. 'father's mouth')

Other, less typical/more complex 'non-canonical' combinations are also possible, where the possessor and/or possessum can consist of verbs, quantifiers and prepositional phrases.

Such constructions can denote locational (16), beneficiary (17), quantity-intensifying (18), verb-intensifying (19) and emphatic (20) possessive relations.

(16)

Jayapura

Jayapura

pu

POSS

dua

two

blas

tens

orang

person

yang

REL

lulus

pass(a.test)

ka

or

Jayapurapuduablasorang yang lulus ka

Jayapura POSS two tens person REL pass(a.test) or

'aren't there twelve people from Jayapura who graduated?' (lit. 'Jayapura's twelve people')

In Papuan Malay, it can be seen from (16) that being in or at a location is expressed as being 'of' (in a possessive sense) the location itself (the syntactic possessor).

The possessive marker can also direct attention to an action or object's beneficiary, where the benefiting party occupies the possessor position;

(17)

dong

3PL

su

already

bli

buy

de

3SG

punya

POSS

alat~alat

REDUP~equipment

ini

D.PROX

dong su bli depunyaalat~alatini

3PL already buy 3SG POSS REDUP~equipment D.PROX

'they already bought these utensils for him' (lit. 'his utensils')

In this instance, the possessive marker is an approximate substitute for the English equivalent marker 'for ___'. This demonstrates that the construction doesn't have to describe a realised possession; the mere fact that the possessor is the intended beneficiary of something (the possessum) is sufficient in marking that something as possessed by the possessor, regardless of whether the possessum has actually been received, experienced or even seen by the possessor.

Where the possessum slot is filled by a quantifier, the possessive construction elicits an intensified or exaggerated reading;

(18)

tete

grandfather

de

3SG

minum

drink

air

water

pu

POSS

sedikit

few

tete de minum air pusedikit

grandfather 3SG drink water POSS few

'grandfather drinks very little water' (lit. 'few of')

However, this is restricted to few and many quantifiers, and numerals in the same possessum slot yield an ungrammatical result. As such, substituting sedikit with dua (two) in (18) would not be expected to be present in language data.

Intensification using punya or pu is also applicable to verbs;

(19)

adu,

oh.no!

dong

3PL

dua

two

pu

POSS

mendrita

mendrita

adu, dong dua pumendrita

oh.no! 3PL two POSS mendrita

'oh no, the two of them were suffering so much' (lit. 'the suffering of')

Here, the verbal sense of the possessum is owned by the possessor. i.e., the two of them in (19) are the syntactic 'owners' of the suffering, which semantically intensifies or exaggerates the quality of the verb suffering, hence translated as so much for its English representation.

Along similar lines to (19), a verbal possessum can also be taken by a verbal possessor, expressing an emphatic reading;

(20)

mama

mother

de

3SG

masak

cook

punya

POSS

enak

be.pleasant

mama de masakpunyaenak

mother 3SG cook POSS be.pleasant

'mother really cooks very tastily' (lit. 'the being tasty of the cooking')

As indicated by the insertion of adverbials in the English translation otherwise syntactically absent in Papuan Malay (20), the verbal-possessor-punya-verbal-possessum construction elicits emphatic meaning and tone. The difference to (19) being that in (20), the verbal quality of the possessum constituent is being superimposed upon another verb element, rather than to a pronominal possessor, to encode emphasis or assertion.

A final possibility in Papuan Malay possessive constructions is elision of the possessum, in situations where it can be easily established from context;

(21)

itu

D.DIST

de

3SG

punya

POSS

ø

 

itu depunyaø

D.DIST 3SG POSS {}

'those are his (banana plants)'

Unlike the general freedom of possessive marker form for both canonical and non-canonical constructions (11-20), the long punya form is almost exclusively used when a possessum is omitted, possibly as a means of more markedly sign-posting the possessum's elision.

Examples

Examples:

List of abbreviations

1PL1st person plural
1SG1st person singular
2PL2nd person plural
2SG2nd person singular
3PL3rd person plural
3SG3rd person singular
D.DISTdemonstrative, distal
D.PROXdemonstrative, proximal
DEMdemonstrative
L.DISTlocative, distal
L.MEDlocative, medial
L.PROXlocative, proximal
LOClocative
PWMPProto-Western-Malayo-Polynesian
WMPWestern-Malayo-Polynesian

Phonology

Consonants

The table below shows the 18 consonant phonemes of Papuan Malay. The voiceless stops are usually unreleased at the end of a syllable. The phoneme /r/ has three allophones: a voiced alveolar trill, a voiceless alveolar trill, and a voiced alveolar tap. [22]

Papuan Malay consonant phonemes [22]
Labial Dental/
Alveolar
Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive
voiceless p t k
voiced b d ɡ
Affricate
voiceless t͡ʃ
voiced d͡ʒ
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Fricative voiceless s h
Rhotic r
Lateral approximant l
Approximant w j

Vowels

There are 5 vowel phonemes in Papuan Malay. [23]

Front Central Back
Close i u
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open a

Vowel allophones

Below are the allophones of Papuan Malay vowels. [23]

PhonemeAllophone
/i/ [i], [ɪ], [e]
/u/ [u], [ʊ], [o]
/ɛ/ [ɛ], [ɛ̞], [ə]
/ɔ/ [ɔ], [ɔ̞]
/a/ [a], [ɐ]

Vowels in closed syllables are centralized:

OrthographicPhoneticTranslation
tinggi[tɪŋ.gi]'be high' [24]

In the closed syllable [tɪŋ], the phoneme /i/ is realized as [ɪ]. In the open syllable [gi], the phoneme is realized as [i].

See also

Notes

  1. Papuan Malay at Ethnologue (21st ed., 2018) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
  2. Kluge 2014, p. 2.
  3. Kluge 2014, p. 16.
  4. Allen, Robert B.; Hayami-Allen, Rika (2002). Macken, M. (ed.). Orientation in the Spice Islands (PDF). Papers from the Tenth Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society. Tempe, AZ: Program for Southeast Asian Studies, Arizona State University. p. 21.
  5. 1 2 Kluge (2017) , pp. 11, 47
  6. 1 2 "Deixis" 2015.
  7. 1 2 3 Kluge 2014, p. 341.
  8. Kluge 2014, p. 348.
  9. Kluge 2014, p. 341-342.
  10. 1 2 Kluge 2014, p. 344.
  11. Kluge 2014, p. 346.
  12. Kluge 2014, p. 342.
  13. 1 2 Kluge 2014, p. 361.
  14. Kluge 2014, p. 261.
  15. Kluge 2014, p. 363.
  16. 1 2 Kluge 2014, p. 364.
  17. Kluge 2014, p. 365.
  18. 1 2 3 Kluge 2014, p. 262.
  19. "PWMP *si-tu" 2020.
  20. "PWMP *sana" 2020.
  21. Kluge (2014) , p. 393
  22. 1 2 Kluge 2017, p. 66.
  23. 1 2 Kluge 2017, p. 71.
  24. Kluge 2017, p. 77.

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References